Monday, April 24, 2023

Montpelier PEN: Issue #11

Calendar of Upcoming Civic Engagement Opportunities

City Council and City Committee Meetings
April 26 Social and Economic Justice Advisory Committee (SEJAC)
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Virtual Meeting via Zoom Virtual Meeting via Zoom
Zoom Meeting link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82844191234?pwd=YTZwOSswdS9VWXJxMFIxdTc1Y05hUT09 Meeting ID: 828 4419 1234 Passcode: 071412 One tap mobile: (929)-205-6099

April 26  Regular City Council Meeting
6:30 PM City Council Chambers

May 1 Development Review Board (DRB) Meeting 7:00 PM (Agenda not yet posted)
May 2 Montpelier Housing Committee Meeting 6:00 PM (Agenda not yet posted)
May 3 Restroom Committee Meeting 10:30 AM-11:30 AM (Not yet posted)
May 3 Montpelier Homelessness Task Force 11:30 AM-12:30 PM (Not yet posted)
May 8 Planning Commission Meeting 5:30 PM (Agenda not yet posted)


Country Club Road Spring Public Engagement Meetings
Once again, the City will host three public engagement sessions to get the public’s feedback on three final concept designs and will be soliciting feedback via a City-wide survey. The meetings will match the same style and format as previous public engagement sessions for the Country Club Road Site project. Like before, the purpose of hosting a series of meetings and providing a video with the survey on the website is to provide a variety of opportunities for community members to participate and engage with the project. 
April 29 
10 AM- 12 PM on site at 203 Country Club Road (former Elks Club Building)

May 3
5 PM-7 PM Hybrid meeting: City Hall Memorial Room and on Zoom
Meeting ID: 859 7437 0297 Phone: 929-205-6099

May 8 
12 PM-2 PM  Remote only meeting 
 Meeting ID: 851 8877 6794 Phone: 929-205-6099
If you’d like to attend any of the following meetings, RSVP here: https://polco.us/n/res/vote/montpelier-vt/rsvp-to-the-country-club.)

The project team put together three conceptual designs that will be presented to the public in each of the above three sessions. At this juncture, the team is looking for feedback from the public in these three conceptual designs. Later in May, the team will present to the City Council findings from these public meetings and the team’s recommendations. Ultimately, the design chosen by the Council will evolve into the Actionable Master Plan and mark the transition into Phase 2 of Master Planning.  
It’s important to remember this is a long-term build-out. Likely, the final designs will not be fully completed for another 10+ years. Once the Actionable Master Plan has been created, the City and project team will create a project timeline to outline the stages of development and target goals.   
A theatrical experience that may help us to better understand 
our own attitudes toward race
Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s “Pass Over” at the Lost Nation Theater
Final performances: 
Tuesday April 25 2-4 PM 
Thursday April 27 7:30-9:30 PM 
Friday April 28 7:30-9:30 PM
Saturday April 29 7:30-9:30 PM
Sunday April 30 2-4 PM


Opportunities to learn about and gain a deeper understanding of what it means

 to be homeless in Vermont

May 8 Barriers to Benefits: Everyday Hurdles to Getting Help
People with low income or lacking housing face a daunting variety of impediments to seeking and obtaining assistance. Indra J. Acharya, Consultant/Integrator for THRIVE, will facilitate a discussion with several unhoused people about the difficulties they encounter on a regular basis. These include problems connected with earning too much money, having excessive savings, no transportation, and/or an inability to apply online for help. These are compounded by the fact that each assistance program has its own limits and requirements.
This presentation comes from the Montpelier Homelessness Task Force and is supported by a THRIVE – Vermont Community Health Equity Partnership grant.
To protect participants’ privacy, no recording of the event will be made.

Also, you may wish to read the following recent news accounts of the coming storm:
 “Local Orgs Prep for 30% Increase in Homeless Population” in the April 19-May 2 issue of The Bridge.

