Burlington Democrats sent an email to supporters late last month touting the recent accomplishments of their city councilors, including blocking two referenda questions that would have otherwise gone before the city’s electorate.
One would have allowed voters to weigh in on whether the Queen City should endorse an “apartheid-free community” pledge that takes aim at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — a stance that opponents have described as divisive or even antisemitic. Another advisory question would have asked voters whether the city should consider a “tax fairness” proposal that would lessen the burden on most homeowners by raising taxes on commercial buildings, rental properties and second homes.
The council’s Democratic majority — which holds seven of 12 seats — declined to put either of these nonbinding questions on the Town Meeting Day ballot.
“I am so proud to be part of this team,” Dem party chair Ryan Addario wrote in an email with the subject line “Democrats are Delivering and Resisting.” He added, “Our sitting City Councilors have managed to navigate incredibly difficult issues at City Hall. We are lucky to have them doing this work.”
Democrats are able to spike items endorsed by their five Progressive colleagues or pass measures over the minority’s objections.
Several times over the past few years, that “work” has included voting as a bloc to spike items endorsed by the council’s five Progressives and to pass measures over the minority’s objections. Hot-button topics such as public safety and Israel and Gaza have led to especially contentious discussions, with councilors in both parties interrupting each other or taking not-so-subtle shots at their colleagues.
Progressives hope to alter the power dynamic by winning the two contested seats that are up for election on Town Meeting Day. If they successfully defend Ward 8 and defeat the Democratic incumbent in Ward 7, the resulting 6-6 deadlock would force Democrats to collaborate to get things done. If the Dems win both seats, they will secure a veto-proof majority — a major political win when a Progressive, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, holds the top spot at city hall.
“I do hope that we can, after this Town Meeting Day election, have a council that is not going to be as bogged down in procedural stuff and tit-for-tat kind of arguments,” said Adam Franz, a cochair of the Burlington Progressive Party.
The stakes are high. In the coming months, councilors and the mayor must close yet another multimillion-dollar gap in the city budget while also addressing persistent public safety and affordability issues. In interviews, the four candidates vying for the two contested seats all said housing was a top priority.
Ward 8 encompasses much of the University of Vermont campus as well as nearby streets dominated by sometimes substandard student housing. Turnout in the Progressive-leaning ward is much lower than in other parts of the city. The transient nature of its residents and their low engagement makes campaigning difficult.
The neighborhood’s Progressive incumbent and candidate for reelection, Marek Broderick, has delivered at least one housing-related policy win for his constituents. In November, the council unanimously supported his resolution to increase city oversight of UVM dorms, which students had complained were dirty and unsuitable for habitation. Broderick, 23, is pursuing a biological sciences degree at UVM, though he said he’s taking this semester off. He now lives off-campus and is unemployed but applying for jobs, he said. Broderick grew up in Massachusetts and came to Burlington for school in 2021.
He said his campaign planks include building more affordable housing, investing in the city’s Housing Trust Fund and advocating for tenants’ rights, including a potential push for a rent stabilization program.
“I want to create a city where everyone can thrive, where everyone can afford to call home,” he said. “Because we all love this city.”
Broderick’s Democratic opponent, Ryan Nick, serves on the city’s planning commission and is a commercial real estate agent for J.L. Davis Realty, a downtown brokerage where his father, Jeff Nick, is president.
The 34-year-old Shelburne native, who’s lived in Burlington for 12 years, ran unsuccessfully for Ward 2 city councilor in 2020. In a recent interview, he touted his efforts to restart Ward 8’s Neighborhood Planning Assembly a couple of years ago and his work on the boards of the Burlington Business Association and the Flynn.
Nick said his community connections have helped him forge relationships with city councilors and other officials that would make it easier for him to learn the ropes as Ward 8’s representative.
He favors eliminating some of Burlington’s permitting red tape to spur housing construction. He’d like to loosen inclusionary zoning policies, which mandate that 15 to 25 percent of units must be affordable in new housing projects with five units or more. Five is too small for that requirement to be feasible for developers, he said. He also wants the city to get UVM to build more on-campus student housing.
Nick argues that Burlington has been in decline recently, in part because of the “high school drama” on the council. After watching meetings, he said, he wonders, What city business has really been accomplished? What have the taxpayers really gotten out of this?
“One of the reasons that we haven’t seen the pace of change that we need to address a lot of these crises is because the council can’t get out of their own way,” he said. “It seems like every day they wake up, tie their shoes together and try to run.”
