HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 10/30/2021South Burlington City Council Special Meeting October 30, 2021, 9:00am The South Burlington City Council held a special meeting on October 30, 2021 at 9:00am at 180 Market Street, in the Kevin Dorn, Senior Center City Hall. Councilors present: Helen Riehle, Chair; Meaghan Emery, Vice Chair; Tim Barrett, Clerk; Tom Chittenden; Matt Cota Staff Leadership Team present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Andrew Bolduc, Deputy City Manager; Colin McNeil, City Attorney; Shawn Burke, Police Chief; Terry Francis, Fire Chief, Justin Rabidoux, Director of Public Works; Jennifer Murray, Library Director; Holly Rees, Recreation & Parks Director; Ashley Parker, Project Manager; Ilona Blanchard, Project Manager; Martha Lyons, Director of Tax Collection & Assessing; Coralee Holm, Director of Human Resources
and Communications; Greg Yandow, Director of Physical Plant; Donna Kinville, City Clerk; Members of the public – Darrilyn Peters; Michael Mittag; Chris Trombly
Andrew Bolduc took minutes. Pledge of Allegiance Instructions on exiting building in case of emergency Jessie Baker instructed all present on exits from Senior Center. Agenda Review No changes. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda None. Introductions and Orientation to the Retreat Day Jessie Baker thanked all who took time out of their Saturday’s to be present today and asked all people present to introduce themselves. She then provided an overview of the day’s agenda. The Leadership Team and Councilors then changed seats so that Councilors and Leadership Team were seated amongst each other. Review of the Community and our Demographics
Jessie Baker provided an overview of the current demographics of South Burlington from the 2020 census and asked for impressions from the group. A discussion ensued recognizing which members of the community aren’t at the meeting. Jessie Baker encouraged the group to hold those neighbors present in the discussions throughout the day. Policy Priorities & Strategies – Process to Date Jessie Baker provided an overview of the process to date. Council approved process at a regular meeting, committees provided recommendations and the leadership team provided recommendations. The spreadsheet now posted on the walls around in the room was all of these recommendations put together and organized using the 4 key goals identified in the Comp Plan. These goals are: Affordable and Community Strong; Walkable; Green and Clean; and, Opportunity Oriented. Jessie Baker also included a fifth policy area for potential ARPA eligible projects. Break - 10:11am Brainstorm and discuss policy priorities and the strategies we will employ to further these priorities Jessie Baker then gave all individuals a marker and asked them to walk around the room to look at all of the previously identified priorities and strategies. With the marker, council, the leadership team, and members of the public, were asked to add anything they felt was missing, ask for further clarification on any of the items, and, add comments whether more
effective strategies could be employed to meet the same goals. Following the break-out, Jessie Baker went over a number of the annotations with the general group.
• A discussion ensued on the appropriate definition of “quality” jobs. Paul Conner and Ilona Blanchard talked about the state statutory definitions and Tim Barritt suggested it may be helpful to further define this in the next Comp Plan.
• Helen Riehle spoke specifically about her suggestion to put $1,000,000 of ARPA funds aside for the City’s
affordable housing trust fund. This could be used for initiatives such as purchasing retail to convert to housing.
Michael Mittag suggested a program of purchasing current housing stock and making perpetually affordable.
• Meaghan Emery spoke about the need to address food security needs by developing more opportunities for community and neighborhood gardens.
• Paul Conner spoke about how the City’s Climate Action Plan will touch on many of the priorities identified in other categories. Prioritization exercise on strategies and Committee priorities Jessie Baker then explained that each councilor will receive 12 red dots, and each leadership team member will receive 12 blue dots to vote on their top three strategies in each policy area. 3 additional dots were given to vote for the top 3 uses of ARPA funds. Lunch Discussion of Votes After lunch was delivered, Jessie Baker walked around the room clarifying where votes were made. A number of leadership team and councilors talked about their general thought processes around where they placed votes.
There was a brief discussion on status of current state regulation tools on the use of motorized/e-bikes on shared use paths. Meeting Wrap-up and Next Steps Jessie Baker again thanked everyone for their time on a Saturday. She explained that she will use the comments and votes today to continue to build out the spreadsheet and will be providing additional documents in the days to come. Jessie Baker then asked each person present to say what they were thankful for from today’s retreat. Adjourn – 12:33pm
Respectfully submitted, Andrew Bolduc, Deputy City Manager