The unthinkable is about to happen. Over the next two months (by June 30) more than 2000 people currently living in motels are going to be exited with no clear place for them to live. This is a moment in which Public Engagement is required. Please consider sending an email to your representatives in the legislature and to the Governor letting them know that this is unacceptable. Here’s the letter I sent to key senators and house members last week:

I hope I don’t need to tell you that the forced unsheltering of more than 2000 people starting June 1 and going into high gear July 1 is unconscionable. Not only will this lead to deaths of our neighbors and community members, it will flood the streets of cities across the state with people who are homeless and desperate. This will cause confrontations with residents, visitors, and local police, which in Washington County alone will be terrible for business in downtown Montpelier, Barre, and Waterbury as well as the Berlin Mall. 

The only responsible measure is to fully fund and support a transition plan, which includes sufficient funding both to keep people sheltered and to provide the bricks and mortar. I know you and other key legislators have been presented with such a plan. This measure cannot work if people are unsheltered; sheltering is the foundation on which permanent transitions are built.


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Monday, April 17, 2023

Montpelier PEN FLASH: Development Review Board (DRB) Hearing on Two VCFA-related Zoning Applications (4/17/23)

Apologies, PEN readers. I’ve just been too darned busy. Between family visits, various social and civic obligations, major personal & family projects, and my garden beckoning to be started up for sudden Spring, I haven’t been able to find the time or mental energy to put together a much-needed PEN Issue #11 that adequately addresses the many important Public Engagement opportunities and demands that are fast upon us. 

So, for the next few weeks, you may be getting single issue PEN FLASHES like this one, which unfortunately may arrive too late for you to attend tonight’s (4/17/23) Development Review Board (DRB) hearing on two related zoning applications submitted by the 150 Main Street LLC group for potential change of use for two buildings on the Vermont College of Fine Arts VCFA) on which they have a purchase option. These applications are part of their due diligence activities (prior to exercising this option) to determine whether or not their intended uses of these buildings would be permitted. 


The meeting will be recorded, so if you can’t make it to the meeting tonight, you should be able to watch/listen to that recording. Contact Audra Brown at the Department of Planning and Community Development to get a link to the recording.


This important meeting was listed in PEN Issue #10, but the full agenda and agenda packet only became available late last week and here they are:


April 17 Development Review Board (DRB)

7:00 PM Council Chambers, City Hall

Zoom meeting Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83496273876 

Call In: (929) 205-6099 Meeting ID: 834 9627 3876

Agenda Link


Staff Report and Development Application for 35 College St.(Gary Library)

Change of use to mix of Personal and Professional Services, and a flex space including Conditional Uses of: Restaurant; Performance Theatre; and Exhibition Convention or Conference structure.

Staff Report Development Application for 31 College St. (Crowley Center)

Change of use requesting Board approval for off-site parking under Section 3011.C(3)


(See commentary below on this DRB hearing of these related applications)


Because I haven’t had the time to switch over to sending out PEN via Mail Chimp rather than from my personal Gmail program I am still limited to sending out issues to 99 people/day. So, I’ve gone through my list of more than 200 and picked out those of you who I think may be most interested in this matter. 


To all of you, then, especially people who are abutters, neighbors, other College Street area residents, students, and alumni of VCFA, I offer the following commentary and plea:


Please do not confound this limited due-diligence application by the 150 Main Street group with whatever feelings you might have about the extremely opaque behavior of the VCFA administration regarding their decision to move its programs away from Montpelier and sell all but one of their buildings OR whatever hopes or fears you might have for some of those buildings to be used for much-needed workforce housing OR any understandable anxiety you might have about the College’s intention to transfer the land to some sort of building-owner condominium OR concerns about the overall impact of multiple new owners and uses of all but one of the college buildings on traffic, parking, community use of the green, trash collection, and possibly even changes to some exterior features of buildings. 


