No matter the results of Burlington’s Town Meeting Day elections, the City Council is set to undergo a major transformation.
Eight of the council’s 12 seats are up for grabs this year, and four races feature no incumbent. Adding to the potential for a shakeup: If Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, wins the mayoral election on Town Meeting Day, her seat would then head to a special election.
Current and former members say the March elections will mark the most turnover the council has seen in recent years. And with each party fielding seven candidates (plus one independent endorsed by the Progressives), control of the council is up for grabs.
At the moment, Democrats hold a plurality, with six members to the Progressives’ four. (There are also two independents.) Progressives had control of the council beginning in 2020 until a pair of resignations allowed the Democrats to flip seats in 2022 and 2023.
The arrival of a number of new councilors also comes at a time in which the incumbents have limited experience themselves. Shannon, currently in the middle of a two-year term, has been on the council for 20 years, making her its longest-serving member. If she wins the mayoral race, that would leave as the longest-serving members Councilor Gene Bergman, P-Ward 2, who is finishing up a two-year term but previously served six years in the 1980s, and Councilor Sarah Carpenter, D-Ward 4, who has served for four years. Carpenter, however, is facing a Progressive challenger.
Outgoing City Council President Karen Paul, a Democrat, said that when she first joined the council in 2008, there were councilors with about 10 years of experience whom she relied on to get up to speed. This year, she said, the next council won’t have that.
“There is definitely an adjustment process” for a new council term, said former City Council President Max Tracy, a Progressive. Much of the role of a councilor is being “part of a system,” he said, and new members will have to learn the workings of all council committees, city departments, budgets, the rules for how meetings operate and more.
“It can be a little bit of a reality check sometimes for folks who are new to that,” Tracy said. “There’s a lot of work that you might not have anticipated or necessarily even be interested in.”
Things aren’t expected to slow down in City Hall, either. Among the first items of business likely to be taken up by the next council is the city budget. Tracy pointed out one particular challenge there: The board of finance is made up of four city councilors and the mayor. All but one member of that board will no longer be in office come April.
Additionally, this year the city is trying to fill an estimated $9 million gap in its budget due to the loss of one-time federal funds during the Covid-19 pandemic. City officials hope a new public safety tax, which voters will consider on Town Meeting Day, could help close the gap.
“It will be a significant challenge for a new administration and for a relatively young council,” Paul said.
As for the candidates themselves, they will arrive with their own set of priorities. Many of them have emphasized three central themes, though not always in the same order: public safety, housing and affordability.
The following is a breakdown of who is running in each city ward.
Ward 1
After two terms serving Ward 1, Progressive Councilor Zoraya Hightower opted not to run again, creating one of the opportunities for Democrats to flip a seat.
Progressive Carter Neubieser was one of the first candidates to kick off a campaign in the district last fall. He works as the lead fundraiser for the climate advocacy group 350Vermont and has worked on electoral campaigns, including for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Neubieser previously ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 8 seat when he was a University of Vermont student.
Neubieser will face off against Democrat Geoff Hand, who has been on the city’s Development Review Board for eight years. An attorney for SRH Law in Burlington, Hand also serves on the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington.
Ward 2
In the only uncontested race this year, Progressive Councilor Gene Bergman appears likely to prevail in Ward 2 in the city’s Old North End. A former assistant city attorney in Burlington, Bergman retired from that post in 2018. This would be his fifth term as councilor over two stints. He served from 1986 to 1992 and returned to the council in 2022.
Ward 3
Following Progressive Councilor Joe Magee’s decision not to run, the Ward 3 race is another open contest, this time with three people in the mix.
The Democrats’ nominee, Malik Mines, missed the city’s filing deadline in late January and will not appear on the ballot. But Mines said in an interview that he is proceeding with a write-in campaign. Mines works for the University of Vermont’s Department of Education and serves on the board at the Pine Forest Children’s Center, a nonprofit early childhood education center in Burlington.
On the Progressive side, Joe Kane earned the nomination. Kane is an economist and is the primary caregiver for his grandmother. Kane said he has been an outspoken activist and is a member of the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation and 350Vermont, among other organizations.
The third name in the Ward 3 race is Christopher-Aaron Felker, chair of the Burlington Republican Party and a previous candidate in the ward. He most recently lost to Magee in 2022. Felker has faced criticism in the past for transphobic remarks.
Ward 4
It appeared for a time that Councilor Sarah Carpenter, the Democratic incumbent, might run unopposed, with no Prog stepping forward to run in the New North End during the party’s December caucus.
That was until January, when Dan Castrigano secured the Progressive endorsement following a second caucus. Castrigano is an educator and community organizer. He has been a frequent advocate on climate issues.
Now retired, Carpenter worked as executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. She was first elected to the council in 2020 and is seeking a third term.
Ward 5
On the other side of the city, in the South End, Ward 5’s race followed a similar path as Ward 4. The incumbent, Councilor Ben Traverse, a Democrat, did not have a challenger after the Progressives’ first caucus.
But Lena Greenberg, running as an independent, earned the Progs’ endorsement in January. Greenberg is on the Ward 5 neighborhood planning assembly steering committee and has worked in food access and climate education. Their work includes the creation of a free food map of Burlington.
Traverse, who is trying to win a second term, works as associate general counsel for the University of Vermont Health Network.
Ward 6
City Council President Karen Paul placed her hopes on the mayor’s office, losing to Shannon in a contested Democratic primary late last year. That will leave the ward in the city’s Hill Section wide open.
The same night that Paul lost out on that mayoral nomination, Democrats picked Becca Brown McKnight as their candidate. Brown McKnight owns a marketing consulting business and was previously on the board of Slow Food Vermont.
She will compete against Will Anderson, the Progressives’ nominee. Anderson ran unsuccessfully against Shannon in last year’s South District race. Anderson is a budget analyst for the Vermont Department of Finance and Management and a graduate fellow at Vermont Housing Finance Agency. He is an alternate commissioner for the Green Mountain Transit commission and serves on the finance committee there.
Ward 7
Independent Councilor Ali Dieng also decided to opt out, leading to an open race in the city’s New North End.
Lee Morrigan, the vice chair of the parks and recreation commission, sought the endorsements of both the Democrats and Progressives. While they lost out on the Dems’ endorsement to Evan Litwin, Morrigan won the Progs’ nomination.
Litwin works in substance abuse prevention as a communications and marketing director. He is the vice chair of the Housing Board of Review, a City Council-appointed board that resolves disputes between property owners and tenants and hears evidence of code violations.
Ward 8
The Democrats’ pick for Ward 8, Councilor Hannah King, is seeking that seat for the third time in two years. King lost her first race 2022 to Ali House. Then, following House’s resignation, King won a special election in March 2023. Now, she’s up for a full term. King is the communications and business development director at the Lake Champlain Chamber and is managing Shannon’s mayoral campaign.
Her opponent is Marek Broderick, who earned the Progressive nomination in December. Broderick is a third-year University of Vermont student majoring in biological sciences. He is an organizer for Champlain Valley Democratic Socialists of America.
Clarification: This story has been edited to more precisely describe the nature of Joe Kane’s activism.
