Outraged Citizens to Rally in Monday Burlington City Council Meeting
BURLINGTON, VT – Friday Burlington community organizers were “shocked and appalled” that Mayor Bob Kiss had used obstructionist tactics to stop thoughtful climate change legislation they’d spent eight and a half months partnering with City Council to pass.
Community organizer Jonathan Leavitt said, “Since last December a coalition of concerned Burlingtonians has been building a social movement to pass thoughtful climate legislation. By unilaterally obstructing local democracy, Bob Kiss has shown creating a cozy home to greenwash corporate mega-polluters is more important to him than representing Burlington voters.”
Liza Cowan said “The Mayor’s own Vermont Progressive Party’s State Committee voted unanimously, advising Mayor Kiss not to veto this purely advisory resolution. Much of the Burlington statehouse delegation wrote an open letter supporting this resolution and opposing a veto. The resolution’s two sponsor comprise every single member of the Mayor’s party on City Council, and of the hundreds of Burlingtonian who’s spoken at City Council or in City Council Committee over the last 8.5 months, every single one supported this resolution or wish it went further.” Cowan continued “It is very concerning anytime a policy maker acts in isolation, ignoring his government and his people. This is just the situation Bob Kiss finds himself in though. The City of Burlington faces real challenges and the Mayor needs to stop dividing his people with these unilateral tactics so we can come together to solve them.”
Calling the climate legislation “both heartening and inspiring,” Vermont State Representative Suzi Wizowaty, who represents 8,000 Burlingtonians, said in the August 8th City Council meeting, “The resolution offers City Councilors and the Mayor a terrific opportunity to reconsider the proposed alliance with Lockheed Martin; and perhaps even more importantly, to involve citizens who obviously care a lot about our city, in thinking about and creating the kind of city we want to have in the future. This resolution is about more than Lockheed Martin, it is about honoring citizen participation in setting public policy and I urge you to support it.”
“I am shocked and disappointed,” said Burlington community organizer Anna Guyton. “Local organizers have employed every reasonable measure to encourage transparency in this highly-controversial proposed partnership, despite months of being ignored or indirectly insulted through the media. After a clear grassroots victory, it is appalling that the mayor has vetoed this non-binding resolution.”