These are all legitimate concerns, for sure, but tonight’s DRB hearing on “change of use” for Gary Library (and a small related matter for the Crowley Center) are their own issue, having little or nothing to do with these other concerns. This hearing is not, as some may fear, a slippery slope into the morass of all the other unknowns that will likely soon be revealed by the secretive VCFA administration. So, please, save your fire for those eventualities. 


And for now, please come to the DRB hearing tonight in a positive frame of mind to listen carefully to what is being requested and why, to ask thoughtful clarifying questions, and, if appropriate, to express your legitimate concerns. 


Remember, however, that the purpose of this hearing is to help the 150 Main Street group know what the City will allow them to do in Gary Library and Crowley Center, which, in turn will help them decide whether or not to exercise their option to buy these buildings and, if so, what specific interior renovations they will want to do and for which they will submit building permits.


This DRB hearing is not an opportunity to try to block the sale of these two buildings, nor is it the appropriate place to lament the loss of Gary as the VCFA library nor to complain about possible betrayal of alumni-donors to the construction Crowley Center. The hard facts are that the college has made its decision about moving its programs and selling all but College Hall. That ship has sailed. The buildings will be sold.


Nevertheless, there does need to be a time and place for abutters, neighbors, residents of the broader College Street neighborhood and the Montpelier Community at large to ask hard questions and express deep concerns about: who will buy the various buildings, what use will they make of them, what changes will they want to make on them, how will this “condominium” of owners work, and what about parking and traffic and community use of the Green. 


The frustration and challenge is how, when, and where can and will these legitimate concerns be addressed? The VCFA continues to act secretively on all of these points of concern; the City and its Department of Planning and Community Development appear to have taken a “hands-off” stance; the issue hasn’t been on a single Montpelier City Council agenda; media coverage has been sensational rather than investigative. In short, the College administration has been given a free pass by the City, the State, and unengaged City residents to sell off the buildings and grounds of this truly historic campus to whomever they want for whatever purposes the buyers can get approved.


Although it may be quite late in the day, it may not be too late for an organized and coordinated effort on the part of students, alums, faculty, neighbors and other concerned citizens to launch a constructive effort to press the college, the city, prospective buyers, and perhaps even the state to very soon hold a well-publicized, jointly sponsored Town Meeting at which these decision-making entities would answer questions and listen to concerns from all those affected groups and individuals. Immediately after such a Town Hall, these entities should meet with each other, as appropriate, to figure out ways that many of these concerns might be reasonably addressed and questions clearly answered. Until this is done, there should be a moratorium on closing on any sales contracts for buildings on the campus.


There’s a Public Engagement challenge for us all! 


A good start might be to contact the City Council members from your district (links to city email addresses for District 1: Dona Bate and Lauren Hierl; District 2: Pelin Kohn and Sal Alfano; District 3: Cary Brown and Tim Heney), Mayor Jack McCullough, City Manager Bill Fraser, and Director of the Department of Planning and Community Development Mike Miller and request that they pay attention to and perhaps take appropriate action regarding this huge change in the built-environment of our City, which is being carried out “in the dead of night,”reminiscent of the unremarked disappearing act of NECI just a few years ago. Let our City leaders know that members of the public are paying attention to their inattention to such important matters.



Other Upcoming Public Engagement Opportunities


April 18 Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee 

7:00 PM Memorial Room at City Hall,

Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88243185043?pwd=WE9RWnFON2VNTHlaU3JnSmRVOEtDUT09 Meeting ID: 882 4318 5043 Passcode: 862457 Phone in: +1 929 436 2866


Two important Public Engagement items on the Agenda: Sustainability and Facilities Coordinator Update (Chris Lumbra); and Discussion on recruitment of committee member for specific activities/programs i. examples: coordinator for revolving loan fund, coordinator for district heat task team, coordinator for neighborhood weatherization teams, transportation liaison to GMP/VTrans/Montpelier Transportation Advisory Committee


April 19 Montpelier Public Restroom Committee 

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM In person in the City Manger’s Conference Room and virtually on zoom. 

