By Michael Bielawski
In an election that included non-citizen participation, Queen City residents voted to create new police oversight powers that take some control away from the chief regarding disciplinary matters.
Residents voted for the charter change 62.5% to 37.5%, or 11,398 to 6,847 votes. These are unofficial results from the city.
Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak is calling the move “a compromise that moves us in the right direction.” She further said the City would “continue to find ways to heed the calls for racial justice and fair and impartial policing practices.”
Before the change can officially become law, it must be approved by the state’s newly reshuffled “purple” legislature.
Police: “feel our professional input was disregarded”
Chief Jon Murad as well as the Burlington Police Officers Association have each expressed concerns that this feel-good sounding initiative will ultimately hinder their efforts to attract strong candidates to police Burlington.
Their statement includes, “We believe this question was presented to voters in a fashion that did not afford appropriate analysis to make a truly informed assessment. While we value the opinions of all Burlington residents, we as a union, representing our members, and with what we believe the best intentions of our community in mind, will continue to express our disagreement with this charter change, next at the State level.”
A power shift?
The charter change says this will “further define the role of the police chief and police commission, providing opportunity for the police chief and police commission to jointly establish rules and regulations for the police department and for the city council to resolve any dispute with respect to the same and for the council to delegate the authority for auditing or monitoring of the police department to the police commission.”
It took the Burlington City Council three years to appoint Chief Jon Murad from interim to official chief status. Also, the Council defunded the department by about a third via attrition in June of 2020. The workload per remaining officer has about doubled since that time, and crime rates have risen substantially.
The referendum adds new people to those who will be doing this oversight. They are, “adding a stated intent for the police commission to include representation from the diverse nature of the city’s constituents.”
The proposal will also provide, “a process for review of alleged misconduct of members of the police department, with opportunity for review and recommendation by the police commission, including the ability to review documents and other evidence relevant to the allegation as the City Council shall determine by ordinance, on any disposition of an allegation of misconduct by any member of the police department, aside from the chief, who shall continue to answer to the city council for any such allegation.
In some scenarios, the chief could see a decision he makes regarding disciplinary actions overturned.
This panel would be “as appointed by ordinance for determination of the disposition of an allegation of misconduct (subject to appeal rights), where the chief of police does not accept the police commission’s recommendation and after ⅔ vote of the police commission, provided that department members shall retain appeal rights of any such disposition to the police commission or in the case of conflict of such body, the independent panel?”
Non-citizen voting
Non-citizens voted in this election in Burlington. There was a lawsuit against the city regarding this as reported by VDC in June.
“Plaintiffs seek an injunction compelling Defendant to refrain from implementing the invalid voting scheme, including refraining from registering noncitizen voters to participate in education-related elections and referendums in the City of Burlington,” the report states.
A report on Daily Caller notes that illegals voting in this year’s elections are a continuous problem nationwide.
“Several states say that the Biden-Harris administration has not cooperated with their efforts to prevent noncitizens from voting. The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Virginia in October and Alabama in September over their efforts to remove noncitizens too close to the election. Texas, Ohio and Florida filed their own lawsuits against the administration this month for allegedly hampering their efforts, while other states told the Daily Caller News Foundation the federal government has not supported attempts to identify noncitizen voters.”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle