Vermont Laws

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The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.

NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.

Title 24 Appendix: Municipal Charters

Chapter 003: City of Burlington

Subchapter 001: INCORPORATION; CITY AND WARD BOUNDARIES
§ 1. Boundaries defined; powers

The inhabitants of that portion of the former Town of Burlington which is embraced in the following limits, viz:

Beginning at the east shore of Lake Champlain, at the northwest corner of 100 acre lot number 163, thence easterly in the north line of said lot to the northeast corner thereof; thence northerly in the west line of 100 acre lot number 155, to the northwest corner of said lot number 155; thence running easterly in the north line of said lot number 155 to the east line of the stage road from Burlington to Shelburne; thence northerly in the east line of said stage road to the northwest corner of 100 acre lot number 165; thence easterly in the north line of 100 acre lots number 165 and 183, to a point 200 feet west of the west line of the highway called Spear Street; then northerly in a line parallel to, and 200 feet west of, the west line of the highway called Spear Street, to the south line of Williston Turnpike; thence easterly in the southerly line of said turnpike to a point opposite the angle formed by the north line of said turnpike and the east line of the road leading northerly from said turnpike to Colchester Avenue, easterly of the Mary Fletcher Hospital; thence crossing said turnpike northerly to said angle; thence from said angle in a straight line to the center of Winooski River, at the northern termination of the east line of 100 acre lot number 18; thence in the center of Winooski River down said river to Lake Champlain; thence southerly on the lake shore at low water mark, to the most western point of Appletree Point, thence in a straight line southerly to the place of beginning—are hereby continued to be incorporated and a body corporate and politic under the name of the City of Burlington; and by that name may sue and be sued, prosecute and defend in any court; may have a common seal and alter it at pleasure; may take, hold, purchase, and convey such property as the purposes of the corporation may require; may borrow money on the credit of the City, in the mode and under the restrictions hereinafter provided; may elect a representative to the General Assembly of the State, and the same number of justices of the peace as a town of equal population; and generally shall have, exercise, and enjoy all such rights, immunities, powers, and privileges as are conferred upon or incident to towns in this State; and shall be subject to like duties, liabilities, and obligations, except as is otherwise provided in this charter.
§ 2. Election boundaries

(a) City districts described. For the annual meeting of 2024 and all City elections thereafter, the City of Burlington is divided into four electoral districts, constituted as follows:

(1) East District. The East District shall include all that part of said City lying easterly and northerly of the following described boundaries: Beginning at the common boundary between the Cities of Burlington and Winooski in the Winooski River beneath the Central Vermont Railway bridge downstream of the Lower Winooski Falls and Salmon Hole; thence westerly in the centerline of said railroad tracks for 406.6 feet to a point where the centerline of Intervale Road extended northerly intersects said railroad track centerline (approximately -73.2028 longitude, 44.4911 latitude); thence southerly along the extension of the centerline of Intervale Road, crossing Riverside Avenue until the centerline intersects with that of the Archibald Street centerline extended easterly; thence westerly along the Archibald Street centerline until the intersection of the Archibald Street centerline and the North Willard Street centerline; thence southerly along the North Willard Street Centerline until the intersection of the North Willard Street centerline and the Pearl Street Centerline; thence westerly along the Pearl Street centerline until intersecting with the South Winooski Avenue centerline; thence southerly along the South Winooski Avenue centerline until intersecting the Maple Street centerline; thence easterly along the Maple Street centerline for 1573.5 feet to a point where the eastern property boundary of 315 Maple Street extended northerly intersects Maple Street (approximately -73.2064 longitude, 44.4739 latitude); thence southerly along the eastern property boundary of 315 Maple Street for 276.5 feet (approximately -73.2064 longitude, 44.4734 latitude); thence 281.4 feet westerly to a point where the southern property boundary of 315 Maple Street extended westerly intersect with the western boundary of 251 South Willard Street extended northerly (approximately -73.2071 longitude, 44.4733 latitude), thence 723.7 feet 177° southerly to a point where it intersects the southern property boundary of 285 South Willard Street extended westerly (approximately -73.2071 longitude, 44.4719 latitude); thence easterly along the southern boundary of 285 South Willard Street for 696.5 feet until intersecting with the South Willard Street centerline (approximately -73.2051 longitude, 44.472 latitude); thence northerly along the South Willard Street centerline for 220.9 feet (approximately -73.2052 longitude, 44.4724 latitude); thence easterly along the southern property boundary of 262 South Willard Street for 557.6 feet (approximately -73.2037 longitude. 44.4725 latitude); thence northerly along the eastern property boundary of 262 South Willard Street for 89.6 feet to a point where the Juniper Terrace centerline extended westerly intersects the eastern property boundary of 262 South Willard Street (approximately 73.2037 longitude, 44.4726 latitude); thence following the Juniper Terrace centerline easterly until intersecting with the Summit Street centerline (approximately -73.2021 longitude, 44.4727 latitude); thence northerly along the Summit Street centerline until reaching the centerline of Main Street thence following the Main Street centerline easterly 2339.6 feet (approximately -73.1964 longitude, 44.4753 latitude); thence southwesterly 214° for 136.1 feet (approximately -73.1966 longitude, 44.4751 latitude); thence southeasterly 98.2 feet (approximately -73.1964 longitude, 44.4749 latitude); thence southwesterly by 213° for 770 feet (approximately -73.1975 longitude, 44.4737 latitude); thence southeasterly by 123° for 477.4 feet until intersecting with the University Heights centerline (approximately -73.1964 longitude, 44.4732 latitude); thence southerly along the centerline of University Heights Road 1221.65 feet until intersecting with the PFG Road centerline, thence westerly by 79° until intersecting with the common boundary between the Cities of Burlington and South Burlington.

(2) Central District. The Central District shall include all that part of the City bounded as follows: On the east, beginning at the common boundary between the City of Burlington and Town of Colchester in the Winooski River at a point intersecting with the centerline of Institute Road extended northeasterly (approximately -73.2147 longitude, 44.5089 latitude); thence southerly along the common boundary between the City of Burlington and Town of Colchester in the Winooski River to a point beneath the Central Vermont Railway bridge downstream of the Lower Winooski Falls and Salmon Hole; thence westerly along the East District northern boundary for 406.6 feet to its intersection with the westerly boundary of the East District; thence southerly along the westerly boundary of the East District to its intersection with the centerline of Archibald Street, then southerly along the East District western boundary to the intersection with the centerline of Pearl Street; thence westerly along the northern boundary of the East District to the intersection with the centerline of South Winooski Avenue; thence southerly along the western boundary of the East District to the centerline of Maple Street; thence westerly along the centerline of Maple Street until its intersection with the centerline of South Champlain street; thence northerly along the South Champlain Street centerline until its intersection with the centerline of King Street; on the south along the centerline of King Street extended westerly to Lake Champlain; on the west by Lake Champlain; on the north, beginning at the intersection of the common property boundary between 87 North Avenue and 9 Lakeview Terrace extended westerly to Lake Champlain (approximately -73.2252 longitude, 44.4832 latitude); thence northeasterly along the extended property boundary between 87 North Avenue and 9 Lakeview Terrace to its intersection with the centerline of the Central Vermont Railway railroad track (approximately -73.2239 longitude, 44.4837 latitude); thence northerly and easterly along the centerline of the Central Vermont Railway railroad track, crossing North Avenue and the Burlington Beltline, to its intersection with the centerline of Spring Street extended northwesterly (approximately -73.2183 longitude, 44.4912 latitude); thence northwesterly along the extension of the centerline of Spring Street to its intersection with the centerline of Institute Road extended northeasterly (approximately -73.2281 longitude, 44.4995 latitude); thence northeasterly along the extension of the centerline of Institute Road extended to its intersection with the common boundary between the City of Burlington and Town of Colchester in the Winooski River (approximately -73.2139 longitude, 44.5077 latitude).

(3) South District. The South District shall include all that part of the City south of the southern boundaries of the East and Central Districts.

(4) North District. The North District shall include all that part of the City north of the northern boundary of the Central District.

(b) Wards described. Each of the City of Burlington’s four electoral districts set forth in subsection (a) of this section hereby comprises two wards, each of which is constituted as follows:

(1) East District—Ward 1 and Ward 8.
(A) The East District is divided into two wards by the following boundary: Beginning at the center of the intersection of Brooks Avenue and South Willard Street; thence easterly along the Brooks Avenue centerline until intersecting with the centerline of North Prospect Street; thence southerly along the centerline of North prospect Street to the intersection of the centerline of Colchester Avenue to the intersection of the centerline of Mary Fletcher Drive; thence southerly along the centerline of Mary Fletcher Drive for 331.58 feet (approximately -73.196 longitude, 44.4802 latitude); thence southerly along the western side and easterly along the southern side of the UVM Medical Center building for 1854.5 feet until a point at the center of the intersection of Beaumont Avenue and Mary Fletcher Drive (approximately -73.1932 longitude, 44.4788 latitude); thence south along the Beaumont Avenue centerline to the intersection of Carrigan Drive; thence following Carrigan Drive westerly for 199.1 feet (approximately -73.1932 longitude, 55.5756 latitude); thence travelling southwesterly for 821.3 feet along the UVM service road on the eastern border of the southeastern wing of the UVM Jeffords Hall until a point at the intersection of the service road and the centerline of University Heights extended northeasterly (approximately -73.1947 longitude, 44.4751 latitude); thence southwesterly along the centerline of University Heights 977.3 feet (approximately -73.1962 longitude, 44.4735 latitude); thence continuing southeasterly along the centerline of the driveway bounding the western side of the UVM Living/Learning Commons for 404.3 feet (approximately -73.1952 longitude, 44.4731 latitude); thence continuing south along the eastern side of UVM’s University Heights dorms until intersecting with PFG Road; thence continuing easterly along the western extension of the PFG Road centerline for 601.2 feet until intersecting with the common boundary between the Cities of Burlington and South Burlington.

(B) Ward 1 lies to the north and east of the boundary described in subdivision (A) of this subdivision (1), and Ward 8 lies to the south and west.

(2) Central District—Ward 2 and Ward 3.
(A) The Central District is divided into two wards by the following boundary: Beginning at the intersection of the common property boundary between 85 North Avenue and 9 Lakeview Terrace extended westerly to Lake Champlain (approximately -73.2252 longitude, -44.4832 latitude); thence northeasterly along the extended property boundary between 87 North Avenue and 9 Lakeview Terrace to its intersection with the centerline of the Central Vermont Railway railroad track (approximately -73.224 longitude, 44.4837 latitude); thence southeasterly along the centerline of the Central Vermont Railway railroad track to a point intersecting with the northwestern property boundary of 300 Lake Street extended southwesterly (approximately -73.2234 longitude, 44.4832 latitude); thence northeasterly to a point at the intersection of the northwestern property boundary of 300 Lake Street extended northeasterly with the centerline of Depot Street (approximately -73.2223 longitude, 44.4837 latitude); thence northerly along the centerline of Depot Street to the intersection with the centerline of Lakeview Terrace; thence easterly along the centerline of Lakeview Terrace extended westerly until intersecting with the centerline of North Avenue; thence northerly along the centerline of North Avenue to its intersection with the centerline of North Street; thence easterly along the centerline of North Street until intersecting with the North Union Street centerline; thence southerly following the North Union Street centerline until intersecting with the Loomis Street centerline; thence easterly along the Loomis Street centerline to the intersection of the centerlines of Loomis Street and South Willard Avenue.

(B) Ward 2 lies to the north of the boundary described in subdivision (A) of this subdivision (2), and Ward 3 lies to the south.

(3) South District—Ward 5 and Ward 6.
(A) The South District is divided into two wards by the following boundary: Beginning at the intersection of the centerlines of Maple Street and Church Street; thence southerly along the centerline of Church Street to the intersection with the centerline of Adams Street; thence westerly along the centerline of Adams Street to the intersection with the centerline of Saint Paul Street; thence southerly along the Saint Paul Street centerline to its intersection with the centerline of Shelburne Street; thence southerly along the centerline of Shelburne Street to its intersection with the centerline of Flynn Avenue; thence easterly along the centerline of Flynn Avenue extended easterly to the common boundary between the Cities of Burlington and South Burlington.

(B) Ward 5 lies to the west of the boundary described in subdivision (A) of this subdivision (3), and Ward 6 lies to the east.

(4) North District—Ward 4 and Ward 7.
(A) The North District is divided into two wards by the following boundary: Beginning at the centerline of Institute Road extended southwesterly to Lake Champlain; thence northeasterly to the intersection of Institute Road with the centerline of North Avenue; thence northerly along the centerline of North Avenue to its intersection with the centerline of Fairfield Drive; thence westerly along the centerline of Fairfield Drive to its intersection with the western property boundary of 39 Westward Drive extended southerly (approximately -73.2685 longitude, 44.5257 latitude); thence northerly along the western property boundary of 39 Westward Drive, until intersecting with the centerline of Westward Drive; thence southwesterly along the centerline of Westward Drive to the intersection with the Northshore Drive centerline; thence northerly along the Northshore Drive centerline until intersecting with the Clair Pointe Road centerline (point); thence westerly along the southern property boundary of the Claire Pointe condominium development (approximately -73.2686 longitude, 44.5286 latitude), and then extended to Lake Champlain.

(B) Ward 4 lies to the west of the boundary described in subdivision (A) of this subdivision (4), and Ward 7 lies to the east.

(5) Ward map reference. Reference is also made to a map entitled “Ward Redistricting, 8 Wards — 4 Districts, 12 Councilors, Approved Map (December 2 V1.3), Map Date: December 8, 2022 ” located in the Burlington Chief Administrative Officer’s office in further aid of the description of the wards set forth in this subsection. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2023, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 25, 2023.)

Subchapter 002: ELECTIONS AND CITY MEETINGS; CITY ELECTIONS
§ 3. Election of Mayor and City Councilors

(a) Election of Mayor. On the first Tuesday in March 2003 and triennially thereafter, the legal voters of the City shall, from among the legal voters thereof, elect a Mayor. Notwithstanding any provision of this charter or the general statutes, no person shall be eligible to have his or her name printed on the ballot as a candidate for the Office of Mayor who has not submitted a nominating petition signed by at least 150 registered voters of the City within the time limits specified in 17 V.S.A. chapter 55, as the same may be amended from time to time. For all special elections, nominations of the municipal officers shall be by petition as specified in 17 V.S.A. chapter 55, excepting 17 V.S.A. § 268l(a)(1)(A). Instead, the petition shall be filed with the municipal clerk, together with the endorsement, if any, of any party or parties in accordance with the provisions of this title, not later than 5:00 p.m. on the ninth Monday preceding the day of the election, which shall be the filing deadline.

(b) Election of City Councilors.
(1) On the first Tuesday in March 2015 and biennially thereafter, the legal voters of each of the South, Central, East, and North City Districts shall, from among the legal voters of their respective district, elect a City Councilor for a two-year term.

(2)(A) On the first Tuesday in March 2015, the legal voters from each of Wards One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight shall, from among the legal voters of their respective ward, elect a City Councilor for a three-year term.

(B) On the first Tuesday in March 2018 and biennially thereafter, the legal voters of each ward shall elect a City Councilor for a two-year term. (Amended 1997, No. M-18, (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2019, No. M-12 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Oct. 8, 2020.)
§ 4. Election of School Commissioners

(a) The legal voters of each ward and City district of the City shall elect, from among the legal voters of their respective wards and City districts, School Commissioners to serve for terms hereinafter provided.

(b) Election of School Commissioners in each ward and City district shall be held on the first Tuesday in March in the year in which the term of office of the School Commissioner therein shall expire. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 5. Election to be by ballot; method of election; runoff elections

All elections of the Mayor, City Councilors, school commissioners, and ward election officers shall be by ballot, using a system of ranked choice voting without a separate runoff election. The Chief Administrative Officer shall implement a ranked choice voting protocol according to these guidelines:

(1) The ballot shall give voters the option of ranking candidates in order of preference.

(2) If a candidate receives a majority (over 50 percent) of first preferences, that candidate is elected.

(3) If no candidate receives a majority of first preferences, an instant runoff tabulation shall be performed by the presiding election officer.

(4) The City Council may adopt ordinances consistent with this subsection to implement these standards. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2005, No. M-3, § 2, eff. May 12, 2005; 2009, No. M-17 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. April 24, 2010; 2021, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 19, 2022; 2023, No. M-9, § 2, eff. May 27, 2023.)
§ 6. Requirements generally

(a) All warnings for meetings for the election of City or ward officers, and for general meetings of all the legal voters of said City, for any purpose, shall be issued by the Mayor and published in the manner and for the length of time designated in 17 V.S.A. chapter 55 relating to local elections as the same may be amended from time to time.

