By Michael Bielawski
Non-citizens will be allowed to join the vote today on a public referendum in Burlington regarding new police oversight powers created by the City Council. The proposals appear in part to shift power over disciplinary actions away from the chief and the mayor, while giving the City Council more say.
The proposed charter change language includes, “to 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.”
For years, the Burlington Police Department and the mayor’s office had a rift with the City Council regarding the drawn-out appointment of Chief Jon Murad, which took three years.
The chief and Council have largely been at odds over their defunding by the Council by about a third via attrition in June of 2020. Since then, the workload per remaining officer has doubled, crime rates have substantially risen, and police responses have been limited for certain types of crimes.
Another component of the referendum is to add new faces to those doing the oversight. It proposes, “adding a stated intent for the police commission to include representation from the diverse nature of the city’s constituents.”
Another section deals with the review process for alleged misconduct of officers. It proposes, “providing 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.”
One part specifically outlines a scenario in which a decision by the chief could potentially be overturned by a new panel of three to five members.
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
Also, non-citizens will vote in this election in Burlington. A report about a lawsuit against the city regarding this initiative was 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