BURLINGTON — The recent clearing of the Sears Lane encampment loomed large at Monday night’s City Council meeting, with Mayor Miro Weinberger and Progressive councilors sharply criticizing each other’s stances on the issue as harmful to the demolished camp’s former residents.
Police and city workers cleared out the city-owned lot early Friday morning, nearly two months after Weinberger first ordered campers to evacuate the site. While most of the camp’s roughly 30 residents left by the end of October, fewer than a third remained at the site at least part time, saying they preferred it over government-provided hotel rooms.
That ended early Friday morning when police descended on the camp and told residents to move out. While four campers left willingly, two were arrested — one, at gunpoint, on outstanding criminal warrants and the other for refusing to leave. After the camp was vacated, public works crews hauled the many items scattered around the site into dumpsters.
Of the six campers removed from the site Friday, three have found alternate accommodations, one is camping elsewhere and two have not responded to outreach from the city, Weinberger told councilors Monday.
In a statement last week, Weinberger defended the clearing out as necessary, citing Fire Chief Steven Locke’s assessment that the campers’ heating sources would have caused a fatal fire in the coming months. Weinberger also announced that his administration would release a plan this week to address homelessness in the city.
But the camp’s removal — which came as a surprise to campers and city councilors — met strong condemnation from Progressives at Monday’s meeting. While the issue was not warned on the meeting’s agenda, councilors laid into Weinberger during the “general affairs” section.
“We’re saying we’re going to do all these things going forward with supporting the houseless community,” said Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, in an apparent nod to Weinberger’s upcoming plan. “I think it’s not great to first remove people and then say that we’ll do something. That sounds like the wrong order to me.”
Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, spoke in support of Weinberger’s decision to close Sears Lane, citing reports by neighbors that some campers were threatening them or engaging in dangerous behavior. Councilor Ali Dieng, I-Ward 7, seconded Shannon’s views, though he chided the mayor for not notifying councilors of the camp’s disbandment beforehand.
After the council’s general affairs section, Weinberger put Progressive councilors on blast, at times addressing Council President Max Tracy, P-Ward 2.
“There’s no doubt that the actions the administration took also ensured the safety of our neighbors and the safety of our first responders,” Weinberger told councilors. “In contrast, inaction would have created harm. … And President Tracy, inaction — doing nothing — is all that councilors who are attacking the administration now offered as an alternative.”
At a Nov. 15 meeting, Progressive councilors tried to introduce a resolution calling on the mayor to contract with a nonprofit to manage the Sears Lane encampment, but other councilors spiked the resolution for procedural reasons.
The effort would have been similar to one already made by Weinberger’s office in September. No nonprofits came forward with a bid at that time, the mayor’s office said.
Progressive councilors said they plan to codify into ordinance a 2019 city policy that outlines what steps the mayor’s office should take when barring people from sheltering on public lands.
That policy has become the crux of an ongoing lawsuit between some Sears Lane campers and the city. While campers accuse the city of violating the policy when it cleared Sears Lane, the city maintains it provided campers with the proper accommodations when removing them from the parcel.
Sex work charter change
Also on Monday night, councilors unanimously signed off on a measure that would end the city’s seldom utilized power to regulate or enforce sex work. The measure heads to voters for final approval during the city’s annual election March 1.
If approved, the city’s charter would no longer grant it the authority “to restrain and suppress houses of ill fame and disorderly houses, and to punish common prostitutes.”
The amended city charter won’t have any effect on the legality of sex work in Burlington since sex crimes are customarily prosecuted using state statute, not municipal ordinance, City Attorney Dan Richardson said.
Despite its lack of legal ramifications, proponents of repealing the charter language said it would increase safety for those who engage in sex work by destigmatizing the practice. The charter change’s sponsor — Councilor Perri Freeman, P-Central District — said the Atlanta spa shootings inspired them to take up the effort.
But the proposal has also sparked a wave of opposition. At Monday’s meeting, roughly a dozen anti-sex trafficking activists from across the country tuned in virtually to tell councilors they believe the charter change would lead to increased demand for commercial sex, which they said would be met through a rise in sex trafficking instead of consensual sex work.
While councilors already repealed references to “prostitution” from its ordinances in October, removing the language from the charter would strip future councils of the authority to regulate sex work.
Most cities and towns in Vermont do not have ordinances regarding sex work on the books, Richardson said.
Both sides appeared to agree that the language used in the city charter is out of date and offensive. The change’s detractors, however, implored councilors to replace the stricken language with an equivalent version that uses more modern terminology.
Yet councilors did not amend the charter change when it came to the floor. While the 12 members signaled split support for the legalization of sex work, Councilor Mark Barlow, I-North District — who said he does not support legalization — emphasized that the charter change would not legalize sex work.
If voters approve the measure, it would continue on to the Legislature and governor, who grant final approval to municipal charter changes.
Other business
A proposed charter change that would have given councilors the authority to raise their own stipends was unanimously removed from the agenda at the start of the meeting after a motion by Councilor Jane Stromberg, P-Ward 8. As a result, it will not be voted on in time to appear before voters on the March 1 ballot.
In other business Monday night, councilors:
- Unanimously endorsed a letter advocating for the state to adopt recommendations from a University of Vermont study that looked at how Vermont funds public education. A task force recently dodged a chance to certify the recommendations, instead presenting two reform models to choose from when the Legislature resumes next month.
- Authorized up to $192,150 being spent on a contract to redesign the Fletcher Free Library.