By Guy Page
Newly-elected Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak of Burlington will seek to reduce the city’s $13 million budget deficit in part by defunding most of the city’s Racial Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity department.
Hiring of new police officers, however, will not be affected by the budget woes. The city PD has been working to build its roster ever since DEI supporters on the City Council partially defunded the force in 2021, in the wake of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis and the rise of the Black Lives Matters movement.
According to an April 25 statement by Mulvaney-Stanak’s office, a budget team led by former mayor Peter Clavelle would help her deliver a plan to reduce the $13 million deficit – four million more than expected. Details of the proposed budget reduction delivered Monday night included defunding (not filling) 22 ‘vacant positions’ in city government, including Director Kim Carson and two-thirds of the RDEI positions. The savings from the RDEI cuts amounts to $1.4 million, according to WCAX news reports.
According to the city’s RDEI website, “The City of Burlington created the Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (REIB) in 2019 and, amidst nationwide protests in defense of Black Lives and uneven impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on BIPOC communities, the City made a commitment to “further racial justice” by allocating an initial $1M to the Racial Justice Fund of the City’s FY21 annual budget, and by declaring racism “a public health crisis.” In 2021, Burlington also became one of the only municipalities in the nation to establish a task force on reparations. “
“The ‘Queen City’ has long blazed the trail for the rest of the state as well as the nation,” the site said.
However, the RDEI was not without controversy within city government. It was considered a thorn in the side of former Mayor Miro Weinberger, who successfully resisted efforts by the first DEI director, Tyeastia Green, to surrender control of police operations and discipline. Green resigned in February 2022 after saying she didn’t feel welcome in Burlington.
Green left her next DEI job in Minneapolis under a cloud of financial mismanagement. The City of Burlington subsequently found she had also mismanaged finances for the Juneteenth celebrations. No fraud was alleged in either case.
After establishing that racism was ‘a public health crisis,’ the City of Burlington funded the RDEI with pandemic-related one-time funding grants. Most of that funding has been spent and federal funds have dried up, requiring city taxpayers to foot the bill for continued operations.
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Categories: Burlington
DEI is no more than lipstick on a racist pig. At it’s base it’s still racism, two wrongs do not make a right, and a pig is a pig .
Cities that stray from the basic goals of providing good police, fire, public works and utilities will always suffer financially. The leadership is always inept. They fail.
I think we can assume that this defunding is temporary, but i will hesitantly give the new Mayor points for common sense, and maybe some level of admission on her part that all this race hysteria is windowdressing at best and counterproductive and inflammatory at worst. The most significant “public health crisis” in Burlington is the lack of crime prevention, enforcement and prosecution.
The mayor has come to the same conclusion that many universities and the entire state of Florida arrived at realizing the DEI was the problem not the solution.
Where did the DEI agenda originate from? The United Nations. When reading this article please note how the UN would use UNESCO to educate (a.k.a. indoctrinate young people) to be anti racists to achieve social justice. The public education system globally is driven by UNESCO. UNESCO educational programs include Common Core; Social, Emotional and Learning; and Gender and Queer Theory.
https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/eliminating-racial-discrimination-challenges-prevention-and-enforcement-prohibition
All across the nation, the DEI chickens are coming home to roost. And what a beautiful homecoming it is. Truth always prevails.
Truth is marching on! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.
Vermont’s black population has a higher educational attainment rate than whites. Their median income range is in the same range as the whites. The whole BLM agenda was inserted to reignite race issues not rectify it.
Maybe there is hope for Burlington (and Vermont) after all.
Good let it die on the vine
Well, I have my reservations about the new Mayor, but this is a step in the right direction, removing the foolishness from City Government to please a hand
handful !!
Burlington needs a leader, let’s see if she’s up to the task and not just an overpaid community organizer, this good first step, don’t be blinded by requests for nonsense
policies, costing taxpayers ” homeowners ” financial concerns, with the bloated tax base, if you work with them, they’ll work with you Mayor
Burlington the Queen City, or Burlington Cesspool.
I gotta admit my jaw dropped as I started reading this article. I went back and reread just to make sure I understood. This is absolutely hilarious. Could you just imagine if the new mayor speaks out against drag queen story hour as well? HA!! Fingers crossed. Oh this could get fun!!
SCOTUS: “The court issued a ruling in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars employers from discriminating in decisions like lateral transfers, without requiring employees to show that the discriminatory decision caused “significant” disadvantage. Apr 17, 2024” “In its holding, the Court eased the pathway for more workplace-bias lawsuits based on transfers to proceed.”
The Supreme Court case law opened the flood gates to more lawsuits. The expense of fighting a lawsuit (insurance premiums skyrocket defending such suits) is likely part and parcel driving the departure of DEI racist violations of civil rights. I’m sure there are undisclosed settlements and mediations that have hit pockets bigly as well. The boycotts of corporatations has hit the pockets hard as well. The fraud and money laundering behind the scam is being discovered and prosecuted as well.