(b) Upon request of the City Council by resolution or upon petition signed by five percent of the legal voters, filed with the Chief Administrative Officer, the Mayor shall insert in the warning for the annual City meeting any special article for any legal purpose beyond the jurisdiction of the City Council, the purpose to be set forth in said article as stated in such resolution or petition and the Chief Administrative Officer shall prepare suitable ballots in sufficient quantities for the vote upon the article. For the City annual meeting in March of each year, the resolution or petition must be filed with the Chief Administrative Officer not later than the deadline established in 17 V.S.A. chapter 55 as the same may be amended from time to time, and for any special elections, the resolution or petition must be filed with the Chief Administrative Officer not later than 60 days prior to the election; provided, however, that any petition for the insertion of any article calling for the resubmission, reconsideration, or recision of any question previously submitted to the legal voters of the City shall be filed not later than the deadline established for requesting reconsideration or recision of a prior vote as specified in 17 V.S.A. § 2661 as the same may be amended from time to time; and provided further, that no question previously submitted to the legal voters of the City shall be more than once resubmitted or presented for reconsideration or recision except upon request of the City Council by resolution. Each page of a petition filed under this section shall bear the full text of the petition, each signature to the petition shall be witnessed, each signer of such petition shall set after his or her signature his or her legal address within the City, and any part of the petition not conforming to these requirements shall be invalid. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2019, No. M-12 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Oct. 8, 2020.)
§ 7. Age and residence requirements

Every citizen of this State not less than 18 years of age who has taken the Freeman’s (Voter’s) Oath, who resides in said City and who has registered to vote with the Board for Registration of Voters no later than the deadline established by Vermont law prior to any warned City or ward or City district election or any annual or special City meeting shall be a legal voter at said election or meeting, and no other person shall be allowed to vote at such election or meeting. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 8. Person to reside in ward or City district if casting ballot for particular local officers or local public questions

A legal voter may cast a ballot for local officers and local public questions specific to a ward or City district only if that legal voter resides in that ward or City district at the time of casting that ballot. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2023, No. M-16, § 2, eff. June 20, 2023.)
§ 8a. Requirements for legal resident voters who are not citizens

(a) Notwithstanding sections 7 and 8 of this charter and 17 V.S.A. chapter 43, a legal resident who is not a citizen of the United States shall be a legal voter at a local City of Burlington or Burlington School District election if the individual meets the following qualifications:

(1) is a legal resident of the United States;

(2) is not less than 18 years of age;

(3) has taken the Voter’s Oath;

(4) resides in the City of Burlington as residency is defined in 17 V.S.A. § 2122; and

(5) has registered to vote with the Board of Registration of Voters not later than the deadline established by Vermont law for that election or meeting.

(b) As used in this section, “legal resident of the United States” means any noncitizen who resides on a permanent or indefinite basis in compliance with federal immigration laws.

(c) This section does not change a noncitizen’s ability to vote in any State or federal election.

(d) A legal resident voter who is not a citizen may cast a ballot only for local officers and local public questions specific to a ward or City district of which the individual is a resident at the time of voting.

(e) The Chief Administrative Officer shall develop all necessary forms and procedures for implementation of this section, including identifying on the voter checklist those legal resident voters who are not citizens. (Added 2023, No. M-16, § 2, eff. June 20, 2023.)
§ 9. Adopted

The penalties set forth in Vermont Statutes Annotated shall be applicable for illegal voting at any City or ward or City district election. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 10. Specified; election; term

(a)(1) The ward officers shall be a Clerk and three inspectors of election. All three inspectors of election may not be members of the same political party. In such event, the City Council shall forthwith appoint an inspector who shall serve instead of the candidate who received the third largest number of votes.

(2) Ward clerks and inspectors of election elected at the annual City meeting shall take office on the first Monday in April in the year of their election.

(b)(1) Ward clerks shall be chosen for two-year terms and inspectors of elections for three-year terms by the legal voters of each ward at the annual City election.

(2) The ward clerks elected March 3, 2015 shall take office April 6, 2015.

(3) Three inspectors of election shall be elected in each ward on March 3, 2015.

(A) One inspector of election shall be elected for a one-year term commencing April 6, 2015 and terminating April 4, 2016, and who shall thereafter be elected for a three-year term.

(B) One inspector of election shall be elected for a two-year term commencing April 6, 2015 and terminating April 3, 2017, and who shall thereafter be elected for a three-year term.

(C) One inspector of election shall be elected for a three-year term commencing April 6, 2015 and terminating April 2, 2018, and who shall thereafter be elected for a three-year term. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 23, 1998; 1999, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 19, 1999; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 11. Performance of duties; terms

The ward officers shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their respective duties and shall hold their offices until their successors are chosen and qualified.
§ 12. [Repealed.]
§ 13. Vacancies to be filled by City Council

In case of a vacancy in any ward office occasioned by death, removal from the ward or City, resignation, inability to serve, failure to elect, or other cause, the same shall be filled by the City Council.
§ 14. List of voters to be prepared; posting

Preceding each annual or special City or ward or City district election to be held in said City, it shall be the duty of the Board for Registration of Voters to prepare full and complete lists of the voters in the respective wards or City districts of said City, and to certify the same to the Chief Administrative Officer. One copy of such lists shall be posted by or under the direction of the Chief Administrative Officer in some public place in the wards or City districts to which the voters whose names are on such list respectively belong, at least 12 days previous to any such election. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 15. Notice of meeting to alter or correct list required

Whenever any checklist of voters shall be posted in said City, a notice shall be written or printed thereon, signed by a majority of said Board for Registration of Voters, setting forth the time and place at which said Board will meet to make additions thereto or alterations or corrections thereon, which time and place shall be previously determined by said Board.
§ 16. Additions or corrections permitted

The Board for Registration of Voters shall, pursuant to the notice set forth in section 15 of this charter, meet to make additions to, or alterations and corrections in, the list required by section 14 of this charter.
§ 17. Chief Administrative Officer to post lists; copies to be filed in Chief Administrative Officer’s office

It shall be the duty of the Chief Administrative Officer to cause the original of each and every checklist of voters at any time ordered to be posted by the Board for Registration of Voters of said City, to be filed in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office with his or her certificate attached, that true copies of such lists have been posted as directed by said Board, together with the time and place in said City at which the same were posted, which certificate shall be prima facie evidence of such posting.
§ 18. Copies of list to be given inspectors

After all such additions, alterations, and corrections shall have been made by said Board for Registration of Voters, a true copy of such checklist shall be made by the Chief Administrative Officer, and delivered to the inspectors of election in the several wards, for use at such annual or special City election or ward or City district election; and no person whose name is not on such lists shall be allowed to vote at any such election. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 19. Designation of polling places

At least 30 days prior to a local, primary, or general election, the City Council, in consultation with the City Clerk’s Office, ward clerks, and inspectors of election, shall determine the number and location of polling places. Polling places shall be located in each ward unless a more accessible facility is available outside the ward that is in as close proximity as possible to the ward in which each voter resides. If more than one polling place is located within the same building, each shall be located so that it is separate and distinct from the others, in accordance with 17 V.S.A. § 2501(e). (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2023, No. M-8, § 2, eff. May 25, 2023.)
§ 20. Ward clerk to keep records; certificates of election to be furnished successful candidates; election results to be published

It shall be the duty of the clerk of each ward subject to supervision by the Chief Administrative Officer as presiding officer for City and ward and City district elections to make a record of all elections held therein, and to furnish to each officer who shall have been elected for such ward or City district, including City Councilors and School Commissioners, a certificate of his or her election, and also immediately after any election in such ward to return and certify to the Chief Administrative Officer a statement of the votes for all officers in his or her ward, which statement shall be recorded in the City records, and a certificate by the Chief Administrative Officer of the result of such election in the whole City shall be forthwith published in the various newspapers of said City. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 21. Duties of election inspectors

It shall be the duty of their inspectors of election to be present, preside, and preserve order at all elections in their respective wards, to decide all questions relative to the right of any person to vote at such election, to sort and count the ballots, and to publicly announce the result to the voters present. In all respects not inconsistent with this charter, the provisions of the general statutes respecting the process of voting shall apply to all annual and special elections and City meetings in said City, except that a voter’s name shall not be required to be checked when his or her ballot is deposited in the ballot box, and except that the number of ballot clerks and assisting clerks to be appointed shall be discretionary with the Board of Civil Authority.
§ 22. Ballots

For all City or ward or City district elections, and also for the election of justices of the peace in the City, the Chief Administrative Officer shall prepare all official ballots, consistent with the requirements of any regulation adopted under section 5 of this charter, and otherwise in the same manner and subject to all the provisions of the laws of this State providing for and regulating the preparation and distribution of official ballots in towns and cities; provided, however, that the Chief Administrative Officer shall cause to be printed for every ward or City district in the City not less than 60 ballots for every 50 names or fractional part thereof on the voting list prepared and posted in the ward or City district for any such election; and further provided that the Chief Administrative Officer shall deliver to the inspectors of election in each ward on the day of the election and before the hour for opening the polls in said ward the number of blocks of ballots containing 100 each as shall nearest represent two-thirds of the whole number required to be printed for the ward or City district and shall retain the balance of the ballots for each ward or City district so prepared. For all special elections, the Chief Administrative Officer shall prepare all official ballots at least 45 days prior to the election. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2005, No. M-3, eff. May 12, 2005; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2019, No. M-12 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Oct. 8, 2020.)
§ 23. Retained ballots to be delivered to inspectors on demand

In case the inspectors of election in any ward for any cause shall require the ballots so belonging to such ward or City district and retained by said Chief Administrative Officer, or any part thereof, they shall notify him or her in writing. Said Chief Administrative Officer shall thereupon forthwith transmit to said inspectors of election such part or all of said ballots so retained in his or her possession as said inspectors of election shall specify. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 24. Record of ballots delivered required; receipts

The Chief Administrative Officer shall keep a record of the whole number of ballots so prepared and delivered, and said inspectors of election shall give to said Chief Administrative Officer, whenever any ballots are received by them, a receipt stating the number of ballots so received.
§ 25. Requirements generally

Special meetings of all the legal voters of said City shall be called by the Mayor upon request by resolution of the City Council or on petition signed by five percent of the legal voters for any legal purpose beyond the jurisdiction of the City Council, said purpose to be set forth in the warning for said meeting; provided, however, that any petition for the calling of any special meeting for the resubmission, reconsideration, or rescission of any question previously submitted to the legal voters of said City shall be filed not more than 30 days after such previous submission; and provided further, that no question previously submitted to the legal voters of said City shall be more than once resubmitted or presented for reconsideration or rescission except upon request of the City Council by resolution. Each page of a petition filed under this section shall bear the full text of such petition, each signature to such petition shall be witnessed, each signer of such petition shall set after his or her signature his or her legal address within the City, and any part of such petition not conforming to these requirements shall be invalid. At such special meetings, those persons only shall be entitled to vote whose names are on the checklist used for the last annual City election, and such persons as were or have become entitled by law to have their names on such checklist and whose names have been added thereto by the Board for Registration of Voters since said City election. The Board for Registration of Voters shall hold a meeting or meetings to make additions and corrections to said checklist.
§ 26. Questions at special meeting to be decided by ballot

The questions at any such special meeting shall be determined by ballot and the checklist shall be used. There shall be at such meeting a separate polling place, or polling places, for each ward, and as many of the ward officers hereinbefore named as shall be necessary shall act at such meetings in the same manner as at City or ward or City district elections. For all such meetings, it shall be the duty of the Chief Administrative Officer to prepare suitable ballots in sufficient quantity. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 27. Presiding officer; powers

At all meetings of the legal voters of said City, the Mayor shall preside and shall have the powers of a moderator in town meetings.
§ 28. Warning required; location; voting

Freemen’s meetings for all purposes provided by the laws of the State shall be warned by the Mayor, and one copy of such warning, signed by the Mayor, shall be posted in each ward of the City. Such meetings shall be held in the respective wards at such place or places in each ward as shall be designated in the warning therefor, and each freeman shall vote only in the ward of which he or she is an inhabitant at the time of the completion of the checklist of voters therefor.
§ 29. Checklists to be prepared and posted

Checklists of voters in the respective wards for each freemen’s meeting shall be prepared, posted, corrected, and furnished to the inspectors of election therein; and elections at such freemen’s meetings shall be conducted in the manner herein provided for City elections. No person whose name is not on such checklist shall be allowed to vote at any freemen’s meeting.
§ 30. General laws applicable; exceptions

In all respects not inconsistent with this charter, the provisions of the general statutes respecting freemen’s meetings shall apply to such meetings in said City, except that a voter’s name shall not be required to be checked when his or her ballot is deposited in the ballot box, and except that the number of ballot clerks and assisting clerks to be appointed shall be discretionary with the Board of Civil Authority.
§ 31. Duties of election inspectors and ward clerks

The inspectors of election and ward clerks in the several wards shall perform all and the same duties in regard to certifying the results of elections in their respective wards for State and county officers, county senators, justices of the peace, representatives to Congress, electors of President and Vice President of the United States, and of the votes cast for any or all of such officers, as now devolve by law upon the presiding officers of freemen’s meetings and town clerks, respectively, in towns; and in addition thereto they shall certify the same to the Clerk/Treasurer, who shall keep a record thereof.
§ 31a. Establishment of voting precincts within wards permitted

(a) The City Council may, by resolution, establish voting precincts within one or more of the several wards of the City, and from time to time amend or alter the boundaries thereof, which said precincts so established shall be designated by number.

(b)(1) In the event such precincts are so established, the ward officers previously elected shall, from the remainder of their respective terms, be the precinct officers of the first numbered precincts in their ward, whether or not they reside therein, and the City Council shall appoint additional precinct officers for each additional precinct.

(2) At the annual City meeting following the establishment of such precincts, and at each annual City meeting thereafter, precinct officers shall be chosen by the legal voters of each precinct from among the legal votes thereof. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§§ 32-35. [Reserved.]
§ 35a. “Ward” defined

In all places in sections 6 through 31a, inclusive, and in section 125 of this charter, the word “ward” wherever the same appears shall be construed to include a precinct thereof.

Subchapter 003: CITY COUNCIL WITH MAYOR PRESIDING AND CITY COUNCIL
§ 36. Administration; vested in Mayor and City Council; selection and terms of same

(a) The administration of all the fiscal, prudential, and municipal affairs of the City and the government thereof, except as herein otherwise provided, shall be vested in a principal officer to be styled the Mayor and a board of 12 members to be denominated the City Council. The City Council shall elect one of the members President thereof.

(b) The Mayor and City Council sitting in their joint capacity shall be called the City Council with Mayor presiding. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 37. Manner of convening

All meetings of the City Council with Mayor presiding shall, unless otherwise provided, be convened in the same manner as herein provided for calling special meetings of the City Council.
§ 38. Regular meetings

Regular meetings of the City Council shall be held based on a schedule adopted by the City Council for the fiscal year and generally on Mondays once or twice each month. The schedule may be amended by action of the Council. (Amended 2017, No. M-9, § 2, eff. May 22, 2017.)
§ 39. Special meetings

Special meetings of the City Council may be called at any time by the Mayor, and shall be called by the Chief Administrative Officer on petition signed by a majority of the City Council then in office and filed with the Chief Administrative Officer. Notice of special meetings shall be provided to the City councilors by any means sufficient to reasonably ensure that all councilors have or should have received notice of the date, time, and purpose of the meeting. Leaving a written notice at the address the Chief Administrative Officer has on file for a councilor or providing notice to the electronic mail address of the councilor or through an electronic scheduling program that sends automatic updates to a councilor shall, among other means, be considered sufficient notice. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2017, No. M-9, § 2, eff. May 22, 2017.)
§ 40. Quorum; attendance of certain officers may be required

A majority of the City Council elect shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but a smaller number may adjourn from time to time, and may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and enforce such penalties for nonattendance as may by ordinance be prescribed. Any other City officer may be required to attend a meeting of the City Council or City Council with Mayor presiding in the same manner as a member of the City Council.
§ 41. Meetings to be public; except

All meetings of the City Council and all meetings of the City Council with Mayor presiding are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times. Provided, that executive sessions of such bodies shall be permitted in accordance with the provisions of 1 V.S.A. chapter 5, as amended.
§ 42. Composition; meetings

The Mayor, City Council, and assessors shall constitute a Board for the Abatement of Taxes and also for the Abatement of Special Assessments, or any part thereof, for sewers and street improvements, whenever the same are illegal or in the judgment of the Board cannot be collected or are manifestly unjust. Meetings of such Board shall be convened in the manner herein prescribed for calling special meetings of the City Council; and notice thereof signed by the Mayor or Chief Administrative Officer, shall be given to all taxpayers by the publication of such notice for two days in all the daily newspapers printed in said City, the first of which publications shall be not more than 10 days, and the last not less than three days prior to said meeting. Whenever any special assessment, or any part thereof, for sewers or street improvements is abated, the Chief Administrative Officer shall make a minute of such abatement on the original assessment on file in his or her office on the margin of the record thereof.
§ 43. Composition; Board for Registration of Voters; duties; appointments; offices

(a)(1) The City Council with Mayor presiding shall constitute the Board of Civil Authority for the City, except that all duties with respect to preparing checklists of voters and making additions thereto or alterations or corrections thereon imposed upon the Council by this charter or the provisions of the general statutes relating thereto shall be performed by a board of 12 members, to be known as the Board for Registration of Voters.

