Clavelle launches seventh term
Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle begins his seventh term Monday with a broad range of goals, a long-term vision for the city and the hard reality that the demand for services far exceeds the city's resources.
The mayor met with the Free Press editorial staff last week to discuss his plans for his three-year term and provide a preview of what he will tell Burlington residents in his state of the city address at the City Hall swearing-in Monday evening.
Clavelle is an old hand at this. First elected in 1989, he has comfortably presided over one of North America's loveliest and most envied cities with a practical city manager's eye on the budget and a Progressive activist's zeal.
For the most part, this two-pronged approach has worked for Burlington.
During his tenure, Clavelle has always balanced the budget. Along the way, he has also encouraged sometimes reluctant constituents to accept change in the community, such as a methadone clinic for heroin addicts or new affordable housing units in established neighborhoods.
With some exceptions, such as the high cost of housing and the troubling presence of illegal narcotics, Burlington is a city that works.
The downtown is vibrant; the historic architecture has been preserved; people walk safely on most streets; and there is a natural energy and strong sense of place.
In his own words, Clavelle lays out his agenda to protect and enhance Burlington:
Within the next few years in Burlington, there will be an estimated $65 million worth of transportation projects under construction.
In this calendar year, we will initiate the construction of Riverside Avenue, the reconstruction of North Street, the bike path adjacent to 127, as well as the multi-modal center on Battery Street.
The Southern Connector continues to be in the design/permitting stage and this year we hope to complete the permitting and design of Contract 2, which will take it from Home Avenue to Lakeside Avenue and construction for that project would be initiated in 2004.
We also have the ongoing upgrade of streets and sidewalks. In the next budget year, we'll be spending $1.5 million on that effort. We have 100 miles of streets and 200 miles of sidewalks.
Economic development
When we think of transportation in the city, we also could think of economic development.
Most of the transportation initiatives are designed to improve access of both people and goods into the city. It's a mix of conventional measures, but also we're pursuing multi-modal opportunities, like the downtown transit center, and we continue to advocate for rail service to Burlington.
Also a major project this coming year is the expansion of Burlington International Airport, which also is a transportation/economic development initiative.
Promoting rail
We would like to see Burlington served by passenger rail and I accept the disappointment of the Champlain Flyer, but I hope with the discontinuance of that project that we don't abandon our commitment to improved rail service in the state of Vermont.
There are corridors where there is greater demand than Burlington to Charlotte. One we're studying is Burlington to Essex. I also think rail service to Essex and ultimately into Burlington from Franklin County makes sense. Obviously Essex and the IBM facility alone are major employment centers.
I also anticipate you might see a resurrection of the Burlington to Charlotte route with the reconstruction of Shelburne Road.
Housing
The city of Burlington alone will not satisfy this region's demand for housing. We'll continue efforts and strategies to establish a fair share commitment where each community in this region will step up and provide safe, decent and affordable housing.
The regional planning commission has taken this on as a goal, but it's not going to happen overnight.
We have for a long time had a housing strategy based on the four Ps: Produce more; preserve the existing; protect the vulnerable in this community (many of them are renters, particularly those on fixed income and those with disabilities); and promote home ownership.
In terms of production, I think in the coming year you will see the initiation of construction on 40 units of mixed-income housing on Depot Street.
UVM
We will also advance significantly the plans through the University of Vermont to build more housing.
These will include additional apartments on the Redstone Campus. I'm also really pleased the university is seriously planning for construction of new residential units at University Heights.
We're finally seeing the realization of a decade-old goal of bringing 800 new beds on line.
It's also important to expand home ownership opportunities. We've seen an increase in home ownership in the city in the past decade and we continue to push that agenda.
In terms of protecting, there were a couple of charter changes approved by the voters of Burlington in March: requiring notice for eviction and requiring notice for a rent increase. Those now require the blessing of the state Legislature.
There's the preservation piece, which is to make certain we continue to enforce the codes that protect the existing housing stock as well as work with landowners and property owners to bring to the table the resources necessary for them to upgrade their apartments.
