by Mike Donoghue
BURLINGTON – Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, who has come under heavy fire in the past week for accepting free home-cooked dinners from the community because she thinks she is overwhelmed by her new job, continues to avoid most local media members.
Mulvaney-Stanak and her office has refused to return phone calls to local media members and ignored them when they meet up with her at public events.
NBC5 (WPTZ-TV) and Vermont News First were among those attending one of the new weekly community engagement events that Mulvaney-Stanak said she started this month to provide “more access to the Mayor’s Office.” Mulvaney-Stanak told more than a dozen people attending the public session in the Old North End that she would make general comments about her first two months on the job and answer questions. She said she would save time at the end for anybody who wanted to ask questions in private last Thursday .
She said everybody could ask questions and she would try to be as open and transparent as possible. Mulvaney-Stanak put no limitations on the session – except that all changed when media members tried to ask her questions as she wrapped up the session.
Media members had withheld their questions during the one-hour public session to await the private chance the Mayor had offered. As she prepared to leave at 5:30 p.m. to go to the 40th anniversary party for Channel 17/Town Meeting Television, Mulvaney-Stanak was asked by both NBC5 (WPTZ-TV) and Vermont News First to take a minute to answer a few questions.
Vermont News First wanted primarily to ask about a long-requested sit-down session by multiple local media members with the Mayor on the grounds rules she planned to impose on reporters during her tenure and what she could expect from the media. Multiple print and electronic outlets had asked for the session since her election in early March, and nothing has been set up by the Mayor or her staff.
Mulvaney-Stanak insisted she had to leave for the party, which was scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. When reminded she promised the audience she would take questions in private, Mulvaney-Stanak said she would not talk to the media.
Mulvaney-Stanak was reminded that she and her chief spokesperson Joe Magee had failed repeatedly to respond to media members in a timely way. Mulvaney-Stanak then claimed she had told Vermont News First not to use her cell phone. She had to be corrected because she had never spoken with Vermont News First and never returned a phone call.
She insisted that she “really had to get to my next meeting.” The party had been elevated to a meeting. She then left quickly, telling reporters they could talk to her chief of staff, Erin Jacobsen. A renewed request through Jacobsen to get the Mayor in touch with the media was unfulfilled as of Monday.
Mulvaney-Stanak has been under heavy criticism since the news story first broke last Tuesday afternoon for her being part of a MealTrain.Com solicitation effort directed at taxpayers to provide free meals for the Mayor, and her wife, and their two children. Mulvaney-Stanek’s wife is Megan Moir, the director of water resources for the city, and they have combined salaries of about $250,000 a year.
About four hours after the news story broke, the website that sought people to sign up with free meals for the Mulvaney-Stanak family was de-activated. The Mayor, who took office April 1, remained silent that day.
The next day as the criticism increased, especially from women, Mulvaney-Stanak doubled down with prepared statements for two local TV stations (WCAX and WPTZ). The Mayor apparently left out the rest of the local media, including Vermont News First, which broke the news story. The statements to the two TV stations tried to explain the need by Mulvaney-Stanak to accept the free home-cooked meals because she said she was working hard for taxpayers as the first woman to serve as mayor and cited her two children at home.
By Sunday, Mulvaney-Stanak had tripled down on the free meals when she appeared on “What Matters This Week,” the public affairs program on Local ABC 22 and Local Fox 44 in Colchester. Under questioning by veteran local TV anchor Lauren Maloney, Mulvaney-Stanak said she thought the incident was a distraction for her.
Maloney noted that the free meals had dominated discussion in the city in recent days
“I’m the first woman to be Mayor of Burlington and the first one with two small children,” she said. Mulvaney-Stanak made no mention of her predecessor Miro Weinberger, who also had two young children while serving as Mayor. Maloney asked if she had thought about the optics of taking free meals.
“Everyone should be able to access support from their community and their neighbors when they have difficult and challenging things that they are doing in their life.
She said neighbors had asked how they could help and she said a home-cooked meal would be welcomed.
“A home cooked meal would be really nice every once in a while,” she told Maloney.
Instead of an informal food drop-off, a MealTrain.Com website was established with more than 300 people invited to sign up for specific dates – and it apparently took off. The Mulvaney-Stanak website had been operating for a couple of months and she had recently asked that it be cut back to only Mondays, according to a note on the website.
“It was very informal,” the Mayor explained on What Matters This Week. She did acknowledge during the interview that she has been working to try to deal with a projected deficit of $9 million that is now estimated at $13.1 million. Her wife, Megan Moir, also has declined to respond to a request for an interview.
The story and the Mayor’s limited response have both become a news story statewide — and beyond. The former state legislator and head of the Vermont Progressive Party has found herself in the media across the state, including on the front page of the Caledonian Record in St. Johnsbury. The story has generated discussion and calls on the Morning Drive Show on WVMT radio in Colchester in recent days. It has spread on multiple social media platforms.