(2) Not more than six members of the Board shall at any one time be from the same political party.

(b)(1) All members of the Board shall be legal voters of the City and shall serve a term of five years.

(2) Terms shall be staggered so that in June in each year the City Council with Mayor presiding shall appoint no more than three members of the Board depending upon the expiration of terms to serve for a term of five years from the July first next succeeding or until his or her or their successor(s) is or are duly appointed and qualified.

(3) Vacancies in the Board for any cause shall be filled by appointment by the City Council with Mayor presiding for the balance of the unexpired term.

(c)(1) The records of the Board shall be maintained in an office in the City Hall of the City or another location determined by the Chief Administrative Officer that is open for business during the regular business hours of the City.

(2) The Board shall advise any petitioner whose application to vote has been rejected or whose name has been removed from the checklist of his or her statutory right to seek judicial review of such decision pursuant to 17 V.S.A. § 2148.

(3) The Board shall also appoint a Clerk, who need not be a member thereof, who shall have such duties as the Board may assign.

(4) Records of the taking of voter’s oaths heretofore kept by the City Clerk shall be transferred to the Clerk of the Board. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2017, No. M-9, § 2, eff. May 22, 2017.)
§ 44. Authorized

At all meetings of the Board of Civil Authority, the Board for the Abatement of Taxes, and also of the City Council for the appointment of officers or for the removal of such officers, except for the meeting for the appointment of those officers identified in Article 38 of this charter, and in all proceedings by the City Council for the purpose of taking lands or other property for public purposes, the Mayor shall preside and shall vote as other members thereof. (Amended 2017, No. M-9, § 2, eff. May 22, 2017.)
§ 45. Mayor not to participate in enactment of ordinances; approval by Mayor of Council actions required

For the enactment of all ordinances and bylaws and the transaction of any other business by the City Council, except such as is designated in section 44 of this charter, the Mayor shall not preside over or sit with the City Council, and the action of the City Council shall require the approval of the Mayor, except as herein otherwise provided.
§ 46. Approval or veto of ordinances by Mayor; reconsideration; item veto on appropriations

If the Mayor shall approve any ordinance, or bylaw, or any resolution or vote of the City Council in respect to the business above referred to, the Mayor shall sign the same. If the Mayor does approve the same, the Mayor shall return it, with his or her objections in writing, to the City Council at the next meeting thereof after it shall have been presented to the Mayor, provided that the Mayor shall have not less than two weeks to consider such ordinance, bylaw, resolution, or vote, as aforesaid. The City Council shall thereupon proceed to reconsider such ordinance, bylaw, resolution, or vote, and if, upon such reconsideration, two-thirds of the whole number of City councilors shall vote in favor of the same, it shall be valid and take effect, notwithstanding the objection of the Mayor. In the event that any ordinance, bylaw, resolution, or vote of the City Council shall contain more than one appropriation, or establish more than one salary, the Mayor shall have the power to veto with respect to each such appropriation or salary, and no item of appropriation or salary so vetoed shall be effective unless adopted by the City Council upon reconsideration by two-thirds vote of the whole number as hereinabove provided.
§ 47. Ordinances to become valid at expiration of certain period if not returned

If any such ordinance, bylaw, resolution, or vote shall not be returned by the Mayor of the City Council at the next meeting of said City Council after the expiration of two weeks from the time the Mayor received it, the same shall be valid and take effect without the Mayor’s approval.
§ 48. Enumerated

The City Council shall have power:

(1) To establish and regulate a market and to regulate, license, tax, or prohibit the selling or peddling of meat, fish, or other provisions on foot or from vehicles about the City, except that the City Council shall not have power to license, tax, or prohibit farmers selling the produce of their own farm.

(2) To restrain and prohibit all descriptions of gaming, to order the destruction of all instruments and devices used for that purpose, and to license or tax any such devices or instruments the usage of which is now, or may hereafter be, permissible under the laws of the State and to license or tax any mechanical or electrical amusement devices or the places wherein the same may be located.

(3) To regulate, license, tax, or prohibit the exhibition of common showmen, circuses, menageries, carnivals, and shows of every kind, and all plays, athletic contests, exhibitions, or entertainments for money, including the power to tax admissions to the same except such as may be conducted by educational or nonprofit institutions or organizations or wholly for charitable purposes; to provide a system of examination, approval, and regulation of motion picture films, reels, or stereopticon views or slides and of banners, posters, and other like advertising matter used in connection therewith; to create and establish a Board of Censors to administer such system within the limits of said City and to define and prescribe their duties and powers and to regulate, restrict, or prevent attendance of minors at exhibitions of films, reels, or stereopticon views.

(4) To regulate, license, tax, or prohibit itinerant vendors, peddlers, street musicians, transient auctioneers, and itinerant photographers, provided the City Council shall not have the power to license, tax, or prohibit farmers selling the produce of their own farm.

(5) To prevent riots, noises, disturbances, or disorderly assemblages.

(6) To abate and remove nuisances; to regulate or prohibit the storage and accumulation on premises within the City of garbage, ashes, rubbish, refuse, and waste materials; to tax or license for revenue and regulate or prohibit the collection and removal of such materials from such premises and the disposal of the same by private persons or agencies; to compel and regulate the removal and disposal of such materials by owners, tenants, and occupants of such premises; to require and provide for the collection, removal, and disposal of such materials by the City at its expense by contract with some private individual or agency or by some City officer, officers, or department either existing, or hereafter created and established by the City Council for that purpose; to establish, in case the collection, removal, and disposal of such materials is done at the expense of the City, service rates to be paid to the City by the owners, tenants, or occupants of premises from which said materials are collected and removed for services rendered by the City in collecting, removing, and disposing of such materials, to compensate the City for the cost and expense of those services. All service rates against owners or others shall be collected and enforced under such regulations and ordinances as the City Council shall prescribe.

(7) [Repealed.]

(8) To compel the owner or occupant of any unwholesome, noisome, or offensive house or place to remove or cleanse the same from time to time, so far as may be necessary for the health or comfort of the inhabitants of said City.

(9) To direct the location and management of all slaughterhouses, markets, steam mills, blacksmith shops, sewers, and all private drains and to compel the construction of drains within the limits of the City, under such inspection regulations as the City Council may adopt.

(10) To regulate the use in blasting, the manufacture, and the keeping of gunpowder and all other combustible and dangerous materials.

(11) To regulate the making of alterations and repairs of stovepipes, furnaces, fireplaces, and other things from which damage by fire may be apprehended and also to regulate the use of buildings in crowded localities for hazardous purposes; to provide for the preservation of buildings from fires by precautionary measures and inspections.

(12) To establish and regulate a Fire Department and fire alarm system, and fire companies, except as herein otherwise provided.

(13) To regulate the size, height, material, and manner of erecting and constructing new buildings and repairing of buildings already constructed in said City or in certain prescribed localities therein and to regulate the use of streets for building purposes.

(14) To prescribe the duties and powers of inspectors of buildings and fire wardens and to provide penalties for any refusal or neglect to comply with the orders of said inspectors and fire wardens made by virtue of any resolution or ordinance passed by said City Council.

(15) [Repealed.]

(16) To prevent encumbering the streets, sidewalks, and public alleys with firewood, lumber, carriages, boxes, or other things.

(17) To provide for the care, preservation, and improvement of public grounds, except as herein otherwise provided.

(18) To restrain and punish vagrants.

(19) To make regulations respecting paupers, except as herein otherwise provided.

(20) To restrain or regulate the keeping and running at large of poultry, cattle, horses, swine, sheep, goats, and dogs. And in addition to the tax now imposed by the laws of this State upon the owner or keeper of dogs, to impose upon or require of the owner or keeper of any dog or dogs such additional tax or license fee for the keeping thereof, and prescribe such penalties in default thereof, as may be deemed necessary. And all monies received hereunder shall be paid into the City Treasury and belong to said City.

(21) To provide a supply of water for the protection of the City against fire and for the distribution and sale of water for private and public purposes to persons and corporations both within and without the City, and to regulate the use of the same; to establish and maintain reservoirs, aqueducts, water pipes, hydrants, or any other apparatus necessary for such purposes, upon, in, and through the lands of individuals and corporations both within and without the City, on making compensation therefor; but the City Council, in providing such supply of water and establishing and maintaining reservoirs, aqueducts, water pipes, hydrants, and other apparatus, as hereinbefore provided, for the distribution and sale of water outside of the City, shall not incur any expense for the same that cannot be paid from the current net earnings of the Water Resources Department above the necessary operating expenses, and the necessary cost of maintaining, improving, and adding to the property and equipment of that Department within the City, unless authorized by the legal voters so to do, and to raise the necessary funds to pay for the same.

(22) To regulate and determine the time or place of bathing in any of the public waters within said City, or adjacent thereto, and to prevent the same.

(23) To compel all persons to remove from the sidewalks and gutters in front of the premises owned or occupied by them all snow, ice, dirt, and garbage, and to keep such sidewalks and gutters clean, and to compel the owners or occupants of any land or premises in the City to cut and remove from the streets and sidewalks in front of such land or premises all grass, brush, thistles, and weeds growing or being thereon, under such regulations as may be prescribed therefor, except as herein otherwise provided.

(24) To regulate and license innkeepers, keepers of saloons, victualing houses, billiard saloons, billiard tables, bowling alleys, places of amusement, and auctioneers, or to tax the same, under such regulations as shall be prescribed therefor; and all monies paid for such licenses or taxes shall belong to the City and be paid into the City Treasury.

(25) To regulate or restrain the use of rockets, squibs, firecrackers, or other fireworks in the streets or commons, and to prevent the practicing therein of any amusements having a tendency to injure or annoy persons passing therein or to endanger the security of property.

(26) To regulate gauging; the place and manner of selling and weighing hay, packing, inspecting, and branding meats and produce; and of selling, measuring, and weighing wood, lime, coal, and petroleum products; and to appoint suitable persons to superintend and conduct the same.

(27) To regulate and license porters and cartmen who receive or discharge their loads within the City; to regulate and license the owners and drivers of taxicabs, jitneys, and motor vehicles for hire, receiving, or discharging passengers, with or without baggage, within the City, whether or not such vehicles are engaged in carrying passengers entirely within the City; to prescribe the duties and privileges of such owners and drivers; to fix and regulate rates of fare, including maximum and minimum rate or rates, for any such transportation of passengers within the City; to license and regulate all such vehicles; to rescind any and all licenses granted hereunder, and to prohibit the operation of such vehicles upon the streets of the City when either the owners or the drivers thereof have not complied with all the provisions of ordinances duly enacted hereunder; provided, however, that no license shall be granted hereunder unless the applicant has first complied with all the requirements of the laws of the State of Vermont relative to the registration and operation of motor vehicles to enable the applicant to use the license for which he or she applies; and to limit and restrict the use of its streets and highways by such motor vehicles in such manner as will promote the safety and general welfare of the public.

(28) To prescribe the powers and duties of watchmen and police officers of said City.

(29) To regulate, establish, and alter the grade of streets and the grade and width of sidewalks, and the construction thereof, and prescribe the material to be used therein.

(30) To provide for lighting of the City.

(31) To provide for removing and trimming shade, fruit, and ornamental trees in the public streets and parks whenever the public good or convenience requires the same to be done, except as herein otherwise provided.

(32) To prohibit and punish willful injuries to shade, ornamental, and fruit trees standing on public or private lands.

(33) To prevent and punish trespasses or willful injuries to or upon public buildings, squares, commons, cemeteries, fountains, statues, or other property.

(34) To establish and maintain a public library.

(35) To regulate the time and manner in which examinations of public documents, land records, and other public records shall be made.

(36) To establish, manage, and control public cemeteries, parks, commons, or any other public place in said City, and to regulate the use of the same by the public, except as herein otherwise provided.

(37) To permit, regulate, license, tax, or prohibit, except as herein otherwise provided, the suspending, putting up, or continuance of any sign or awning in or over any street, lane, alley, common, or other public place in said City; and whenever the public good may require, to order and direct that any such sign or awning heretofore erected or suspended as aforesaid shall be changed, taken down, or removed; and to order and direct the removal of any sign or awning upon which any license fee or tax levied under the provisions hereof shall not have been paid.

(38)(A) To provide for assessing owners of land and buildings thereon abutting any street, alley, or lane in said City such sum as said land and buildings shall be benefited by raising or lowering the surface of said street or highway and also to award such damages to such owners as they shall suffer in consequence of raising or lowering the surface of said street or highway as aforesaid.

(B) The same proceedings shall be had in respect to said award of damages and assessment as are herein provided in case the owners of lands are dissatisfied with the award of damages or amount of assessment in laying out or altering streets or highways and said assessment shall be a lien in the nature of a tax on the lands and buildings so assessed, and may be collected or enforced in the same manner herein provided for assessments made in laying out, altering, or resurveying any street or highway in said City.

(39) To provide for indexing any part or all of the records of deeds and of any or all public records of said City of Burlington, and like records of the former Town of Burlington, by the “card index,” so-called, or any other like system. Such “card index” or other like system may be employed in addition to or in lieu of the manner of indexing now required by the laws of this State.

(40)(A) To fix, demand, impose, and enforce such terms, conditions, and regulations for the use or occupation of any street or highway in said City by any street railroad, traction, telegraph, telephone, electric, gas, electric lighting, electric power, or other company or any person enjoying the privileges, or exercising the functions of any such company aforesaid, as shall be just and reasonable, including any sum or sums of money to be paid to said City for the use of any street or highway by any or all of said companies for the purpose of laying, maintaining, and operating any street railway therein, or for the purpose of therein erecting and maintaining any poles, wires, or any other apparatus in or under the surface of said street and to prohibit the use of such street by any such company or person until such terms have been complied with.

(B) In case any such company or person cannot agree with said City upon such terms, said company or person may apply by petition to the county court within and for the County of Chittenden, and said court shall thereupon, after hearing all parties interested therein, fix such terms as shall be just and reasonable and make all necessary orders for carrying its decision therein into effect.

(C) Provided, however, that no special franchise shall be granted by said City Council for a longer term than 30 years, and further provided that at the expiration of any franchise, or at any time thereafter, the City shall have the right to acquire the title to and take over the property employed or used in the business for which such franchise was granted, upon the payment to the owner of the same of the fair value of the physical properties at that time employed or used in such business, and that in case the City is unable to agree with the owners as to the value of such physical properties, then said property may be condemned and taken for public use, and the value thereof ascertained and awarded as compensation therefor to the owner of the same in the manner, as near as may be, provided in the general laws of the State for the determination of the damages to be awarded persons aggrieved or damaged by the construction or operation of a street railway, and further provided that the grant of every such special franchise shall contain provisions embodying the foregoing conditions and limitations. Provided, notwithstanding the foregoing, the City Council shall not have authority to increase the level of any franchise fee enacted pursuant hereto without first receiving approval by a majority of the voters present and voting at an annual or special City meeting duly warned for this purpose.

(41) To prescribe the duties of the Inspector of Electrical Wiring Apparatus and the installation and maintenance thereof, to regulate and require licenses for all persons engaged in the business or trade of selling electrical apparatus and supplies and in the business or trade of installing and repairing electrical wiring and apparatus but not including telephone or telegraph wires or apparatus, and to regulate and require licenses for all persons engaged in the business or trade of plumbing or house drainage within the limits of said City and to fix and impose the terms, conditions, and fees for all such licenses.

(42) To purchase, construct, and maintain a public wharf.

(43) [Reserved.]

(44) To acquire voting machines, so-called, and prescribe the use thereof in any or all elections held within said City.

(45) To order any streets or part of a street sprinkled, sprayed, or treated with water, tarvia, or any other materials when in its judgment the public good requires.

(46) To enact and enforce rules for its government and for the government of the City Council. Notwithstanding 1 V.S.A. § 172, the City Council may enact rules providing that, as long as a quorum exists, a valid majority for taking action may be a concurrence of a majority of those present and voting.

(47) To appropriate money in excess of the amount required by law to be raised for highways, which a town may now vote to raise at its annual meeting or at a special meeting duly warned for that purpose, according to the provisions of the laws of the State relating to highways, and to assess upon the grand list of the City a tax sufficient to raise the amount of money so appropriated.

(48) To regulate the exposing for sale in the City and conveying through the streets of the City of foodstuffs intended for human consumption to prevent contamination thereof.

