City Council

southburlington VERMONT SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL 7 MAY 2025 The South Burlington City Council held a special regular meeting on Wednesday, 7 May 2025, at 1: 00 p. m., in Room 301, 180 Market Street, and by Zoom. MEMBERS PRESENT: T. Barritt, Chair; E. Fitzgerald, L. Smith, A. Chalnick, M. Scanlan ALSO PRESENT: J. Baker, City Manager; Chief S. Locke, Deputy City Manager 1. Pledge of Allegiance: The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 2. Instructions on exiting building in case of emergency and review of technology option: Ms. Baker provided instructions on emergency exit from the building and reviewed technology options. 3. Additions, deletions or changes in the order of Agenda items: Ms. Baker asked that she and Chief Locke give a quick update to the Council on City happenings. 4. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda: There were no public comments or questions. 5. Updates from City Manager and Deputy City Manager: Ms. Baker: 2200 people attended Illuminate Vermont despite the rainy weather. The City Clerk' s office is now fully staffed. PAGE 1 Chief Locke: The new deployment policy for fire vehicles has seen a 30% drop in fire vehicles and a 50% reduction in other vehicles with no impact to the public. Ms. Baker: The City has a new Human Resources Generalist. Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity is building a new duplex on Hinesburg Road north of Kennedy Drive. Mr. Barritt: On Tuesday evening, the DRB celebrated Mark Behr' s 20 years on the Board. Some previous Board members joined the event. Ms. Baker said there will be a resolution honoring Mr. Behr at an upcoming Council meeting. 6. Discussion of emerging issues and planning for the upcoming FY26 Policy Priorities and Strategies process: Council members reviewed their priorities and concerns as follows: Mr. Chalnick: He expressed concern with the role of the Council and how they can be more nimble. One thing that has been helpful to him recently was to meet with the Fire Department and with the Climate Action Manager to talk about heating. They could hear his concerns and he could learn from them. That allows him to move more quickly when those items came to the Council. He would have loved to have had that kind of discussion regarding the CCRPC item. Mr. Barritt said he understands the comment but noted it takes more of staff time. Mr. Smith questioned whether this leads to having " too many chefs in the kitchen" and " cross pollination" when a project is being developed. He was concerned with not hearing about a project when it is in its development stage. Mr. Chalnick said that is especially true with ordinances. Ms. Fitzgerald said she has selected to meet with staff people on some topics. It' s above and beyond what staff is working on. She noted the Council doesn' t usually act on something until the second or third time it is before them. When things come from a committee, the Council is already hearing the " best version" because it has been vetted. Mr. Scanlan said he met with staff people more often in the onboarding process. Subsequently, he sought out Council members from other communities and has CITY COUNCIL 7 MAY 2025 PAGE 2 attended regional meetings to gain a comparative sense of how things work. As a result, he thought they should use the City Plan more to guide their work. Moreover, South Burlington has excellent city staff and a City Manager who are very professional. The Council receives a recommendation from them on how to proceed, with the Council being able to ask about trade- offs and make the final decisions. That, he said, was his understanding of how the process was supposed to work. He emphasized the importance of being cautious not to micromanage at the outset. Mr. Barritt reminded members of the importance of having a full discussion in front of the public. Mr. Chalnick said that as a policy maker, he would like to frame/ form things before they get to a decision point. Mr. Smith suggested that when a policy is being launched by staff, the Council get a memo — " this is being launched" — so members can be aware of people' s position. Mr. Scanlan said that when staff come to the Council, that is when the Council has a public discussion and hears perspectives from the public that Council members may not have thought of. Ms. Baker complimented the Council on talking about advanced governance topics. She stressed that the Council is absolutely a policy board and that a lot of work goes into everything that comes before them. She felt what they are grappling with is " politics." Mr. Smith said that what Ms. Baker calls " politics" gets the Council to a " yes" quicker. Ms. Baker said that with " politics," what staff begins caring about is 3 votes, and that is not how she and staff want to operate. She believes there is a middle ground. When she and Chief Locke begin planning agendas, they might consider who would have an issue with what is being brought to the Council. But the debate must happen in public. Mr. Smith wanted to find a" kernel of commonality" and stay away from the " 3 votes" method. Mr. Scanlan said that what staff presents to the Council, he assumes already has " baked" into it what is best for the community. Mr. Chalnick said he is OK with what Ms. Baker suggested. CITY