Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Burlington Attorney John Franco, who represents 57 Burlington residents who oppose the project, said Tuesday that he will file a challenge to the zoning permit by mid-April.
Franco said this latest appeal is not merely a Hail Mary effort to halt the development. He ticked off a laundry list of complaints, including the setup of proposed parking lots and the impact of the project on local businesses.
Tags: Coalition for a Livable City , John Franco , Don Sinex , Mayor Miro Weinberger , Burlington Town Center , Image , Web Only
Monday, March 13, 2017
The board voted unanimously, with one recusal, to grant the zoning permit as Sinex's development team and onlookers lined the walls of a cramped meeting room in Burlington City Hall.
The DRB decision came after three lengthy public hearings and two deliberative hearings on the design minutia of the project, involving building materials, construction schedules, awnings and even the varieties of trees to be planted.
Sinex said the final product represents a series of revisions and improvements. "We've gone through a long, exhaustive, collaborative process," he told reporters after the meeting.
Tags: Don Sinex , Burlington Town Center , Development Review Board , Miro Weinberger , Coalition for a Livable City , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
William D. Schenk pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct in April 2016, but his attorneys always insisted they would appeal a judge's decision not to throw out the charges on First Amendment grounds.
"It is not a crime to peacefully distribute a flier to join a group," Rebecca Turner, supervising attorney from the Appellate Division of the Defender General's Office, told justices. "The message is not indicating violence is imminent, or threatening to these individuals."
Deputy Chittenden County State's Attorney Aimee Griffin argued that even if the literal message of the fliers was recruitment, Schenk was obviously targeting the women for other purposes.
"This is not a case about suppressing a defendant's free speech rights. He specifically targeted two women of color at their homes," Griffin said. "This flier in context is much different than … leafleting. This is targeting."
Tags: William Schenk , T.J. Donovan , Vermont Supreme Court , Vermont Law School , KKK , Burlington , ACLU , free speech , Aimee Griffin , Rebecca Turner , Image , Web Only
Knodell will retain her Central District seat after a hard fought campaign by Grill, an activist who made her mark during the debate last year surrounding the Burlington Town Center redevelopment.
The Progressive Knodell told two dozen well-wishers who celebrated at Butch + Babe's in the Old North End that she had her doubts about the race's outcome. "I think I've lost," she said she confided in fellow councilor Sara Giannoni in the final hours before polls closed.
In the end, though, her supporters came through, giving her the victory by a 6-point margin. For the celebration, Knodell donned a T-shirt emblazoned with a quote that referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.): "She was warned, she was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted."
"It was a great team effort," Knodell said to cheers.
Tags: Town Meeting Day , Jane Knodell , Genese Grill , Richard Deane , Charles Winkleman , Joan Shannon , Abdullah Sall , Charles Simpson , Dave Hartnett , Selene Colburn , Miro Weinberger , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Barlow won 64 percent of the vote, defeating challenger Helen Hossley by a margin of 1,314-732 for a seat representing the North District, which covers Wards 4 and 7.
Neither Hossley nor Barlow could immediately be reached for comment.
Voters also overwhelmingly approved public school spending. The $85.5 million budget for next school year passed 3,905 to 2,717. The increase means property taxes will rise an estimated 5.25 percent. Additionally, a $19 million school bond for repairs passed by an even larger margin: 5,047 to 1,552.
Tags: Burlington school board , Mark Barlow , Helen Hossley , town meeting day , Jeff Wick , Kathy Olwell , Ryan McLaren , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Knodell (P-Central District) made the one-time payment on January 30 to Cobble Knoll — an LLC registered with the state three weeks earlier by Councilor Adam Roof (I-Ward 8).
Neither Shannon nor Deane reported payments to Roof in their campaign finance filings, though Roof said he has not yet billed them. Shannon said she would pay Roof $1,000 for his work. Deane did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Middlebury-based ethics expert Mike Palmer said such business relationships involving councilors could raise questions of real or perceived impropriety — whether "the judgment and decisions of the government official [are] unaffected by any interests other than that of the city." Palmer is a lawyer and owner of the consulting and training business Ethics by Design.
Tags: Jane Knodell , Adam Roof , Genese Grill , Eileen Blackwood , Joan Shannon , Richard Deane , Burlington City Council , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
The candidate, Abdullah Sall, plans to file a lawsuit against George, who dismissed him shortly after she took office. Sall’s attorney, John Franco, said his client — a black Muslim immigrant from Liberia — “was subject to different treatment than other people in the office who did not share those qualities.”
“That’s just so absurd. Just absolutely absurd,” countered Stacy Graczyk, who served as a deputy state’s attorney from March 2013 until September 2016 and worked with both Sall and George. "If anything, I think all of those things are an asset. As you know, Vermont is ridiculously white. All those things were great to have in an office. You want diversity.”
Graczyk said Sall was not a good fit for the job, which is “sort of like the front line.” Her former colleagues gave Sall many chances, Graczyk said, but after a while, “it was becoming a concern."
Two other members of the Chittenden County legal community — who spoke on condition of anonymity — backed up Graczyk’s story, arguing that Sall’s job performance was lacking.
Tags: Abdullah Sall , Sarah George , John Franco , T.J. Donovan , Stacy Graczyk , Image , Web Only
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Prosecutors will drop 16 pending criminal cases investigated by a Burlington police officer who resigned Monday after allegedly lying during a drug investigation. Authorities on Thursday said they are still considering whether to charge Christopher Lopez with perjury.
Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George told reporters that Lopez — who allegedly made up a justification to search a vehicle in October — could no longer be a reliable witness.
"He lied," George said during a Thursday afternoon press conference in City Hall Park.
Tags: body cameras , Brandon del Pozo , cannabis related , Christopher Lopez , Leroy Yoder , Michael Mullen , Sarah George , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
In a letter to the Burlington Police Department, Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George said that patrol officer Christopher Lopez had made "patently false" statements in a sworn affidavit in October and would no longer be used as a witness by local prosecutors.
Officials said that Lopez falsely claimed that he smelled marijuana to justify a vehicle search that led to an arrest. The damning evidence came from the officer's own body camera audio, on which he can allegedly be heard conceding to another officer that he had made up the story.
Lopez, who joined the Burlington Police Department in September 2014, was placed on paid leave earlier this month. He resigned on Monday in advance of a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, police said. Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said he planned to fire Lopez at that hearing.
Tags: body camera , Brandon del Pozo , Burlington police , cannabis related , Christopher Lopez , perjury , Sarah George , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Abdullah Sall, a former legal assistant in the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office, plans to file an employment discrimination lawsuit against his former boss, newly appointed State’s Attorney Sarah George, his lawyer told Seven Days on Tuesday. The lawyer, John Franco, alleged that Sall faced “disparate treatment” in the office because he is a Muslim immigrant from Liberia.
In an interview with Seven Days earlier this month, George confirmed that she had let Sall go, but she declined to elaborate on her reasoning. Reached again Tuesday, she said she “cannot comment on specifics” of what she called “a personnel matter.”
“I would say that any time an employer has to make a decision, it’s guided by performance, the needs of the office and the law,” she said. “And I followed those principles when making my decision.”
In an interview Tuesday, Sall alleged that his firing may have been motivated by a desire to “undermine [his] campaign.” He did not offer evidence supporting that assertion.
Tags: Abdullah Sall , Sarah George , John Franco , T.J. Donovan , Image , Web Only