Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Unidentified Committee Member]: All

[Chair Matthew Birong]: right, everyone. Welcome Tuesday, April 21, a little after 1PM. Beginning the week of committee work, with H. Nine fifty six, an act relating to approval of amendment to the charter of the city of Burlington, to the office of racial equity, inclusion, and belonging. We have some representatives from Burlington with us today. Thank you, everyone. It's good to see all of your faces. So, we're just gonna start running through folks right now. Chair Travers, I understand you're on a tight timeline for a clock today. You should probably be going first.

[Ben Traverse]: Sure. I'm happy to go first. I think I just have some brief comments here at chair Birong. Thank you very much for inviting myself and other representatives from the city to be here as always very much appreciate the committee's time. And as mentioned the last time I testified before this committee, also just want to acknowledge my thanks for your time and attention to this matter. I know that Burlington has sent you the last couple of years a number of proposed charter changes, and I know that this committee has a lot of business before it across the entire state, and very much appreciate your attention to those items that have been sent your way from Burlington and the representatives that have brought this matter forward. From my perspective, this is a very important item to Burlington, but it's also a pretty inside baseball item for Burlington and would ask that the legislature and governor's office please allow Burlington to move forward with its proposed structure for its city administration. I say it's very important because at a time when diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the country have been under attack, Burlington has decided that it wants to reaffirm its commitment to these goals. We did that a number of years ago in establishing this office to begin with, which is now directed by Doctor. Kelly Perkins, who is here. I'm glad he's here to testify on behalf of her office's excellent work, and now wanting to memorialize that work through our city charter. From our perspective, this office is committed to equity. This effort is a commitment to equity as well. As you look across our city, many of our city departments, our Department of Public Works, our Department of Parks, Fire Department, our Police Department, even our, well, many of our director positions are memorialized in charter. And by putting this measure before Burlington voters, we were looking to elevate our REIB department and really put it on the same level as the other departments here across the city. With nearly 60% of support from Burlington voters, it passed this last town meeting day. And again, we're asking that the legislature allow us to adopt it. I will say that if I were to venture a guess, I don't know, but if I were to venture a guess as to why the vote count was not even higher than that nearly 60% that I just mentioned is because I suspect many of you there have seen and know about media reports in Burlington and really municipalities across the state regarding budgetary issues and budgetary crunches that we are all facing. To the extent that is on any of the committee members' minds, I want to stress with you the same item that I stressed with voters, which is that there is nothing by putting this into our charter that commits the city to any particular funding threshold for this department. It commits us to establishing and continue to put forward a Director of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. We think that that is the right thing to do as a community as represented by the voters. I think that you'll hear from Director Perkins in a moment about the excellent work that her department is doing. And again, greatly appreciate your time and attention to this matter and hopefully seeing it through. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, again, I know we're joined by Doctor. Perkins as well as representatives from our city attorney's office.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Any questions for Mr. Travers? Thank you very much, Ben. I appreciate the time. Good to see you again.

[Ben Traverse]: Yeah. Thank you, Chair Birong.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yes. And we'll move on to Doctor. Birgits. How are you?

[Dr. Kelly Perkins]: I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for the invitation to be here before you all today in support of establishing the Office of Racial Equity Inclusion and Belonging in the Charter for the City Of Burlington. I think I would start by saying that this really is a commitment that Burlington has already had for at least three decades documented. And this is really an effort to align in a tangible public way. Our commitment sustained commitments to ensuring that the work of equity and ensuring that our city is accessible right for all residents, regardless of creed, race, gender, ability, religion, right? You name it. We want to assure it could continue assure for decades to come that the city of Burlington and its government is accessible to all residents and not just accessible, but that we are really meeting the needs and doing the best that we absolutely can for the most. And this office in the six years now that has been a part of Burlington's city government structure has really sought to engage in that work, We've expanded language access across the city. And we have really across the county, folks are looking to Burlington, which is no surprise is the big city in the area and wanting to really align efforts so that we have a strong regional system for equity and belonging and creating a Vermont where everyone can be here regardless of how you ended up in this space. And so we are really beginning to deepen and broaden our scope moving into the accessibility realm. We starting the aging council in Burlington ensuring that we are caring for and centering the needs of our aging population. Looking to broaden prospects for our immigrant refugee new American communities. I think there are many people in Burlington who will find the work that we're doing really has brought voices to the table that historically have not been there and really is on the cutting edge in the front line of ensuring that we are asking who is impacted by our policies, by our procedures, by our decisions, ensuring that we are not having any desperate impact across our city. And so I really am just thankful again for this opportunity to share some of the work that we've been engaged in to date and hoping that this feels like a no brainer in some sense to help the city of Burlington to solidify and make permanent work that has been and sure will continue in some way in perpetuity in the city. Thank you so much.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: No, thank you very much. Any questions there? I mean, we did a pretty robust run through with counsel on the words on the page. Any questions for this witness? Nope. Alright. Up next, Eric, I'm not even gonna attempt to try and pronounce your last name. How do you pronounce that, sir?

[Eric Christiansen]: I'm a Christian.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Alright. Thank you.

[Eric Christiansen]: And I'm joined by Emmett Wood, who's also from the city attorney's office. I I think that, in this case, the the the proposed language largely speaks for itself, so I don't have a lot to add. I think this is largely a policy question for the committee. I'm happy to answer any questions, any legal questions you do have. Just sort of speaking generally to the structure of the city's charter, it is, you know you know, the longest of the charters in the state, and it does identify all the city departments and their department heads and the structure of the department and any committee that has charge over the department. And REIB is is not included in that because it is a new department. And so the goal here is to put it in the charter to make it permanent and to treat it on par with all the other departments within the city. So that legally, that's that's the purpose of this amendment. And, again, I'm happy to answer any questions you have about it.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: I don't want to speak for the rest of the committee, but as I read through this a couple of times, it really did seem very direct and to the point. I personally didn't feel like I had a ton of inquiry for you folks. So looking to the rest of the table, any other questions or comment? So we can This is more for committee to step in right now. We'll wait till Vice Chair Hango gets back. She's in the Senate right now on our emergency management bill. But, we could probably talk about getting this voted out a little bit later in the week, perhaps. Mhmm. Sure. That's coming. Yeah. Waters And, Evans.

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans]: If if, you know, the city supports it, the voters support it, I don't see why Mhmm. We wouldn't.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yes. This is very much, you know, these these offices in and out of charters over the course of time is an appropriate vehicle for sure.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much where I was going with it after the testimony we heard the other day was, you know, that the other city officers are in the charter. Mhmm. This just lets them know that they're being taken just as seriously. They're just as important a department. Put them in the chair charter and say, hey. You're here. We're not getting rid of you. And tell me I'm good with that.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Reps them? Reps some will be the report of no.

[Dr. Kelly Perkins]: Okay. Voluntary.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Appreciate that. Before we get to vote time Yeah. I love the forward thinking on that. I thought you guys are fighting over this. Okay. Okay. Our guests don't need to see us do this banter. Yes. I don't know. Team Burlington, do you got anything else for us on this one?

[Eric Christiansen]: Nothing from the city attorney's office further.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Okay. Thanks for the time. Alright. Seeing no answers. Alright, everyone. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for coming in. Love Zoom. Alright, committee. We've got a break in the action until we take up the STOW charter pertaining to the option tax, and that is gonna be at 02:00. So I guess, chase bills, work on stuff, constituent emails, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. With that, Nick, please take us off.