Front Porch Forum chief of staff Jason Van Driesche is running for Burlington City Council, on the ideas that “everyone deserves to be heard” and being “committed to listening to the whole community.”
I’m concerned that South District voters won’t know how or why Mr. Van Driesche’s words don’t match the actions of the executives like CEO Michael Wood-Lewis and Van Driesche who are running the donor-supported for-profit corporation known as FPF. I’m also concerned about how FPF might be managed when citizens seek to use their voices during the South District race.
Earlier this month, FPF unjustly terminated my spouse’s account, and mine as well by association, as if I am not my own person. To learn more, search “Front Porch Flimflam.”
So I wonder if Mr. Van Driesche, a self-described “expert in helping people figure out how to work together to make their communities better places,” might’ve had a role in removing our voices from our community.
I reside in Montpelier. But if Mr. Van Driesche campaigns on the ideals of listening to everyone’s voice, and believing that all opinions deserve to be heard, while at the same time he has a role in the oppression of voices in communities across Vermont, then there are fair and relevant questions for Burlington’s South District voters to ask as they consider Mr. Van Driesche’s fitness to be their voice as their City Councilor.
Deborah Connolly
Montpelier