This commentary is by Michael Long of Burlington, who served on Burlington’s Development Review Board for more than a decade and has been active in efforts to moderate the redevelopment of the Burlington Town Center Mall.
Burlington is or should be a community; it’s no sprawling metropolis. But we do sometimes hunker down in our enclaves with too little concern for the greater Burlington beyond them.
Max Tracy’s leadership would build unity and community by developing policy through public input rather than by pushing policy developed in the mayor’s office and neutralizing public opposition with big dollars, glossy mailings and strategic political maneuvers.
As mayor for nearly a decade, Miro Weinberger has exacerbated community differences rather than leading the city to rise above them. On every issue with the potential to divide, he has pursued an uncompromising agenda rather than seeking unity and consensus. The botched effort to redevelop the downtown mall is a prime example. If as mayor he valued consensus, instead of enlisting our city government and business boosters in a doomed insistence on 14-stories-or-bust, this project might be finished by now and the hole in our downtown filled.
On City Hall Park, Weinberger took the same my-way-or-the-highway approach. More than 3,000 Burlington citizens petitioned for a park design advisory question on the ballot, but Weinberger refused to hear from the voters.
Weinberger’s divisive style is not a plus and his reputation as a competent financial manager may well be illusory. The management letters from annual independent city audits reveal what seems a willful failure to get city accounts in order after repeated reminders and guidance spanning nine years. The auditor’s finding that the city should “improve capital project accounting” is repeated in virtually identical language in the three management letters from 2017 to 2019, suggesting that the auditors have been repeatedly ignored.
Furthermore, property tax levies increased 45% between 2012 and 2020 (page 170). Over the same period, net governmental debt increased 73%. Thus, on a per capita basis, city debt increased from $1,202 in the final year of the Kiss administration to $2,134 in the final year of Weinberger’s third term for a total debt burden of $91.4 million. That’s a 78% increase in debt under this administration.
These numbers and these accounting habits suggest we’re due for a hard look at city finances. The fresh start has grown stale and incumbency should not be a job guarantee.
Max Tracy’s leadership will be open and visible from accounting practices through public debate. Max’s principled leadership includes expressing his views and the reasons for them clearly — as well as giving serious and respectful consideration to other perspectives.
The wealth distribution gap has widened over the decade and the pandemic. This is certainly a national, not just a local problem and phenomenon. But it’s the context we’re in and Max Tracy has the leadership skills, the disposition, and the energy to be a mayor for us all in this moment.