Nick said his opponent, Broderick, had gummed up the works at one recent meeting by failing to share in advance with Democrats some substantive amendments to a resolution about “promoting community dialogue.” Nick argued that Broderick’s approach was unproductive and merely a way to score political points.
Broderick acknowledged that he could have sent his colleagues his proposed changes earlier, but he said the Progressive caucus had wanted to postpone the resolution, not actually debate it. When the proposal to postpone was shot down, he said, he felt he needed to amend the underlying resolution.
“I am for collaboration,” Broderick said, pointing to his UVM resolution, which had bipartisan support. “Obviously, I’m not going to deny that the council can be dysfunctional.”
In the New North End’s Ward 7, the Progs’ hopes for an upset depend on newcomer Bill Standen. He is facing Ward 7’s incumbent Democratic councilor, Evan Litwin, who won the seat with nearly 67 percent of the vote in 2024.
Standen, 28, moved to Burlington 10 years ago to attend Champlain College and now works for the Red Cross. Standen said Litwin’s vote against putting the “apartheid-free community measure” on the March ballot motivated him to run. Standen had supported the proposal for three years and was disappointed that Democrats shot it down each time.
“When a group goes through all the processes to have something voted on by our council or voted on by our city, I feel like that is something that we need to respect,” he said.
On housing, Standen spoke in support of rent stabilization policies in the city and asked why Litwin hadn’t sought them. But he could not explain how, specifically, he would implement such a policy. Standen also backed the “tax fairness” policy.
“We need the businesses to take their share of the tax burden, because our residents are the ones that right now are stuck with it,” he said.
Yet he also said the city needs to attract new businesses to raise revenue. In response to a question, he said he hadn’t considered that shifting more of the tax burden to commercial properties might actually drive businesses away.
He endorsed finding new revenues rather than slashing jobs and services to close the city’s budget gap.
The first-time candidate acknowledged that he was nervous during a Town Meeting TV forum earlier this month, his first big public appearance as a candidate. In response to a question about how to combat rising rents and encourage development, for instance, he became flustered: “Now we’re in a situation where we can’t have — we can’t have cake, and we can’t eat anything,” he said.
“We just can’t have — we don’t have — we just have rent going up through the roof,” Standen said. Seemingly aware of the confusing answer he’d given, he smiled and sheepishly apologized.
Standen told Seven Days that he’d be ready to serve if elected.
“If I was sitting there on the council, I think that a lot of [the nervousness] would disappear just because it would kind of be an indication that I am there because of my principles,” he said.
Litwin, 42, works as communications and marketing director for Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community, a youth substance-use prevention nonprofit. He said he prides himself on getting out in the neighborhood and talking to his constituents year-round. He tries to propose a resolution every seven weeks or so, he said, and is proud of some of the collaborative efforts he’s undertaken, including cosponsoring Broderick’s UVM dorm oversight proposal.
Litwin also touted his work researching syringe litter in the city. He found that only about half of nearly 1 million free needles handed out by Howard Center were being returned. A few months later, the center announced plans to close its needle exchange program on Clarke Street.
Litwin said he sees “affordability and livability” as the driving forces behind his policy decisions. Those issues will be key when dealing with the city’s $10 to $12 million budget gap, Litwin said, because, unlike his opponent, he believes major cuts to programs and services will be needed.
“We will just have to, as a community, have real conversations about what we think are essential city services,” he said. “I think police, fire. And if a water main breaks, we’ve got to be able to fix it, right? We need to be able to perform the basic functions of making sure that a city is safe and functional. But at the same time, where do the rest of those cuts come from?”
Litwin has often found himself in the middle of council spats, but he denied that the members have any real animosity toward one another.
“I do what I can to keep the temperature down,” Litwin said. “I can’t say for sure that I’m always able to do that.”
The candidates in this year’s two contested races have been relatively civil toward one another, although there was an awkward moment at the Ward 7 forum on Town Meeting TV. As the discussion wound down, Litwin stuck out his hand to shake with Standen.
But the Progressive candidate just nodded.
In an interview afterward, Standen said he’d intentionally refused to shake hands because Litwin had voted against putting the “apartheid-free community” pledge on the ballot. By voting no, Standen said, Litwin was “complicit in the apartheid.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Hot Seats | Democrats on the Burlington City Council have been flexing their majority. Progs hope to make gains on Town Meeting Day.”
This article appears in February 18 • 2026.
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