We're also investing more than $100,000 in rewriting the city's zoning ordinance to make it more user-friendly, comprehensive and understandable. It's probably 40 years old. It needs to be refreshed.
Sustainable community
What really excites me is the challenge of making Burlington a more sustainable community. I know that's a fuzzy word and sometimes when you speak the language of sustainability, people's eyes glaze over, but what you'll find in the mix of projects, priorities and initiatives planned in the city, both short-term and long-term are meaningful, real-world examples of sustainable development.
Sustainable development means pushing through a filter all the policies, all the projects and initiatives of the city and the lens is the future. We're constantly asking ourselves -- if this happens or if this doesn't happen, will Burlington be a better place for our kids, our grandkids, other people's kids and grandkids.
Building a sustainable community is akin to building a table. All four legs need to be strong and our four legs are the four Es of our sustainable community vision: environmental protection, economic development, social equity, and education.
What you'll find here is we're pursuing a very ambitious agenda, but one that looks at development comprehensively and looks for the integration of those Es.
We've embraced an activist model of governance, but we need an activist city government that's working with businesses, nonprofit organi- zations, and engaged citizens.
City Hall Park
Among our priorities is making City Hall Park, both in perception and reality a safer, more comfortable, more pleasant place for Burlington citizens and visitors.
There are a number of strategies that will be employed. In addition to a hot dog vendor, being the least important, there will continue to be physical improvements. We are very appreciative of the Rotary Club's adoption of City Hall Park.
There will be more activities programmed in the park and there will be an increased presence of police and/or parks and recreation department employees.
Balancing the budget
The needs and the demands for services far exceed available resources.
The biggest challenge for the coming year is balancing the city's budget. A tax increase is not being proposed.
Over the next few months, I and the department heads will be spending a lot of time working on a balanced budget for the year that begins July 1.
Nobody, nobody should think this is easy.
I've been mayor of this city for 12 years and every year, we've had a balanced budget. We have not run a deficit and we won't run a deficit this year, either. The question is what steps will need to be taken to balance the budget. It's not a pretty picture.
My goal is to maintain the current level of services. I don't know that we'll be able to do that. You have certain costs that are driving the budget that you don't have much control over -- the escalating cost of health care, which is not unique to Burlington; the increased price of fuel; and salary increases, very modest salary increases.
When people ask my priorities, they look for a grand list of projects and exciting initiatives. Priority No. 1 is pretty boring -- balancing the budget.
Schools
Priority No. 2, which is also not very exciting, is to adopt a school budget.
While I do not have direct responsibility for the schools, certainly assuring this community that there's a commitment to public education is a mayoral responsibility.
If we do not get a reasonable school budget passed, it would be necessary to cut $2.1 million from the proposed budget and the impact of that would be devastating.
Diversity
Burlington is an amazingly diverse community; increasingly, an ethnically diverse community. We're only 92 percent white now, but more telling is the face of our public school system, where overall, 14 percent of our students are students of color and in some schools, it's one-third.
So we're seeing increasing racial and ethnic diversity.
Burlington has always been an economically diverse community. In the next year, we'll focus on new efforts to improve the plight of working families, including those living in poverty.
Many of the folks in the community who are living in poverty are women and children. We have to ask ourselves, what can we as a community do?
We must be very aggressive and proactive in pushing an economic development agenda, providing the infrastructure for economic activity, providing the job training programs, ensuring the opportunities for a decent education.
Neighborhoods
We also need to pay attention to conditions in the neighborhoods, and make sure every neighborhood is a safe place to live and make certain the quality of life is not being eroded by pressures on our neighborhoods.
I think we've seen a diminished supply of drugs into the city. The area that needs to be bolstered is drug prevention, treatment and education. This is not a prime city responsibility, but it is also not one the city can walk away from.
Burlington as model
Burlington is looked upon, not only nationally, but internationally, as a model.
The ideas come from the community. As mayor, you're helping steer the boat when the real work in rowing that boat is being done in part by city government but more importantly by the community -- businesses, nonprofit organizations, engaged citizens.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a city where citizens are as engaged as in Burlington.