South Burlington City Council lukewarm on wards versus at-large elections

South Burlington’s City Council, hearing from the city charter committee on Monday, appeared lukewarm to the idea of changing the city’s at-large voting system to a ward-based system, but noted that more time is needed to consider whether changes should be made.

It was the first time the council took up the issue since charging the city’s charter committee in 2021 with exploring new governing models for the city and school board. That resolution asked the committee to investigate whether changes in the city’s electoral and governance systems in its council, administration and school board could “ensure that voices are equitably represented at policymaking tables” for the city’s growing population.

Their work, which began in earnest in spring 2022, touched on a variety of hypothetical changes. Committee members interviewed mayors, city managers, school board members and other actors throughout the state. Surveys and public forums were held to get a temperature of some proposed changes — like switching from a city manager to a mayor, expanding the number of both school board and council members, and switching from an at-large electoral system to a ward- or district-based system.

While Monday’s meeting marks a pause to the charter committee’s work, it begins what should be a continued dialogue for the city council. Any motion to make a charter change would first need approval from the city council before going on a ballot.

South Burlington is currently governed by a city manager and council chair form of government, with five councilors elected at-large to represent the city’s population of 20,000 people, with the city manager appointed by the council.

The committee’s final report recommended several changes — adding members to both the school board and the city council and keeping the city manager over switching to mayoral-based administration.

But the committee was split on the prospect of changing to a ward-based election system from the current at-large system. Wards — along with the issue of election campaign financing — have arisen as two of the most debated of the potential changes.

Six of the last seven councilors — and four of the five current members — all live in the city’s southeast quadrant, a tract of land that, were it its own municipality, would be the wealthiest in the state. Less than 23 percent of the city’s population live in this area.

“We’re not a small little Vermont town, and yet, our system of government is stuck as if nothing changes,” Dan Albrecht, a South Burlington resident, said. Having a ward-based candidate would mean residents “have a person who knows your experience, comes from that experience and represents you.”

“We’re all informed by the neighbors that we live around and our lived experience and there’s a very, very different lived experience from living in area that is exclusively zoned for single-family homes versus living on Shelburne Road,” he said. “The issues of crime, the issues of quality of life, the issues of traffic, are vastly different than a certain portion of our city.”

“It’s just good planning and good government, to my mind to move towards the geographic representation,” he said.

Roughly 38 percent of respondents to the charter committee’s survey wanted to keep council members elected at-large, while 33 percent and 30 percent of respondents, respectively, wanted council members elected from the city’s five wards, or with members elected from a combination of wards and at-large.

Charter committee members during their discussion could not come to a consensus on their recommendation, ultimately handing it off to the council.

But city council members on Monday night seemed skeptical that the switch would allow residents greater access to policymaking decisions.

Helen Riehle, the chair of the city council who served as a House representative and state senator in Vermont’s Legislature, said she thought that there was “a real value in being forced to look at the entire city, and not just thinking about ‘Well, I represent the airport and I care about (the Chamberlain neighborhood).’”

“I think by and large, we’ve been pretty responsive to anyone and everyone who comes to our council meetings and brings up issues,” she said. “I don’t think the system is broken. Would it be helpful to have a more racially diverse group? Sure. But I’m not sure a ward system will address that.”

Councilor Meaghan Emery, who has previously noted her hesitation to switching to wards, said that limiting each council to a ward would limit the work councilors do.

“Representing the city is what I do. If I were to be limited to a ward, my work would just, I feel, not serve the city well,” she said. “As big as you think we are, I have constituencies across the city, I have people who write to me regularly from every part of the city … To be deprived of those relationships, and not be able to benefit the city through those relationships, would impoverish what I do.”

“I think we all really do try and have the city’s best interests at heart,” city councilor Andrew Chalnick said. “We’re still the size where we can let good people that represent the entire city and have that that perspective to really do good for the entire city.”

Wards versus at-large was not the only discussion point. Councilors, discussing the prospect of adding more members to the dais, suggested that might add time to the length of council meetings — which already last from two to four hours.

That could dissuade residents who want to run for council from even trying in the first place.

“It’s challenging to get people who are not retired like myself to be able to spend this kind of time. That is a challenge,” Riehle said. “We aren’t in a position, I don’t think, to pay enough so that someone could see this as a real part-time job that pays them $30,000 so they can feel like they can spend the time and have the time.”

The issue of campaign finance also hung over the meeting, with some discussion over whether there were ways to cap spending on election campaigns or create a public finance mechanism.

More than $25,000 was spent among the five candidates in the March’s council elections — the majority of which of came from the southeast quadrant.

“What is the fairest process to try and get somebody elected because the public perceives him to be a valuable person to put on city council?” city councilor Tim Barritt said. “Money just blows that out of the water. It makes it less fair. That’s what bugs me.”

Emery said during Monday’s meeting that the council should spend more time deliberating over the recommendations of the charter committee before making a final decision.

“That’s a mighty charge, and I would just recommend that this be put on two or more meetings for us to truly think through what we want,” she said.