The Burlington Democratic caucus on Thursday included an alliance with a Progressive — and featured a fiery speech of support from the mayor — as party members picked their slate of four city council candidates ahead of Town Meeting Day.
Central District voters endorsed Progressive City Council President Jane Knodell, while voters in the city’s North District backed independent Councilor Dave Hartnett for that seat. Party members also unanimously selected Councilor Joan Shannon to run for the South District seat and nominated newcomer Richard Deane to take a shot at winning the East District.
One decision came with its fair share of detractors. Applause waned and at least one person booed when Mayor Miro Weinberger asked party members to nominate the incumbent Knodell for the Central District seat after no Democrat volunteered to run for the post.
“In the face of a hijacking of her party, she has stood firm in the belief that expanding economic opportunity [leads to] expanding equity,” he told the crowd, which included 2016 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Sue Minter, Vermont Democratic Party executive director Conor Casey and state representatives.
At other points in his speech, Weinberger lambasted city Progressives for nominating candidates “from a reactionary fringe that is opposed to much of what we are trying to achieve.”
Though never explicitly named, Weinberger’s remarks appeared to take aim at those who vocally opposed the Burlington mall redevelopment and other development projects supported by the administration. Charles Simpson, a Progressive who opposed the mall redevelopment plan, is competing with Shannon for the South District seat, while Genese Grill, another outspoken mall opponent, will run against Knodell as an independent.
Knodell also faced a challenge at the Progressive caucus last month from Tony Redington, yet another mall opponent.
“There is a struggle going on for the soul of the party of Sanders, Clavelle and Knodell,” Weinberger said of the Progressives.
The local Progressive Party chapter opposed the mall redevelopment proposal, but Knodell was an outspoken proponent of the project.
“I’m thankful to Jane for all she did in breaking with her party to support the town center,” Weinberger told Central District voters.
Knodell did not attend the caucus at Edmunds Middle School, but Weinberger said she agreed to accept the Democratic nomination if she won it.
Voters acquiesced to Weinberger’s request, but not without opposition. Several voted “no” in a voice vote and former Democratic state lawmaker Alan Bjerke called the move “dangerous for the party.”
The Democrats welcomed independent Dave Hartnett back into the fold after the party nominated another candidate at the caucus two years ago. Hartnett then ran and won the 2015 election as an independent — but willingly accepted the Democratic nomination this time around. “I’m like the mother-in-law you can’t get rid of,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s a big party and I believe all views should be welcome,” he said, adding that his views often fall to the right of the party center.
Deane works as an architect for TruexCullins, a career that he says sets him up well to serve on the council. “My training is to evaluate what I see, come up with ideas for clients to meet their future needs and put together a plan to make it happen,” he said.
As chair of the Burlington Business Association, Deane testified in support of the mall redevelopment before the city council last year. He decided to run recently, he said, at the urging of Weinberger and Shannon, whom he calls friends.
The East District is wide open after Selene Colburn, a Progressive, won a seat in the Vermont House and announced that she would resign from the council. Deane will face Charles Winkleman, chair of the Progressive Party, in the March election.
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Excuse me, ” Know Your Assumptions,” my Sud End name happens to be connected to an old Facebook account which has since been changed to my real name. But it comes up this way on the comments…I don’t know why. As anyone who knows me knows, I am happy to express my criticisms, have done so on my campaign page, in the newspaper, and openly at city meetings, and have been doing so for years. My first comment came after reading about the Mayor’s speech. I was reacting to quotes in the newspaper. The second came after watching the speech. Have a nice day.
SEB8085 isn’t commenting pseudonymously on an article about himself or herself!
What’s even more amazing is that Grill’s second comment here (8:36) pm shows that she criticized the Mayor’s speech before she had even seen it.
Is that seb8085 hiding behind a pseudonym????!
Hypocritical? Negative? Credible?
FYI, the person posting as “Sud End” is Genese Grill- the person running against Jane Knodell! Why doesn’t she use her real name here, instead of trolling as a “commenter” with negative things to say about the other side?! Please, if you’re going to run a negative campaign, at least own it, instead of hiding under a pseudonym!
