Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - City Charter Committee - 10/16/2024Charter Committee October 16, 2024 5:30 P.M. Participation Options In Person: 180 Market Street, Library Board Room #201- 2nd Floor Electronically: https://zoom.us/j/98068679289?pwd=s0FWtPm8McjH7Hslq7LWXas4zbbPa3.1 Via phone: 929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 980 6867 9289 Passcode: 874302 Agenda 1.Welcome 2.Agenda Review: Additions, deletions or changes in order of agenda items 3.Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda 4.*** Approve minutes from September 30, 2024 Charter Committee Meeting 5.*** Discussion and possible approval of an All-Resident Voting response to the City Council 6.Other Business 7.Adjourn *** Attachments included CITY CHARTER COMMITTEE 30 SEPTEMBER 2024 The South Burlington City Charter Committee held a meeting on Monday, 30 September 2024, at 5:30 p.m., in Conference Room 301, City Hall, 180 Market Street. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: P. Taylor, A. Lalonde, D. Kinville, P. Engels, H. Rees, E. Fitzgerald, K. Bailey, W. Coleman ALSO PRESENT: J. Baker, City Manager, C. McNeil, City Attorney 1. Welcome: Mr. Taylor welcomed members of the Committee. 2. Agenda Review: Additions deletions or changes in order of agenda items: No changes were made to the Agenda. 3. Comments and Questions from the Public not related to the Agenda: There were no comments or questions. 4. Election of Officers: Chair, Vice Chair and Clerk: Mr. Taylor nominated Ms. Lalonde for Chair of the City Charter Committee. There were no further nominations, and Ms. Lalonde was elected Chair with all present voting in favor. Ms. Lalonde nominated Ms. Kinville for Vice Chair. There were no further nominations, and Ms. Kinville was elected Vice Chair with all present voting in favor. Ms. Bailey volunteered to serve as Clerk. All members presented voted in favor of Ms. Bailey. 5. Approve Minutes of September 13, 2023 Charter Committee Meeting: Mr. Coleman moved to approve the Minutes of 13 September 2023 as written. Ms. Kinville seconded. Motion passed with all present voting in favor. 6. Discussion of Council Resolution #2024-21 on considering all resident voting and outline next steps: CITY CHARTER COMMITTEE 30 SEPTEMBER 2024 PAGE 2 Ms. Lalonde read the City Council Resolution. She noted that the Committee needed to get a recommendation to the Council by 30 October. She then outlined several pathways to accomplish this: a. Discuss what information the Committee needs b. Hold 2 meetings in October and bring to the Council what the Committee has learned c. Do a “deep dive” into pros and cons d. Know what the Committee needs to know and tell the Council it is not possible to do this in the allotted timeframe Ms. Baker noted that because this is a Charter change, if it’s to move forward, the Council will hold its own public hearing process. Mr. McNeil added that the second Council meeting in December (12/16) is the “drop dead date” to get any charter change on the March ballot. January 3, 2025 is the last date to put in a public notice. Ms. Baker said the aim is to give the Council time to discuss the Committee’s recommendation before they have to take action. Mr. Taylor said this is a very tight timeframe to produce a document that is of value to the city. Mr. Coleman agreed that the issue needed careful thought. Mr. Taylor added this was very rushed in order to reply to an issue that could have a lot of public interest and discussion. Ms. Bailey felt the Committee could get answers to its questions by November, but getting public input would take longer. Mr. Coleman said the fact of a single political party trying to rush this through gives him pause. Ms. Lalonde noted that Burlington, Montpelier and Winooski have already passed this. Ms. Bailey said it is a “franchise movement” throughout the State, and South Burlington can jump on board if it wants to or is ready to. Ms. Lalonde stressed that it is the Committee’s obligation to discuss this and bring a recommendation to the Council. She wasn’t sure they could do this by November. Mr. Taylor asked Ms. Baker if she was involved in the Winooski process. Ms. Baker said she was. Mr. Taylor noted there are 600 potential voters in Winooski, but he didn’t know how many of those potential voters voted when they were able to. He was concerned that with all the challenges regarding voting in this country, this would give more people reason to ask CITY CHARTER COMMITTEE 30 SEPTEMBER 2024 PAGE 3 questions. He would also like to know how the two check lists system works. He suggested adding a requirement that non-citizen voters should have an application for citizenship in process. Ms. Kinville said she would be interested in hearing from the Clerks in the communities that have passed this. Ms. Bailey said she would like to hear from people who cannot now vote as to whether this is meaningful to them. She also questioned whether this could have budget impacts for the City and