Sunday, May 31, 2020
Harmony Edosomwan, who led a protest that drew a crowd of hundreds to Battery Park, stood in the bed of a pickup truck parked behind police headquarters at One North Avenue, which is next to the park. Demonstrators, like those in cities across the country, had turned out to protest police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Interim Burlington Police Chief Jennifer Morrison and Deputy Chief Jon Murad had come out in an apparent attempt to have a dialogue with protesters. Both of the top cops, like many of the protesters, wore face masks.
Morrison had previously released a statement condemning Floyd's death as "an atrocity." She added in her statement: "It is horrifying and a perversion of everything that American police are meant to do."
Tags: Harmony Edosomwan , Chief Jennifer Morrison , Deputy Chief John Murad , Burlington Police Department , One North Avenue , Web Only , Image , Slideshow
Friday, May 29, 2020
Councilor Perri Freeman (P-Central District) proposes changing the city charter to allow the council to enact several new ordinances to achieve a "just economy." The COVID-19 pandemic, the resolution says, has "exposed the rampant inequality in the United States."
"It would be a really good way for Burlington to lead on how to address some of these long-standing structural injustices," Freeman said in an interview. "What we're seeing now is how much those structural issues have really put people in an extremely vulnerable place."
If approved Monday, the resolution would send several significant changes to the council's Charter Change Committee. The first would allow the council to create an ordinance that protects tenants from evictions without cause and workers from wrongful termination.
The second set of ordinances would target wealthier Burlingtonians, allowing the council to create a municipal income tax for people making $125,000 a year or more. Another would levy a "municipal luxury sales tax" on all property sales that exceed $500,000.
Tags: coronavirus , COVID-19 , Burlington City Council , Perri Freeman , Web Only , Image
In early May, two teachers providing care for children of essential workers tested positive for the coronavirus. The center closed immediately, executive director Deb Gass said, and none of the children in the teachers’ care tested positive for the virus.
There have been no other cases of COVID-19 in Vermont linked to childcare programs that provided care for children of essential workers in March, April and May, according to Dr. Breena Holmes, maternal and child heath director for the Vermont Department of Health. Only one child in the state under the age of 9 has tested positive for COVID-19, and there have been no documented cases of the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children that has been linked to the novel coronavirus, she added.
Close contact operations also include tattoo parlors, home cleaning services, massage therapy, and personal art, academic or athletic lessons. State guidelines require that these businesses limit operations to 25 percent capacity and say that customers should remain six feet apart from one another.
Walk-in appointments are not allowed, and "cashless/touch-less transactions are strongly preferred," the rules say. Operators must also keep a log of customers for 30 days in case the health department needs to conduct contact tracing.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
To be listed on the August 11 primary ballot, candidates for statewide offices had to file with the Secretary of State’s Office. Other candidates — including for the Vermont Senate and the House — had the option of filing at local clerks’ offices, so the list won’t be complete until their names are added in the coming days. For example, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) was not on the list Thursday evening, but she had filed with her local clerk on Wednesday.
The deadline nevertheless offers a look at how crowded some statewide primaries have become in a year when lawmakers, due to COVID-19, waived the requirement for candidates to gather signatures to get on the ballot.
Tags: election , primary , Secretary of State , Web Only , Image
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P–Chittenden) kicked off his campaign for lieutenant governor on Thursday, an effort he said he was forced to delay for two months as he assisted in the state’s COVID-19 response.
Ashe, 43, said he has been focused on working with legislative leaders and Gov. Phil Scott to help the state respond to the pandemic.
“In my daily updates to Vermonters, I’ve calmly and honestly tried to explain what’s going on, why decisions have been made and point people to resources they need to get through this,” Ashe said in a Facebook Live announcement from his Burlington home.
Now, with the Democratic primary coming up on August 11, Ashe said he needed to begin explaining to voters what he’s accomplished since first being elected to the Senate in 2008 and why he’s leaving an influential post to seek one some view as largely ceremonial.
“I’m running for lieutenant governor to close the gap between the two Vermonts,” Ashe said.
The position is “uniquely situated” between the legislature and the governor and would allow him to continue advocating for policies to address income inequality in the state, he said.
"As the lieutenant governor, you effectively have the platform of a statewide elected official who members of the public look to to help create the policy direction of the state," Ashe said in an interview.
In his announcement, Ashe described the first Vermont as financially secure, a group of people who may be “knocked down a little” by the pandemic but who have “a quicker path back to their feet.”
“In this second Vermont, thousands of adult full-time minimum-wage workers are condescendingly told that that’s what the market dictates for their efforts, while our society lavishes obscene spoils on others,” Ashe said.
Ashe supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, but so far that goal has been elusive. This year lawmakers were able to move toward it by boosting the minimum wage of $10.96 to $12.55 by 2022, overriding Scott’s veto.
“While I am my own person with my own beliefs, Bernie has inspired me since the first day I met him,” Ashe said.
In that sense, Ashe is very similar to Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, whose decision to challenge Scott for governor has inspired a number of people to seek the state's No. 2. seat.
In his announcement, Ashe laid out a platform very similar to that of his former boss. He said the state should pursue an economic development strategy that values “people, planet and profits.” He wants to protect Vermonters who need support, such as those with disabilities and mental health issues, and New Americans. And he proposed carbon emission reduction policies that help all Vermonters, not just those who can afford them.
“There is no better way to make a state full of environmentalists than to fight climate change in ways that save regular people money,” he said.
