The Democratic Mayoral Caucus on Sunday at 1pm at Memorial Auditorium will be an historical event in Burlington. All four candidates are well educated and enthusiastic, and somewhere between 1200 and 2000 voters are expected to turn out for this key city event.
Odum, you were right and I was wrong. A Democratic Primary really does raise the bar! [See my comments below the fold.] We have talented candidates campaigning on real issues with concrete plans and facts to move this city beyond its current malaise.
It is not easy choosing one candidate from this able group, but I am voting for Bram Kranichfeld for Burlington’s Democratic candidate for Mayor.
While Bram is the youngest of the four democratic candidates, I believe he offers the broadest background and has the most experience on city issues. Raised for the first five years of his life in Dummerston, VT, and married to Erin Kranichfeld from Montpelier, Bram brings energy, vitality, and compassion to this race. I believe that Bram’s Vermont sensibility rooted in his upbringing and his real world large city financial experience will help the City of Burlington move away from its Burlington Telecom debacle and several other questionable city ventures.
I think Bram will bring positive energy, top-notch management skills, experience running for office, current experience in city government, top financial skills, the ability to communicate well with the city’s diverse population, and a balance of tenacity and compassion. As a homeowner in Burlington’s Old North End, Bram understands the challenges facing our diverse city.
Please join me in support Bram Kranichfeld as the Democratic candidate for Mayor! See why below the fold. Caucus Rules and Regulations also below the fold.
If Burlington is going to dig itself out of its current fiscal hole created during the Kiss administration, it needs sound leadership and familiarity with a wide array of challenging city issues.
•As the former chair of the Burlington Electric Commission, prior to his election to City Council, Bram has shown able leadership and an understanding of the complicated legal structure of electric regulation, finances of rate structure, and necessity of keeping Burlington Electric Department one of the greenest city portfolios in the country. Burlington Electric offers our city reasonable electric rates in an environmentally sound manner. It is a valuable city asset that will draw business to Burlington.
•Bram is electable. He ran for City Council in a Progressive stronghold and won – and he was re-elected. Bram knows how to campaign, how to debate, and how to answer journalists’ questions with openness and transparency.
•As a prosecutor, Bram understands safe cities first hand. I met Bram through my work as a mediator and paralegal. Criminal activity and vandalism use valuable and finite city resources. Burlingon must find real solutions for the constant influx of crime originating from endemic poverty and teen and student high jinks. Bram understands the necessity of using funds to incarcerate real criminals – murderers, rapists, child molesters, etc, while applying limited fiscal resources toward treatment via the mental health court or drug court. The Restorative Justice Panels or withholding grades from students who repeatedly violate Burlington’s noise ordinance are valid solutions appealing to all city residents who want to enjoy the quality of life Burlington offers.
•Burlington’s schools need mayoral support and Bram is invested in better schools for Burlington. Good schools build a vibrant communities. Bram’s wife Erin is teacher educated at UVM and their children will be educated in Burlington’s schools.
•We need an investment in businesses grounded in the public/private partnership among the colleges and local businesses as Bram plans. I am a local business owner. I have been unable to find the skilled interns my business requires to grow. The business community needs real mayoral leadership to make this happen.
•Bram is an experienced city councilor. He will not have to spend time getting up to speed on the city’s issues. I know. As a public works commissioner, I have met with Bram on a number of public health and safety issues. He knows every issue inside and out.
•And lastly, we need fiscal accountability and transparency in the mayor’s office. Bram has several years of experience reading balance sheets and coping with complicated financial transactions on Wall Street in addition to his thorough understanding of the legal issues and litigation facing Burlington. How else will Burlington get out of the Burlington Telecom debacle without attempting a fire sale of valuable city assets like the Burlington Electric Department – as one mayoral candidate has proposed? I’d like to see us get back our AAA Bond rating that has been lost during the last six years.
In full disclosure, I am serving my fourth year as a Burlington Public Works Commissioner appointed by Burlington City Council prior to Bram’s tenure on the council. Public Works oversees roads, sidewalks, water quality and supply, city sewers, code enforcement, maintenance of all city vehicles, speed limits, crossing times, safe streets, bicycle and pedestrian regulations and city parking garages, meters, and regulations. I’ve probably left out a few things. I’ve seen first hand what happens when a city mayor does not understand city government and does not know how to govern.
I hope to see you on Sunday exercising our right to participate in the Democratic process.To my way of thinking Burlington’s Democratic Mayoral Campaign and Caucus has been an amazing unfolding of the Democratic process. For once, Burlington’s mayoral campaign has been substantive and not vitriolic hyperbole.
