Burlington's buffer zone law — which prevents protesters from coming within 35 feet of reproductive health centers —  is in jeopardy after the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a similar law in Massachusetts on Thursday. 

Burlington's ordinance, implemented in 2012, has withstood a legal challenge, but that federal court decision is currently under appeal. Both the Burlington and the Massachusetts laws carved out 35- foot buffer zones.

Michael DePrimo, a Connecticut-based lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the Burlington case, was also lead counsel in the McCullen v. Coakley case up until it reached the Supreme Court. Reached Thursday, he said the city would be foolish to continue to defend the ordinance. "If they want to continue fighting, then they are wasting the taxpayer money."

DePrimo expressed confidence that Thursday's ruling spells the end for Burlington's ordinance. "The Supreme Court declared the Massachusetts statute unconstitutional. The Burlington ordinance was patterned on the Massachusetts statute," DePrimo said. "The McCullen case applies directly to the Burlington ordinance, and in my view the Burlington ordinance now cannot stand. It is unconstitutional."

The mother of a Thetford man who died in 2012 after a Vermont State Police Trooper shot him with a stun gun has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the trooper of using excessive force and ignoring protocols.

In a 34-page lawsuit, Rhonda Taylor alleges a trooper who responded to the home of her son, MacAdam Mason, to check on his medical condition never should have fired a Taser into his chest. State law enforcement officials cleared Trooper David Shaffer of wrongdoing, returned him to active duty and released little information about the incident to the public.

"This is a very sad day, not only for Rhonda, but for the state of Vermont," her attorney, Robert Appel, said during a press conference this morning outside U.S. District Court in Burlington. "This is the only way people can hold police accountable. Left to their own devices, supervisory law enforcement officials have not done well in holding accountable the police when they break the law or protocols. It's important that these cases be filed so that people know how the police work and fail to work in a lawful way."

Councilors sat in rows, two to a table, giving Contois Auditorium an elementary school feel. Their assignment Monday night wouldn’t have stumped a second grader: They were there to count stacks of paper.

More precisely, they were re-counting the 6,450 ballots Burlington residents cast for or against the school budget on June 3. 

On the day of the vote, tabulator machines recorded the ballots, and the city-certified outcome was that the budget passed by 68 votes. The slimness of the margin led Dale Tillotson, a Ward 7 voter, to request a recount. He knew the outcome was unlikely to change, but said he viewed it as an opportunity to test Burlington's voting procedures.

The Burlington school budget passed by a very close margin Tuesday — too close for the comfort of at least one resident.

Dale Tillotson, a Ward 7 voter who opposed the budget, has asked for a recount, and assistant chief administrative officer, Scott Schrader confirmed today the city will honor his request. 

State law lets registered voters request a recount if the vote is within 5 percent. On Tuesday, 6,450 ballots were cast, and the budget passed by 68 votes. That's a margin of 1 percent. 

Neither Tillotson nor Schrader expect the outcome to change.

Schrader said the tabulator machines are reliable, and sensitive enough to register votes even if ballots are filled out sloppily. "The tabulators are programmed to pick up a portion of a mark in an oval so even if someone makes a check mark or a cross, it will still calculate that as a vote and if for some reason, there is a stray mark in both ovals, the ballot would be kicked out as invalid, and the person could vote again."

By a very slim margin, Burlington residents approved the $67.4 million school budget proposal Tuesday.

Unofficial results show that the Fiscal Year 2015 school budget proposal passed by 68 votes. Nearly 6,500 people came out to the polls. 
Three months ago, by a margin of roughly 700 votes, residents rejected a $66.9 million budget proposal. The budget approved Tuesday is half a million dollars higher.

In March, the budget went down by wide margins in the two New North End wards (4 and 7) and by narrower margins in Wards 5 and 6. Total voter turnout was roughly 7,500.

This time, all wards except 4 and 7 voted in favor of the budget. 

Possibly helpful in getting the budget passed was the fact that the tax increase is lower than was forecast in March. That's because the legislature set the statewide rate lower than expected.

The Burlington Friends of Education spent roughly $3,500 to encourage residents to vote for it. An opposition group organized by school board member, Scot Shumski, spent about $500 as of May 27.

Vermont’s largest hospital has big plans for South Burlington. Fletcher Allen wants to purchase and develop two parcels for a project that would cost $52 million.

The 92-acre lot off Tilley Drive — which includes the Mountain View Business Park, where the hospital already leases space — and 38 adjacent acres would host Fletcher Allen's outpatient center. 
Spokesman Mike Noble said the proposed project is part of the hospital’s long-term goal of leasing less and buying more. An analysis by White and Burke Real Estate Investment Advisors lists the drawbacks of renting for Fletcher Allen. Among them: private landlords pass on property tax costs to tenants whereas Fletcher Allen — a nonprofit — wouldn’t have to pay property taxes if it owned the parcels.

Demand for outpatient services has grown nationally, and Fletcher Allen expects that trend to continue. Dave Keelty, director of facilities planning and development, described the Burlington Medical Center Campus as a "very finite resource." In other words, they don't have space to expand to meet that demand. Referencing Burlington's rigorous planning and zoning process, White and Burke noted that the constraints to new construction were "political" in addition to "physical" at the site. 

