This story by Corey McDonald was first published by The Other Paper on Sept. 14.
Helen Riehle, the chair of the South Burlington City Council, announced she would not be seeking a fifth term on the council in March and would be ending her 12-year tenure.
Riehle, who was first elected to the City Council in 2012, said she felt it was “time to pass the baton to another resident.”
“Participating in local government has been the highlight of my community service and the most satisfying part of my public career,” Riehle said, acknowledging the “consistently dedicated and talented city employees, two extremely competent city managers, their excellent leadership and, most importantly, the respectful and wonderful fellow councilors with who I have served.”
“I sincerely thank you for giving me the opportunity to help define South Burlington’s future,” she said.
Riehle will wrap up her fourth three-year term with the council in March. She served as the vice chair on the council before being appointed to the head role on the council in March 2016, the same month she was sworn in as a Chittenden County state senator.
At the time, Gov. Peter Shumlin moved to appoint Riehle to fill a seat that had been vacated. She was making a brief stop in familiar territory.
By then, Riehle had already served in both chambers of the Legislature and had notched more 15 years of service. She served as a state representative from 1983 until 1992 and was a member of the Health and Welfare and Appropriations committees. She later represented Chittenden County as state senator from 1993 to 2000, where she chaired the Health and Welfare, Administrative Rules, and the Health Access Oversight committees.
Her “final role” as South Burlington’s council chair placed her at the center of some of the most important issues in the city in the past decade — be it the battle over the F-35s or balancing growth and conservation. She said she championed the development of City Center, including the library and city hall, and helped usher in affordable housing regulations.
She described her time as council chair as providing “an evenhanded and sensitive approach to controversy and differing perspectives, which provided an improved tenor of council meetings and forward progress on many shared goals.”
Riehle cited four accomplishments for which she is most proud: creating the tax increment financing, or TIF, district; boosting economic incentives for City Center; creating the affordable housing trust fund; and adopting policies and regulations “that balanced protection of the environment with necessary growth.”
She said she will “miss the ongoing and exciting challenges the city faces,” but that she was confident she leaves “having helped build a strong foundation and vision for the future.”
Riehle’s retirement leaves two of three open seats up for election this March without an incumbent. The vice chair of the council and the longest tenured councilor, Meaghan Emery, will be up for reelection in March.
An open seat vacated by Tyler Barnes is also up for grabs. Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who formerly served on the South Burlington School Board and, more recently, worked on the city’s charter committee, submitted petitions to run for the remaining year of that two-year term.
Laurie Smith also announced a bid this week for the seat.
