The city of Burlington will now celebrate Juneteenth as an official holiday, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced this week.
Juneteenth, which was added to the calendar of federal holidays last year, commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were informed that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier.
This year, the city government will observe Juneteenth on Monday, June 20. City offices will not open that day, according to a press release, and that evening’s City Council meeting has been canceled.
One day before Burlington observes the holiday, the city is set to host its second annual Juneteenth celebration, organized by the city’s racial equity, inclusion and belonging department. It is scheduled to include a slew of live performances, food and speeches at four parks around the city.
Some Black residents of Burlington told VTDigger they’re excited for the Juneteenth event, and commended the mayor for declaring Juneteenth an official city holiday. But they said there’s still a lot more the mayor could do to show he’s serious about promoting racial justice.
Weinberger’s reputation on racial issues has been buffeted by a string of departures from the city’s racial equity, justice and belonging department following the resignation of Tyeastia Green, its former director.
While Weinberger’s office said Green left her post to “pursue other opportunities” — she now works in a similar role for the city of Minneapolis — people who were close to the former director allege she was dissatisfied with the mayor’s attitude toward addressing systemic racism in the city.
A frosty relationship between Green and the mayor was sometimes evident to the public eye. Weinberger removed Green from her leadership role over an assessment of the Burlington Police Department and replaced her with a white man — Darren Springer, head of the city’s electric utility — only to backpedal days later.
Jordan Redell, Weinberger’s chief of staff, told the Burlington Free Press in March that the relationship between Green and the mayor experienced tension and a communication breakdown in early 2022.
But to City Councilor Ali Dieng, I-Ward 7, Green’s resignation was just one sign that the mayor’s commitment to racial equity is lacking. Dieng also criticized the mayor for inviting “scrutiny” of Kyle Dodson, the Black YMCA president and Weinberger appointee who plagiarized a report on police reform.
“From the perspective of a Black elected official, I feel like we need more from our mayor,” Dieng said.
Weinberger’s statement on Juneteenth, Dieng asserted, was “just words … we need something more meaningful.”
In a statement, Weinberger spokesperson Dan McLean contested Dieng’s characterization of the mayor’s record on racial justice.
“Our goal, as a City, is to be an anti-racist organization,” McLean wrote. He said the city is striving to close racial disparities in areas such as homeownership rates, health care and policing.
“Under the mayor’s leadership, the City of Burlington has dramatically expanded its commitment to racial equity and justice in recent years and is investing more resources in racial equity than any other municipality in the state and even more than the State of Vermont, itself,” McLean wrote.
Weinberger’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023, which starts at the end of this month, allots $1.8 million to the racial equity, inclusion and belonging department. That department and the police department were the only two city offices Weinberger did not ask to cut spending, he said.
But Melo Grant, a Burlington police commissioner and a Black woman, said the mayor’s funding of the racial equity department belies his refusal to act on other issues that Black Burlingtonians have expressed concern about.
Grant has been a vocal critic of acting Police Chief Jon Murad, whom Weinberger has stood behind, even though the City Council rejected Murad as the department’s permanent leader earlier this year.
Murad “threw the whole Black community under the bus” at a Police Commission meeting last month, Grant said, when the chief said Black people have been disproportionately behind the city’s 51 gunfire incidents since 2012.
“The racial representations in them are stark,” Murad said of gunfire incident data at the meeting May 24. “We have 80% of racially-identified victims — that’s 20 of 25 of those 51 incidents — are Black, and 60% of racially-identified suspects — that’s 21 of 35 of those incidents — are Black.”
Grant called the statement profiling, saying it would instill fear in white residents that Black residents were dangerous. She also noted that Murad did not list the racial breakdown of suspects in other violent incidents, such as stabbings.
In a statement to VTDigger, Murad said his statement was meant to reflect that gunfire incidents, though rare, “are of significant concern to our community.”
“The fact that Black Vermonters are so disproportionately victims in these incidents should also be of significant concern to our community,” he said. “We can’t solve problems without confronting their scope, and I’m very proud of the amount of data we share at the (Burlington Police Department).”
Grant also rebuked Weinberger for not yet hiring Green’s replacement. McLean told VTDigger that the city staff has been “working with community members to establish a strong search committee” and plan to post the position this week.
In addition, Grant deplored the city’s reaction to a lawsuit stemming from a 2018 incident in which a Burlington police officer, without warning, shoved an unarmed Black man to the ground. That officer was disciplined after a review found his actions unnecessary, but he did not leave the department until the city penned a $300,000 separation agreement with him.
The man who was shoved to the ground, Jeremie Meli, and his two brothers who were with him at the time, allege that the officer, Jason Bellavance, used excessive force when responding to a verbal altercation between Meli and another man. Meli has sued, and Grant urged the mayor to settle the lawsuit.
“You want to show you want change? Then get off your ass and settle this case,” Grant said.
McLean responded to the remark in a statement: “For this particular case, while the City has viable legal defenses, we have also attempted several times to come to a fair settlement and will continue to pursue those options.”
“This incident represents a very sad turn of events, and the City remains sympathetic to the people who were hurt,” McLean wrote.
Grant did not entirely condemn the mayor’s actions on racial justice. She was pleased that Weinberger declared Juneteenth a holiday, she said, but found the decision to write his Monday press release on the matter almost entirely from material contained in a 2020 press release on Juneteenth “pretty lazy.”
(In response, McLean wrote: “The mayor’s previous comments about Juneteenth continue to ring true today and are worth repeating.”)
“I am glad that he’s at least acknowledging the day and the activities,” Grant said. “Because the way he’s been radio silent on other issues is disturbing.”