Ashe launched his campaign the same day the field of candidates got a surprise entrant — Republican Scott Milne, who nearly upset then-governor Peter Shumlin in 2014.
Ashe said he had no interest in talking about possible Republican opponents and that he was focusing solely on the upcoming primary.
The three other candidates for the Democratic nomination are Sen. Debbie Ingram (D-Chittenden), assistant attorney general Molly Gray and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Brenda Siegel.
In addition to Milne, Dana Colson of Sharon, the owner of a welding supply company, and Meg Hansen of Manchester, the owner of a communications firm, are seeking the Republican nomination.
Perennial candidate Cris Ericson is running as a Progressive.
Disclosure: Tim Ashe is the domestic partner of Seven Days publisher and coeditor Paula Routly. Find our conflict-of-interest policy at sevendaysvt.com/disclosure.
Tags: Tim Ashe , Brenda Siegel , Molly Gray , Debbie Ingram , Meg Hansen , Dana Colson , Chris Ericson , lieutenant governor , Web Only , Image
The nonprofit news site VTDigger.org has fired political columnist John Walters, and its staff union is planning to fight the dismissal.
In an email sent to employees last Thursday, VTDigger founder and editor Anne Galloway informed her colleagues that Walters was "no longer an employee at VTDigger. We wish him the best in his future endeavors."
Galloway did not elaborate on the reasons for Walters' departure and declined to comment to Seven Days.
Walters did not respond to a request for comment Thursday morning, but he subsequently wrote on Twitter that he'd been "abruptly fired" a week prior. In a series of tweets, Walters went on to allege that the termination was "a blatant violation of labor law" because it occurred after VTDigger agreed to recognize the newly formed union and before the two sides reached a contract — a period during which staff reductions are generally not permissible.
Walters also suggested his firing might be related to his newfound leadership role in the union, called the VTDigger Guild, and political pressure from Gov. Phil Scott's office.Thread.
— John Walters (@thevpo1) May 28, 2020
Okay, this happened. One week ago today, I was abruptly fired by @VTDigger. Less than an hour earlier, I had submitted my latest column. All seemed normal. There had been no effort to warn me or correct me or educate me about anything I was doing or not doing.
"The timing is unpleasantly coincidental. It came less than a week after I was named to our unit council, a leadership position in the union," Walters wrote, "and only three days after officials in the @GovPhilScott administration privately complained to Digger management about my social media posts."
Tags: John Walters , Anne Galloway , Lola Duffort , Web Only , Image
The 61-year-old Milne, who drew notice in 2014 when he came within 2,500 votes of knocking off then-governor Peter Shumlin, is the most high-profile Republican to enter the race. He joins registered GOP candidates Meg Hansen, a health care activist from Manchester, and Dana Colson Jr., a political newcomer from Sharon.
Coming off his surprise showing in 2014, Milne challenged U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in 2016. That campaign ended with Leahy rolling to his eighth term by a healthy margin.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Milne described himself as a centrist and said he likes his chances this time around.
Tags: Scott Milne , lieutenant governor , Vermont , Republican , primary , election , Web Only , Image
For a couple of hours Thursday morning, committees of the Vermont legislature conducted remote meetings that members of the public could not view.
According to an email to legislators from director of information technology Kevin Moore, "a communication issue between Zoom and YouTube" prevented the legislature's livestreams from functioning properly. Committees use Zoom's online platform to conduct meetings, which are simultaneously broadcast to the public via YouTube.
When contacted about the problem later Thursday morning, representatives of House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) and Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) told Seven Days that committee meetings would continue and be uploaded for public viewing later on Thursday.
Subsequently, at around 10:30 a.m., the House decided to cancel all meetings until the problem was resolved, according to Johnson's chief of staff, Katherine Levasseur. The Senate, however, continued to meet, according to Ashe's chief of staff, Peter Sterling.
Around midday, according to Levasseur and Sterling, the legislature’s IT staff devised a workaround that allowed committees to broadcast live using a different method. Several House committees resumed their work. By the end of the day Thursday, videos of the earlier House and Senate committee meetings were still not available online.
The situation could raise questions about the legislature's adherence to rules around transparency. While the legislature has argued that it is not subject to the state's open meetings law, the Vermont Constitution requires that the doors of the Statehouse "shall be open for the admission of all persons who behave decently."
Thursday’s incident was not the first time the legislature has struggled to do its work remotely. A day earlier, the livestream of a Senate floor proceeding was interrupted due to unrelated technical difficulties. The meeting continued for a short period of time before the feed could be fixed, according to Senate Secretary John Bloomer, but no video was recorded.
Last month, a quorum of the Senate briefly discussed public policy issues during a private portion of an online caucus meeting. Ashe subsequently apologized for failing to make the meeting accessible to the public sooner.
Kevin McCallum contributed reporting.
Disclosure: Tim Ashe is the domestic partner of Seven Days publisher and coeditor Paula Routly. Find our conflict-of-interest policy here: sevendaysvt.com/disclosure.
Tags: Katherine Levasseur , Mitzi Johnson , Peter Sterling , Tim Ashe , Kevin Moore , Web Only , Image
First elected in 2016, the 61-year-old Berlin Republican had as recently as Wednesday refused to say whether he would run for reelection. But at 7 a.m. Thursday, hours before the 5 p.m. deadline to qualify for the August 11 primary election, Scott's campaign released a statement confirming what had been widely assumed in political circles.