BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Burlington’s new mayor says the city might not need a tax increase approved by voters, and she’s not sure about the future of the city’s police chief. Those are just a few of the many issues Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak is facing during her first days on the job.
A historic eclipse made for a busy first week on the job for Emma Mulvaney-Stanak.
“I’ve been very impressed with how prepared, for example, the city was for the eclipse event. It was really sort of the first big event where I got to see the cross-department collaboration and teaming that happened,” Mulvaney-Stanak said Wednesday.
New mayors typically bring in at least some new department heads with changes occurring at the start of the new fiscal hear in July. Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive, says most department heads want to continue in their roles. Top priority for her is to appoint a new city attorney, a position vacant for nearly two years. As for Police Chief Jon Murad — who was only sworn in last summer after a multi-year feud between Mayor Miro Weinberger and Progressives on the City Council — Mulvaney-Stanak says they are still learning how each other operates.
“I want to make sure that we have leadership in that department that’s responsive and reflective. As I said in the campaign that says at every department head that I need people to bring their best thinking, I need creative thinking, I need teaming, most importantly across departments. And so we’re very much again back and forth, trying to figure out what comes next for the leadership of the police department,” she said.
The administration also has a very short timeline with the budget coming up. Priorities include increased community safety and maintaining services. But the mayor says affordability is also a concern, and she is not sure if the city will go through with a four-cent tax rate increase approved by voters in March. “I want to be really very careful about if we need to invoke that. I want to really dive into the budget and understand the numbers that are facing us and make sure that we’re being very thoughtful about that. And we also need to look at all the staffing the attrition, where things are sort of in flux already, to make sure that we are only pulling in the revenue that we really need to make the city function,” she said.
A new City Council has also started with several new members. Council President Ben Traverse, D-Ward 5, says they are looking forward to supporting the new administration in working towards increased public safety, affordability, and housing. “Last council made a number of important changes with respect to zoning — like in the South End Innovation District and like with the new neighborhood code. Now, zoning is one thing, developing that housing and actually building it is another,” he said.