School District. Ms. Lalonde noted that the City Plan speaks to “inclusion” and “everybody.” Mr. Taylor asked if the Committee can get not only the number of impacted residents but also age groups (over 18). He also wanted to hear from Paul Conner who just became a citizen. Ms. Baker said some data can be gleaned from the “American Community Survey.” Mr. Coleman cited the need to do a lot of research. Ms. Lalonde said she would like to hear from the Clerks in the three towns that have passed this. Ms. Bailey said she didn’t want to base her opinion on whether this affects budgets. It is a question of people’s right to vote. She also noted that her right to vote is not determined by whether she votes or not. Ms. Kinville said her recollection is that not many non-citizens register and vote, and she questioned whether the committee is making a mountain out of a molehill. She was willing to extrapolate some of the data. She added there would be a cost in terms of two checklists, etc. Ms. Fitzgerald didn’t think cost should be the deciding factor. She then enumerated her questions and concerns: a. The public will want to be involved in the discussion b. Can the Committee address this in the timeframe allotted to them? c. Is the Committee able to access people with experience with this? d. Are there communities which said “no” to this? CITY CHARTER COMMITTEE 30 SEPTEMBER 2024 PAGE 4 Mr. Taylor recommended presenting a request to the City Council for more time, telling them the kind of information they hope to gather and not knowing how long it will take to get it. Ms. Lalonde said she will try to put something together regarding the type of information the Committee is talking about. Ms. Lalonde noted there is a vacant seat on the Committee. Ms. Bailey recommended filling it with a non-citizen. Mr. Taylor opposed that because of the number and nature of issues the Committee deals with. Members agreed to meet again at 5:30 on 16 October. In the meantime, Ms. Lalonde will put together a list of questions for the City Council. Ms. Baker noted that it’s possible the City Council would put it on the ballot of their own volition. As there was no further business to come before the Committee, Ms. Bailey moved to adjourn. Ms. Kinville seconded. Motion passed with all present voting in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 6:28 p.m. ___________________________ Clerk DRAFT Report from South Burlington Charter Committee to the South Burlington City Council November 4, 2024 On September 3, 2024, the City Council gave the following charge: BE IT RESOLVED that the South Burlington Charter Committee convene to discuss a potential ballot item, which if passed, would allow for all legal residents of South Burlington to participate in local elections on Town Meeting Day and for any supplementary city, school, or bond votes and to bring back a recommendation to the City Council on November 4, 2024. Our committee met September 30 and October 16 and agreed that it needs more time to produce a recommendation that will be helpful to the Council. Instead, we are offering a plan and would like some feedback from the Council on how we should proceed. Here are options for how the Committee can proceed. First, if the City Council wants a vote from the Charter Committee based on what we have learned so far, we could warn a meeting in the next two weeks and come back to the Council with a response. Second, based on our thoughts below and the limited amount of information we have been able to obtain so far, the Committee could set up interviews in November, December, and January and gather additional data. If the Council wants us to have a public forum, we could do that as well. This option would not allow a vote on this issue in March 2025. Because this would be a charter change, the Council will need to have two public hearings before putting language on the ballot, pushing this past town meeting day. Committee members would like additional information and testimony. •Data on number of people of voting age residing in South Burlington who are not U.S. citizens •Interviews o Town clerks and possibly poll workers from Winooski, Burlington, Montpelier ▪Logistics behind the scenes •Different voter checklist •Ballots in many different languages •Separate ballots ▪How the process works in practice at the polling place ▪Projected costs ▪Number of people who met criteria who registered to vote ▪Number of people who met criteria who did not register to vote o Chris Shaw, Chair of South Burlington Democratic Committee, on equities of all- resident voting o Someone from the affected group (a resident but not a U.S. citizen) o New U.S. citizens o Member of the Board of Civil Authority • Community outreach – public hearings? Right now is a difficult time to find some of the information we are looking for because many people we want to talk to are currently involved in preparing for the November 5 election. We did obtain some initial information, described below, but we would