Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Alright. Good morning, folks. It is Thursday, April 16, 09:30 ish. Our first order of business today is an introduction and a walkthrough on h nine five six, an act relating to approval of an amendment to the charter of the city of Burlington relating to the office of racial equity, inclusion, and belonging. We are gonna open up with representative Stone, our very own member, who is the sponsor of this charter proposal. Press Stone, how are doing?

[Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone]: Thanks for having me. Representative Mary-Katherine Stone, Chittenden 14, Burlington for the record. This bill formally approves an amendment to the City Of Burlington's charter, which was previously approved by the city's voters on 03/03/2026, this town meeting day to enshrine the Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, REIB. This office is to be led, the office already exists, but I'm just going to go over the language that the office is to be led by a director of REIB, which will be a permanent position hired according to the city human resources policies who will report directly to the mayor and be supervised by the city council. The director is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to advance equity, social justice, diversity, inclusion, belonging, and inter racism within the city of Burlington, including consulting with city departments, recommending policy changes, enhancing representation for underserved communities, city government, and coordinating inclusive constituent engagement. The proposal to enshrine the Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, which I will now refer to as REIB, because that's a mouthful for me to keep saying, into the Burlington City Charter actually saw a unanimous twelve zero vote by the city council to place it on the ballot, which should say something if you've ever watched our city council meetings on YouTube. The vote was the yes votes were four nine five nine, 57.08%, and the no votes were three seven two nine, 42.92%. Under votes, two two eight. Over votes, three. Total ballot cast, eight nine one nine. The background of this, is this the first time that a city has established an IV office or initiative into their charter? You may ask. The answer is no. In November 2022, New York City voters approved landmark charter amendments to establish a commission on racial equity and an office of racial equity. In San Francisco, the Office of Racial Equity was created within the Human Rights Commission via an ordinance to ensure city departments develop racial equity action plans. And in Nashville, North Carolina, the Office of Equity Inclusion was established to prioritize racial and social equity in a formal ongoing capacity. There could be more, but that's just ones that I included that came up during my research last evening. For the National League of Cities, quote, while many cities have established equity offices via ordinance for executive order, example, Minneapolis in 2017, Oakland and San Francisco in 2019, incorporating them into the city charter provides the highest level of permanence, end quote. Why? Because it provides insulation for political shifting, so it can't be dismantled by future city administrations or during shifts in political climate. It provides institutional accountability. It builds public trust. And it provides senior leadership stability, which is a big argument that I heard from voters about why they supported this. So that is this Charter Amendment in a nutshell. It's pretty straightforward. This office already exists. The director already exists. It's just to enshrine it to make it a permanent thing.

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Rep. Because you spoke so quickly, could you give me

[Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone]: the gays and nays again? Yep, yays, 4959. Nays, 3729. Thank you.

[VL Coffin IV]: Rep Coffin. I just for more curiosity is, you know, putting in the Charter, when was it first put into place because you said that the REBI was already in place? Yes. When did it when how long has it been operating? Just out of curiosity.

[Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone]: September 2019.

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Oh, okay.

[Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone]: So it's been in there before even the pandemic. So it's kind of to me, honestly, I was like, oh, I thought this already was a thing. Like a permanent position like the other department heads are. So it's more of like just a logistic administrative thing that was on the ballot because the person's already there, they're already directing, but yeah, makes it a more real permanent thing.

[VL Coffin IV]: I get it to that. Place a lot because it's not like, oh, we we implemented it last year, now we want to put it in, but we don't have

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: any record of how they're doing. It's been

[VL Coffin IV]: there for But if they're been there for, you know, almost seven years, it's awesome.

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Any other questions? Thank you so much, representative Son. Now we'll run through the language of counsel.

[Rick Segal (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Good morning. Rick Segal with the Office of Legislative Counsel. I am sorry I couldn't be there in person. Haven't been in your committee for a little bit, so but I enjoyed some of the banter before we were live. So

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Leave it right there.

[Rick Segal (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Oh, yeah. Period. So I am covering for my colleague Tucker who is out on leave. I I say that because I am not your charter guy. I am usually commerce, IT, privacy. So this is a relatively new area, but I think Repstone did a great job of kind of walking through the history of this specific charter and how it came to be and the implications of actually approving the charter. So she also read through, you know, the pretty short bill. It's really a page and a half of actual charter language. It would create the permanent office of racial equity inclusion and belonging, REIB for short. It would also establish a director position within that office. The actual language on page and I'm not gonna share my screen unless you need me to, mister chair. It's a pretty Okay. Pretty short You know, page two of the of the language in section three seventy four, you know, does set forth some kind of the the the flowchart of how this is gonna work. You have the director who will be in a permanent position hired according to city Burlington HR policies and reports directly to the mayor, and they'll be under supervision of the city council. I'm sorry. The r I the REIB will be under supervision of the director who will be subject to rules and ordinances of the city council. And, really, the other thing I wanna point out are the rights and duties that are spelled out in subsection f at the bottom of page two and on to page three. You know, nothing here that is super that, you know, stands out as far as why would this be in the charter. This just appears to me to be clarifying what their duties are, a way for you to check back in to ensure that this office is following the, you know, what the the what the job description is basically. That they'll work on behalf of the city to advance equity and social justice, develop, coordinate, implement, and administer racial equity and inclusion strategies for the city, consult and recommend the city departments, the mayor's office, and city council policy and program changes to better advance racial equity and inclusion in the city. So it would take effect on passage. Happy to answer questions, but again, I think it's a pretty straightforward charter change.

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: K. Questions for counsel? K. Yeah. No. I mean, it is pretty straight to the point. I wanna stop short and cut dry. But, so I guess our next subcommittee is, figuring out who we wanna hear from. I guess we'll start bringing in some folks from the Burlington government apparatus.

[Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone]: Bring in the director of REID.

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah. No. That's something yeah. Like, bring bring whoever that is in, the city attorney, perhaps, Travis or someone else. Travis. Whoever's the process, though. Yeah. So we can we can start putting that punch list together for the next log of testimony on this one. How's that sound? Yeah. Perfect. Yep. Alright. Cool. Let's work. Any other, commentary or dialogue on this one before you hit the pause button?

[Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone]: No.

[Rep. Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay. Council, thank you for your time, sir. We will see you live at some point, and we'll start teeing up witnesses with that. We're going to hopefully start around 10AM. We're gonna review some language in miscellaneous agricultural subjects in and around hemp provisions. So they're reviewing that language as we speak. So we will have counsel here, and I think maybe one or two folks from CCB sit in the gallery should there be any questions relevant to them. So that's our my conversation a little earlier might start a little late, but that's why we baked forty five minutes into it, and we are not rushing this out the door. They don't need it any, like, immediately. So You're not smoking to get it out. It's not a yeah. It's not a flying outdoor, like, lit on fire and chamber in a way. Yes. Kinda like the king of mud. He'd be up there. Could've done a better work with Cheaper. Sorry. Points. With that, you can take us offline, sir.