Updated below with comment from Pam Mackenzie explaining her vote.
South Burlington grandmother Carmine Sargent, an opponent of the plan to base F-35 fighter jets at the airport near her home, lamented recently that so few of her neighbors were speaking out against the plane.
Dozens of them spoke out on Monday night.
Well over half of the 80-plus South Burlington residents addressing a special city council meeting urged the five-member body to reaffirm its earlier stand against the F-35 “bed-down.” Despite those occasionally emotional pleas, the council voted 3-2 in support of the basing plan at the chaotic conclusion of a three-and-a-half-hour meeting in the Chamberlin School gymnasium initially attended by about 250 local residents.
A few of the roughly 150 attendees still present in the uncomfortably warm gym at 9:30 p.m. shouted objections as council chair Pam Mackenzie refused to explain her decisive vote on the divisive issue. Mackenzie also would not explain why she alone among the councilors declined to state the reasons for her vote.
Mackenzie sided with councilors Pat Nowak and Chris Shaw, both of whom had soundly defeated F-35 opponents in local elections in March. Council members Rosanne Greco and Helen Riehle opposed the basing plan.
Prior to voting “hell, no,” Greco said she was “shocked” that her colleagues would want to bring the plane to South Burlington “after all we’ve heard tonight.” Greco, a retired Air Force colonel, drew a standing ovation after declaring that “blind acceptance is not patriotism.”
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How can you possibly say that “council members don’t appear to represent their community/constituents?” Do you recall that there was just an election??? The council DOES represent the will of the residents of So. Burlington, not just the noisy ones who showed up at this meeting.
Are you sure about the collective opinion of South Burlington residents? They did turn out two F-35 opponents and elect supporters in the most recent election. Town feedback meetings are nice, but elections are where the rubber meets the road.
It is truly unbelievable that in both Winooski and S Burlington, where opponents of the proposal FAR outweighed supporters, the officials, who were elected to REPRESENT them and protect their communities have turned a deaf ear. Perhaps all that jet noise, that doesn’t bother them, has already caused hearing loss?