(49) To fix, impose, and establish the terms, conditions, and regulations under which any person or persons may exclusively occupy specified portion of any public street, lane, alley, or other thoroughfare used for public travel, for the storage or sale of oil or other merchandise, or for any other private purpose not affected with a public interest, to fix and collect a fee for such occupancy, and to prohibit use or occupancy of such specified portion for any other purpose.

(50) To acquire and hold by lease, purchase, or gift and to maintain within the limits of said City, or within the limits of an adjoining town, a public aviation field and municipal airport and to properly equip the same for use; to regulate the use of said field and its equipment and to charge, receive, demand, and collect from time to time reasonable compensation for use thereof and to manage and control such field and its equipment, appoint proper officers to have charge of the same and to define their duties; to provide for the establishment and maintenance of an airport police force to provide security and law enforcement within the limits of the airport premises and to lease to private parties for aviation purposes such part of said field and buildings as in the judgment of the City Council is not for the time being required by the City for the purposes of a public aviation field or municipal airport and for such time as in the judgment of said Council the same is not so required.

(51) To acquire and hold by lease, purchase, or gift, and to maintain and operate within or without the limits of said City, a stone quarry, a sand and gravel pit, and an asphalt plant, and all lands and interests in lands, required for such purposes, and to properly equip the same for use, and to engage the City in the business of selling stone from such quarry, sand and gravel from such pit, and asphalt from such plant, to persons and corporations both within and without said City and for public or private purposes, said City being hereby authorized to maintain and operate such stone quarry, sand and gravel pit, and asphalt plant for such purposes.

(52) To regulate and license junk dealers.

(53) To receive and hold grants, gifts, or bequests of money or other property, in trust, the income or interest of which is to be used for the care, improvement, embellishment, and repairs of its burial grounds, or of private lots within any such burial ground.

(54) To receive and hold grants, gifts, or bequests in money or other property, in trust, for any governmental purpose, under the charter, and manage and use the same, its income, or interest, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the trust.

(55) To provide for, create, establish, maintain, and regulate an insurance sinking or reserve fund to be used for the purpose of compensating the City for any and all losses and damages to City property by reason of fire, tornado, wind, flood, or other casualty and for the purpose of paying to City employees, their dependents, executors, administrators, and heirs, any and all compensation that may become their due from the City under the provisions of the laws of the State relating to workers’ compensation.

(56) To control and regulate the use of any present or future harbor on Lake Champlain in said City and to make and put into force and effect by proper ordinances all reasonable rules and regulations not in conflict with the jurisdiction of the federal government, governing the use of the waters of Lake Champlain within the City limits and the use of any public pier, wharf, or dock within said City; the mooring and anchorage of vessels within said harbors and at piers, docks, or wharfs within the City; trespasses and nuisances upon public and privately owned wharfs, docks, and piers; and all other proper and reasonable rules and regulations in the premises, tending to promote the public safety, health, morals, convenience, utility, and the public welfare, and to fix, determine, collect, and enforce reasonable charges for the use of any public wharf, pier, or dock owned by the City, and to prescribe and enforce penalties for violation of any and all of such rules and regulations.

(57) To enter into any agreement on behalf of the City with the United States, or any department, subdivision, or agency thereof, to accept grants, loans, and assistance from the United States, or any department, subdivision, or agency thereof, to make public improvements within the City, or upon property of the City outside its corporate limits, and to make appropriations consistent with the provisions of this charter to accomplish such purpose.

(58)(A) To acquire and hold by lease, purchase, gift, condemnation under the provisions of 24 V.S.A. §§ 2805 through 2812, inclusive of the Vermont Statutes Annotated, as amended, or otherwise, and to maintain and operate within the limits of Chittenden County, a municipal parking lot or lots, a municipal parking garage or garages, and any other municipal parking structure(s), and to alter, improve, extend, add to, construct, and reconstruct such lots or garages, subject, however, to the provisions hereinafter contained in this subdivision (58). In exercising the foregoing power, and notwithstanding the preceding sentence, the City Council shall not, except pursuant to subdivision (50) of this section and section 276 of this charter, have authority to acquire any property outside the limits of the City of Burlington through the use of the power of eminent domain or condemnation. The City Council shall not be exempt from the responsibility for securing all applicable permits from any community within Chittenden County outside the limits of Burlington in which it desires to construct a parking lot or garage. Any parking lot or garage constructed by the City outside the corporate limits of Burlington shall be subject to the ad valorem property tax of the community in which it is located.

(B) The Board of Public Works Commissioners shall have general control, management, and supervision of all municipal parking lots and garages. The Board shall have power to make regulations with respect to the use of all such municipal parking lots and garages, including reasonable terms, conditions, and charges, and shall also have the power to regulate the parking, operation, and speed of vehicles and pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the public highways of the City, including such ways, streets, alleys, lanes, or other places as may be open to the public, to erect, maintain, and operate equipment and systems for the regulation of parking of vehicles; to govern and control the erection of guideposts, street signs, and street safety devices on the highways; and to prescribe regulations and penalties for violation of the same in respect to all of the matters and to remove and impound as a public nuisance, at the expense of the owner, any vehicle found parking on a public highway or in a municipal parking lot or garage in violation of any City ordinance or any regulation hereunder, and to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which the owner may redeem such vehicle from the pound, which regulations, when published in the manner provided in section 49 of this charter for the publication of ordinances, shall have the force and effect of ordinances of the City, and violations of which shall be subject to the penalties provided in section 50 of this charter. All ordinances of the City, and all regulations of the Board of Parking Commissioners, in effect prior to July 1, 1959, shall remain in full force and effect notwithstanding that the subject matter thereof shall be within the jurisdiction of the Board of Public Works Commissioners, unless and until such Board shall, by regulation duly adopted and published, alter, amend, or repeal the same.

(C) The Board shall also from time to time recommend to the City Council the acquisition or construction of municipal parking lots or garages, and the City Council shall not authorize such acquisition or construction without such recommendation, nor shall the City Council dispose of or lease to others for operation any municipal parking lot or garage without the recommendation of the Board.

(D) All receipts from the operation or lease of municipal parking lots and garages shall be kept by the City Treasurer in a separate fund, to be known as the Parking Facilities Fund and shall be used for the purpose of paying any and all expenses related to operating, maintaining, acquiring, constructing, or expanding the lots and garages, including any payments on any obligation incurred for construction or repair of those lots or garages. Any amounts unused at the end of a fiscal year shall be carried over to the next fiscal year. All revenues generated from on-street parking equipment and systems shall be used by the City Council for traffic regulation and control, including acquisition or maintenance of parking facilities; proper repair or construction of streets, sidewalks, and bridges; traffic or parking demand management facilities, planning, or services; traffic calming measures; and other transportation-related activities. In addition, the City Council may vote to place any such revenues in the Parking Facilities Fund, at its discretion.

(E) If it shall reasonably appear to the Board of Public Works Commissioners at any time that the receipts from the existing municipal parking lots or garages are in excess of the amounts required for the purposes enumerated in subdivision (D) of this subdivision (58), and that the acquisition of further lots or garages is not required, they shall cause rates and charges for the use of the lots and garages, or some of them, to be reduced.

(F) If the Board of Public Works Commissioners, pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (C) of this subdivision (58), has recommended the acquisition or construction of a new parking lot or garage, the City Council may from time to time pledge, assign, or otherwise hypothecate the net revenues from the lots or garages, after the payment of operating expenses, and may mortgage any part or all of the lots or garages, including personal property located therein, to secure the payment of the cost of purchasing, acquiring, leasing, altering, improving, extending, adding to, constructing, or reconstructing the lots or garages, but the City Council shall not pledge the credit of the City for any of the purposes except in accordance with the provisions of section 62 of this charter.

(59) To fix and establish, and to provide for the collection of, sewer rents and sewage disposal charges, and to alter and amend the same, pursuant to the provisions of the general laws of the State relating thereto. In addition, the City Council shall also have the power to fix and establish by ordinance, and to alter and amend from time to time thereafter, reasonable fees to be paid for new or amended uses of lands or buildings that shall require a new or additional allocation of a portion of the City’s wastewater collection system capacity, and/or wastewater treatment facilities capacity, such fees to include capacity charges, connection fees, impact fees, or similar charges related to the sewer system.

(60) To exercise any powers now or hereafter granted to municipalities under the laws of the State, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this charter; provided, however, that in the event so granted to municipalities, excepting only those powers relating to the amount of taxes that may be assessed upon the grand list, are more extensive than the powers herein contained, the powers so granted shall control.

(61) To provide by ordinance minimum requirements and standards for the subdivision of lands within the corporate limits of the City, including standards and requirements for streets, services, and utilities in such subdivisions; to prescribe penalties for the violation of such standards or requirements; to prohibit such subdivisions and to prohibit the recording or filing of plans for such subdivisions as do not comply with such standards or requirements; and to designate appropriate City officials to pass upon such compliance; provided, however, that no ordinance shall be adopted hereunder until after public hearing thereon. The term “subdivision” as used herein shall mean the division of a tract or parcel of land into two or more lots for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of sale or building development, excluding development for agriculture purposes, and shall include resubdivision.

(62) To provide by ordinance a procedure for waiver of process and prosecution by an individual, firm, or corporation notified or accused of a violation of a City of Burlington ordinance by payment to the City of an amount fixed by ordinance, in lieu of such process and prosecution.

(63)(A) To establish and maintain a unified Department of Public Works, the superintendent of which will be designated Public Works Director, said Department to be managed and controlled by the Mayor and City Council. The City Council may by resolution delegate any of its powers relating to the Public Works Department to the Board of Public Works Commissioners.

(B) The Board of Public Works Commissioners shall consist of seven legal voters of the City of Burlington, who shall be appointed by the City Council to serve for the term of three years, and until their successors are appointed and qualified, except as herein otherwise provided.

(C) The City Council with Mayor presiding shall appoint to the Public Works Commission seven legal voters of the City of Burlington. On the first Monday in June, 1988, and every three years thereafter, the City Council with Mayor presiding shall appoint three commissioners to serve a term of three years. On the first Monday in June 1989, and every three years thereafter, the City Council with Mayor presiding shall appoint two commissioners to serve a term of three years. On the first Monday in June 1990, and every three years thereafter, the City Council with Mayor presiding shall appoint two commissioners to serve a term of three years.

(D) The Public Works Director shall have the special and immediate care and practical supervision of the Public Works Department, its personnel, and its facilities and equipment, subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer and the orders and ordinances of the City Council.

(E) Unless otherwise determined by resolution of the City Council, the Public Works Department shall, in addition to the Director, consist of a Streets Division, Water Division, Waste/Solid Waste Division, Traffic Division, Finance Division, Equipment Maintenance Division/Engineering Division, and Construction Division, each of which shall include a Manager who shall be hired as a City employee by the Director and shall serve subject to the direction of the Director.

(64)(A) Where there is no written rental agreement and notwithstanding 9 V.S.A. § 4467(c), to prohibit, by ordinance, a landlord from terminating a tenancy of rental housing within the City for no cause unless the landlord provides to the tenant written notice of at least 90 days when the tenancy has been less than two years and of at least 120 days when the tenancy has been two years or more.

(B) Unless inconsistent with a written rental agreement or otherwise provided by law, and notwithstanding the provisions of 9 V.S.A. § 4456(d), to require, by ordinance, tenants who wish to terminate a residential tenancy to give actual notice to the landlord at least two rental periods prior to the termination date specified in the notice.

(65) To prohibit increases in rent for rental housing within the City without advance written notice of at least 90 days.

(66) To regulate thermal energy systems in residential and commercial buildings, including assessing carbon impact or alternative compliance payments, for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions throughout the City. No assessment of carbon impact or alternative compliance payment shall be imposed unless previously authorized by a majority of the legal voters of the City voting on the question at an annual or special City meeting duly warned for that purpose. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 4, eff. May 19, 1999; 2003, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 1a; 2011, No. M-4, § 2, eff. April 4, 2011; 2017, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 22, 2017; 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019; 2021, No. M-9 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. April 20, 2022; 2021, No. M-19 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. June 7, 2022.)
§ 49. Authority to enact

The City Council may make, alter, amend, or repeal any resolutions, bylaws, regulations, and ordinances that it may deem necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers or for the well-being of said City, and which shall not be repugnant to the Constitution or the laws of the State; and to provide penalties for the breach thereof; all of which bylaws, regulations, and ordinances shall be duly published in one or more newspapers in said City to be prescribed by the City Council, at least 20 days before they shall take effect. In the event the City Council shall pass a comprehensive revision to any chapter or chapters of its Code of Ordinances, it shall be sufficient if a concise summary of the principal provisions of such revision is published as aforesaid rather than the entire text thereof. Copies of the entire text of such revisions shall be made available upon request at the office of the Chief Administrative Officer. The City of Burlington is hereby authorized and empowered to maintain actions in Chittenden Superior Court to restrain actual or threatened violations of any ordinance of said City.
§ 50. City Council to establish penalty

The City Council may provide a penalty for the violation of any ordinance, regulation, or bylaw not to exceed $500.00. Each day the violation continues shall constitute a separate and distinct offense. If no penalty shall be fixed for the violation of any ordinance, regulation, or bylaw, the court before which such action is heard shall impose a fine not to exceed $500.00 for each offense.
§ 51. Ordinance enforcement

(a) The violation of an ordinance, regulation, or bylaw adopted by the City, including zoning and subdivision bylaws adopted pursuant to 24 V.S.A. chapter 117, as the same may be amended from time to time, may be prosecuted as a criminal or civil action.

(b) All penalties collected for the violation of an ordinance, regulation, or bylaw shall be paid over to the City except for a surcharge that shall be set and retained by the court.

(c) A Superior or District Court judge shall have the jurisdiction to enjoin the violation of an ordinance or rule but the election of the City to proceed under this subsection shall not prevent its proceeding under subsection (a) of this section. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 3, eff. May 19, 1999.)
§ 52. Court authorized to order abatement

In any prosecution for a nuisance arising under this charter or under any lawful ordinance, regulation, or bylaw resulting in a judgment or conviction, the court before which said judgment or conviction shall be had shall order the nuisance or offense complained of to be removed or abated, and shall determine the expense of removing or abating the same and tax such expense as part of the costs of prosecution.
§ 53. [Reserved.]
§ 54. Offenders may be liable in damages

A person violating any ordinance, regulation, or bylaw of said City shall be liable in damages to said City or to the person who shall sustain damage as the direct result of said violation; such damages may be recovered in an action declaring upon such ordinance, regulation, or bylaw.
§ 55. City Council may authorize sale or lease

The City Council shall have the exclusive power to authorize sale or lease of any real or personal estate belonging to said City, and all conveyances, grants, or leases of any such real estate shall be signed by the Mayor and sealed with the City seal.
§ 56. Council to have powers conferred by statute regarding public burial grounds

In establishing or enlarging public burial grounds within said City, the City Council shall have the same power as is conferred by the general laws of the State upon selectboards, and shall proceed in the same manner, subject to the same right of appeal from its decision.
§ 57. Manner of taking land for reservoirs, aqueducts, water pipes, etc

In taking lands for the purpose of establishing and maintaining reservoirs, aqueducts, water pipes, hydrants, or any other apparatus necessary for such purposes, the City Council shall proceed in the same manner in which selectboards of towns are authorized to proceed in the taking of lands for highways, and in performing all acts and doing all business in taking such lands, the Mayor shall preside over said City Council and shall vote as other members thereof. Any person owning or interested in such lands who is dissatisfied with the decision of the City Council taking such lands or in awarding him or her damages therefor may have the same proceedings in respect thereto that shall be conducted in the same manner and have the same effect, as if such lands were taken by a selectboard in any town in the State for the purpose of laying out, altering, or resurveying a highway in said town; but if such proceedings are instituted only in respect to the appraisal of damages for land so taken by the City Council, such proceedings shall not prevent said City from establishing and maintaining reservoirs, aqueducts, water pipes, hydrants, and other apparatus necessary for such purposes upon the lands so taken, as if no such proceedings had been instituted.
§ 58. Council to issue citation that land is to be taken; service

In giving notice to all persons owning or interested in any lands to be taken for such purposes, the City Council shall issue its citation, signed by the Mayor or its Chief Administrative Officer; said citation shall be served in the same manner, and the several officers shall perform the same duties in respect thereto, as provided in this charter.
§ 59. Refunding bonds; Council may authorize issuance of bonds

The City Council may authorize the issuance by said City of refunding bonds for the purpose of paying any of its bonds issued hereunder at maturity or upon acceleration or redemption.
§ 60. Same-issuance prior to maturity or redemption; amounts; issuance, maturities, security, rights of owners, and rights, duties, and obligations of City; general laws relating to refunding of municipal bonds and indebtedness inapplicable