COUNCIL 7 MAY 2025 PAGE 3 Ms. Baker said if there is something the Council wants to have a conversation about, let her know. She stressed that staff has never launched a big project that the Council did not know about. Mr. Smith said the Active Transportation Plan did not end up meeting his expectations when it came to the Council. He had been to a public meeting and felt there was a piece missing, but there wasn' t a place to inset it logically. Ms. Baker noted that the Active Transportation Plan process began before the 3 new members joined the Council. There are 3 Master Plans being worked on now. The Council has the opportunity to be involved with those committees before the plans come to the Council. Ms. Fitzgerald said the Council has now had the opportunity to see housing targets from CCRPC. She noted the disparity between the 1. 5 units in the City Plan ( over 8 years) and the CCRPC' s 2. 3 in their 25- year plan. She noted there are guardrails" in the City Plan, and she felt the CCRPC plans should be in the 1. 5- 2. 3 range. She suggested getting a group together to discuss those targets. Mr. Smith added that the clearer the Council is on how to direct that process, the surer they can be to have services in place, etc. Mr. Barritt questioned whether they actually know the trigger points such as schools, wastewater, etc. Ms. Baker said the City has anecdotal information, but Ms. Fitzgerald and Mr. Smith are suggesting a more data driven process. Mr. Scanlan stressed the need to have revenue- generating strategies as well. Ms. Fitzgerald said Mr. Conner' s presentation was enlightening. She noted the city has 2 documents with targets. They should be used a guardrails. Mr. Baker said staff is working on an update to the growth memo which will come to the Council in the next few meetings. Mr. Smith said it would help when something is in the pre- sketch stage and going to sketch plan, if it could go to the committees for their input. Mr. Barritt said Sketch Plan is the first time a plan is shown to the public, and the DRB can request that a developer speak with a committee about an aspect of the plan. He did not feel there should be a discussion before Sketch Plan review. Mr. Smith that would be an opportunity to refine and improve the plan before it gets to the Master Plan stage. CITY COUNCIL 7 MAY 2025 PAGE 4 Ms. Baker asked the Council if they want to be perceived as more " friendly" or more " constrained" on development. She stressed that adding policy committee review to a regulatory process costs time and money. Mr. Barritt said there is plenty of time of committee input at Sketch Plan review. Mr. Chalnick suggested committee members attend DRB meetings. Mr. Scanlan emphasized the need to diversify revenue sources. He cited the example of Green Mountain Transit ( GMT), where anticipated revenues failed to materialize, resulting in very painful and disruptive adjustments. He also noted the challenges now facing the local area with the lack of Canadian dollars. He also cited the changes in federal grant funding, and he suggested that staff provide a briefing on resilience in the face of these changes. Mr. Chalnick said that would take a lot of time and involve a lot of guess work. Ms. Baker said there is a middle ground way to do that given the diversity of revenue streams and the availability of fund balance for onetime projects. Mr. Barritt also cited a huge drop in the stock market which affects the City' s pension plan. Ms. Baker said what she worries about is the revenue from permits going down, especially in the next fiscal year. Mr. Scanlan said that this may result in some plans being put on the shelf. Chief Locke said they hope to have a sense of all of that by Fall. Mr. Smith said he hoped that by fall there would be more of an idea of how the economic landscape is shaping up. Ms. Baker added that this will also be when they are kicking off the FY27 budget. Mr. Barritt said nobody can now build affordable housing without the inclusion of a non- profit in the process. He noted that St. Albans can do this and questioned where the money could come from for the City to be more involved in construction projects. Mr. Smith cited the need to rethink what housing can look like. He specifically suggested looking at " boarding houses." Mr. Scanlan suggested that the Housing Committee do some research on this. CITY COUNCIL 7 MAY 2025 PAGE 5 Ms. Baker said she didn' t think the City can compete in that market. It can participate as it has been doing. St. Albans is using debt money ( bonding) to do it. Mr. Chalnick thought committees don' t know their roles, and they have a lot of talented people. Ms. Baker said one of the failures now is that the resolutions that established the committees are old. It would help to look at those. She added that part of the role of liaisons is to " direct down" so they can bring things up. Mr. Scanlan cited the need for committees to have a sense of " outcome." He suggested holding a meeting with committee chairs in a format similar to this one. 7. Other Business: No other business was brought forth. As there was no further business to come before the Council Mr. Smith moved to adjourn. Ms. Fitzgerald seconded. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 3: 00 p. m. z P- tClerk CITY COUNCIL 7 MAY 2025 PAGE 6