The Burlington City Council voted on Tuesday night to delay a vote on a charter change proposal that would grant more oversight power to the city's police commission.

Councilors were expected to schedule a second public hearing for the proposal, a step required to get the measure on the Town Meeting Day ballot. But before discussion could begin, Councilor Joan Shannon (D-South District) moved to give the police commission until June 3 to review the measure, meaning city voters wouldn't get to consider it in March.

A heated back-and-forth between council Democrats and Progressives ensued, with members of both parties accusing the other of obstructing progress on police oversight — a topic the city has been debating for years.



The 7-5 vote to delay fell on party lines: Councilor Mark Barlow (I-North District) joined the six council Democrats in voting yes. The four Progs and Councilor Ali Dieng (I-Ward 7) voted no.

Tuesday was hardly the first time the council failed to find consensus on police oversight. The body began debating the issue in earnest in 2019, after several allegations of police brutality came to light. In 2020, a Prog-led council voted for a charter change to create a "community control board," whose members would have been able to hire and fire cops, including the chief. Democrats were opposed, and Mayor Miro Weinberger vetoed the measure.
The item resurfaced last year when activists petitioned to place a nearly identical charter change on the ballot. But voters shot it down, 63 to 37 percent, in March 2023. At the time, a council majority passed a resolution promising to propose an alternative oversight plan by June 2023. They haven't.

For now, the seven-member police commission is generally limited to reviewing department policy and uses of force by officers. It can recommend disciplinary action, but only the police chief can carry it out.

The newest proposal sought to bolster the commission's role. It would have allowed the body to hire an investigator to review complaints about officer misconduct, though the authority to discipline officers would have stayed with the chief of police.

If the commission disagreed with the chief’s decision, however, it would have been able to refer the matter to a three-member “independent panel,” which the mayor could convene as needed. The proposal also would have prevented the chief from ruling on “higher level complaints” until the commission could review them.
On Tuesday, Councilor Shannon said police commissioners have concerns about the proposal, noting that they voted 4-1 at their December 26 meeting to delay a public vote. Councilors couldn't immediately verify Shannon's contention, however, because minutes from that meeting have not been published online even though state law requires they be posted within five days.

Progressive councilors charged that Shannon was purposefully trying to delay a public vote. Several pointed to the resolution that set a June 2023 deadline for a new proposal.

"This is a broken promise — a promise to the community, a promise to people who care about equity and policing," said Councilor Melo Grant (P-Central District), a former police commissioner. "This is a stalling tactic."

Shannon, the Democratic nominee for mayor, countered that the very Progs accusing her of stalling had actually voted in December to kill the ballot item in the first place. Indeed, councilors Grant, Joe Magee (P-Ward 3) and Zoraya Hightower (P-Ward 1) had said then that they had concerns about the proposal, and all voted — unsuccessfully — against setting public hearings to discuss it.

"If those who had voted against the public hearings had prevailed, then we wouldn't even be having this discussion at all," Councilor Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5) said. "This proposed question would have died right then and there."

Traverse added that even if the item was on the March ballot, lawmakers probably wouldn't have had time to review it before adjourning in May. Like all charter changes, the oversight proposal would have to win approval from both legislators and the governor before becoming law. Further, Traverse argued, delaying until June would still leave time to put the item on the November ballot.

"I don't think we've broken any promises yet. If we completely fail to get a question to voters this year for the legislature to consider in their next session, that would be a broken promise," he said. "But I don't think we’re gonna do that."

Magee argued that the legislature very well could have taken up the matter this session. He lamented that the council couldn't even take "the bare minimum of action" by bringing the measure to a vote.



"That's all I have to say," he said. "This sucks."

Councilors found more consensus on another agenda item, voting unanimously to spend nearly $2 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to support two affordable housing projects.

Half of the total will go toward “the Post,” a 38-unit apartment complex that will replace the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on South Winooski Avenue. Champlain Housing Trust is developing the project, which will have nine units for people at risk of homelessness.
The remaining $950,000 will help fund another housing trust project at Cambrian Rise, a massive residential development on North Avenue.

The allocations finish out a $5 million spending plan that Mayor Weinberger announced in late 2021 to combat homelessness. The council previously invested $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to stand up the city’s Elmwood Avenue pod shelters; bolster the county’s “coordinated entry” system that helps find people housing; and create a new city position to end homelessness.

Councilors also agreed to spend an additional $75,000 in ARPA money on the Elmwood pods after learning that a state grant won't cover all the operating costs.

Watch the full meeting below, courtesy of Town Meeting TV.