Representation on Burlington’s many volunteer commissions and boards is skewed toward wealthier areas of the city, according to records maintained by the Office of the City Clerk/Treasurer. Out of 120 seats, almost a quarter are filled by residents of one affluent neighborhood, while the inner city’s Ward Two has only 5 percent.
Burlington has more than 30 commissions and advisory boards, filled primarily by residents from the city’s seven wards. The groups range from the high profile Airport, Fire and Planning Commissions to an Advisory Committee of Accessibility and the Board of Tax Appeals. Most members are appointed by the City Council, but some commissions have special limitations or requirements.
The goals are transparency, citizen involvement, and fair representation of various political factions and parts of the community.
There are some variations on this theme. Neither the Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) nor Burlington City Arts (BCA), both created during the Sanders era, have boards appointed by the Council. BCA, which became a city department more than 20 years ago and manages several city facilities, reports to the mayor and has an independent Board of Directors. CEDO also answers directly to the mayor, with some Council oversight.
Burlington Telecom has two advisory bodies. Members of the Telecommunications Advisory Committee (TAC) are appointed by the City Council, yet despite recent controversy about BT’s finances there are three vacancies. Three of the four current members are Democrats. A note on the TAC’s website says that its next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 26, has been cancelled because “We don’t have enough members in our committee to reach a quorum at this time.”
A separate Cable Advisory Council (CAC) has five members, who are appointed by the Public Service Board and operate independently of City Hall. Its job is the provide BT “with ongoing public input on community needs and to serve as a vehicle for two-way communication.” There was recently some discussion of merging the two groups, says Amber Thibeault, manager of government and regulatory affairs. But the members of both bodies didn’t like the idea and, in any case, making such a change would require approval from the PSB, which mandated the CAC’s formation under Burlington Telecom’s Certificate of Public Good.
According to the City Charter, most city commissions may have no more than two-thirds of their membership from one political party. But it is difficult to determine whether this requirement is being met in every case since political affiliation information isn’t listed for some appointees while others describe themselves as independents. According to Lori Olberg, records coordinator for the clerk’s office, the information is on file but the list needs to be updated.
On the Airport Commission, Democratic mayoral candidate Miro Weinberger is the only member with a listed Party affiliation. Three Airport Commissioners are designated as independents, and no affiliation information is provided for two more. The six-member Electric Light Commission has four members listed as independents, one Democrat and one without affiliation.
On the Fire Commission, which has six members, four are listed as Democrats – the legal limit for a single political party. One member is described as an independent, the other is a member of the city staff.
More information is available on the areas in which board members and commissioners live. According to the City Clerk’s office, Ward Six residents currently fill 27 seats. This section of Burlington includes part of UVM, the Champlain College campus, and the relatively well-to-do east side of the city’s south end. Another 22 appointees come from adjacent Ward Five, for a total of 40 percent from one end of Burlington.
On the eight-member Planning Commission three are from Ward Six and two from Ward Four in the city’s New North End.
In contrast, Ward Two has a total of six representatives, including a member of the Board of Health, Light Commission, Conservation Board and Public Works. Ward Three has 11 representatives. Among the reasons, says Olberg, is that some vacancies are difficult to fill and many people only want to serve on the “sexy commissions.”
Creating equity on local boards is further complicated by the appointment process. Each spring, after the local elections, the city’s three political parties encourage their supporters to apply for open seats. But unless an appointment must meet some legal requirement, the outcome is mainly the result of horse-trading, especially for seats on key commissions. The party with the most City Council votes, at the moment the Democrats, normally gets the most appointments.
Since the only Progressives on the Council represent Ward Three, they must work with at least one other party to obtain appointments. As a result, Ward Three residents fill 11 seats, including one each on the Police and Planning Commissions. No residents of Wards One or Two serve on either, however, while three of five police commissioners live in Ward Five.
Imbalances on local commissions and boards are not a new phenomenon. In the 1980s, this situation, along with the tendency of some commissions to resist direction by the mayor, prompted a city-appointed panel to review the structure of local government. The panel concluded that ward-based elections for key commissions might help. But Mayors Bernie Sanders and Peter Clavelle preferred to move the city toward a city manager-style administration.
Subsequent charter changes gave the mayor more power over department heads, who also report to commissions in many cases. But those changes have not addressed some chronic imbalances in appointments.