Agenda Link

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83536775467?pwd=WWlGbkRRTTNweEY1RVFNcHZNVjZEZz09 Meeting ID: 835 3677 5467 Passcode: 528218 One tap mobile: (929)-205-6099

Minutes from March 22 Meeting (Very informative)


April 19 Montpelier Homelessness Task Force

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM City Council Chambers and virtually on zoom

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86287812907?pwd=TERnRXE2VUxqNmZEOXJBY04ydzRzdz09 Meeting ID: 862 8781 2907 Passcode: 190220 One tap mobile: (929)-205-6099


Agenda link

Two important Public Engagement opportunities:  

  • Housing Master Plan – Michael Miller, Director of Planning and Community Development (11:45-12:15) 

  • Motel Exodus Planning 


KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED HERE FOR INFORMATION ON UPCOMING COUNTRY CLUB ROAD SITE SPRING PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

April 29 10AM-12 PM at Country Club Road Site

May 3 6-8 PM  Memorial Room at City Hall

May 8 12-2 PM on Zoom


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Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Montpelier PEN: Issue #10 Preview of the April 12 City Council Meeting

 Calendar of Upcoming Civic Engagement Opportunities

April 11  Community Advisory Board (Community Justice Center)

6:00-7:30 PM Via Zoom

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82275383552?pwd=NW95R2NHNENScjlMUXk1Q3F2YnhxQT09

Agenda link

Agenda includes Article Discussion: Police Brutality Is Not Always About Race


April 12 Social and Economic Justice Advisory Committee (SEJAC)

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Virtual Meeting via Zoom 

Agenda link

Agenda includes SEJAC-related updates from City Staff and discussion of long-term process and role for SEJAC with city staff 

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82844191234?pwd=YTZwOSswdS9VWXJxMFIxdTc1Y05h UT09 Meeting ID: 828 4419 1234 Passcode: 071412 One tap mobile: (312)-626-6799 


April 12 Regular City Council Meeting City 

6:30 PM Council Chambers, City Hall  

Agenda Link

See brief commentary below on some of the key issues in the agenda 

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81816524126?pwd=NTgwY2lxV1BsUVpWZE94bmZNZ2piZz09 Meeting ID: 818 1652 4126 Passcode: 735001 One tap mobile: (929)-205-6099 


April 17 Development Review Board (DRB)

7:00 PM Council Chambers, City Hall

Agenda Link Nothing is yet posted here, but Zoom link, Agenda, and Agenda materials will be posted here at least 48 hours before the meeting.

The Agenda apparently will include consideration of a Zoning Application from 150 Main Street, LLC, the local group of health and wellness practitioners who have signed an option to purchase 3 buildings from the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA).


April 19 Montpelier Public Restroom Committee 

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM In person in the City Manger’s Conference Room and virtually on zoom. 

Agenda Link

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83536775467?pwd=WWlGbkRRTTNweEY1RVFNcHZNVjZEZz09 Meeting ID: 835 3677 5467 Passcode: 528218 One tap mobile: (929)-205-6099

Minutes from March 22 Meeting (Very informative)


April 19 Montpelier Homelessness Task Force

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM City Council Chambers and virtually on zoom

(Not yet posted)


Preview of Key April 12 City Council Meeting Agenda Items 

Homelessness Report Follow-up

The City Manager has submitted this response to the Parker Advisor’s  Homelessness Needs Assessment and Action Plan Report. At the 4/12 City Council meeting, he will present to the City Council the recommendations that he and his staff have made in their “response” and will respond to questions about these recommendations from City Council members. Members of the public will also have an opportunity to comment or ask questions about the City Manager’s recommendations. 

(Disclosure: I certainly plan to make some comments and I hope others will do so as well.)

In case you missed reading the commentary on the Parker Report and the brief history of Homelessness in Montpelier in PEN Issue #9 or would like to review it, here’s a link to it.