Any refunding bonds or notes may be issued at such time prior to the maturity or redemption of the refunded bonds or notes as the City Council deems to be in the public interest. The refunding bonds or notes may be issued in sufficient amounts to pay or provide the principal of the bonds or notes being refunded, together with any redemption premium thereon, any interest accrued or to accrue to the date of payment of such bonds or notes, the expenses if issue of the refunding bonds or notes, the expenses of redeeming the bonds or notes being refunded, and such reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses from the proceeds of such refunding bonds or notes as may be required by a resolution under which bonds are issued. The issue of refunding bonds or notes, the maturities and other details thereof, the security therefor, the rights of the owners thereof and the rights, duties, and obligations of the City with respect thereto shall be governed by the provisions of this City charter relating to the issue of bonds other than refunding bonds insofar as the same may be applicable. None of the provisions of the general laws relating to the refunding of municipal bonds and indebtedness shall apply to such refunding bonds or notes.
§ 61. Bonds to be signed and contain statement that they conform to applicable provisions

Such notes or bonds so authorized shall be signed by the Mayor and countersigned by the Treasurer of said City, and if interest coupons are attached thereto, they shall be signed by the Treasurer; and such bonds or notes shall contain a statement that they were issued for the purposes mentioned, and in conformity to the provisions of this charter; and such statement shall be conclusive evidence of the same and of the liability of the City to pay any such notes or bonds, in an action by a person who in good faith holds any such notes or bonds.
§ 62. Council; School Board; not to pledge credit of City; exceptions

(a) Except as otherwise provided, the credit of the City, except by temporary loans not exceeding during any quarter of any fiscal year 25 percent of the taxes assessed upon the entire grand list for the fiscal year, and except by emergency loans as provided in this section, shall not be pledged by the City Council, or by any officer of the City, unless by vote of the legal voters of the City, at a meeting of the City duly called for that purpose; provided, however, that the Chief Administrative Officer, when authorized and directed by resolution of the City Council, may pledge the credit of the City by a temporary loan in anticipation of the receipt of revenue from the Airport Department, or the Traffic Division or the Wastewater or Water Divisions of the Public Works Department for their ordinary running expenses during times in any fiscal year when there are not sufficient funds on hand to the credit of the Airport Department or the above-mentioned divisions for the payment of the bills and accounts, or sufficient unappropriated funds in the City Treasury from which the accounts may be paid pending the receipt of revenues of the division sufficient to pay the bills and accounts; and provided further, that the Chief Administrative Officer, when authorized by the City Council, may pledge the credit of the City by temporary borrowing in anticipation of the receipt of revenue from the Electric Department not to exceed $10 million outstanding at any time to provide working capital and liquidity for the Electric Department, with the Electric Department to repay the borrowing from available revenues. Temporary notes issued hereunder in anticipation of the receipt of the revenue from the Electric Department shall mature within two years from the date of issue, and may be renewed or refunded by the issue of other notes maturing within a similar period whenever such action is deemed expedient. Except as above provided, all temporary loans, except loans for the payment of bills and accounts of the Water Division of the Public Works Department and the Electric Department and except emergency loans, shall be paid by the Chief Administrative Officer from and out of the receipts from the collection of the installment of property taxes or other taxes next falling due after the making of the loan, and all monies received from the temporary loans, other than for the Water Division of the Public Works Department and the Electric Department and other than from emergency loans, shall be used to pay the current and ordinary expenses of the City, pending the collection of taxes. All temporary loans made to pay the accounts and bills of the Water Division of the Public Works Department pending the receipt of revenue shall be paid during the fiscal year from the revenues received by that Division. Temporary loans under this subsection for the Water Division and electric departments shall be general obligations of the City notwithstanding that they are primarily payable from the revenues or receipts of the respective Division and departments.

(b) In case of an emergency demand found and declared to exist by the City Council, the City Council may pledge the credit of the City by an emergency loan to meet such demand, but such emergency loans shall not exceed in the aggregate during any fiscal year 40 cents upon the dollar of the entire grand list of said City. All emergency loans shall be used for the emergency declared to exist by the City Council, and shall be paid by taxation the following fiscal year, the budget for which shall include an appropriation sufficient to pay all such emergency loans.

(c) The City Council may, during the first five days of the July following the making of such emergency loans, assess upon the property grand list a tax or taxes, which will be sufficient to pay such loan, which tax shall be in addition to those provided for in section 99 hereof, and shall not be included within the tax limitation thereby imposed upon taxation for City purposes.

(d) The Chief Administrative Officer, when authorized and directed by resolution of the City Council, may pledge the credit of the City by means of temporary loans in anticipation of the sale of bonds authorized by the legal voters of said City for the payment of installments due on the project for which said bonds are to be issued, pending the receipt of revenues from the sale of such bonds; provided, however, that the said temporary loans shall not exceed 90 percent of the amount so anticipated. Any of such loans shall be immediately repaid upon receipt of the proceeds from the sale of the said bonds.

(e) The Chief Administrative Officer, when authorized and directed by resolution of the City Council, may pledge the credit of the City by means of temporary loans for the payment of final bills due on any project approved for school State aid construction, pending receipt by the City of the final State aid payment, but limited to 90 per cent of the amount so anticipated. Any of such loans shall be immediately repaid upon receipt of the State aid construction payment.

(f)(1) The Chief Administrative Officer, when authorized and directed by resolution of the City Council, may pledge the credit of the City by issuing negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds in an amount not to exceed in the aggregate $2 million in any fiscal year for the purpose of providing working capital and capital improvements, additions, and replacements required for the efficient and economical operation of the City and its departments, other than the Electric Light Department and the Water and Wastewater Divisions of the Public Works Department. If any of such annual borrowing authority is used to provide working capital, notes shall be issued in anticipation of the receipt of City revenue and shall mature within two years from the date of issue, and may be renewed or refunded by the issue of other notes maturing within a similar period whenever such action is deemed expedient. If any of such annual borrowing authority is used to provide capital improvements, additions, and replacements, the negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds issued for such purposes shall be of such denominations, payable at such time or times, at such rate of interest, and to be sold and registered in such manner and under such terms and conditions as shall be established by resolution of the City Council.

(2) Notwithstanding the above, however, five per cent of the qualified voters of the City may petition for referendum review of the action by the City Council. Any such request for referendum review shall be in accordance with and governed by the procedures specified in section 63 of this charter for borrowing on behalf of Burlington Electric Department.

(3) The Chief Administrative Officer, when authorized and directed by the Board of School Commissioners and the City Council, may pledge the credit of the City by issuing negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds in an amount not to exceed in the aggregate $2 million in any fiscal year for the purpose of providing working capital and capital improvements, additions, and replacements required for the efficient and economical operation of the School Department. If any of such annual borrowing authority is used to provide working capital, notes shall be issued in anticipation of the receipt of school revenue and shall mature within two years from the date of issue, and may be renewed or refunded by the issue of other notes maturing within a similar period whenever such action is deemed expedient. If any of such annual borrowing authority is used to provide capital improvements, additions, and replacements, the negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds issued for such purposes shall be of such denominations, payable at such time or times, at such rate of interest, and to be sold and registered in such manner and under such terms and conditions as shall be established by resolution of the City Council. The funds raised in any such year from such borrowing shall be used for the capital needs of the School District that qualify for the 30 percent State of Vermont matching grant. The authorization provided for this addition to the City charter shall be considered the voting of funds by the Burlington School District as required by 16 V.S.A. § 3448, as the same may be amended from time to time. The amortization of such borrowed funds shall be by means of an annual tax on the education grand list in an amount sufficient for this purpose, such tax to be in addition to the tax necessary to support the education spending portion of the annual budget of the School Department. (Amended 1999, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; 2005, No. M-1, § 2; 2005, No. M-3, § 4, eff. May 12, 2005; 2009, No. M-11, § 3; eff. May 18, 2009; 2011, No. M-12 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 3, 2012; 2023, No. M-24 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 29, 2024.)
§ 63. Council may pledge credit of City when authorized by voters to do so

(a) Whenever the legal voters of said City, by two-thirds vote of all voters present and voting on the question at any special or annual City meeting duly warned for the purpose, or, if the purpose shall be the making of an improvement relating to a public school by a majority vote of all voters present and voting on the question, shall give authority to the City Council thereof to pledge the credit of said City for any purpose by issuing its negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds, or whenever the City Council shall determine by resolution, upon prior recommendation of the Board of Light Commissioners, that it is necessary during a fiscal year to pledge the credit of the City by issuing its negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds in an amount not to exceed in the aggregate $3 million in any such fiscal year for the purpose of providing capital improvements, additions, and replacements required for the efficient and economical operation of the Electric Light Department, said City shall have power and authority to issue its negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds, and to prescribe whether such bonds shall be registered or have interest coupons attached, to the amount, not to exceed the limit prescribed by the general laws of the State, for which authority has been given as aforesaid to so pledge the credit of said City; such notes or bonds to be of such denominations, payable at such time or times; and at such a rate of interest, and to be sold and registered in such manner and under such terms and conditions as shall be established by resolution of said City Council.

(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, however, a City Council resolution authorizing the credit of the City to be pledged in an amount not to exceed $3 million in a fiscal year for the operation of the Electric Light Department as aforesaid shall not give the City power to so pledge its credit until 44 days have passed following the effective date of such resolution. If during such 44-day period a petition is filed with the Chief Administrative Officer signed by not less than five percent of the qualified voters of the City requesting a referendum vote on whether the credit of the City will be pledged in accordance with the City Council resolution, the credit of the City shall not be pledged pursuant thereto unless a majority of the qualified voters of the City present and voting at a duly warned annual or special City meeting vote to affirm such City Council resolution. Upon receipt of a proper petition, a special City meeting shall be called by the City Council within 60 days from the date such petition is received, or if the next annual City meeting falls within the 60-day period, the City Council shall include an article in the warning for such annual City meeting, to determine whether the voters will affirm such resolution. If at such City meeting a majority of the qualified voters voting on the question affirm the action of the City Council, the City shall have power to pledge its credit pursuant to the City Council resolution as of the day following such City meeting. If the City Council resolution is not affirmed by a majority of the qualified voters voting on the question, the City shall not have power to pledge its credit in accordance with such resolution. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2005, No. M-3, § 5, eff. May 12, 2005; 2011, No. M-12 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 3, 2012.)
§ 64. State law not applicable to section 63

None of the provisions, restrictions, or limitations of chapter 167 of the Vermont Statutes, Revision of 1947, or of amendments and additions thereto, or of the general laws of the State, except the bonding limit prescribed by law, shall in any respect affect or apply to bonds issued under section 63 of this charter. Such bonds shall be signed by the Mayor and countersigned by the Treasurer of said City; and if interest coupons are attached thereto they shall bear the facsimile signature of the Treasurer; and such bonds, orders, notes, or warrants shall contain a statement that they are issued in conformity to the provisions of this charter and shall specify the purpose for which they are issued; such statements shall have the same effect as provided in the case of bonds or notes issued to refund outstanding bonds or notes.
§ 64a. Council authorized to erect sewage disposal plant and issue bonds therefore

The City Council may authorize the erection of a sewage disposal plant for the treatment of sewage emptying directly into Lake Champlain, including buildings and equipment, laboratory equipment and furniture, necessary interceptor sewers, force mains, and pumping station, acquisition of land necessary therefor, and clearing of site, and may authorize the issuance by said City of its bonds to the amount of $741,000.00 bearing interest at not to exceed three percent, for the purpose of paying therefor, which bonds shall not be considered as part of the indebtedness of the City for the purposes of section 3696 of the Vermont Statutes, Revision of 1947. In connection with the erection and operation of said plant, said City Council may also exercise all the powers enumerated by Chapter 180 of the Vermont Statutes, Revision of 1947, as amended by 1949 Acts and Resolves No. 86, without further vote of the legal voters of said City.
§ 64b. Revenue bonds authorized

(a) The following terms when used in this section shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the following meanings:

(1) The term “revenue producing facility” shall mean any building, activity, function, or service that any executive officer or department of the City is authorized to construct, operate, or carry out and for which the City receives revenue in the form of rent admission or use fees, concession fees, or other consideration. Provided, the facilities and activities of the Burlington Electric Light Department, the Burlington Water Resources Department, and the airport as herein defined shall be excluded from this definition of revenue producing facility.

(2) The term “airport” shall mean the entire airport now owned by the City, including runways, hangars, loading facilities, repair shops, terminals, retail stores in such terminals, restaurants, parking areas, and other facilities necessary or convenient for the operation of the airport, together with any improvements thereto hereafter constructed or acquired.

(3) The term “bonds” shall mean any bonds, notes, or obligations of the City issued pursuant to this section.

(4) The term “City” shall mean the City of Burlington.

(5) The term “improvement” shall mean any improvement, expansion, betterment, addition, alteration, reconstruction, extraordinary repair, equipping, or reequipping of the airport.

(6) The term “related laws” shall mean those acts of the Vermont General Assembly that are specifically applicable to the City of Burlington and are set out in Part I, Subpart B of the Burlington Code of Ordinances but that do not specifically amend sections of the Burlington City charter.

(7) The term “revenues” shall mean all rates, fees, charges, rents, and other income derived from the ownership or operation of a revenue producing facility or of the airport and may include, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, investment earnings and the proceeds of insurance, condemnation, sale, or other disposition of revenue producing facility or airport assets and proceeds of borrowing hereunder.

(b) The City is hereby authorized and empowered to improve its revenue producing facilities and its airport for the purpose of providing expanded service and facilities to the users of such revenue producing facilities and airport.

(c)(1) The City is hereby authorized and empowered to issue bonds, from time to time, for the purpose of financing the costs of any improvement to a revenue producing facility or the airport; provided, however, that no bonds other than refunding bonds shall be issued under this section unless and until a majority of the legal voters of the City present and voting thereon at any annual or special City meeting duly warned for the purpose shall have first voted to authorize the issuance of such bonds. Said bonds and the interest thereon shall be payable solely and exclusively from the revenues of the revenue producing facility and/or the airport as the case may be and shall not constitute general indebtedness of the City nor be an obligation or liability upon the City to pay the same from any funds of the City other than the revenues of said revenue producing facility or airport. No airport revenues may be pledged or payable to support a revenue producing facility, nor may the revenues of a revenue producing facility be pledged or payable to support the airport. No owner or owners of any bonds issued under this section shall ever have the right to compel any exercise of the taxing power of the City to pay said bonds or the interest thereon. Said bonds shall not constitute an indebtedness within the meaning of any debt limitation or restriction and shall not be within any statutory limitation upon the power of the City to issue bonds. It shall be plainly stated on the face of each bond that it does not constitute an indebtedness of the City but is payable solely from the revenues of the revenue producing facility or of the airport.

(2) Bonds issued under this section may be issued in one or more series, may bear such date or dates, mature at such time or times both exceeding 40 years from their respective dates, bear interest at such rate or rates (whether variable or fixed), be in such denominations, be in registered form, have such rank or priority, be executed in such manner, be payable in such medium of payment, at such place or places, and be subject to such terms of redemption, with or without premium, be declared or become due before the maturity date thereof as may be determined or authorized by resolution of the City Council. Said bonds may be sold at public or private sale for such price or prices as the City Council shall determine.

(3) In case any officer of the City whose signature appears on any bond or coupon shall cease to be such officer before the delivery of such bond, such a signature shall, nevertheless, be valid and sufficient for all purposes, the same as if he or she had remained in office until such delivery. Any provision of any law to the contrary notwithstanding, any bonds issued pursuant to this section shall be deemed to be investment securities under the Uniform Commercial Code. Any bonds issued by the City pursuant to the provisions of this section are declared to be issued for an essential public and governmental purpose and to be public instrumentalities, and, together with interest and income thereon, shall be exempt from taxes. The resolution authorizing the issuance of said bonds may provide that the bonds shall contain a recital that they are issued pursuant to this section, which recital shall be conclusive evidence of their validity and of the regularity of their issuance.