Odum you were right when you told me that a Democratic process like this one leads to more invigorated and competent candidates. Last year, I thought that the Democratic many-candidate gubernatorial primary would only end up being an unsavory blood bath and diffuse the interest in Vermont’s electoral politics. Let me confess, I was raised in a Goldwater Republican household, where I was grounded for my politics when I supported Lowell Weiker for US Congress in 1968! To my surprise the many faceted gubernatorial campaign seemed to elevate Vermont’s politics to new level of real debate about the issues and not the partisan mud-slinging I have so come to hate! And, the election process also brought forth real talent as is currently happening in this weekend’s Democratic Mayoral Caucus.
Here are the Caucus Rules:
NOTICE
TO: ALL LEGAL VOTERS IN BURLINGTON
FROM: STEVE HOWARD, CHAIR
DATE: NOVEMBER 4, 2011RE: MAYORAL CAUCUS TO BE HELD NOVEMBER 13, 2011
This notice is sent pursuant to the By-laws of the Burlington City Democratic Committee to inform you that a City-Wide Mayoral Caucus will be held for the purpose of nominating a mayoral candidate for the March 2012 city elections.
The Caucus will be held at Memorial Auditorium on November 13, 2011. A copy of the Caucus rules is included below.
If you have any questions, please contact your Democratic Ward Chair, or call (802) 236-5123.
RULES FOR THE 2011 BURLINGTON CITY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE MAYORAL CAUCUS
WHEREAS, the Chair of the Burlington City Democratic Committee has consulted with the Executive Committee and the candidates for mayor; and
WHEREAS, the charge of this Burlington Democratic City Committee is to ensure the efficient, timely, fair and safe conduct of the caucus process; and
WHEREAS, certainty as to the number of attendees and candidates and the importance of clear communication have been identified as key factors necessary to avoiding undesirable conditions such as unsafe overcrowding and lack of sufficient time for voters to register for the caucus;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the following rules shall apply to the 2011 Mayoral Caucus to be held November 13, 2011 at the Memorial Auditorium in Burlington Vermont:
1. All persons seeking the mayoral endorsement of the Burlington Democratic City Committee must contact the chair in writing or by email by 5pm November 8, 2011. Nominations from the floor on the day of the Caucus will not be recognized or accepted. Write-in candidates may mount a campaign to caucus for votes. Any write-in candidate who fails to get more votes than the candidate on the printed ballot with the least amount of votes after the second round shall be eliminated.
2. All persons who have contacted the Chair regarding their intent to seek the Democratic endorsement for Mayor of Burlington must disclose to the Chair by 5pn November 11, 2011; the number of voters such person expects to attend the Caucus. The chair shall not share any estimates with anybody. This information will be used solely by the chair to ensure that sufficient space and resources are available to effectuate a fair nominating process.
3. In the event the number of participants in the caucus is expected to exceed the capacity of the chosen venue, the Chair, in his or her sole discretion, may cancel the caucus and reschedule the caucus to take place in a venue capable of housing the expected number of participants on a date no later than thirty days after the original date set for the caucus.
4. Candidates will be allowed 1 nomination speaker not to exceed 1 minute and each candidate will be allowed 5 minutes to speak to the caucus prior to the first ballot being cast
5. All votes for the Mayoral endorsement shall be conducted pursuant to the By-laws of the Burlington Democratic Committee. (Attached hereto)
6. Ballots shall be counted in teams of two by persons appointed by the Chair and each candidate seeking the nomination may have up to two observers to monitor the counting. Any ballots cast for any candidate after the second round who has been eliminated as per the by-laws as the result of the vote in the second or any subsequent round, shall be considered a wasted ballot.
7. Registration for the caucus will begin at 1pm and will conclude at 2pm. Eligible voters must be in line to register by 2pm in order to be registered to participate in the caucus. Any person arriving after 1:59 PM (as verified by a cell phone or similar device issued by a national telecommunications carrier) may be admitted for observation purposes only but will not be allowed to register to vote in the caucus.
8. Voters who appear on the checklist of the City of Burlington as of 12:00 pm on Thursday, November 10, 2011 shall be considered eligible to vote in the caucus so long as per the bylaws they are not either a member of another organized political party committee or have voted in the caucus of another party for the same office.
APPROVED AND ADOPTED BY THE BURLINGTON DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, this 3rd day of NOVEMBER, 2011.
I’ve been closely watching Burlington politics: NPA steering committee, regular attendee at City Council meetings, planning commission, etc. and as a pretty informed and engaged Burlington citizen and business owner, I feel confident about trusting my vote in Bram. After close conversations with him, I know he feels the same frustrations as me and my neighbors all over the city. And, I feel confident that he knows what to do about them and how to run an efficient and effective city.
He may not have a Public Policy Administration education like his opponents, but he has demonstrated that he is very smart and very committed to making a positive change to our city government.
I think he will be more successful at making the changes needed here in Burlington because he himself is more transparent and dedicated, knows the issues and is motivated to do so.
I encourage everyone to come out on Sunday and vote for Bram!