BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A plan to divert police and fire funds to broader public safety services in Burlington is causing controversy.
Progressives were pushing to get a charter change on the March ballot, but that item has now been pulled from Tuesday’s City Council agenda.
The first draft of the public safety tax charter change would have given the Burlington City Council the ability to use property tax money earmarked for police and fire for other services like community justice, public and behavioral health, and social services.
Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak was supportive of what she says is a more nuanced approach to community safety.
“It is not a simple only police and fire reality anymore, as it was several decades ago,” said Mulvaney-Stanak, P-Burlington.
The mayor says public safety funding needs to be more flexible to meet the needs of the city.
Opponents, including the police association, accused the administration of trying to strip the police and fire department in place of other services.
“To take money from police and fire and then give it to social services, which actually are the responsibility of the state, not the Burlington property taxpayers… this is completely inappropriate,” said Joan Shannon, D-Burlington City Council.
Muvaney-Stanak says she has no intention of moving funding away from the police department. But in the face of strong opposition from majority Democrats on the council, she asked to pull the item from the council agenda.
The mayor also came under fire this weekend for sharing a social media post about an upcoming day of action for gender justice that included a call for the abolition of the police. Mulvaney-Stanak says she didn’t realize before posting.
“I missed that,” she said. “And I took the post down to just make sure there wasn’t any misunderstandings there, because if I had seen that I was working too quickly, I certainly wouldn’t have posted something. And that was not the primary purpose of that post.”
Even though the public safety item was taken off Tuesday’s meeting agenda, there are several other items that voters could see on their Town Meeting Day ballot in March.