(d) In order to secure the payment of any of the bonds issued pursuant to this section, the interest thereon, or in connection with such bonds, the City shall have power as to such bonds, to the extent not inconsistent with the mandatory provisions of this section:

(1) to pledge all or any part of the revenues derived from the revenue producing facility to secure payment of bonds issued for a revenue producing facility or from the airport to secure payment of bonds issued for the airport;

(2) to provide for the terms, forms, registration, exchange execution, and authentication of such bonds;

(3) to provide for the replacement of lost, destroyed, or mutilated bonds;

(4) to covenant as to the use and disposition of the proceeds from the sale of such bonds and as to the use and disposition of revenues, including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the establishment of reserves for debt service of other capital or current expenses from bond proceeds or revenues or both;

(5) to covenant as to the rates, charges, and rents of the revenue producing facility or airport, provided that the City shall always collect revenues adequate at all times to provide for the proper operation and maintenance of the revenue producing facility or airport and for the payment of the principal of and interest on all bonds payable from said revenues and all other required payments in connection therewith;

(6) to redeem such bonds, and to covenant for their redemption, and to provide the terms and conditions thereof;

(7) to covenant and prescribe as to what happenings or occurrences shall constitute “events of default” and the terms and conditions upon which such declaration and its consequences may be waived;

(8) to covenant as to the rights, liabilities, powers, and duties arising upon the breach by it of any covenant, conditions, or obligations;

(9) to vest in a trustee or trustees the right to receive all or any part of the income and revenue pledged and assigned to, or for the benefit of, the owner or owners of bonds issued hereunder, and to hold, apply, and dispose of the same and the right to enforce any covenant made to secure or pay the bonds or made in relation to the bonds; to execute and deliver a trust agreement or trust agreements that may set forth the powers and duties and the remedies available to such trustee or trustees and limiting the liabilities thereof and describing what occurrences shall constitute “events of default” and prescribing the terms and conditions upon which such trustee or trustees or the owner or owners of bonds of any specified amount of percentage of such bonds may exercise such rights and enforce any and all such covenants and resort to such remedies as may be appropriate;

(10) to make covenants other than, and in addition to, the covenants herein authorized, of like or different character, necessary or advisable to effectuate the purposes of this section;

(11) to execute all instruments necessary or convenient in the exercise of the powers herein granted or in the performance of its covenants or duties.

(e)(1) Any pledge hereunder shall be valid and binding and shall be deemed continuously perfected from time to time when the pledge is made; unless otherwise provided in the resolution making the pledge, the pledge of revenues shall include any contract or other rights to receive the same, whether then existing or thereafter coming into existence and whether then held or thereafter acquired by the City, and the proceeds thereof; the revenues, rights and proceeds so pledged and then held or thereafter acquired by the City shall immediately be subject to the lien of such pledge without any physical delivery or segregation thereof or further act; and the lien of any such pledge shall be valid and binding as against the City, irrespective of whether such parties have notice thereof. The resolution by which a pledge is made need not be filed or recorded except in the records of the proceedings of the City Council and no filing need be made under the Uniform Commercial Code.

(2) A resolution pledging revenues hereunder may provide for priorities among payments to be made from such revenues, whether required by statute, the City charter, such resolution, or otherwise. The pledge may include revenues otherwise accruing to particular funds established by statute or the City charter. In the event bonds are issued junior and subordinate to other bonds, revenues remaining from time to time that are permitted by the terms of the senior bonds to be used to pay or secure the junior bonds may be pledged for that purpose by the resolution under which the junior bonds are issued. A pledge of revenues under this section shall constitute a sufficient appropriation thereof for the purpose of any provision for appropriation and such revenues may be applied as required by the pledge without further appropriation.

(f) The City may issue refunding bonds for the purpose of paying any of its bonds issued hereunder at maturity or upon acceleration or redemption. The refunding bonds may be issued at such time prior to the maturity or redemption of the refunded bonds as the City deems to be in the public interest. The refunding bonds may be issued in sufficient amounts to pay or provide the principal of the bonds being refunded, together with any redemption premium thereon, any interest accrued or to accrue to the date of payment of such bonds, the expenses of issue of the refunding bonds, the expenses of redeeming the bonds being refunded, and such reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses from the proceeds of such refunding bonds as may be required by a resolution under which bonds are issued. The issue of refunding bonds, the maturities and other details thereof, the security therefor, the rights of the owners thereof, and the rights, duties, and obligations of the City with respect thereto shall be governed by the provisions of this section relating to the issue of bonds other than refunding bonds insofar as the same may be applicable.

(g) Unless otherwise provided in the authorizing proceedings, if bonds are authorized under this section, temporary notes may be issued in anticipation thereof. The City Council may delegate the sale (but not the authorization) of temporary notes to an officer or officers of the City. The principal of and interest on notes may be renewed or paid from time to time by the issue of other notes. Except as otherwise provided, notes issued under this subsection shall be governed by the provisions of this section relating to bonds insofar as the same may be applicable.

(h) Except as otherwise permitted by this section, all monies received from the issue of bonds for improvements to revenue producing facilities or for airport improvements (other than refunding bonds) shall be used solely to defray the cost of improving the revenue producing facility or the airport of the City as the case may be. The cost of improving shall include all costs of improvement, including all preliminary expenses, the cost of acquiring all property, franchises, easements, and rights necessary or convenient therefor, engineering and legal expenses, expenses for estimates of costs and revenues, expenses for plans, specifications, and surveys, other expenses incident or necessary to determining the feasibility or practicability of a project, administrative expenses, interest prior to and during the carrying out of any project and for a reasonable period thereafter, such reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses as may be required by the resolution under which the bonds are issued, and such other expenses as may be incurred in the financing herein authorized, the improvement of the revenue producing facility or the airport, the placing of an improvement in operation, including the creation of cash working funds, and the performance of the things herein required or permitted in connection therewith.

(i) Any owner or owners of bonds, and a trustee or trustees for holders of such bonds shall have the right in addition to all other rights.

(1) By mandamus or other suit, action, or proceedings in any court of competent jurisdiction to enforce his or her or their rights against the City, the City Council and any other proper officer, agent, or employee of any of them, including the right to require the City, the City Council, and any proper officer, agent, or employee of any of them, to fix and collect rates, charges, and rents adequate to carry out any agreement as to, or pledge of revenues, and to require the City, the City Council, and any officer, agent, or employee of any of them to carry out any other covenants or agreements and to perform its and their duties under this section;

(2) By actions or suit in equity to enjoin any acts or things that may be unlawful or a violation of the rights of such holder of bonds.

(j) The City shall have power by resolution of its City Council to confer upon any owner or owners of a specified amount or percentage of bonds, including a trustee or trustees for such owners, the right in the event of an “event of default” as defined in such resolution or as may be defined in any agreement with the owner or owners of such bonds or the trustee or trustees therefor:

(1) By suit, action, or proceedings in any court of competent jurisdiction to obtain the appointment of a receiver of the revenue facility or the airport as applicable or any part or parts thereof. If such receiver be appointed, he or she may enter and take possession of such revenue producing facility or airport or any part or parts thereof and operate and maintain the same, and collect and receive all revenues thereafter arising therefrom in the same manner as the City itself might do and shall deposit such monies in a separate account or accounts and apply the same in accordance with the obligations of the City as the court shall direct.

(2) By suit, action, or proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction to require the City to account as if it were the trustee of an express trust. Any such resolution shall constitute a contract between the City and the owners of bonds of such issue.

(k) The powers conferred by this section shall be in addition and supplemental to the power conferred by any other law or by any other section of this City charter or the related laws of the City. Bonds may be issued hereunder for the improvement of a revenue producing facility and/or the airport, notwithstanding that any other law may provide for the issuance of bonds for the like purpose and without regard to the requirements, restrictions, or procedural provisions contained in any other law. Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude the City from issuing general obligation bonds or notes in accordance with applicable law to finance improvements to a revenue producing facility or to the airport. Such financing shall not be governed by the provisions of this section. It shall not be necessary for the City proceeding under this charter to obtain a certificate of convenience or necessity, franchise, license, permit, or other authorization or approval from any bureau, board, commission, or other instrumentality of the State of Vermont or the City for the issuance of bonds hereunder except as expressly provided in this section.

(l) This section is remedial in nature and the powers hereby granted shall be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes hereof, and to this and the City shall have power to do all things necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes hereof in addition to the powers expressly conferred in this section.

(m) It is hereby declared that the subsections, clauses, sentences, and parts of this section are severable, are not matters of mutual essential inducement, and any of them shall be exscinded if this section would otherwise be unconstitutional or ineffective; it is the intention to confer upon the City the whole or any part of the powers in this charter provided for, and if any one or more subsections clauses, sentences, and parts of this section shall for any reason be questioned in any court, and shall be adjudged unconstitutional or invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remaining provisions thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the specific provision or provisions so held unconstitutional or invalid, and the inapplicability or invalidity of such subsection, clause, sentence, or part of this section in any one or more instances shall not be taken to affect or prejudice in any way its applicability or validity in any other instance.

(n) The powers granted to the City hereunder shall be exercised by its City Council. No provisions hereof shall be deemed to permit the exercise or any power in violation of the rights of bonds or note owners.
§ 65. Source of funds for appropriations; operating expenses for departments; creation of special funds

(a) All money received from taxation, assessments, fines, and other lawful sources, except revenues and income of the Water, Waste Water/Solid Waste, and Traffic Divisions of the Public Works Department and of the Electric Light Department, shall constitute the entire sum from which appropriations and payments are to be made by and under the authority of the City Council. The necessary operating expenses and the cost of repairs, improvements, and additions to the property and equipment of such Divisions and of the Light Department shall be paid from the receipts of said Divisions and Department, respectively.

(1) The Electric Light Department, the Water Division, and the Waste Water Division shall every fiscal year make a contribution to the City in lieu of taxes in the form of a cash payment or the equivalent in free services and municipal rate benefits, or a combination of cash and free services, in an amount equaling the amount of money that would be received by the City in ad valorem real estate taxes and personal property inventory taxes were such Divisions and Department privately owned utilities.

(A) In order to determine the amount of contribution in lieu of taxes to be received from each such Division and Department, the City Assessor shall annually make an assessment of their respective properties in the same manner as and at the same time that assessments of taxable properties are made. Each Division and Department shall likewise file with the City Assessor inventory forms at the time and in the manner required by State law of taxable persons.

(B) Each Division and Department shall have the same right of grievance and appeal as is afforded to taxpayers except that the determination of the Board of Civil Authority shall be final.

(C) The specific level of the contribution shall be fixed in the same manner as the amount of tax on taxable properties and inventories are determined, immediately upon the setting of the annual tax rate by the City Council.

(2) The City Council, with the prior approval of the Board of Light Commissioners or the Board of Public Works Commissioners, as applicable, shall have authority to create and establish, maintain, build up, and increase from year to year from the earnings of such Department and Divisions, special reserve funds for such Department and Divisions, to be kept by the City Treasurer in a separate bank deposit and in a separate account for each Department and Division and to be used only to pay for such expenses as the Electric Light or Public Works Departments may recommend and the City Council may approve and authorize.

(A) Appropriations and payments from the earnings of said Department and Divisions to said reserve funds may be made at any time but must be authorized by separate resolution of the City Council for each Department and Division.

(B) The total amount of such reserve funds may be limited to such sum as the City Council may by resolution from time to time determine and prescribe.

(3) All portions of all appropriations remaining unexpended at the close of the fiscal year, except in the case of appropriations to the School Department and the Streets Division of the Public Works Department, shall then become part of the General Fund, unless the City Council provides otherwise by resolution.

(b) In addition to the Reserve Funds for the Electric Light Department and for such Divisions of the Public Works Department authorized in subsection (a) of this section, the City Council may by resolution create and establish reserve funds to pay for public improvements, replacement of equipment, capital expenses, and planned or unplanned operating expenditures of any City department(s) or division(s) thereof.

(1) Once established, the City Council may maintain, build up, and increase a fund from year to year by depositing in the fund any monies the City Council may deem advisable, to the extent not prohibited by any other law or regulation.

(2) Monies deposited in and expended from a reserve fund shall be identified in the City budget as it may be amended from time to time.

(3) Reserve funds shall be kept in separate accounts and invested in the same manner as other public funds.

(4) The City Council may expend monies from a reserve fund for any legal purpose for which that fund was established. (Amended 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015.)
§ 66. Annual school appropriations

The City Council shall annually appropriate for the use of schools such sum as shall be recommended by the Board of School Commissioners within the limitations of section 102 of this charter. In addition, the City Council shall also annually appropriate for the use of schools one-half of the cash payments to be received by the City in lieu of taxes from the Electric Light and Water Resources Departments and from any other source. In computing the schools’ entitlement under the preceding sentence, only cash payments shall be considered, and any contributions to the City in the form of free services or municipal rate benefits shall not be deducted from the City’s one-half share of the cash payments to be received. The school commissioners shall be responsible for allocating annually sufficient funds for the payment of any principal and interest due or coming due on City bonds issued for school purposes. The City may reduce the schools’ share of such cash payments in lieu of taxes to the extent necessary to meet payments on bonds issued for school purposes not otherwise provided for by the school commissioners.
§ 67. Appropriations for park and recreation purposes

The City Council shall annually appropriate a reasonable amount of money, not less than two cents on each dollar of the grand list, to be expended for the purpose of providing necessary funds for the care and improvement of park property and for the City Recreational Program, and meeting the expenses of the Park and Recreation Department.
§ 68. Authorized expenditures

No money shall be paid out of the City Treasury unless an approved budgetary authorization for such expenditure exists, sufficient unexpended funds remain in such budgetary line item, and a properly executed voucher requesting such expenditure is in the possession of the Chief Administrative Officer’s Office for the proper spending authority. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 69. Fiscal year; reports required

(a)(1) The fiscal year of the City shall begin on the first day of July in one year and end on the 30th day of June in the next year. A full record of the revenues and expenditures of all City departments shall be kept; and a clear statement of the affairs of the City generally, including all receipts and disbursements of City monies shall be published online and be available for inspection upon request.

(2) The name and amount of salary paid to every City employee shall be published in the City’s annual report. The name and amount of compensation paid to any other individual to the extent required to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service on a 1099 form or otherwise shall be published online and available for inspection upon request prior to the annual meeting.

(3) The annual audit of the City’s financial records shall be finalized at least 30 days before the annual meeting or as the City Council may by resolution prescribe. The annual report of the City shall include a summary of the audit and a copy of the management letter, and full copies of each annual audit shall be published online and available upon request.

(b) Each City Department that has a commission shall consult with and seek the recommendation of its commission prior to submission of its annual budget to the Mayor. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 1999, No. M-7, § 5, eff. May 19, 1999; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2015, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 17, 2016.)
§ 70. Excess expenditures prohibited; assessments for street improvements credited to Streets Division of the Public Works Department

(a) No superintendent, board, or commission member or corresponding executive officer of any City department, with the exception of the Health, Police, and Fire Departments, and then only in case of an emergency, shall expend any money or incur any obligation, unless there is an available appropriation from which the same may be paid and to which it may be charged, and shall not at any time expend any money or incur any obligation in excess of such appropriation. In case any such superintendent, board, or commission member or corresponding executive officer of any City department violates this provision, the City Chief Administrative Officer shall report such occurrence to the Mayor and to the City Council. The Mayor shall advise the City Council as to whether there was appropriate justification for such violation and if the Mayor and City Council agree that such violation was unjustified, the Mayor may recommend and the City Council may determine that the office shall thereupon become vacant and shall be forthwith filled for the unexpired term by the officials authorized to make the original appointment in such case. Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the City Council to remove a duly-elected school commissioner or the Superintendent of Schools.

(b) Except as otherwise provided by resolution of the City Council, all assessments for street improvements shall be credited to the Streets Division of the Public Works Department and be available to said Division as an appropriation for its use only when and as collected and paid to the Chief Administrative Officer. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 6, eff. May 19, 1999.)
§ 71. Approval of property owners required

The established name of any street in the City shall not be changed by the City Council except upon the approval in writing of the owners of the greater part of all property fronting on such street.

Subchapter 004: TAXATION
§§ 72-80. [Reserved.]
§ 81. Tax classification; repeal of inventory tax

(a) Except for the property of utilities subject to the provisions of 30 V.S.A. chapter 3, all personal and real property set out in the grand list that is not used as residential property, farmland, and vacant land zoned “recreation, conservation and open space (RCO)”, shall be classified as nonresidential property and shall be assessed at 120 percent of fair market value; and further provided that inventories and personal property belonging to an owner whose total personal property does not exceed the fair market value of $45,000.00 shall no longer be set out in the grand list of the City as taxable personal estate. Additionally, every owner whose total personal property does exceed the fair market value of $45,000.00 shall be taxed only on the amount of that property that exceeds $45,000.00. The amount of the exemption may be increased by the City Council prior to approval of the next fiscal year’s budget. Properties upon which in-lieu-of-tax payments are made shall be likewise classified and assessed for the purposes of such payments. The tax on nonresidential personal property shall be eliminated effective July 1, 2026, or sooner by resolution of the City Council.

