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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 04/12/1982CITY COUNCIL APRIL 12, 1982 The South Burlington City Council held a special meeting on Monday, April 12, 1982 at 7:30 pm in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street Members Present Paul Farrar, Chairman; Michael Flaherty, William Burgess, Howard Perkett Member Absent Hugh Marvin Others Present William Szymanski, City Manager; David Minnich, Assistant City Manager; Margaret Picard, City Clerk; Ann Emery, The Other Paper; Suki Rubin, Paul Meade Agenda addition Mr. Farrar opened the meeting and asked if there were any additions to be made to the agenda. Ms. Rubin said she represented Bud Etherton, who was not able to be at the meeting tonight, and that she would like to discuss a proposal to add an item to the ballot dealing with arms limitation. There was no objection to adding this item to the agenda, so it was added. Review draft warning for annual meeting and sign if approved Mr. Szymanski passed out two copies of the proposed warning. One was just the wording and the other was the wording with an explanatory note to clarify Article IV. Mr. Szymanski said he would prefer to have the wording with the note attached, and the Council agreed to that. Mr. Burgess moved to sign the warning as presented by the City Manager. Mr. Perkett seconded the motion and it carried with all voting aye. Proposal to add ballot item dealing with arms limitation Ms. Rubin said this was an extension of the proposal last year for a mutual nuclear freeze, which was put on the ballot. She said they would like to keep this issue in front of the public with this new item. She said the organizers had not realized that the deadline was coming up so soon, so they had been able to collect only 130 signatures. They did it, however, in 3 days and Ms. Rubin said people had seemed very interested in this. Mr. Farrar explained that this was not a petitionable item, as the City Attorney had ruled last year, because it is not germaine to the business of the city. The Council does have the ability to put such an advisory item on the ballot if they wish to, but the outcome will only be advisory. Mr. Szymanski asked what "call on the President" meant and Ms. Rubin felt that would only be through the State's congressmen. Mr. Szymanski felt also that if the U.S. and its allies were to reduce arms, the U.S.S.R. and its allies should also. This wording was not part of the proposal. Mr. Flaherty moved that the City Council direct the City Attorney to make a ballot item for the May election that would take the letter dated April 9, 1982 from Dan Hendley et. al. and would show the intent of the question on that page in terms the Attorney feels would be as unambiguous as possible. Mr. Burgess stated that he did not want to second the motion. He felt that if the Council accepted a petition on the word of someone who had talked to 130 people who seemed to be in favor of the item, it would be hard to turn down petitions from any well-meaning group of people. Without significant evidence of a significant portion of the population wanting the Council to take action on such an issue, Mr. Burgess felt that putting this on the ballot would be dangerous and unwarranted, regardless of the content of the petition. He noted that had this been presented with the legal number of signatures (5% of the registered voters, or about 350), he might have overlooked the legal problems, but with only 130 signatures he was unwilling to put anything on the ballot. Mr. Perkett agreed. Because there was no second, the motion died. Mr. Flaherty felt putting this on the ballot would not do any harm - it would not commit the city to anything. He did not feel this would create a bad precedent, noting that the Council could say no the next time. The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 pm. Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works. i 'C$GLC-,' 04 A, &r4C cL~:~~TTs . M=;LL'e-\ a .HkL +nk, - &if--. L. 10 Highland Ter. l.+91A ez. r\a&d,Y. 5. Burl. Vt. Telr 862-0516 April 9, 1982 ear ~omcilman R, Pe.cLcc* Last year 69,6 of Zouth Burlington voters approved the Mutual Nuclear keapons Freeze resolution. Joined with 174 other Vermont towns this year, our votes have set off an avalanche of national attention to this critical problem of limiting the nuclear arms race. -.h 61'- iie are writing to ask that the City Council include another~commop- ense arms limitation question on the May-fith ballot. when it meets this Parning. We realize that the time is late to consider another ballot item (wet didn't know the Naming vote was coming so soon), ' - however, the danger of nuclear war remains the gravest threat to the survival of our community, and we hope that the Council will give serious attention to this most important question. Our proposal is as follows; "Shall the City Council be aavised to leaders of the U.S. Congress to work proposals for the United Nations' 2nd Special Session on Disarmament in June, 1982? Such proposals should provide for significant cuts in both nuclear and conventional weapons forces of the U.S.S.R., the U.S., and their allies, in a balanced and verifiable manner, and should not - , c- seek the military advantage of one side, but should strengthen the -4 nationql security of both sides by reducing the danger of nuclear war. " 0 The question is intended to supplement -- _Elraze ~ro~osal and -- ----- differs -- .fr9ar--%&-* -catt$ngg"Tor a&= reductiofis in forces , and by 4 including conventional weapons as well. It has been argued that all tyPes of weapons must 'be cons53er&d -in"'dg<ermining equitable reductions in ci'd~sr7~ military strength. I . . I C7/3/n/o r, The last time U.S. negotiators made a comprehensive arms proposal was at t.he United Nations two decades ago. We think it is time that another effort in this direction be made, aed "t 5We foe-- despite the weather In the past three days,we obtained then signdtures of 130 S. Burl. voters ,- , approving of the proposal. Oft the voters we approached, about 4 to 1 were ) 1 favorable . I (, +- I If, through our votes, we can help keep the Nation's attention focussed on practical measures for averting nuclear catastrophe, we feel it is a very worthy enterprise. Sincerely yours, George Alhee Iris Darling Gary W. Eley Alison Etherton Bud Etherton Sandra Fitterer Ann Garnett Dan Hendley (contact pers . ) Edith Hendley William Hollister Helen King Constance Kite Larry Kupf erman Ruth Leppman U lric h Leppman Iris Mazza Cynthia Passackow' Jay Passackow Susan Ross Suki Rubin I Janet Schneider Dorothy Sims Ethan Sims - - Jessica Strater f wr5,Lh kbh'tl :: William T. Strater m-t 3-k~- 5 Jane Hendley ~lbera Perkins I "We cannot leave it to generals, senators and diplomats to uork out a 1 solution.. .from (the village square) must come America's voice." --' Einstein . t 2 1 10 Highland Ter. S. Burl., Vt, Tel : 862-051 6 Apr. 6,1982 It has been two decades since the U.S. last proposed a comprehensive disarmament plan for both nuclear and conventional weapons. The present climate of public opinion makes it seem reasonable that a new effort in this direction would be nore fruitful than in the past. A comprehensive disarmament plan would be an appro2riate follow-up to the Nuclear Freeze and would answer the claims of Secretary Haig and generations of Pentagon spokesmen that weakening our nuclearWdefenses", particularly the smaller "tactical" weapons, would leave us vulnerable to supposedly superior Russian conventional forces. Reductions in conventional weapons would have a much greater economic impact than the Nuclear Freeze since more than 80i% of the Reagan military budget is in the conventional category. * At a recent (small) meeting of South Burlingtonians the resolution on the enclosed petition was given some favorable consideration, as a . way of maintaining the momentum of our last year's Nuclear Freeze vote. It focusses on the United Nations' Special Session in June. This forum deserves more attention from Vermonters and will be the scene of a big Nuclear Freeze demonstration June 12th. Some fear was expressed at the meeting that the connection with the United Nations might hurt passage of the resolution. Perhaps S. Burlington can serve as a testing ground for resolutions that might might be considered by the rest of Vermont towns next year. 1 If you feel you can support the resolution and can get some signitures from your neighbors, please be sure to get the petition to the City clerk's office across the street from the High School before 4:30 pm this Friday. SincereLy yours, Uan Hendley