Burlington Beat: Equity, Race & the Schools

Racial disparities in Burlington schools turned out to be the main event at the first working session of the City Council since a new mayor took charge. 
     Students of color are now 27 percent of the student body in public schools. According to a Task Force report more Black students drop out of school. They're less likely to take SAT tests and more likely to be suspended. The report is supposed to set the stage for a strategic plan to address diversity, equity and inclusion.

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     On April 16 School Superintendent Jeanne Collins joined Board Chair Keith Pillsbury and staff members to outline some of the efforts that led to the report and its recommendations. But not everyone is satisfied. Some teachers say they've been excluded, and several residents at the Council forum pointed to ongoing problems. Here's a video report. A closer look at the recommendations and strategy will follow soon.
     FURTHER READING: Task Force Report on the Recommended Strategy for Diversity,Equity and Inclusion for the Burlington School District

Burlington: Crime, Treatment and "Impairment"

Burglaries and violent crime are on the rise in Vermont's Queen City, and the primary reason is substance abuse. That's what Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling told a Neighborhood Planning Assembly.

      During a lively panel discussion on April 12 Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan argued for a balance between accountability and treatment, and outreach team leader Matt Young warned about "serious functional impairment," which involves poverty, culture, entitlements, and mental health issues. Take a look...

“The numbers of the last three years for burglaries citywide look like this,” Burlington Police Chief Schirling reported early in the forum, “247 reported in 2009, 294 reported in 2010, and 380 reported in 2011. So, a substantial increase.”

     Two things are “in play,” he explained. “The first is intractable opiate and substance abuse addiction. Sort of secondary, but quite a bit further behind that, are folks that are I guess for lack of a better word, career criminals.”

     During a question period residents expressed support for police and corrections officials. But some also complained about noise and other “quality of life” offenses, and one resident said some of his friends and colleagues are “talking about leaving because it is at a tipping point.”

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The discussion, held during a regular NPA meeting at Edmunds School near downtown, included Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan, University of Vermont Dean of Students David Nestor, Champlain College Director of Residential Life Ashley Mikell, Community Corrections District Manager Debbie Thibault, Rain Banbury of Burlington Parellel Justice, and Matt Young, who heads the Howard Center’s street outreach team.

     Donovan agreed with Schirling’s general assessment and said substance abuse is becoming an epidemic in Vermont. “It’s not just a Burlington issue.”

     The prosecutor pointed to a recent comment by Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn that more people are dying in Vermont due to opiate overdoses than from highway fatalities. “And we’re a rural state,” Donovan added. “Our jails are full in Vermont. We have a corrections budget of $140 million and a recidivism rate, depending on who you ask, of over 50 percent.”

     Thibault reported that the number of people under Corrections Department supervision has actually decreased by 14 percent since last year. That is because treatment courts and rapid arraignment have been effective, she said.

     Probation officers, who work in specialized areas, currently have about 30 people on their caseloads.  “With a smaller caseload we can focus on more serious offenders,” Thibault added. She said that should allow more direct supervision, seeing people more often, and more work by community corrections officers.   

     In 2009 the violent crime rate in Burlington was 29 percent lower than the national rate average, according to FBI figures. But the property crime rate was almost 50 percent higher.

     Donovan said the solution is balance. “People who commit crimes must be held accountable,” he argued, “but we also have to look at the back end of putting people in jail” since they will eventually get out.

     “It’s in our collective interest to plan for that release,” he said.

     One obstacle is that Vermont’s treatment facilities have long waiting lists. “And it’s no secret what people are going to do when they’re not getting treatment. They’re going to burglarize, they’re going to rob,” Donovan said.

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Young noted that even though treatment is available for most of those who want it, many people who feel disadvantaged “are disabling themselves when they are unable to find employment. They see other people getting disability and they believe a lack on employment opportunities means they are disabled.” The resulting frustrating leads to “acting out,” he said.

