New Burlington mayor plans for future, tackling community safety, budget, climate and more

With about eight working days under her belt as mayor, Emma Mulvaney-Stanak has stayed just as optimistic about leading Burlington as she was during her campaign.

It's been a busy induction into office, between an earthquake, the arson at Sen. Bernie Sanders' office, the total solar eclipse and the remaining weeks of the budget cycle, she's had to hit the ground running.

"It's been a big, big learning curve," Mulvaney-Stanak said. "There is no training manual for being the mayor of Burlington, or any city. But it's been great."

She has met with 16 of the 18 department heads, a process she started before being sworn into office on April 1. Her enthusiasm is something she takes pride in, placing community building as a cornerstone of her time in office and hoping it proves to Burlington residents why she's the right woman for this job.

But she has a long road and challenging obstacles ahead to secure that praise. For all of Burlington's beauty and uniqueness, it faces problems like any other city. In a phone interview with the Burlington Free Press, Mulvaney-Stanak addressed those concerns and her plans to combat them in the next year and beyond.

Closing the deficit

Before most plans can be put into action, the city's budget needs to be finalized. Mulvaney-Stanak said it will take most of April to solidify plans, especially when Burlington is facing the Goliath of a $9 million budget deficit.

Optimizing priorities is essential to closing this gap and according to Mulvaney-Stanak "it's going to take a lot of hard conversations."

The city has been using one-time funds, which is "not how to run a city," so Mulvaney-Stanak wants to be cautious moving forward. It's a fine line between meeting the city's needs and being realistic. There are many positions she'd like to fill and new one's she'd love to create, but she needs to prioritize what is needed the most.

Allocating funds, especially in a deficit, is a challenge. To combat the city's most pressing issue − public safety − Mulvaney-Stanak is considering raising property tax rate.

Added taxes isn't something residents necessarily want to hear, especially when money seems to be tight for a lot of Vermonters between inflation and increasing cost of housing. Mulvaney-Stanak, a homeowner on the Old North End, acknowledges that struggle for her residents.

"I'm taking it very seriously whether or not we should increase the public safety tax," Mulvaney-Stanak said, "People are already paying quite a bit. I want to be very careful about focusing on making a budget that is reasonable and doesn't cut severe city services that people really rely on."

More information about allocation of funds can be found in the coming weeks as the city solidifies its plans.

Community safety

After securing a strong budget, community safety will be the next big priority. This umbrella term covers many facets of "safety", including concerns of crime, the unhoused population, addiction and mental illness, and housing.

In securing the budget, Mulvaney-Stanak wants to implement some new positions to oversee many of the concerns with public safety.

One potentially new position she referenced as the go-to person to answer many questions is "special systems position," who would analyze data surrounding safety concerns and implement ways to address them. She also strives to work with community and minority groups that are often overlooked and take that input to address many of the safety concerns.

Safety concerns include the city's crime problem, but also aims to protect the city's most vulnerable. Mulvany-Stanak wants to build a budget that's reflective of that, and not leaning too heavily one issue or another. May will be a time to implement these changes, with meetings already being scheduled to tackle what safety issues to address in what capacity. More information will be released at that time, but the mayor wants people to know that she has been listening and watching and is prioritizing community safety.

The Burlington Police Department has faced many changes in the past handful of years, something Burlingtonians have split opinions about. Mulvaney-Stanak said that having a police force of the appropriate size is important, with enough officers to enforce and keep the city safe, but adding positions that specialize in outreach for those struggling with mental health crisis or drug addiction. It's something that will be addressed with the impending budget, but she stresses that, ideally, those in outreach won't report to the police department, but a more appropriate sector.

Climate crisis

While climate action is important to residents of the Queen City − who take pride in the state's natural resources and recreation − Mulvaney-Stanak said that it's a few ticks down on the priority list but will be addressed in late summer or fall this year.

She praised work that has already been done, mentioning Burlington Electric Department and other organizations working toward climate stability.

Former Mayor Miro Weinberger had set a goal for the city to have "net zero" emissions by 2030, and while the city made progress toward that goal, Mulvaney-Stanak said it's not a real possibility to reach that in six years.

Nonetheless, she aims to continue reducing the cities emissions and striving toward a healthy ecosystem in this section of Vermont. For now, she has been organizing community clean-ups to get out and work with residents while putting in work to keep the streets and parks clean.

Building a strong community

While Burlington has often been a space of free expression in art, music, comedy, like any other city, a dark dichotomy exists. Recently, stickers with transphobic sayings have been found around the city, and the recent shooting of three Palestinian students shows that work still needs to be done to minimize hate and inequality.

As Burlington's first female and openly LGBTQ mayor, Mulvaney-Stanak said she has seen personally that "it's real, and that kind of hate is out there."

She said it's something she has discussed with the department heads, the drive to build an inclusive city that understands what equity is. She is working with the City Council to build conversations and spaces around free speech while also addressing harm that can come with that. It's work that takes longer, with many problems needed to be addressed as they happen, but work she said is just as important as any other.

Mulvaney-Stanak said that building a strong community wouldn't be possible without the dedicated city staff. In her first two weeks, she has been "so darn impressed" by people's dedication.

"When departments have a chance to work together and cooperate, things turn out really well," Mulvaney-Stanak said, highlighting that collaboration will be a central part of her approach as a mayor.

"I'm really appreciative of knowing that's the kind of team I am stepping in to help lead, and that's the really the way to head Burlington," she said.

Sydney P. Hakes is the Burlington city reporter. Contact her at SHakes@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Burlington mayor address for public safety, fiscal budget, more