like to know more about how this process works in the three cities that allow all-resident voting in some local elections so that we can inform the Council of relevant logistical challenges/statistics/other information. We obtained some initial information from the town clerks in the all-resident voting cities. We were able to ask a few questions of the clerks from the three cities that currently have all resident voting. However, they did not get into much detail as they are all very busy preparing for the November Presidential Election. They graciously gave their time to respond to a few of our questions, but this does not take the place of a more in-depth conversation at a future time where the entire committee can ask questions. • Burlington has approximately 1,450 non-US citizens of voting age and 116 (7%) registered to vote. In March 2024, 97 voted (6.5%). • Winooski has around 900 non-US citizens but the clerk did not say how many had registered to vote. In their three elections allowing all-resident voting, they have had 54, 25, and 16 people vote (6%, 2.7%, and 1.7%). • Montpelier’s clerk did not have the number of eligible non-US citizens available at this time but 18 had registered to vote. They also have had three elections using all-resident voting and have had 5, 8, and 13 people vote. See Exhibit A for more detail on the responses from the clerks. When asked about the cost of all-resident voting, the clerks said that it depends on several factors. Annual meeting ballots are not different between US and non-US citizens, unless you print them in all the languages in your city. If there is a city issue printed on a state or federal ballot (which most Novembers there is), then it would require a different ballot for the non-US residents. The cost varies if you have tabulator-read ballots or paper ballots that must be hand-counted at the end of the night. The cost also varies greatly if you have interpreters - Winooski pays $3,000 for interpreters. Winooski also has ballots done in 14 languages, which cost the city another $2,900. Burlington spent about $5,000 on promotional materials that were translated into the city’s different languages. In South Burlington, we would need interpreters for each voting location. In addition, the South Burlington School District states that in the 2023-2024 school year, 7% of the students were identified for English learner services, representing “over 40 languages.”1 Vermont’s Office of Racial Equity recommends that vital documents be translated into 14 languages.2 All three clerks reported that their biggest problem is maintaining the separate checklist. They cannot enter the non-US citizen voters into the statewide voter checklist and must find ways to keep the list separate manually. All three mentioned that maintaining a separate checklist is difficult and time consuming. The Montpelier clerk said that this is very problematic and is a doozy of a problem. The Winooski clerk was also very concerned about the polling location and needing extra workers for a separate check-in table to prevent non-US citizens from receiving a state or federal ballot in elections that were not the annual town meeting. There are still legal issues left open on all-resident voting. Montpelier’s charter change was upheld by the Vermont Supreme Court on January 20, 2023. That charter change allowed legal residents who are not U.S. citizens to vote in local elections, which the court found to be constitutional under the Vermont constitution. Winooski’s charter change was also challenged. That charter change allowed all-citizen voting in local elections and also on school budgets. That challenge was dismissed by the Chittenden Superior Court on December 1, 2023. Burlington’s charter change is the latest to be challenged and litigation is ongoing. The City of Burlington has filed a motion to dismiss the case and the plaintiff has not yet responded. The Vermont Supreme Court did not rule on all-citizen voting on school budgets. The question in the Burlington case is whether a vote on a school budget is actually local or if it is in fact statewide because of the statewide implications from local school budgets. The committee may need input from the South Burlington City Attorney on this matter and would want to discuss which elections and questions all-resident voting should include. Filling the vacancy on the Charter Committee The committee discussed whether its current makeup appropriately represented the community on this issue. There is currently a vacancy on the committee and we discussed filling the seat with a South Burlington resident who is not a U.S. citizen or who has recently become a U.S. citizen. 1https://www.sbschools.net/page/multilingual-learners 2https://racialequity.vermont.gov/sites/reap/files/doc_library/Office%20of%20Racial%20Equity%20Language%20Acc ess%20Report%202023_0.pdf, p. 23 Exhibit A - Responses from City Clerks from Winooski, Burlington, and Montpelier to initial questions on all-resident voting