Ward 7's Ballot Item Results
Ward 7 supports our Police and Fire Departments. We want a safe community where we feel comfortable letting kids play and explore, to know police and fire will respond in an emergency, and to ensure they are supported in return. With that said, there was a stronger-than-expected NO vote percentage and it's important to point out that I don't believe folks who voted no don't support our police and fire departments. We still would have been obligated to find the money for our contractual obligations to our Police and Fire Unions. What I think this shows is that some folks are skeptical of the Mayor's willingness to cut the city budget substantially enough and not leverage the pressure release from the 5-cent increase to justify making fewer cuts in other places. I remain committed to a difficult but necessary deep budget reduction and having tough conversations about what are essential city services and what are nice to have but we need to shelve for now. We need safely navigable streets, sidewalks, and bike paths. We need pipes and mains repaired. We need police and fire to respond to emergencies. These are the basic expectations we should meet. But I hope to hear from you throughout the budgetary process on specific programs or efforts you think need to be preserved or shelved. You can see our current budget here.
Ward 7 is divided on all spending. What I see in the other 3 ballot item outcomes is a divided community desperately seeking critical financial relief during difficult economic times. That itself was made abundantly clear to me at nearly every door that opened for me. It's important to me to let you know that I see and hear that division and I will keep that in mind as we move forward with a very challenging budgetary discussion. It is my hope that other Councilors will join me in my position to not draw down the full 5 cents approved by the voters without substantive and meaningful cuts from the Mayor. This is an important moment to stay plugged in and involved in our local budgeting process. Please consider attending our neighborhood NPA, future Board of Finance meetings, or future City Council meetings between now and June. All of these meetings have time for public comment.
Cleaning Up for Our Community.
Hello Neighbors,
Thanks are owed to The Morning Drive team on WVMT for having me on twice. It’s clear from the number of emails and calls they got that the public is invested in addressing syringe litter in Burlington.
Recently the CDNR committee had finished the Syringe Litter Report and Recommendations. This has taken us a year to get this off that ground. Good policy takes time, If policy takes a month, it’s just not good policy.
We reviewed other cities that have programs to mitigate syringe litter. We don’t have the capacity and resources to replicate these programs but here in Burlington we can still take inspiration.
I am not advocating against SSP’s. They help us prevent bloodborne diseases spreading amongst our community. I’m asking for oversight and recommend a model for that. State officials and service providers shouldn’t be able to bring in almost 1,000,000 needles and have no plan for the litter it produces.
The report makes recommendations for the City to ask AHS to create oversight and transparency measures, to fund incentives for users to return their syringes, and for the city to create a robust training and data program for volunteers.
I wish the people who were passionate about harm reduction came to the table to discuss what is not working and not just be defensive for the programs. Harm reduction is needed and important yet we have to look at ‘whole community harm reduction’.
Many people in working class jobs are put in harm's way when syringes are not properly disposed of and poke them. The cost of a needle poke is very high, some medications taken after a poke costs $200 per day for a month. Every person I have spoken with who has been victim to an unintentional needle stick has talked to me about the sheer emotional and psychological toll it has taken on them and their families. I want them to know that their safety and wellbeing matters to me.
These are not Burlington’s problems alone, this is a state problem. The State is funding SSPs and asking for other communities to develop them. We have an opportunity to lead the way on the discussion and policy for syringe litter and harm reduction.
I encourage you to listen to my interviews and reach out for questions.
Statement on City Hall Park, Aug. 25, 2025
Violence in our City Hall Park has predictably led to the worst case scenario—the loss of a life. When we first began talking about the lunch distribution in the garage, I took issue that leaving the open and pervasive substance use and dealing 2 blocks over was more concerning to me than the latter. Both issues deserved discussion and addressing.
While I am grateful for the increased public safety resources that have been redirected to our City Hall Park, including the Mayor’s new Situation Table funded by the State, they are unfortunately merely a band-aid for a problem that lives at the intersection of:
1) an under-resourced substance use and mental health treatment system that also lacks legal mechanisms to hold people who pose a public danger but cannot be prosecuted due to mental health incapacity,
2) a pervasive shortage of affordable housing stock for most income levels,
3) an overly permissive culture and practice of harm reduction that largely falls short in taking into account whole communities or pathways to recovery,
4) a prosecutorial culture that chooses not to prosecute large numbers of cases and refuses to ask for equity-centered bail placing judges in tightly restrictive parameters on when they can and can’t hold someone without bail.
5) discounting the lived negative experiences and realities of downtown workers, residents, and visitors with a counter-narrative
I was glad to see President Traverse’s recent letter and resolution calling for a new, determined approach to restoring the public trust in our City Hall Park. I was particularly disheartened to see at least one Progressive Councilor instead chose to go live from the park on social media at night to interview people on how safe the park was. Let me be clear, I’m so glad those people felt and were safe. I have also seen and heard enough to know that this is not always the case. I have supported multiple Ward 7 victims of violent crime that was unprovoked, during the day, and by an unknown assailant including a person who was beaten in her head while walking home from an early dinner with her husband, and a person who was attacked while loading her toddler into a stroller for a morning walk. Their experiences happened, they matter, and it’s a disservice to us all to erase them away with counter-messaging or political posturing.
I have also felt this way when trying to talk about syringe litter. The Howard Center made comments to VPR that syringe litter was “largely a beautification issue,” and people continue to argue that there is no public safety concern with syringes while simultaneously I have met many people in a variety of trades who have recounted what it feels like to go through the terrifying experience of a needle stick and the expensive prescriptions you have to take as a precaution while waiting for your blood results. My landlord’s landscaper contracted Hepatitis B after being stuck by a needle hidden in a bush next to our playground. Patients matter and he matters too. We should not explain away the problem or center individuals over whole communities.
There are moments in the park that are beautiful, safe, and joyful, and there are also moments that are frightening, unnerving, and unsafe. Both of those truths matter and everyone’s experience is different based on many factors including sheer luck of being in the park at the right or wrong moment. I am also not so naïve to think that this issue, which is often traceable to a small group of individuals both housed and unhoused, won’t then pop up somewhere else like the Moran Plant, Manhattan Drive, Buell Street, Battery Park, or any other known past or present problem areas. We need to stay focused on those 5 issues I mentioned above and not on important but non-municipal topics like global geopolitics—particularly at a moment where our own nation is being tested to its breaking point by a corrupt President and gerrymandering politicians.
I’m excited to see new emails coming in every hour from members of the public who are answering the call and asking for action to reclaim and reframe our beloved and historic City Hall Park. Please keep writing, speaking, and telling your stories.
On Monday night, my hope is that public comment can aim to be as solutions-focused as possible rather than on a narrative war of “well this did or didn’t happen to me so therefore there is or is not a problem.” Let’s roll our collective sleeves up and deal with it together. It has nothing to do with whether or not someone is housed or unhoused but rather specific harmful and criminal behavior people are engaging in and sometimes that is attributable to Substance Use Disorder and sometimes it’s not, but it is happening.
I implore everyone who chooses to come or Zoom in to Monday’s Council meeting to center both realities, shared respect, and collaborative solution crafting. We can and should have tough conversations about the problems facing our city but we should do so with a keen eye on the solutions and remind ourselves that we are all neighbors in the same community.