In the off chance you haven’t seen the hundreds of red "Vote Yes" signs (plus some blue ones, concentrated in the New North End, urging the opposite), here’s a heads up: The Burlington school budget is up for a second and final vote today.

This time around the total price tag is $67.4 million, which comes with a 7.2 percent tax increase. If residents reject it again, a default budget of $66.3 million will take effect, with a 5 percent increase in the tax rate.

Polls opened at 7:00 A.M. and will close at 7:00 P.M. A list of polling sites can be found here.

A lot has happened in the three months since voters struck down the school board’s first proposal, a $66.9 million budget with a 9.9 percent increase in the tax rate.

Outgoing Burlington superintendent Jeanne Collins is heading south — the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to hire her for its top job after carrying out an "over-the-top thorough" review.

Collins was one of two finalists for the position which opened up in April when the current superintendent, John Castle, announced he was leaving to serve as superintendent for the North Country Supervisory Union. Days before the board planned to make a decision, the other finalist dropped out of the running to take different superintendent post. 

Collins came under fire in Burlington after an audit in April uncovered flaws in the district's budgeting procedures. Mayor Miro Weinberger and several city councilors urged the school board to part ways with her, and in early May it did just that. Collins and the Burlington board signed a separation agreement, under which she will depart the district on June 30, two years before the end of her contract, with $225,000 in severance pay. 

Carol Brigham, the chair of the RNESU board, said they were well aware of the controversy in Burlington, but after an exhaustive vetting, they concluded she had been "scapegoated" during what became a political maelstrom. 

In an email to Seven Days, Brigham explained, "Many on the board were initially skeptical, as are some in our community, due to the controversy surrounding Ms. Collins tenure in Burlington. This is why our interview process was so “over-the-top” thorough, including contacting no less than 60 people in reference to Ms. Collins. The responses we got from folks offered an insight into a political situation in Burlington which, in the opinion of many, has scapegoated Ms. Collins for problems which were largely not her fault and which she was on track to remedy."

At 8 a.m. this morning, 31-year-old Sara Mehalick sat down in front of the main entrance to the Vermont Gas headquarters in South Burlington and chained herself to the building. There she planned to remain, she said, until Vermont Gas called off its plans for the construction of a new natural gas pipeline to Addison County.

More than four hours later, with protesters looking on from the sidewalk, Mehalick was arrested for refusing to leave the private property and was led away. 

Mehalick and the grassroots environmental group Rising Tide Vermont said the action was one of nonviolent civil disobedience. Vermont Gas took a different view.

"We respect peoples’ need and their rights to protest and voice their opinions," said spokesman Steve Wark in a phone interview with Seven Days. "However, today’s behavior crossed the line," he continued. In a news release issued this afternoon, Wark said that an administrative support staff member was assaulted while attempting "to ensure the protest did not impede the normal flow of customers" into and out of the building. "Protestors made physical contact with the Vermont Gas employee – with their hands and the chain – and physically, and visibly, injured the employee on the arm," Wark wrote. 

"We can no longer trust that [protesters] can express their views peacefully," wrote Wark, 

Rising Tide organizer Keith Brunner said that he wasn't present when the alleged assault took place, but that Rising Tide is "committed to nonviolent civil disobedience. That's what this was today."

"I’m really here defending a livable planet," said Mehalick by telephone, prior to her arrest. At the time, she sat on a small cushion and wore a U-shaped bicycle lock around her neck through which the chain blockading the door was threaded. 

Does today's action represent an escalation in the fight against the Vermont Gas pipeline, slated to carry natural gas from Chittenden County south to Middlebury and potentially beyond?

"Definitely," said Brunner. "I don’t think it’s going to stop here. We’re saying, we’re not going to stop until you stop. People are pretty serious. The stakes are way too high with climate change and fossil fuels."

Haven’t heard of Vermont’s Turkish Cultural Center? You clearly are not a well-connected political official.

Effusiveness went unchecked at the center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. Vermont’s governor and attorney general, a handful of lawmakers and Burlington’s mayor took turns extolling the Anatolian initiative to promote “cross-cultural awareness.” An FBI Special Agent, Wayne E. Shuptrine, also attended.

The center, which started in 2011, is sharing its new space on Burlington’s College Street with two other “sister” organizations: the Peace Islands Institute — founded, as you might guess, to promote peace — and the Turkic American Chamber of Commerce, which, according to its leadership, “has been bringing investors to investigate business opportunities in Vermont” and aims to provide local Vermont businesses with "networking opportunities" in the Turkic world.

The organizations are local offshoots that fall under the umbrella organization, the Council of Turkic American Associations. According to Eyup Sener, the council’s New England regional director, Vermont is home to roughly 4,000 people of Turkic heritage. (The Turkic region, he made a point of clarifying, includes not just to Turkey but also Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.)

On Wednesday, well more than 50 people, including men in dark suits, milled about the 5th floor offices during the lunchtime celebration. A group of men sat around an oval table in a side office, conferring with the door open, while the rest of the crowd listened to speeches. In one corner, an elderly man wearing a skullcap sat with cane resting against his knee.