Oh, Mr. Petrarca, you are a genius! Your inspired parody of tired, old American socialist radicals is priceless! I remember reading about these deluded old-time activists in history class in college! “Reds,” they were called. And “Wobblies.” They were so nave! They actually fell for their own slogans! But as we know the world moved on! I love your creative use of propaganda terms like “pro 1% gentrification agenda,” “Orwellian doublespeak,” “build the grassroots campaign,” “Fight neo-liberal capitalism,” and “fight neo-fascism.” Genius, I say! Pure genius! Please, keep us laughing! Thanks!
Prior to the Coalition for a Livable City’s(CLC) challenge to Wall Street multi-millionaire Don Sinex’s zoning ordinance-busting 14-story Mall, Miro could easily count on his city council minions like Knodell, Shannon, Hartnett, et,al to coalesce around his pro-1% gentrification agenda. His narrow citywide victory (except Wards 2/3) is now being challenged in the courts by the CLC. This unraveling of his plans is what’s at the heart of his outrageous smearing and, as previous poster correctly stated, “Orwellian doublespeak”. This desperation is a sign of weakness. People now smell his blood in the water. We all have two challenges: One, defeat Knodell and Shannon and Deane at the polls on March 7. Two, build the grassroots campaign to overturn his gentrification plans for City Hall Park, Memorial Auditorium and the Champlain Parkway. Fight neo-liberal capitalism while we fight Trump’s neo-fascism
After months of dialogue and city council speeches, those who opposed a zoning change to allow 14-story buildings are reduced to sound bites of “no growth”, anti-growth” and in this forum, “anti-everything”. There is an unwillingness to listen and acknowledge the voices of nearly half the voters. Growth is good when thoughtful, and it follows true public process – when it takes the most vulnerable citizens into account along with a changing climate. PlanBTV, our guiding public document was ignored when it came to a handshake with a developer to re-zone the city center. That pre-development agreement was essentially unchanged by public opposition. Now the mayor demonstrates further misunderstanding of citizens. The “fringe” he talks of, are all the hard working people in Burlington who have trouble affording market rate housing and living on less than livable wages. I’m delighted that independent thinkers have stepped up to represent the citizens and provide an alternative to Miro cronyism.
Anti-everything Progressives don’t get their way, losing influence, lash out. This group ruled the city council using machine tactics in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, now complain about others who outmaneuver them. Weinberger’s remarks right on target.
CLF and VNRC lobbied and endorsed the Sinex project because Noelle MacKay, Burlington CEDO Director, lobbied HEAVILY her former friends in these organizations. Noelle worked for VNRC under the former Smartgrowth Vermont banner, which merged with VNRC about 10 years ago.
Many current CLF employees in VT formerly worked at VNRC, and are close friends with Noelle MacKay, as well.
Local Motion endorsed the Sinex project because Chapin Spencer, founder and long-time Director of Local Motion is now the Burlington Public Works Director.
There you have it. Miro’s behind-the-scenes arm-twisting at work, and his long reach. Unlikely the Sinex proposal would have passed without these endorsements, and Miro knew it. For these organizations to come out in favor of an individual development proposal that goes from the allowed 10-stories to 14-stories, and bypasses current zoning, is so bizarre.
And for these membership-based organizations to endorse this project WITHOUT polling their own members is practically a crime. They should have stayed out of it.
After having watched the mayor’s speech (link above thanks to CCTV), I am appalled by his tactics. The mayor says that Progressives who opposed his hi-jacking of public process and community zoning are against the environment, against seniors, against the homeless, and against equity. His logic is as twisted as his methods. He somehow managed to convince organizations like the Conservation Law Firm, the AARP, COTS, and The Champlain Housing Trust to endorse the mall project, so now anyone who was against that project is against the things these organizations claim to defend! Wild. The real question we all should be asking is: Why did these organizations support this project?