Burlington city attorney Eileen Blackwood made it clear Monday night: The mayor and police chief would not say more than they already have about their attempts to dispute the autopsy report for a man who died after a confrontation with a cop last month.
City councilors had hoped to get answers from Mayor Miro Weinberger and Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo about their intervention efforts but heard more of the same during the discussion hosted in a packed City Hall conference room.
“The chief and I have been questioned again and again by members of the media … about the actions that took place here. We have shared as much as we can about that,” Weinberger said. “The attorney general does not want the facts of the case discussed any further.”
Weinberger said “there’s a difference of opinion” about why he and del Pozo contacted state officials regarding chief medical examiner Steven Shapiro’s ruling that 54-year-old Douglas Kilburn’s manner of death was a homicide. Kilburn was found dead in his home March 14, three days after Burlington officer Cory Campbell punched him repeatedly in the face. The medical examiner concluded that other underlying health factors also likely contributed to Kilburn’s death.
Once Vermont State Police finish their investigation, “reasonable people” will understand “the actions that we took,” Weinberger said.
Blackwood instructed councilors to only ask questions about what’s been publicly reported in the media — everything else would need to be discussed in executive session, she said.
But after 45 minutes, none of the 11 councilors present moved to enter a closed session, which would have presumably permitted more candor from the mayor and chief and would have allowed councilors to watch body camera footage of the March 11 confrontation. Councilor Franklin Paulino (D-North District), a deputy Chittenden County state’s attorney, recused himself because of a potential conflict with his job and left the room.
Councilor Ali Dieng (D/P-Ward 7), one of two elected officials who requested to hear from Weinberger and del Pozo, said his aim was simply to learn why they got involved.
“Many people have so many questions and concerns, and we need those questions to be answered,” he said.
Councilor Max Tracy (P-Ward 2) asked Weinberger and del Pozo why they contacted Gov. Phil Scott’s office and Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine, respectively, before Shapiro’s report was made public and not after. Tracy wondered if they’d do the same if a similar situation arose again.
Del Pozo said he thought that talking to Levine beforehand was more appropriate than engaging in a public squabble. Weinberger said the city attorney had no issues with him and del Pozo questioning the “unusual” autopsy finding.
Councilor Perri Freeman (P-Central District) wondered why Shapiro’s credibility was questioned at all, but Blackwood stopped that line of questioning.
“We’re getting into the details of what happened,” she said.
Councilor Sharon Bushor (I-Ward 1) asked if Blackwood could clarify the difference between “homicide” and “murder,” but city officials wouldn’t go there.
“I don’t see how to answer that question without getting into the standards the medical examiner used to make the determination,” Weinberger said.
Shortly after, Council President Kurt Wright (R-Ward 4) recessed the special meeting and convened the regularly scheduled one upstairs, where two community members urged the council to hold the officials accountable. Charles Winkleman named two other Vermonters killed by Burlington police — Wayne Brunette in 2013 and Phil Grenon in 2016 — and said officials have done nothing.
“Who will be held responsible for this? You are the only ones left to be a check on the mayor and the police chief,” Winkleman said. “What changes will we see from you?”
Brian Waters suggested Kilburn was killed for “being in the way” and urged the council to view the body camera footage.
Later in the meeting, councilors heard a long-awaited briefing on the CityPlace Burlington mall development — though that, too, did not yield much new information.
Will Voegele, senior vice president at managing partner Brookfield Properties Development, could not answer councilors’ primary question: When will the mall project be shovel-ready?
Instead, he said company representatives have regularly been in Burlington since Brookfield’s last city council update in January and are currently waiting on construction bids to return. He confirmed the project’s financing is solid.
Several councilors complained communication has not been frequent enough. Councilor Karen Paul (D-Ward 6) said she wants to see Brookfield at council meetings more often even if there isn’t much to say.
Councilor Chip Mason (D-Ward 5) said the public perception is that the project isn’t happening, and if councilors seem pushy, it’s “to prove to the public this is real.”
Months of delays have plagued the development. Don Sinex, a minority partner in the project, once promised that the controversial 14-story mall redevelopment would be completed by January 2019. Little has happened at the site since last August.
