Updated at 6:05 p.m.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger will not seek a fifth term next Town Meeting Day, ending a nearly 12-year tenure leading the Queen City.
The 53-year-old Democrat announced his plans at a packed press conference Thursday afternoon at Burlington City Arts, surrounded by family, friends, city employees, former mayors and city councilors.
“I have decided now is the right time to conclude my service as mayor,” Weinberger said.
Appearing more relaxed than he usually is during public remarks, he gestured at one point to a nearby room in the very building he announced his first run for mayor in 2011.
“I remember kind of hiding in there 12 years ago, waiting, hoping for a crowd to build,” he said. The years that followed “tested” him and the city, he said, but “together we have made this wondrous invention of Burlington an even more special place.”
Weinberger said he was not sure what was next for him but said, “I still have every intention of being involved.”
Asked later whether he would run for higher office, he said, “I haven’t made any decisions, but I love this state. I spent almost my whole life here. I do see important work for public officials to do to address the issues of the day, and it’s something I’m going to look further into.”
Weinberger’s decision means a new leader will take over City Hall in April 2024, for the first time since 2012. That year, Weinberger — at the time a political novice, real estate developer and airport commissioner — succeeded the scandal-battered Mayor Bob Kiss, a Progressive, promising “a fresh start” for Burlington.
Leaders of the city’s Progressive and Democratic parties expressed excitement over the prospect of an open mayoral race, which will be waged alongside eight City Council contests on Town Meeting Day next March.
One person has already voiced an interest in running. State Rep. Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, P/D-Burlington, a former city councilor, wrote Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, “I am seriously considering running to be the next mayor of Burlington. I’ve watched my community struggle to address complex challenges and leadership fail to rethink our approach. We need to address our community safety, housing, and opioid crisis together and now.”
Adam Roof, chair of Burlington Democrats, said he expected a busy caucus later this year to select nominees for mayor and city council.
“I fully expect that we will have most likely multiple qualified and capable candidates to step forward and work to earn the Democratic Party’s nomination,” he said.
Burlington Progressives co-chairs Carter Neubieser and Zoraya Hightower, Ward 1’s city councilor, released a statement on Thursday afternoon congratulating Weinberger “on his upcoming retirement from the mayor’s office.”
“We look forward to running a robust mayoral campaign and electing a mayor who will support working families and embrace the growing diversity in our city,” their statement read.
Weinberger said he thought there were “a number” of people considering stepping up to take over for him. He stressed that housing, public safety and financial responsibility should be three major priorities for the next administration.
“I’m committed to handing off a strong, effective and resilient local government for our next city’s leader to steward,” he said.
Weinberger’s tenure has been eventful and tumultuous. He has contended with the Covid-19 pandemic; a national and local reckoning with police violence; scandal and turnover in the Burlington Police Department; the stalled CityPlace development; a statewide housing crisis; a worsening opioid epidemic; and the aftermath of the city’s Burlington Telecom debacle.
The mayor has also had to navigate the Queen City’s evolving political environment to push forward his agenda. When he first took office, he was the first Democrat to occupy City Hall since 1981. Since then, Progressives and Democrats have locked horns on the Burlington City Council, as the local Republican Party has continued to fade in relevance.
Weinberger listed what he viewed as his greatest successes during his remarks on Thursday. Among them: shoring up the city’s troubled finances by restoring its credit rating; making Burlington the nation’s first 100% renewable energy city; and facilitating the creation of new housing.
During his time as mayor, Weinberger also oversaw big changes to city infrastructure. The decadeslong delay to the Champlain Parkway officially ended last year when construction began.
“Ironically, it’s ahead of schedule,” Weinberger said to applause. He then added, “I guess it depends on when you start counting.”
Among the other projects were the dismantling and renovation of the former Moran power plant on the city’s waterfront, a new transit center and the revamped City Hall Park. Weinberger said that before his term is up, he hopes to see other projects launched, including a plan to rework Main Street.
At the same time, the greatest piece of promised infrastructure during Weinberger’s mayorship — the redevelopment of the aging Burlington Town Center mall into CityPlace, pitched a decade ago as a 14-story retail, office and housing complex — has still not come to pass. Under new ownership, construction has begun on a more modest version of the project, but the area will be long remembered as “the pit.”
Weinberger has faced criticism over the years from across the political spectrum. Those to his left have characterized him as beholden to the city’s elite and insufficiently progressive on issues ranging from criminal justice reform to substance use disorder to homelessness. Those to his right have seized on the perception that crime rates in Burlington have made the city an unsafe place to live, work and shop.
Critics have particularly questioned his decision to close a Sears Lane encampment for those experiencing homelessness — and the departure and subsequent investigation of the city’s first director of racial equity, inclusion and belonging, Tyeastia Green. Weinberger’s former police chief, Brandon del Pozo, resigned after lying about anonymous social media posts, and it took three years for the mayor to win council confirmation for a successor.
Weinberger, who grew up in Hartland, dipped his toes in politics early with an internship with then-U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. But when he emerged on the scene in 2011 to defeat then-state Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden and two others in a nailbiter for the Democratic mayoral nomination, Weinberger was a relative unknown. He went on to defeat Republican Kurt Wright and independent Wanda Hines in March 2012.
Weinberger won reelection in 2015 by a comfortable margin, facing Progressive Steve Goodkind, his former director of public works. From then on, Weinberger’s races would be much closer. In 2018, he defeated former mayoral staffer Carina Driscoll, as well as Infinite Culcleasure, to be reelected, but the incumbent did not achieve a majority, pulling 48% of the vote. In 2021, then-Progressive City Council President Max Tracy very nearly defeated Weinberger. The latter was reelected by only 129 votes.
Weinberger will leave office in early April when his replacement is sworn in. During his remarks on Thursday, he said one thing he’ll miss most is his weekly coffee chats at the Bagel Cafe in the New North End. During his time in office, he’s held over 500 of those informal meetings.
“Sesame seed and a slice of tomato,” Weinberger said. “They know that out there.”