(b) For the purposes of this section, “residential property” is hereby defined to include all property used for dwelling purposes including accessory property that is subordinate to or customarily incidental to the main residential use such as garages and outbuildings. Where a property is used for both residential and nonresidential purposes, then it shall be apportioned according to such uses and then classified and assessed as herein provided. Notwithstanding the foregoing, for the sole purpose of calculating the educational grand list and for the assessment of property taxes for education purposes under Act 60, so-called, as the same may be amended from time to time, all nonresidential properties as above defined shall be assessed at 100 percent of fair market value. (Amended 1999, No. M-9, § 2, eff. June 1, 1999; 2011, No. M-12 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 3, 2012; 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019.)
§ 82. [Reserved.]
§ 83. Preparation; contents

(a) Assessors shall set all taxable real estate in the property grand list only to the last owner thereof, of record, on the first day of April in each year, as shown by an instrument of conveyance recorded in the land records of the City or left and filed for record in the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, as the actual owner of such real estate, and where there is more than one such owner of record, such real estate may be so set in the list to any one or more of them. Any tax assessed on said grand list against such real estate shall be a legal and valid tax against such real estate and shall constitute a good and valid tax lien against the same underlying all other liens and may be enforced as such lien against the property itself by sale on the Constable’s warrant of so much of said property as may be necessary to satisfy the tax with all legal charges, additions, and expenses or, in a proper case, by a proceeding in equity, by giving notice, as required in tax sales of real estate under the provisions of the laws of the State to all parties owning any interest in such real estate. In case the assessors find that real estate standing in the name of such last owner of record has been omitted from any grand list because exempt from taxation in the hands of such owner, but on the first day of April in the year of such grand list was last actually owned by one in whose hands said property was not exempt, they may amend and correct the grand list at any time while the warrant for the collection of taxes assessed thereon is outstanding and in force, by setting such real estate in said grand list to such owner of record as taxable at the valuation of said property in the citywide reappraisal next preceding such omission and thereupon all taxes therefore assessed on said grand list shall apply to such additional item and a tax bill shall be made up and issued thereon and collection of the same enforced under said warrant as such tax lien against said property in the same manner and to the same extent as though no such omission had been made. The provisions of 32 V.S.A. §§ 3652, 3653, and 3654, as the same may be amended from time to time, shall not apply to the City of Burlington.

(b) The property grand list in said City, when completed, shall contain the following:

(1) the name of each such last owner of record, of taxable real estate, with residence or business address, if known, as the actual owner, and the name of each person, partnership, or corporation taxable for personal estate with residence or business address, if known;

(2) a description of all real estate appearing in the land records of the City or by instrument of conveyance so left and filed for record, to be owned by such last owners of record; but such real estate need not be classified as provided in the general laws of the State;

(3) the value of each separate piece or parcel of real estate in said City not exempt from taxation;

(4) the total value of all such real estate not exempt from taxation;

(5) the value of taxable personal estate of each person, partnership, or corporation, in said City, taxable for the same, after making deductions for debts owing and other exemptions allowed by law;

(6) the sum obtained by taking one percent of the value of the taxable real and personal estate set to each person, partnership, or corporation.
§ 84. Composition of books

The books provided for such property grand list shall contain, in addition to the columns necessary to contain the particulars mentioned in the preceding section, two other columns, which shall be designated in said books by the words “Corrected Valuation” at the head thereof. One of said columns marked “Corrected Valuation” shall follow the column in which the value of each separate piece or parcel of real estate not exempt from taxation shall appear in said grand list; the second of said columns so designated shall follow the column in which the valuation of all taxable personal estate shall appear in said grand list. No columns other than those required by this and the preceding section shall be required in such books.
§ 85. Arrangement of information in books

The assessors shall arrange in alphabetical order in the books provided and to be used for such property grand list and containing the two columns marked “Corrected Valuation” as hereinbefore provided, the names of all taxpayers of said City; the street and residence number or business address of each taxpayer, if known; a description and the appraisal of each separate piece or parcel of real estate not exempt and the taxable value of the taxable personal estate in said City of each person, partnership, and corporation. The appraisal of each of the above named classes of property shall first be set in the columns marked “Valuation,” and if corrected, shall then be set in the columns marked “Corrected Valuation.”
§ 86. Summary of assessed valuations to be made and constitute an abstract

The assessors shall endorse on each individual list, a summary of the assessed valuation of the real estate and of the assessed valuation of the personal property specified in the list, after appraising all additions to such list and making all deductions therefrom required by law, and a statement of the total amount at which all of such property, after appraising all additions and making all deductions, will be placed in the property grand list. Such summary and real estate valuation record shall constitute and serve as an abstract of that list and no other or further abstract or abstracts of individual lists shall be required. Upon the completion of all such abstracts, said assessors shall make and sign and place on file, in their office, a certificate that according to their best information and belief, all real estate situate in said City and not exempt from taxation has been set down in the individual lists of taxpayers; that they have appraised all additions thereto and made all deductions therefrom required by law; that according to their best information and belief, the amount of all taxable personal estate of each person, partnership, or corporation named in the individual lists has been set down therein and that said assessors have completed the abstracts of individual lists and filed the same in their office.
§ 87. Notice that abstract completed to be given; meetings of assessors

Said assessors shall, at the same time, sign and file in their office, a notice that the abstracts of individual lists are completed and filed in their office and that the property grand list of said City and of each person, partnership, and corporation named in the individual lists on file in their office, will be made from said individual lists and said abstracts will become final, unless cause to the contrary is shown to said assessors on or before the 25th day of May in said year and that said assessors will meet at their office in said City from day to day from the 20th day of May to the 25th day of May, inclusive, to hear all grievances and make corrections in said lists and abstracts and that no hearing will be had before them later than said 25th day of May.
§ 88. Abstracts and certificate to be completed by May fifth

Said abstracts of individual lists and said certificate and notice shall be completed and lodged in the office of said assessors on or before the fifth day of May in each year.
§ 89. Notice of changes and that abstracts and lists are open for inspection to be filed

Notice signed by said assessors shall be posted in one public place in each ward in said City on or before the fifth day of May in each year and published three times in one or more daily newspapers in said City, stating that said abstracts shall be open for inspection by any taxpayer in said assessors’ office from the 20th day to the 25th day of May, inclusive, and that during that time said assessors will hear all persons aggrieved who desire to be heard by them and make all necessary changes in said abstracts. Additionally, personal notice meeting the requirements of 32 V.S.A. § 4111(e) as the same may be amended from time to time shall be mailed to all persons listed as property owners in the grand list book of any change in the appraised value of such property. It shall be presumed, in the case of any controversy, that the personal notices were mailed as required without using registered or certified mail or obtaining an official certificate of mailing from the post office, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in 32 V.S.A. § 4111(e). The notice shall also inform such persons of the amount of such change and of the time and place fixed for hearing persons aggrieved.
§ 90. Aggrieved persons permitted to appear before assessors; preliminary review

Any person who feels aggrieved by the action of said assessors, and that desires to be heard by them shall appear before them within the time hereinbefore prescribed for said hearing. The assessors shall give written notice by first class mail, postage prepaid, to all aggrieved taxpayers concerning the results of their grievance hearing. The notice shall also inform the taxpayer that he or she may appeal from this decision to the Board of Tax Appeals by lodging a written appeal with the Chief Administrative Officer. The City Assessor shall also be authorized to conduct preliminary review meetings with taxpayers to discuss the valuation of their property. The meeting shall be conducted in an informal manner and no taxpayer shall be obligated to attend such a preliminary review meeting.
§ 91. Appeal of assessors decision

A person aggrieved by the decision of the assessors may appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals on or before the 19th day of June or within 14 days after the date of mailing of notice, under section 90 of this charter, by filing with the Chief Administrative Officer of said City a written notice of appeal. The grounds upon which such appeal is based shall therein be briefly set forth; such person shall also notify said assessors in writing of the appeal. The Board of Tax Appeals shall consist of seven residents of the City of Burlington, two of whom shall be real estate professionals and five of whom shall not be required to be real estate professionals. The City Council shall also appoint three of its members to serve as additional members of the Board of Tax Appeals for the purpose of hearing and deciding appeals that arise immediately following implementation of a citywide reappraisal.
§ 92. Board of Tax Appeals to hear appeals; deadline for hearings; manner of conducting; possible Board of Civil Authority review

(a) The Board of Tax Appeals shall meet, hear, and determine all appeals in the manner set forth in this section, notwithstanding 32 V.S.A. § 4404. All such appeals shall be heard and determined no later than December 31 of that year. Hearings and inspections of the property shall be conducted by the entire panel as described in this section.

(b)(1) The City Assessor shall have the right to request and the Board shall have the right to issue a subpoena for all records of the taxpayer that are material to a determination of the appeal.

(2) Such records shall be regarded as confidential, shall not be further distributed, and shall be utilized only for the purpose of deciding the appeal; provided that no subpoena shall issue unless and until a taxpayer has appealed to the Board of Tax Appeals.

(3) If the taxpayer fails to provide requested records in response to a subpoena properly issued hereunder or refuses to allow an inspection of his or her property, the appeal shall be deemed withdrawn or dismissed and no further appeal shall be available to such taxpayer.

(c) The Board shall hear and decide appeals by three member hearing panels, the membership of such panels to be rotated on a periodic basis. All three members must be present and voting, and at least two of the three members of the hearing panel must join in the decision in order for it to be valid.

(d) Either a taxpayer or the City Assessor aggrieved by the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals may file an appeal of a decision of the Board of Tax Appeals directly with the Director of the Division of Property Valuation and Review of the Vermont Department of Taxes or the Superior Court pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 4461 within 30 days of the mailing of the Board of Tax Appeals’ decision to the taxpayer.

(e) The decision of the Board of Tax Appeals, if not further appealed, shall become the basis for the grand list of the taxpayer for the year in question plus the next two years unless new information of a material nature about the property is discovered, the property is materially changed, or the City undertakes a rolling or complete reevaluation of real estate that includes the property in question. (Amended 2007, No. M-7, § 2, eff. April 17, 2007; 2017, No. M-9, § 2, eff. May 22, 2017.)
§ 93. Alterations in valuation to be entered in “corrected valuation” column

No alteration shall be made by the assessors, Board of Tax Appeals, or Board of Civil Authority in the figures opposite each taxpayer’s name in the columns marked “Valuation” except by inserting in the proper columns marked “Corrected Valuation” the valuations finally determined upon in all cases where the first valuation is changed.
§ 94. Completion of grand list; collection

As soon as practicable after the 25th day of May, the assessors shall carry out the proper amounts in the columns provided in the books for said property grand list, the figures in the columns marked “Valuation,” where the same are not changed, to be the basis for computing the property grand list for such items without repeating said figures in the columns marked “Corrected Valuation,” and the figures in the columns marked “Corrected Valuations” to be the basis for computing the property grand list for such items, and complete the lists of all taxpayers who have not appeared before said Board to be heard upon any grievance as hereinbefore provided; and shall also, as soon as practicable after the 19th day of June, so carry out and complete in said books all lists of persons who have been heard on any grievance by said assessors, Board of Tax Appeals, or the Board of Civil Authority. They shall make oath to said lists so completed in book form, as provided in the general laws of this State for grand lists and file the same in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office on or before the 15th day of July; and said lists so completed in book form, together with all legal additions afterwards made thereto, shall be the property grand list of said City, shall constitute the entire grand list of said City upon which shall be assessed and raised, except as herein otherwise provided, all taxes in said City prior to the 30th day of June in the year next ensuing. Said assessors shall have the same power as listers in towns to add to said property grand list on proper certificate on or before the first day of the following December real estate or personal estate that has been omitted from the property grand list by mistake, and may supply such omissions, correct such grand list in such respects, and make a certificate thereon of the fact. The assessors shall furnish to the Chief Administrative Officer a certificate of such omissions from said property grand list of real and personal estate and of their additions of the same to such grand list on or before said first day of December, and the Chief Administrative Officer shall record such certificate in the property grand list book. Upon the filing of any certificate of additions, all taxes theretofore assessed upon the property grand list shall become effective as legal assessments upon such additions, and the Chief Administrative Officer shall furnish forthwith to the Chief Administrative Officer, a tax levy and tax bill for all of such additions, and the Chief Administrative Officer on receipt of such tax levy and bills for said additions shall forthwith notify by mail each person whose name appears in such levy and bills, of the amount of such tax and how the same must be paid to him or her at his or her office as hereinafter provided. All parts of such tax bills not paid to the Chief Administrative Officer as hereinafter provided shall be turned over by him or her to the City Constable for collection, with the addition of five percent, and 10 cents for the insertion of the name in the warrant, and said Constable shall have power to collect the same under his or her original warrant. Said assessors shall have the same power and authority in all cases, not inconsistent with the provisions of this charter, as is given by the general laws of the State to listers in towns to legalize defective or invalid abstracts and grand lists. Whenever an act under this subchapter is required to be done on or before a date that falls on Sunday, such act shall be valid, if done on the following Monday.
§ 95. Abstracts sufficient for returns to Secretary of State

In making returns of the abstract of said grand list to the Secretary of State, no further abstract of the individual lists of the taxpayers in said City than that hereinbefore provided for shall be required.
§ 96. Board of Tax Appeals and Board of Civil Authority to transmit certified copy of appeal proceedings to assessors

Said Board of Tax Appeals and Board of Civil Authority shall transmit to said Board of Assessors a certified copy of their proceedings in such appeal, and said copy shall be recorded at length in the book containing said grand list, and the valuations and lists shall be made in compliance with such copy of proceedings.
§ 97. Forms for books may be altered as directed by State Tax Commissioner; extension of time

The forms hereinbefore provided for the books for the property grand list shall be altered or changed by the Board of Assessors in accordance with any direction that may be given therefor by the Commissioner of Taxes of the State. Extensions of time under the provision of 32 V.S.A. §§ 4341 and 4342, as the same may be amended from time to time, may be granted upon written application therefor made by the Assessors.
§ 98. Council to assess

(a) The City Council, at the same meeting and immediately after it gives final approval to the annual City budget, shall assess on the property grand list of said City a tax or taxes that will be sufficient to pay all State and county and other taxes required by laws of the State and the provisions of this charter and for such other purposes as are herein provided.

(b) The City Council shall appropriate in the annual budget for each fiscal year to the payment of State and county taxes, and for the several purposes of other taxes required by law to be assessed upon the property grand list such sum as will be raised by the required tax on the property grand list of which such tax is assessable.
§ 98a. A tax ceiling reduction after reappraisal

(a) Whenever the City conducts a general reappraisal that results in an increase in the valuation of the taxable grand list, the property tax rate limits as specified for the City tax in section 99 of this charter, the school tax in section 102 of this charter, the police tax in section 102a of this charter, and the street tax in section 102b of this charter shall each be automatically reduced in a proportion corresponding to the increase in the valuation of the taxable grand list due to said reappraisal. When calculating this proportional reduction the valuation of the grand list after reappraisal shall be discounted to account for real growth in the taxable grand list by dividing the reappraised valuation of the taxable grand list by the sum of 100 percent plus the annual rate of real growth in the taxable grand list for the year:

Discounted Grand List = Reappraised Taxable Grand List

Divided by

100% plus the annual percent real growth rate in the taxable

grand list for the year.

