Vermont Business Magazine Burlington's Progressive City Councilors issued the following statement on Thursday opposing the appointment of Acting Chief Jon Murad as permanent Chief of Police of Burlington, and calling on the Weinberger Administration to use the resources provided by the Council in December to expand the pool of applicants. This is just the latest act in what has been a tumultuous few years for the BPD.
“We want to make it very clear that Mayor Weinberger does not have the votes in the City Council to confirm Acting Chief Murad as Burlington’s permanent Chief of Police. Burlington needs a permanent Chief of Police who demonstrates a commitment to transforming public safety in Burlington. Right now, Jon Murad is not that candidate.
“We have been clear that we oppose this appointment given that the process that brought us here was flawed. No one was satisfied with the first search process and all parties, including the Mayor, called for the hiring of an executive search firm. We are disappointed that the Mayor has chosen to move forward despite knowing that more than half of the Council is opposed. This appointment is divisive, controversial, and has cost the City months of time. This is yet another step back in a continually flawed hiring process.
“The City Council authorized funding to hire a search firm and expand the pool of Police Chief applicants. We call on the Mayor to use the resources provided by that resolution and work with the City Council in good faith to restart the search process so that we can find candidates who have the experience, tools, and desire to support ongoing transformation efforts and move our City forward.”
Tumultuous History
In May 2021, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced that the city will resume its search for Burlington’s next permanent Police Chief. In May 2020, Mayor Weinberger suspended the Police Chief search due to the uncertain circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of re-starting the search after the mayoral election.
“We need structural and cultural transformation of law enforcement in this country and in Burlington, and to forge a new consensus on the future of public safety here,” Weinberger said at the time. “Our new Police Chief will play an essential leadership role in that work. Our hope is to have a community informed hiring process that fosters trust and creates a strong foundation for our public safety transformation.”
The restarted search process began with public engagement effort, which will include a community survey and a series of stakeholder meetings to solicit input from the community on what they would like to see in the City’s next Police Chief.
The position is open because of a series of tumultuous events.
In December 2019 then Police Chief Brandon del Pozo was forced to resign after a series of social media posts, which were not only inappropriate but also about which he initially denied. The mayor then appointed Deputy Chief Jan Wright as acting chief, only to remove her in January 2020 after learning she also had written unacceptable social media posts.
Weinberger then named former Colchester Police Chief Jennifer Morrison as interim chief and eventually acting chief.
Soon after, Morrison took a personal leave in June to attend to her ailing husband. But she did not return as intended by the end of the year, instead resigning in September 2020. While thanking the mayor, Morrison castigated the City Council for reducing the police budget, which she maintained undermined confidence within the department and reduced public safety. The Council acted following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the "defund police" movement which followed.
Morrison said in part in her letter to the mayor dated September 1, 2020: "The main reason I will not return is because I believe that too many members of the current City Council are more interested in social activism than good governance. I got a sense of this when they passed a FIP policy written by a special interest group, against the advice of the City Attorney and the top two police officials. This was most certainly a harbinger of things to come.
"I knew I could not return on the night of the budget discussion and passage. Watching from afar, as a private citizen, I witnessed councilors who conflated facts, ignored information previously provided to them, and demonstrated disrespect for their department heads by diving deep into line items within department budgets and cutting line items without even knowing the impact the cuts would have, nor the ripple effects of cutting in one area. That budget meeting was a shocking display of micromanagement -- or rather, mismanagement. It was dispiriting to see numerous councilors send the message loud and clear that they think they know more about City operations than the Department Heads who have devoted their entire career to these pursuits."
Jon Murad has been acting chief since Morrison stepped away.
After voting to defund the BPD, the Council reinstated some of the cuts last October, but a report on the department commissioned by the mayor was subsequently rejected by the mayor last March for a lack of substance and allegations of plagiarism.
Then last summer a report issued by an independent consultant recommended that BPD increase its police force. The Council voted against that plan, but in October agreed to increase staffing at a lower level.
Vermont Progressive Party. Montpelier. 1.27.2022. www.progressiveparty.org