Vermont League of Cities and Towns
Equity Committee Meeting
September 19, 2022 – Via Zoom
Minutes
Members Present: VLCT Board member Co-Chair Lucrecia Wonsor, Brian Carroll, Cate Cross, Joy Dubin-Grossman, Alyssa Johnson, Ellen Kaye, Charles Keir, Kathleen Ramsay, Amanda Smith, and Al Voegele.
Others Present: VLCT staff: Executive Director Ted Brady, Abby Friedman, Jessica Hill, and Linda Mahns.
Agenda Item #1: Call to order by the Chair. Co-Chair Lucrecia Wonsor called the meeting to order at 12:03 p.m.
Agenda Item #2: Additions and deletions to the Agenda. Lucrecia Wonsor asked if there were any changes needed to be made or to entertain a motion to adopt this agenda as is. Kathleen Ramsay made the motion and Amanda Smith seconded. Approved unanimously.
Agenda Item #3: Approval of the July 18, 2022 minutes. Lucrecia Wonsor asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Al Voegele made a motion to approve the July 18, 2022 minutes as presented. Brian Carroll seconded. Joy Dubin Grossman abstained and all other members approved.
Agenda Item #4: Executive Director Update. Ted Brady gave a summary from his update report. He shared the differences in the various equity programs that are circulating presently. He spoke about the Equity Panel Discussion that is on the agenda for 10/7 beginning at 9 am and offered a unique discount code to VLCT Equity Committee members who wish to attend Town Fair on Friday for free. Committee members were instructed to contact Linda Mahns at lmahns@vlct.org for more information. The topic of discussion for this panel is the question: “How are Vermont Municipalities Addressing Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging?”
Ted also provided some Save the Date information including Senator Leahy’s celebration scheduled for 10/10 in Waterbury from 1-5 pm, ANR’s Municipal Day scheduled for 10/28 in Montpelier, and Sarah Macy’s Municipal Budgeting and Capital Planning webinars scheduled for 9/22, 10/14, and 12/9 at 9 am online.
Agenda Item #5: Review VLCT Welcoming and Engaging Communities Cohort Applications. Ted Brady gave a summary of eight total applications that were received by the extended deadline. Because of the lower-than-expected responses, Ted offered that a second cohort may be offered again in the springtime.
Kathleen Ramsay made a motion to recommend approval of all applications. Al Voegele seconded. A discussion then occurred. Amanda Smith proposed amending the motion to conditionally approve five of the applications but require additional information from the three applications (Williston, Brandon and Hinesburg) that proposed cohort appointees not explicitly authorized in the program design. After discussion, Amanda Smith requested that her motion be removed. Without objection, the motion was removed. Kathleen Ramsay requested that her motion be removed. Without objection, her motion was removed. Al Voegele asked to move by consensus to have the Assistant TM for Hinesburg be accepted. Al Voegele made a motion to accept all applications. Lucrecia Wonsor seconded. Joy Dubin Grossman and Kathleen Ramsay recused themselves from the debate and vote stating their communities’ applications to the program posed a conflict. The vote was 3 in favor (AYES: Al Voegele, Lucrecia Wonsor, Alyssa Johnson) and 2 opposed (NAYS: Brian Carroll, Amanda Smith.) A majority of the quorum present not voting in the affirmative resulted in the motion failing.
Alyssa Johnson made a motion to recommend Williston, Richmond, Hartford, Putney, and Jericho be invited to participate in the cohort. Amanda Smith seconded. Approved unanimously.
Al Voegele made a motion to accept and recommend the application from Hinesburg. Amanda Smith seconded. Joy Dubin Grossman abstained. The motion passed with no votes opposed.
Al Voegele made a motion to accept and recommend the application from Middlebury. Joy Dubin Grossman seconded. Alyssa Johnson and Kathleen Ramsay abstained. The motion passed with no votes opposed.
Amanda Smith made a motion to conditionally approve the application from Brandon, giving Ted Brady as a representative of this Committee the authority to approve the application if the community provided him with a satisfactory answer as to why the community picked their recreation and economic development director for the cohort instead of the Town Manager or a Selectboard member. Al Voegele seconded. Approved unanimously. Action item: Ted Brady will share the response from Brandon via email.
Agenda Item #6: Recommend Draft Policy for VLCT Committee Stipends. Ted Brady presented the draft Policy for VLCT Committee stipends and asked the Committee for any revisions or additions that could be made so it could be recommended to the VLCT Board for adoption. He worked on the document during the meeting as he shared the screen. An “opt out” option was added, a higher rate was added (from $50/meeting to $75/meeting) and asked that there be no differentiation in pay for in-person vs. remote attendees. After updates were made, Brian Carroll moved to recommend this draft Policy for VLCT Committee Stipends to the VLCT Board for adoption as presented (see attachment). Joy Dubin Grossman seconded. Approved unanimously.
Agenda Item #7: Member Updates. Joy Dubin Grossman stated that Hinesburg received a grant from Vermont Community Foundation for Equity work and have had two encouraging meetings already. Brian Carroll announced that Glover secured a 10K grant from the Martin Luther King Foundation for Equity work in his town. Alyssa Johnson stated Waterbury had its Anti-Racism Coalition recently and sent a link: Landscape streetscape — Waterbury Roundabout. Ellen Kaye spoke about Barre City’s Equity Committee issues and asked the Committee for recommendations on how to deal with a member who is set against the charter of the committee. Several members offered ideas to assist Ellen in giving options for Committee members in her city.
Agenda Item #8: Other Business. This was the first meeting that began at the new time of 12:00 instead of 1. A couple members had forgotten about that. Action Item: Linda Mahns will update the about us portion of the Equity pages on the VLCT website that still stated the 1 pm hours. The noon start time will be set until October when it may remain or be changed upon the approval of the Committee. The next Equity Committee meeting is scheduled for October 17th from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m.
Agenda Item #9: Adjourn. Lucrecia Wonsor asked for a motion to adjourn. Al Voegele made the motion. Brian Carroll seconded. The meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m. without objection.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Mahns
Executive Administrative Assistant