Burlington voters will not weigh in again on police oversight this Town Meeting Day, after the City Council on Tuesday night delayed a charter change proposal.
In a 7-5 vote along party lines, the council returned to the police commission a proposal to expand its authority, asking for further consideration and recommendations. Progressive councilors, having supported last year’s ballot item that called for a citizen board to oversee police, voted against the delay of the new proposal.
“This is a broken promise,” said Councilor Melo Grant, P-Central District.
After voters rejected last year’s ballot item to create a new citizen oversight board, the council signaled its willingness to expand the existing police commission’s role in oversight of complaints against the police department. A committee of councilors generated a watered-down version of the oversight proposal that they hoped would build more consensus.
In late December, when members of that committee pitched the proposal to the police commission in hopes of getting it on the Town Meeting Day ballot in March, several of the commissioners voiced concerns that the proposal wasn’t ready because of questions about how to implement it.
Police Chief Jon Murad and Detective Joseph Corrow of the Burlington Police Officers Association, the union for rank-and-file officers, also objected to portions of the draft charter change, such as how much authority the mayor has over the chief.
On Tuesday, amid discussion of the commission’s lingering questions, Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, moved to postpone the charter change vote and send the draft to the police commission, asking for its recommendations by June. The next opportunity for Burlington voters to weigh in would be the general election in November.
Progressive council members strongly objected to the delay, calling it an effort to “kill” the charter change effort completely.
“The intention is in no way to kill this,” Shannon said. “The intention is to bring this back and give the commission the opportunity to work on it and weigh in on it as they requested.”