     Young said that the state defines this as “serious functional impairment,” while the Police Department and courts are seeing “severe and persistent functional impairment. This is very difficult to address. There is poverty involved, culture, entitlements, and mental health issues.”

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Nestor acknowledged that although UVM students are sometimes the victims of crimes, “they may well be perpetrators of crime.” He added the university works with the police and service providers to hold students accountable for crimes committed off campus and get them into restitution programs.

     The list of common “nuisance” or “quality of life” offenses involving students includes noise, open containers and underage parties. Nestor estimates that UVM students are involved in about 250 off campus “infractions” a year. Drugs and alcohol are often involved.

     During the recent mayoral race Bram Kranichfeld, a city council member who sought the Democratic nomination, criticized UVM’s response to noise, vandalism and drug dealing with a memorable line. “Right now they have a more serious internal response to overdue library books than noise complaints,” he charged.

     Ward 6 NPA Co-facilitator Neil Groberg repeated the line as part of a question about whether local schools can do more to make students accountable.

     In response Nestor mentioned the question about whether the school could keep students from graduating if they get into trouble off campus. “We’re asked our legal counsel to look very closely at that,” he said, “and quite frankly, the words comes back that we really can’t begin to make that kind of nexus. We are certainly doing things to hold students accountable.”

     If students don’t pay parking tickets, for example, Nestor said the university checks ticket lists against campus registrations and contacts the students. “We talk about the expectation that the institution has for them to be good citizens,” he said. “We’ve been able to get some good results.”

Burlington: Losing Ground on Climate Action

The Burlington Planning Commission met this week to look over a new Climate Action Plan calling for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. But emissions actually increased 7 percent locally from 2007 to 2010. 
     The Vermont city has been working on climate issues for more than a decade. According to consultants the top three strategies are more energy efficient homes and commercial buildings, and less driving.

Burlington’s Climate Action Plan calls for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Reaching that goal means a 1.5 percent annual drop for the next eight years. The goal was set in 2008 after the city conducted a local inventory.

     Nevertheless, the 2012 update of the plan, which incorporates the results of a new inventory conducted by consultants in 2011, reveals that emissions actually increased 7 percent overall from 2007 to 2010. Emissions traceable to city government activity rose 15 percent, while the community’s emissions went up 6 percent.

     “Our transportation emissions did not decease, they didn’t hold steady, they actually went up 22 percent,” noted Burlington Planning Commission member Lee Buffinton on Tuesday at a public hearing on the plan. “You really have to dig through to even find that.”

     The Commission called the hearing to review the new findings and strategies, which are slated to become part of a revised Energy Chapter in the Municipal Development Plan. Future city projects and programs affecting transportation and development will have to conform to the standards in the plan. That includes zoning, subdivision regulation, impact fees and capital improvements.

     In 1998 Burlington’s City Council formed a Climate Protection Task Force and passed a resolution to reduce emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels. An 18-month process led to the city’s first Climate Action Plan, adopted in May 2000. A 2007 inventory showed that Burlington generated 397,272.4 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). The goals were a 20 percent reduction by 2020 and an 80 percent reduction by 2050, which would require an annual 2 percent decrease.

     In 2009 Burlington used American Recovery Act funds to hire Spring Hill Solutions, a clean energy consulting firm, to prioritize more than 200 “mitigation actions” generated by eight working groups during a extensive community process. The resulting plan is expected to become a framework for measuring and reducing greenhouse emissions and other climate change impacts.

     According to Spring Hill, three approaches offer Burlington the largest “carbon bang for each investment buck;” in other word, the greatest potential for both carbon reductions and cost savings. They are the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, which provides property owners with help making energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements; reducing the number of miles driven by local residents by combining trips, telecommuting, carpooling and using alternatives to the automobile; and requiring any new commercial construction to follow performance guidelines that reduce energy use by at least 20 percent.

