Vermont Business Magazine Tuesday night, Mayor Miro Weinberger shared his reaction to the 2023 Burlington Town Meeting Day election results. With over 10,000 voting, Tim Doherty (D) in the East District and Melo Grant (P) in the Central District were elected to the Burlington City Council, along with Hannah King (D) in a Ward 8 special election following the October resignation of former Councilor Ali House (P). Also elected were incumbent councilors Joan Shannon (D) in the South District, and Mark Barlow (I) in the North District. Notably, in the City’s first city-wide public safety vote, the Community Control Board proposal strongly opposed by the Mayor failed with 63% of Burlingtonians voting No.
Seven Days: Burlington Voters Reject Police Oversight Board Proposal
Results for all ballot questions and council races can be found on the Burlington City Clerks website.
“Over three years and four local elections, Burlington voters have made it increasingly clear that they value public safety and good policing, and they have placed their faith and trust in this Administration and in Councilor’s who share those priorities to protect both,” said Mayor Miro Weinberger. “Tonight’s decisive votes for a Democratic Council majority and against the Control Board will accelerate our efforts to rebuild the police department, restore public safety, and ensure a vibrant and welcoming City for the future. I look forward to working with this new council to advance this work in the year ahead, while continuing to make major investments in racial justice and equity, delivering on historic public infrastructure projects, and accelerating progress towards our climate and housing goals.”
Information about Question 7, Community Control Board of Police
Question #7 would have been a binding measure on the 2023 Burlington Town Meeting Day Ballot which asked voters if the City should amend its Charter to create a new control board for police oversight in the form of an “independent department” of the City empowered to hire staff, to investigate any incident, to choose its jurisdiction, and to discipline BPD staff without input from the Chief or opportunity for appeal other than to the Superior Court. Board members could not include law enforcement and would have be appointed by a citizen appointment committee. The proposal did not include a budget or projected cost.
How Police Accountability in Burlington Works
With the decisive vote to defeat Question #7, the City’s current community oversight systems for policing will not be affected. The City of Burlington has been long committed to advancing responsible reforms to strengthen oversight of the Burlington Police Department, ensure police accountability, and improve transparency in the policies, actions, and outcomes of local law enforcement. Since 2016, significant actions have been taken to overhaul our use of force policy, strengthen police oversight including new internal and public processes to review use of force incidents, making all use of force incidents, including video, public, making all police data public, and expand the oversight powers of the Burlington Police Commission which reviews all citizen complaints and use of force incidents.
- A Citizen Police Commission reviews all complaints and police uses of force: The Police Commission is also responsible for reviewing and making recommendations on all Police Department policies and issues its own independent annual report.
- Mayor reviews all use of force incidents that result in injury or raises significant public concern: The Police Chief must seek the Mayor’s concurrence with his discipline decision before it is rendered.
- All BPD officers wear body cameras and body camera footage of incidents of public interest is released quickly: Under a recent policy, BPD proactively publicly releases body-worn camera footage within 30 days of an incident whenever the use of force involves bodily injury or death, the use of a firearm, the use of discretionary non-lethal force (such as deploying aerosol sprays or batons), or any incident determined to be of public interest by the Mayor, the Chief, or a majority of the Police Commission, unless a criminal inquiry would prevent release.
- BPD has long been a state leader in collecting and publishing police data: BPD releases a comprehensive annual report that includes data and information about police interactions and uses of force so that citizens may review Police Department trends. This report includes data disaggregated by race.
- In February 2023, a majority of the City Council passed a resolution that commits, in part, that upon the defeat of Question #7, the Ordinance Committee and Charter Change Committee will resume its process for review of and robust public input on potential changes to the existing system of community oversight of police during the months of April and May, 2023.
3.7.2023. Burlington. Office of Mayor Miro Weinberger
