City council gathers remotely

City Manager Kevin Dorn started the April 20 City Council meeting with an update on city happenings – including a furlough plan implemented to save taxpayers while keeping employees’ salaries and benefits whole (see last week’s paper for the full story).

The move should save the city about $17,000 per week, Dorn said.

Other business included:

Local Emergency Operations Plan

Fire and Rescue Chief Terry Francis presented the council with the Local Emergency Operations Plan, which must be adopted annually. It is due to the regional planning commission by May 1.

“We certainly have used this the last five or six weeks,” Francis said. “It has worked very well. Vermont has been ahead of the game when it comes to how these programs work.”

About five weeks ago the city began a virtual emergency management group. Through this work the city received Personal Protective Equipment and learned how to best serve people staying in area hotels because of COVID-19, Francis said.

As of April 20, South Burlington responders transported about 83 patients with “COVID-type” ailments to the hospital, and a second ambulance had been prepared to answer calls.

Francis said the effort has not been easy – or cheap.

“We have to listen to the science on this pandemic. Vermont’s done a very good job on it,” he said.

School budget

School Superintendent David Young brought with him the draft budget proposal.

The proposal has not been approved or warned for a vote, but the board will likely make those decisions soon, he said.

The draft proposal represents a 3.8% budget increase over FY20, which would result in an estimated 5.91% tax rate increase, as previously reported.

Elizabeth Fitzgerald, a member of the school board, said there has been “a lot of loud community input” looking for a level-funded budget at either the expense line or the tax rate line.

She said the budget would have to be cut by another $2 million in order to achieve level-funding while covering the district’s increased enrollment and health care expenses.

Councilor David Kaufman encouraged the district to consider calling for level wages for its teachers.

“I don’t think that’s asking too much, quite honestly,” he said. “Everybody’s got to pitch in here.”

IZ extended

• The council will hold a public hearing on interim zoning on June 22

• The council moved to extend interim zoning through June 22

Councilor Thomas Chittenden, who has vocalized his opposition to the interim zoning bylaw in the past, supported the measure after information came from city legal counsel.

“It just makes a lot of sense because of the circumstances we find ourselves in,” he said.

TIF resolution

The council signed a resolution calling on the governor for a one-year extension on the timeline for incurring tax-increment financing debt, as well as tax-increment financing revenue.

“With the uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 situation, and the impact on the economy and on taxpayers, we really feel like we need an extra year of breathing room here in order to have a realistic chance of getting our projects in,” Dorn told the council.

Four-legged folk

The council unanimously voted to waive the late fee for dog and cat registration through June 30.