     “Collectively, these three strategies comprise nearly half of the estimated carbon reductions and will save the City, citizens and other stakeholders more than $14 million each year,” the Plan states. Implementing all 17 of the strategies identified would produce a 12 percent reduction in emissions from the 2007 level.

     The inventory of city government indicates that while emissions from electricity decreased, those from natural gas rose by 25 percent. Increased fuel use by the city’s vehicle fleet also affected the total. For city workers, “the average commute distance rose to nearly 13 miles (one way) in 2010 and 75% of employees drove alone to work,” the document notes.

     Among the bright spots is Burlington’s municipal electric department, which has a tradition of seeking “clean power mixes and providing energy efficiency programs.” This has resulted in lower emissions from the BED grid. New England’s grid “provides cleaner electricity than the National Grid, but not as clean as the Burlington Electric Department Grid,” the plan says.

     Progress is also evident at the Burlington International Airport. Consumption of both electricity and natural gas has decreased, although emissions went up by 3 percent. In the last three years the airport has pushed energy efficiency by replacing lighting, air conditioning and heating equipment, and upgrading to digital controls.

     Emissions from electricity and natural gas also dropped in the community. But transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas. “With emissions increasing by almost a quarter since 2007, much work needs to be done in this sector, including changing habits and enacting policies,” the plan concludes.

City of Burlington - Community Emissions by Source

     Of total community emissions 51 percent came from transportation in 2010, “indicating that a reduction in annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by Burlington residents could have the biggest impact on helping the city meet its emissions reduction target.”

     Planning Commissioners also expressed concern about the absence of any reference to climate justice or equity issues in the plan. The omission, initially noticed by Burlington Rep. Kesha Ram, led Commission Chair Peter Potts to suggest that the public hearing remain “open” until the planners meet on May 8.  In the meantime, he asked Planning and Zoning staff member Sandrine Thibault to research equity and other lingering questions for a subsequent discussion.

     “I really commend the city of Burlington for doing this,” said Nathaly Agosto Filion, who attended the hearing. Fillion, who works for the Montpelier-based Institute for Sustainable Communities, pointed to a recent study indicating that, in tracking the amount of emissions reductions, “the most important thing is the buildup of community engagement.”

     The Burlington plan focuses on economic and emission impacts of various strategies, but does not go into other potential benefits such as increased water quality, improved soil retention, improved health and safety, or new educational opportunities.  

     Once the plan is approved changes in government policy will be facilitated by the Burlington Sustainability Action Team, formed by Mayor Kiss in 2008. Among other tasks the team is expected to make sure this plan and other municipal rules are consistent.

     Beyond the three top priorities high impact strategies include putting solar PV panels on school building roofs; retiring five percent of government’s vehicle fleet and replacing a quarter of the city’s vehicles with hybrids; increasing the urban tree canopy by planting 588 trees a year; and a digester system for solid waste that generates electricity and heat, reduces emissions and creates a bi-product that can be sold as bulk compost.

     Copies of the 2012 Climate Action Plan are available online or from the City of Burlington's Department of Planning and Zoning. 

Regime Change in the People's Republic

By Greg Guma

Organization Day in Burlington is an opportunity for those leaving and joining local government to celebrate the transition with one another and members of the public. The agenda is normally brief and ceremonial, and the mood conciliatory, if not exuberant.

    With Democrat Miro Weinberger officially becoming the city’s 42nd mayor, this time was no exception. The ceremonies were held on Monday night, with a reception at 6 p.m. and swearing-in ceremonies at 7 in City Hall. 

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The formal agenda began with the selection of four escorts to accompany the new chief executive into the packed auditorium. The group chosen reflected the city’s complex balance of political power: Joan Shannon, a Democrat elected City Council President later in the evening; Vince Dober, one of two Council Republicans after the departure of Kurt Wright; Vince Brennan, one of three Progressives; and Independent Sharon Bushor, later appointed to the influential Board of Finance.
     In the epic local election that concluded on March 6 with Weinberger’s 57 percent victory over Wright and Independent Wanda Hines, Shannon had backed Weinberger, a fellow Democrat. Bushor, Brennan and Dober supported Wright. The upbeat mood in Contois Auditorium nevertheless telegraphed the message that it's time to move on and unite – at least for a while -- as the new administration grapples with troubling financial realities.