Rules of Conduct at Public Meetings and Group Norms

These two related items were postponed from the previous 3/23/23 City Council meeting. The “rules of conduct” govern the behavior of the public during public meetings, whereas the “group norms” govern the behavior of city council members toward each other. 


It has been pointed out in the past that many city governments also include in their rules of conduct guidelines  for public officials’ behavior toward members of the the public. I intend to raise this point once again during this meeting, suggesting that Montpelier should consider doing so as well. Just a quick internet search yielded Codes of Ethics and Conduct that include Conduct Guidelines for Elected and Appointed Officials’ Conduct: with Each Other in Public Meetings, with the Public in Public Meetings, and with City Staff. A number of City Councils have adopted these over the past 20 years or so, many with language that is so similar that it would appear there has been considerable sharing of such matters among municipalities in many states. Here are a few examples: 

Evans Colorado (Adopted 2004) See p. 7 for Council Conduct with the Public

Sunnyvale, California See p.11-12 for Conduct with the Public in Public Meetings and in Unofficial Settings

Alexandria , Minnesota *Adopted 2020) See p. 7-8 for Mayor and Council Conduct with the Public  andMayor and Council Conduct in Unofficial Settings


And here’s a bonus on Strategies for Managing Difficult Public Meetings and Hearings

from The Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) in Washington State


The Coversheet for the discussion of Rules of Conduct  indicates that Mayor McCullough is proposing an amendment to the current rules of conduct that would change the rules for General Business and Appearances.


As almost anyone who has attended City Council meetings in person or via Zoom during the past several years will have observed, there has been persistent incivility on the part of a single member of the public (Stephen Whitaker), particularly during General Business and Appearances, which he regularly monopolizes to run through long, disorganized, and often repetitive lists of the failures of the City Manager, the Mayor, and the City Council in terms that are ad hominem, bordering on slander. This behavior led to the Council’s adoption of the so-called “two-minute rule” for public comments at its meetings and precipitated an ugly incident that culminated in this individual being removed forcibly from the Council Chambers by the Chief of Police. (If you missed any of this, here’s one of many articles that reported on this incident.) 


Strategic Plan

Sandwiched in between the above discussions of Homelessness in Montpelier and Public Meeting Rules of Conduct will be one of the required periodic reviews of the City Council’s annual strategic plan. Although such reviews may feel tedious to the uninitiated, this will be a much-needed introduction to the strategic planning process for the two new and one almost new member of the City Council. And, it may also be an opportunity for members of the public to peer behind the bureaucratic curtains of such City Management processes and to ask (perhaps) naive questions that may actually illuminate certain matters for the new City Council members and the public in general.


Here are links to presentation slides for The Strategic Plan Review--Spring 2023, the disruptions report, and  the FY22-23 Council  Strategic Plan--Adopted Plan 10/22/22-


Other Portions of the Meeting that you may (or may not) find of interest:

General Business and Appearances: this usually occurs near the start of the meeting and is used by members of the public to make announcements or most often to speak about matters that are not otherwise on the agenda for that meeting. (Being present during this early agenda item will give members an opportunity to observe first-hand the behavior of Stephen Whitaker.)


Fireworks: this item is a fascinating and all-too rare example of an individual Montpelier resident requesting the City Council to put on its agenda an item that the resident will present. In this case it is a request that the City Council “consider discontinuing the use of fireworks for holiday celebrations.” Here are the materials provided by resident Karen Hanlon.


End of meeting reports by City Council members, the Mayor, the City Clerk, and the City Manager: these reports always come at the end of the meeting by which time most members of the public have left the meeting (in person and/or on Zoom). By and large, this is merely an opportunity for sharing non-critical information since doing so outside of Open Meetings runs the risk of violating State Open Meeting rules. However, it is also often used by the City Manager to comment on matters that were raised earlier in the meeting by members of the public. Doing so at this point affords the City Manager the opportunity to do so when there are few if any members of the public or press still around to hear, and, in my experience even if we are present, it isn’t clear that we are allowed to raise our hands to comment on these comments:(
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