Even though he couldn’t provide a date certain for construction, Voegele said getting there is his team’s primary focus. He promised to deliver the councilors a more detailed update in writing in the next few days.
Closing the discussion, Wright homed in on councilors’ biggest concern: “You are still 100 percent behind this project?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Voegele said.
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Brookfield is bidding time:
April 30, 2019
Brookfield”s New York real estate division, Brookfield Property Partners, is going to launch an Opportunity Zone fund, Bloomberg reported.
We are launching a fund in the next month or two,”
The federal program came out of the 2017 tax reform, and provides government incentives to developers who invest in low-income areas.
…incentives are designed to promote building in places that are otherwise crippled,
https://therealdeal.com/2019/04/30/brookfi…
“But after 45 minutes, none of the 11 councilors present moved to enter a closed session, which would have presumably permitted more candor from the mayor and chief and would have allowed councilors to watch body camera footage of the March 11 confrontation.”
Of course not, the point of the whole exercise was to publicly virtue signal and pander to the mob, not gain knowledge.
WHY did Council fail to review the video? Councilors are representatives of the public. The city attorneys work for the mayor, as do ALL the department heads now, but councilors work for us — not for the mayor, not for the police chief, not for developers. This council made some feeble attempts to talk like they were representing the public, but their failure to review that video speaks volumes. Similarly, failure to require monthly reports from the City Center project managers in open council meetings, failure to order the removal of the mural from the marketplace, failure to put a citizen initiative question on the ballot — the same pattern of failures continues. Once elected, councilors become members of the mayor’s club, exclusive of the public. What a disappointment.
I’m liberal, believe in the city allowing new development; and am completely sick of walking past the hole in the ground that used to be something (on Town Meeting Day, the only visible activity to have happened at the great hole since last year took place; someone from the mayor’s and/or city councilors’ offices must have paid workers to move piles of dirt around for a couple of hours).
Since they will not do their job and replace the developer, we voters need to bear that in mind and plan to replace them next time around…
“Eileen Blackwood is behaving like another attorney who is doing nothing but running interference for their boss.”
No. She is a former very liberal plaintiff’s side private practice attorney wo represented the victims in the legal world (tenants, discrimination victims, fired employees, injured people, etc.). Now she is a devoted and hardworking public servant who diligently represents the best interests of her client, the City of Burlington, and who is guided by and follows the law, not the moods and feelings of the holier-than-thou mob.
I don’t know why the city council doesn’t realize this property developer is sandbagging them. The delays are intentianal effort to wring more concessions out of the city. This is part of the property developer playbook. See Steve Roth of Vornado in Boston: he also delayed once he had destroyed a downtown area.
City council is asking the wrong questions. They should threaten to pull the permit and award the project to another developer.
This isn’t about crooked trump, it’s about what the city council failed to do. They should have gone into executive meeting and view the footage of the video. But why not? Apparently they can’t be to interested in what actually happened.
And about the new mall. It seems that is dragging on way to long……
Since when has this story been about Trump?
Someone is suffering an acute case of TDS, poor lost soul.
Liberals acting like liberals have already dragged down Burlington, the way Obama dragged down our country, or have you missed the news about the repeated sewage dumps into Lake Champlain?
Thank God Trump arrived to save us from the Clinton Crime Family, and more of this liberal hide and seek that we see on display with Burlington’s liberal class, where the rules don’t apply to them, just like the corrupt Clintons.
This is a lot of words to say nothing, which actually perfectly captures what happened with the mayor.
Eileen Blackwood is behaving like another attorney who is doing nothing but running interference for their boss: AG Bill Barr, who has shown himself to be nothing but a lawless political hack. Miro and Del Pozo both sound like Trump: stonewalling and acting like they did nothing wrong in spite of the obvious meddling they have done.
Burlington deserves better than this. It is time for both Miro and Del Pozo to hit the road and beat it out of town before they drag down Burlington the way Trump is degrading the country hour by hour.
Finally City Council didn’t kow-tow to Miro and retreat into yet another cowardly Executive Session, you know, that black hole where the public can not hear anything and no light shines, just the way Miro likes it.
When asked when City Place, aka The Tumor, will be shovel- ready, Will Voegele started shoveling, but it sounded like what he was shoveling was BS.
Ah, Burlington . . the Hindenburg of New England.