Judge William Sessions III swears in the new mayor.

     After he was sworn in by US District Judge William Sessions III, Weinberger explained, “We have an immediate budget gap and a number of long-term, unfunded obligations and liabilities that we can no longer kick down the road.”
     When the mayoral race began six months ago, there was “a mood of anger and anxiety about our future,” Weinberger recalled. But the local vibe “has already shifted dramatically. As we gather tonight our community is filled with optimism and a renewed sense of common purpose.”
     It’s an observation he makes frequently these days, reinforced by the recent campaign visit of Barack Obama. Weinberger talked with Obama and received a shout out during the President’s speech to almost 5,000 people at Patrick Gymnasium.
     To hit the ground running, Weinberger asked the new council to appoint Paul Sisson as Interim Chief Administrative Officer for the next three months. On almost any other occasion that would have involved an extended discussion of Sisson’s qualifications and a candidate interview with the Board.
     Republican Paul Decelles made essentially that point when proposing that the decision should be delayed for two weeks. “I think a more appropriate time would be at our next meeting, where the board of finance could look at Mr. Sisson's credentials, talk to H.R., have a work session, meet Mr. Sisson and then approve his confirmation," he argued.
     Sisson, who co-chaired Weinberger’s transition team and vetted other candidates for appointment, has also examined the draft city budget developed by the exiting Kiss administration as chair of the mayor’s budget team. A UVM graduate, Sisson spent 26 years with KPMG, a huge audit, tax and advisory services firm. By 1888 he was a partner, retiring in 2004. Since then he has been a self-employed financial consultant specializing in work with energy companies.
     Karen Paul, the Council’s other Independent, expressed the prevailing reaction. While she would have preferred to meet with the proposed Interim CAO before voting on him, "I do think that it is only fair that we give the mayor the benefit of the doubt."
     In the end only Decelles and Max Tracy, one of the two new Progressives on the city council, voted no.

The Leadership Team

Things went more smoothly for Shannon, who was elected Council President to replace Bill Keogh without a challenge. Paul said last week that she was planning to seek the post, but withdrew her bid, another sign of the conciliatory atmosphere after more than two years of displeasure with the previous administration.
     Paul will retain her position on the Finance Board, the only holdover from the previous leadership.

Wright receives kudos.

     Former Mayor Bob Kiss, who stepped down after two terms, did not speak during the ceremonies. Weinberger reached out instead to his main opponent in the race, Wright, who was seated directly behind him. Presenting Wright with a proclamation he thanked the retiring city councilor and three-time mayoral candidate for his contributions. Wright continues to represent Burlington in the state legislature.
     In his inaugural message Weinberger talked about “the paralyzing loss of trust between the Mayor’s Office, this council and the public,” but pledged “a new era of collaboration and cooperation between the Council and the Mayor’s office.  This is the only way we can make the progress we were each elected to achieve.”
     Many of the city’s financial challenges will be monitored most closely by the Board of Finance, a committee that includes the mayor, his just-appointed CAO, Council President Shannon, and three other councilors. While it may look like Weinberger has at least three of six votes secured, Shannon will be an ex-officio (non-voting) member.
     The other three members elected by the council – also without opposition, in an arrangement made in advance – were Paul, Sharon Bushor and Decelles. The latter two backed Wright during the campaign. Although Bushor often votes with council Progressives she was nominated by Republican Decelles, who was in turn nominated by Dober.
     For the first time in years the Finance Board will not have a Progressive Party member. To make decisions, however, the Democratic administration will need at least one non-Democratic vote.

Excerpts from a New Chapter     

Less than a month after winning his first race for public office, Weinberger touched on many of the same themes he and Wright stressed on the campaign trail --municipal projects stuck or stalling, too many children living in poverty, housing costs so high that they “threaten to force the middle class out of our city. Even amidst a deep national housing recession this chronic, decades-long pressure has not subsided.”
     Weinberger also acknowledged Burlington’s increasing diversity, calling it a “welcome trend” that can “make the community stronger” rather than divide it. The comment suggests a cultural and generational change that the recent election outcomes also reflect.
     Most of the speech reiterated well-worn campaign themes. Weinberger's message to the public and the press, for example, was the promise of “straight talk and engagement.”
     When questioned last week by the Burlington Free Press about whether meetings of his transition team were recorded and public, he had to admit they were not and noted, somewhat defensively, that such private meetings aren’t cover by state law.
     On the other hand, Weinberger also contended at the press conference to announce Sisson’s selection, “We intend to be an administration that is asking not “Can we protect this information, but can we make it public?’ That’s how we’ll go forward.”
     He also had encouraging works for the business community, the promise of “innovative partnerships” in a culture “where you continue to grow and thrive,” as well as for city workers. Despite being the CEO he chose to stress that he is also one of 600 city employees. “Tonight I become one of you,” he claimed.
     The main metaphor in the speech was the idea that Burlington is turning a page and “beginning a new, more hopeful chapter.” The underlying message is a call for teamwork and the promise to balance change with continuity.
      “As Vermonters, we know we must live within our means,” Weinberger said. “We will return to this combination of prudence and ambition that has served our city so well over the last 30 years.” It was subtle but unmistakable reference to the decades of Progressive administration that began in 1981 with Bernie Sanders.
     A related reference came near the end when he made another promise. “We will remain committed to fighting for the just society that proudly separates Burlington from so many other communities,” he said.

Welcome to (Occupied) Burlington      

The formal business was over in less than an hour, following by a reception in City Hall’s cavernous hallway. An extra-parliamentary encounter there with several members of the Occupy movement provided one more example of how different politics can sometimes be in Burlington.
      Rather than interrupting the transition ritual, or assuming how the new mayor will react to the movement, the activists waited for the reception, then presented Weinberger with a welcome basket and a homemade “ch’occupy” pie.
      Weinberger thanked them, and the crowd in the hallway – not just the activists – used the “people’s mike” to repeat the new mayor’s response. Like the earlier ceremonies the moment was relaxed and guardedly hopeful.
      The Occupy delegation also brought some “suggested commitments” for Weinberger’s administration to consider.  Highlights include at least one year-round shelter for those suffering from substance abuse related issues, submission of any proposed changes on the Church Street Marketplace to rigorous public review, a food garden in City Hall Park, a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, anti-oppression training for the police, and publicly recognizing an upcoming May 1 mobilization, “The Day Without the 99%, when local Occupy supporters will join protesters worldwide.
      Since it was a night for celebration, however, no one pressed the new mayor on how he felt about the movement's 11 local proposals. Instead, Occupy activists plan to return for answers later this month, starting with the city’s position on upcoming May Day mobilizations in Burlington, Vermont and around the country.

Burlington Beat: Miro's First Steps

Weinberger Picks an Interim CAO

One day before taking office as Burlington's new mayor Miro Weinberger announced a key pick -- his choice for the city's chief administrative officer. He chose Paul R. Sisson, a professional audit manager who he met via the ECHO science center on Burlington's waterfront. Sisson, who recently co-chaired the new mayor's transition team, said the top priorities were a balanced budget, a review of departments and systems, and protecting the city's credit rating.

...Then holds a Pre-Inaugural Party

After announcing his pick for city CAO Burlington's mayor-elect held a celebratory party for friends and supporters in a new wing at ECHO, the city's lake aquarium and science center. Two days after meeting President Obama, Miro Weinberger talked about a sense of optimism he has been feeling, pointed out City Council newcomers and ex-governor Kunin in the crowd, and accepted a gift from the ECHO staff for his volunteer work.