(b) The respective tax rate limits shall thereafter be permanently increased only when authorized by the voters at an annual or special City meeting duly warned for such purpose.
§ 99. Additional assessment; amount

The City Council, in addition to the taxes required by the general laws of the State, and required or permitted by the provisions of this charter, to be raised upon the property grand list and not included in the tax authorized by this section for City purposes may also annually at the same meeting and immediately after it gives final approval to the annual City budget, assess upon the property grand list for City purposes during the fiscal year, a tax that shall not exceed 52 and 76/100 cents upon the dollar thereof and may assess a larger tax when authorized to do so by the legal voters of said City at a meeting duly warned for that purpose.
§ 100. Annual assessment for redemption of bonds authorized

Said City Council shall annually assess upon the property grand list of said City, for the fiscal year, a tax of one and 23/100 cents upon the dollar thereof, the proceeds of which tax shall be applied to the redemption of the bonded debt of the City, and shall annually appropriate for that purpose a sum that in the judgment of the City Council would be raised by a tax of the same rate on said property grand list. Such tax shall not be included within the limitation of amount of tax for City purposes prescribed by section 99 of this charter.
§ 101. Annual assessment to pay bond interest authorized

The City Council shall at the same meeting and immediately after it gives final approval to the annual City budget, assess upon the property grand list of said City for the fiscal year a tax that will be sufficient to pay the interest due and to become due in such fiscal year on all outstanding bonds of the City so far as such interest payments are not otherwise provided for, and also sufficient to pay the principal of all such bonds matured and maturing during such fiscal year, so far as such principal payments are not otherwise provided for, including provision therefor by refunding, and shall appropriate in the annual budget for the fiscal year in which such tax is assessed for the payment of such bond interest and principal such sum as may be required for that purpose. Such tax shall not be included within the limitations of amount of tax for City purposes prescribed by section 99 of this charter.
§ 102. Annual local education spending

The City Council and the City Chief Administrative Officer shall comply with the requirements of section 168 of this charter and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1997, including specifically the requirements of 16 V.S.A. § 428, as the same has been and may be amended, with respect to billing property taxpayers following the adoption of a budget for “Local Education Spending” as defined in 16 V.S.A. § 11(a)(29) and the calculation of the equalized yield amount pursuant to such act. (Amended 1999, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 2.)
§ 102a. Annual assessment for Fire and Police Departments use authorized

The City Council shall annually assess upon the property grand list of the City to meet the appropriation made for the use of the Police Department a tax that will, in the judgment of the City Council, be sufficient to meet such appropriation; but the rate of said property tax shall not exceed seven and 42 one-hundredths cents upon the dollar of said property grand list, except when a larger rate shall be authorized by the legal voters of said City. The City Council shall annually assess upon the property grand list of the City to assist in meeting the appropriation made for the use of the Fire and Police Departments a tax rate not to exceed five cents upon the dollar of the property grand list, except when a larger rate shall be authorized by the legal voters of the City of Burlington. Such taxes shall not be included within the limitation of the amount of tax for City purposes prescribed by section 99 of this charter. (Amended 2001, No. M-11 (Adj. Sess.), § 2.)
§ 102b. Annual assessment for streets use authorized

The City Council shall annually assess upon the property grand list of the City to assist in meeting the appropriation made for the use of the Streets Division of the Public Works Department, a tax that will, in the judgment of the City Council, be sufficient to assist in meeting such appropriation but the rate shall not exceed three and 87 hundredths cents upon the dollar of said property grand list, except when a larger rate shall be authorized by the legal voters of said City. Such tax shall not be included within the limitation of the amount of tax for City purposes prescribed in section 99 of this charter.
§ 102c. Annual assessment for library use authorized

The City Council shall annually assess upon the property grand list of the City to assist in meeting the appropriation made for the use of purchasing books and other media for the Library Department, a tax that will, in the judgment of the City Council, be sufficient to assist in meeting such appropriation, but the rate shall not exceed one-half cent upon the dollar of said property grand list, except when a larger rate shall be authorized by the legal voters of said City. Such tax shall not be included within the limitations of the amount of tax for City purposes prescribed in section 99 of this charter.
§ 102d. Local option sales tax authority

The Burlington City Council is authorized to impose a one percent sales tax upon sales within the City that are subject to the State of Vermont sales tax with the same exemptions as the State sales tax. The City sales tax shall be effective beginning on the next tax quarter following 30 days’ notice in 2006 to the Department of Taxes, or shall be effective on the next tax quarter following 90 days’ notice to the Department of Taxes if notice is given in 2007 or after. Any tax imposed under the authority of this section shall be collected and administered by the Vermont Department of Taxes in accordance with State law governing the State sales tax. The taxes collected shall be paid to the City pursuant to 24 V.S.A. § 138. The tax to be paid to the City pursuant to 24 V.S.A. § 138 shall be paid on a quarterly basis and may be expended by the City for municipal services only and not for education expenditures. (Amended 2005, No. M-11 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 9, 2006; amended 2025, No. 57, § 12, eff. July 1, 2025.)
§ 102e. Annual assessment for park use

The City Council shall annually assess upon the property grand list of the City to assist in meeting the appropriation made for the use of the capital improvement needs of City parks and community gardens a tax that will, in the judgment of the City Council, be sufficient to assist in meeting the appropriation, but the rate shall not exceed one cent upon the dollar of the property grand list, except when a larger rate shall be authorized by the legal voters of the City. The tax shall not be included within the limitations of the amount of tax for City purposes prescribed in section 99 of this charter.
§ 102f. Annual assessment for Housing Trust Fund use authorized

The City Council shall annually assess upon the property grand list of the City to assist in meeting the appropriation made for distributions and uses of the Housing Trust Fund as set forth in Article 18-404 of the Code of Ordinances a tax that will, in the judgment of the City Council, be sufficient to assist in meeting the appropriation, but the rate shall not exceed one cent upon the dollar of the property grand list, except when a larger rate shall be authorized by the legal voters of the City. The tax shall not be included within the limitations of the amount of tax for City purposes prescribed in section 99 of this charter. (Added 2019, No. M-12 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Oct. 8, 2020.)
§ 103. Taxes to be paid in money

All taxes assessed upon the grand list of said City shall be paid in money.
§ 104. Taxes to be paid in installments

Except when otherwise provided, whenever any tax shall be assessed on the property grand list by the City Council, the tax bill shall be delivered to the Chief Administrative Officer, to whom the taxes so assessed shall be paid, one-quarter of such tax shall be paid to said Chief Administrative Officer within 15 days from the time the tax bill for the same is delivered to him or her; one-quarter of such tax shall be paid to said Treasurer within three months and 15 days from the date when said tax bill is delivered to him or her; and one-quarter of such tax shall be paid to the Chief Administrative Officer within seven months and 15 days from the date when said tax bill is delivered to him or her; and one-quarter of such tax shall be paid to the Chief Administrative Officer within 10 months and 15 days from the date when said tax bill is delivered to said Chief Administrative Officer. All installments of said taxes as received by said Chief Administrative Officer shall be applied by him or her first to payment of any personal property tax and next to payment of any real estate tax. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Board of Finance may establish and amend from time to time a discount that shall be available to a taxpayer who pays the entirety of the real estate taxes due on a particular piece of property on or before the payment due date for the first installment of such real estate taxes; provided, however, that any such discount shall not affect the City’s liability to the State for education property taxes.
§ 105. Chief Administrative Officer to give notice upon receipt of tax bills

The Chief Administrative Officer, upon the delivery of a tax bill to him or her, shall forthwith give notice thereof, and of the place where and times when and in what proportions such tax is payable to him or her, the time when all unpaid taxes on such tax bill will be placed in the hands of the Constable for collection as herein provided, by publication and by posting such notice in each ward.
§ 106. Delinquency assessments

Except when otherwise provided, if at the expiration of the time within which any installment of such tax is to be paid to the Chief Administrative Officer under the preceding section, any person against whom such tax has been so assessed shall be delinquent in the payment of such installment thereof, the amount due from him or her on such installment shall thereafter be deemed to be the amount of such installment increased by a penalty of one percent for a period of seven days and thereafter by a penalty of five percent thereon. If such installment increased by five percent is not paid by the 12th day of the month after the date upon which it became delinquent, the Chief Administrative Officer shall increase the amount due by an additional one percent of the original installment. On the 12th day of every month thereafter that the tax or any part thereof remains due, the Chief Administrative Officer shall add to the total amount due an additional amount equal to one percent of the original installment, or any portion thereof, remaining unpaid. The Chief Administrative Officer shall apply such penalty to each installment that is delinquent. If at the expiration of 10 months and 25 days from the time said tax bill shall be delivered to said Chief Administrative Officer, any person against whom a tax has been so assessed shall then be delinquent in the payment of any installment or portion thereof, the amount due from him or her on such installment or portion on which he or she is so delinquent shall thereafter be deemed to be the amount of such installment or delinquent portion of such original tax increased by all penalties and interest accruing thereon to date and one dollar for the insertion of his or her name in the warrant hereinafter mentioned, and also 12 percent interest, compounded annually on all of such delinquent tax and any penalties and interest added thereto, from the date of such warrant.
§ 107. When Treasurer to issue warrant against delinquent persons

Except when otherwise provided, after the expiration of 10 months and 25 days from the time of the delivery of a tax bill to the Clerk/Treasurer, he or she shall thereupon issue his or her warrant against such delinquent person for the collection from them of the amount so due and determined and said interest thereon, which shall be returnable to such Clerk/Treasurer in 90 days from its date, and shall be addressed and delivered to the First Constable of said City.
§ 108. Chief Administrative Officer to collect delinquent taxes

It shall be the duty of the Chief Administrative Officer to collect all legal taxes contained in such tax bill, the amount thereof being determined as hereinbefore provided on or before the time when such warrant is returnable, subject to such abatement of taxes as may be made by the Board for the Abatement of Taxes.
§ 109. Collection after time warrant returnable permitted

The Chief Administrative Officer, or any successor to whom such original warrant may, under the provisions of the general laws of the State, be delivered for execution, may collect on such warrant after the expiration of the time in which the same is returnable any such taxes then contained therein and by the same methods and during the same period or periods authorized by the general laws of this State in regard to collection of taxes by constables and collectors of taxes in towns.
§ 110. Chief Administrative Officer to proceed in manner prescribed by law

Such Chief Administrative Officer shall proceed in the same manner, perform the same duties, be subject to the same liabilities, have the same power, authority, and privileges touching the collection of all taxes for the collection of which he or she holds a warrant, as prescribed by the general laws of this State in regard to the collection of taxes by constables or collectors of taxes in towns.
§ 111. Fees for collection of delinquent taxes

The Chief Administrative Officer shall be entitled to collect from delinquent taxpayers the same fees for collection of all taxes for which a warrant has been issued as are allowed by the laws of this State to collectors of taxes in towns, such fees to be paid over to the City rather than being retained by the Chief Administrative Officer.
§ 112. Failure of owners to pay assessments; warrant to be issued; Chief Administrative Officer to collect

If the owner or owners of any land or buildings assessed under any provisions of this charter shall neglect or refuse to pay any such assessment or any installment thereof with interest as hereinafter provided, to the Chief Administrative Officer or the holder of assessment certificates hereinafter mentioned, within the time prescribed for such payment, the Chief Administrative Officer shall issue his or her warrant for the collection thereof, and such Chief Administrative Officer shall proceed to collect the same, in the manner hereinafter prescribed for the collection and enforcement of assessments made in laying out or altering streets or highways.
§ 113. Assessments may be collected by suit

Such assessments and installments may also be collected by an action at law in the name of the holder of such assessment certificates or in the name of the City of Burlington. A declaration setting forth in substance that the action is brought to recover certain assessments or installments and describing the nature of the same, with the date at which they were made and describing in a general way the premises against which the same are assessed, shall be sufficient.
§ 114. Council to establish and prescribe nature of connections

The City Council shall establish rates to be paid for the use of water supplied by the City water works that shall be called “service rates.” Such service rates and the rates for electricity supplied at retail by the electric light plant shall be and hereby are made a lien in the nature of a tax upon the real estate so supplied with water and electricity and shall be collected and enforced under such regulations and ordinances as the City Council shall prescribe. The City Council may by ordinance prescribe the nature and character of connections between the water mains and lands and buildings to be supplied with water and what lands and buildings shall be so connected and when, under what circumstances, and in what manner, and that the connections and all repairs to the same shall be made by the City at the expense of the owner of the property, and that the cost of all materials and labor for the same may be charged against the owner of the property served, and shall be a lien in the nature of a tax upon the real estate so supplied with water, and may likewise prescribe the means of collecting and enforcing such lien and payment of all such charges.
§ 115. Descriptions recorded in Chief Administrative Officer’s office sufficient for assessment purposes

Whenever a description of lands or buildings is required for purposes of making assessments under the provisions of this charter, reference to the conveyance to the owner, giving the name of the person from whom acquired and the volumes and pages of the land records in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office in which the same is recorded, shall be sufficient.

Subchapter 005: OFFICERS
§ 116. Duties generally

The Mayor shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the City. The Mayor shall use his or her best efforts to see that the laws and City ordinances are enforced and that the duties of all subordinate officers are faithfully performed. The Mayor shall take care that the funds of the City are properly expended, and shall recommend to the consideration of the City Council whatever measures the Mayor may deem necessary for the prudent and efficient management of the affairs of the City. The Mayor shall also be the Chief Conservator of the Peace and Safety of the City and as such is empowered to control and direct the police force, in case of riot, insurrection, or other emergency, when the Mayor may take command of the whole police force, including the Chief Executive thereof, and may for the occasion appoint and commission as many special police officers as the Mayor may deem necessary, who shall have all the powers of regular members of the police force. Any emergency as provided for in this section shall not be construed to be the operation of the police force in its routine duty. The Mayor shall serve as a voting member of the Local Control Commissioners. The Mayor shall have those powers of a justice of the peace in the State of Vermont with respect to the performance of marriage and/or civil unions. The Mayor, commencing on the first Monday in June 2002, shall appoint all City department heads who were heretofore appointed by City commissions, with the exception of the Superintendent of Schools, who shall continue to be appointed by the Board of School Commissioners. Such appointments shall be subject to confirmation by a majority of the membership of the City Council. The appointment by the Mayor to the position of City officer or department head shall be on the basis of professional competency and/or meritorious performance relating to the duties of the position. In making department head appointments and in evaluating their performance, the Mayor shall consult with the applicable City commission. At least two applicable commissioners chosen by the chair shall be invited to participate in interviews for department head selection. The full applicable commission shall formally participate in the annual evaluation of a department head and shall make a formal recommendation to the Mayor concerning the reappointment of a department head. Department heads shall have such administrative, personnel, and managerial authority as shall be delegated to them by the Mayor. (Amended 2009, No. M-17 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 24, 2010; 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019.)
§ 117. Order of succession; Mayor to notify Chief Administrative Officer of his or her intended absence

In case of a temporary absence of the Mayor from the City or the Mayor’s temporary inability to serve, the President of the City Council shall act as Mayor. It shall be the duty of the Mayor to give the Chief Administrative Officer due notice of the temporary absence of the Mayor from the City and of his or her return, and said Chief Administrative Officer shall duly notify the President of the City Council thereof. In case of the temporary absence from the City or temporary inability to serve of the President of the City Council, the City Attorney shall act as Mayor.
§ 118. Mayor to administer oaths

The Mayor shall have power to administer oaths in all cases proper for the administration of an oath before the City Council, and official oaths to the several officers of said City, when such oaths are required by law; and the President of the City Council shall have the like power, in all cases proper for the administration of an oath before the City Council.
§ 119. Remission of fines authorized

The Mayor, with the consent of the City Council, shall have power to remit fines and costs, in whole or in part, in cases where the same are payable into the City Treasury, and shall cause the reasons for such remissions to be entered on the City records.
§ 120. Enumerated

There shall be maintained in said City a Board of Assessors consisting of the City Assessor and two legal voters of said City; a Board of Tax Appeals normally consisting of seven legal voters of said City; a Board of Public Works Commissioners consisting of seven legal voters of said City; a Board of Cemetery Commissioners, a Board of Light Commissioners, a Board of Fire Commissioners, and a Board of Health, each consisting of five legal voters of said City; a Board of Airport Commissioners consisting of five legal voters of the City of Burlington, one legal voter of the City of South Burlington, and one legal voter of the City of Winooski; a Board of Police Commissioners, consisting of seven legal voters of said City; a Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners, consisting of seven legal voters of said City; a Board of Library Commissioners consisting of 10 members; a Board of Planning Commissioners, the members of such boards to be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding; a Board of School Commissioners consisting of 12 legal voters of said City and of the respective wards in which they are elected; and a Board of Finance to be constituted as hereinafter provided. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2015, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 17, 2016; 2021, No. M-7 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. February 14, 2022.)
§ 120a. Merger of boards

Notwithstanding section 120 of this charter, the Mayor shall have power and authority, when authorized by resolution of the City Council, to effect a merger of any one or more of the boards of commissioners enumerated in section 120, or of any other City board or department now existing or hereafter created, except the Board of School Commissioners, when, in the judgment of such Mayor and City Council more efficient and effective delivery of municipal services would result therefrom. The name of any department created by merger, the size of its board of commissioners, and then the scope of its jurisdiction shall be set forth in the resolution approving such merger.
§ 121. Repealed. 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015.
§ 122. Enumerated

(a) On the first Monday in June 1998, the Mayor shall appoint a City Assessor and a Director of the Human Resources Department for a one-year term commencing July 1, 1998. Commencing on the first Monday in June 1999, and biannually thereafter, the Mayor shall appoint such City Assessor and Human Resources Director for a term of two years commencing on the first day of July following the appointment, and until their successors have been appointed and qualified. The Mayor shall appoint on the first Monday of June, 1998 and annually thereafter, and whenever a vacancy occurs, a Chief Administrative Officer, a City Attorney and one or more assistant City attorneys, a City Constable and a Second, Third, and Fourth Constable, a City Engineer and Surveyor, a City Grand Juror and Assistant City Grand Juror, a Harbor Master, a Poundkeeper or a firm or corporation to provide the services of such, a Director of the Community and Economic Development Office, a Director of Burlington City Arts, and a Civil Defense Director. All of the above-referenced appointments shall require the approval of a majority of the City Council. Additionally, commencing on the first Monday in June 2002, and whenever a vacancy occurs, the Mayor shall appoint a Director of Aviation, a Cemetery Superintendent, an Executive Director of the Church Street Marketplace District, a General Manager/Superintendent of the Electric Department, a Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, a librarian(s) of the Fletcher Free Library, a Superintendent of the Parks and Recreation Department, a Police Chief, and a Superintendent/Director of the Public Works Department. The Mayor shall also appoint a Director of Permitting and Inspections, a Zoning Administrative Officer, and a Director of Planning. The first two appointments of an individual to serve in any such position shall be for one-year terms. After an individual has served in a position for two successive years, the Mayor may thereafter appoint such person to serve terms of not more than three years, except that in no case shall an appointment be valid for more than 15 months following the election of a new Mayor. In all cases, such appointments shall continue until their successors have been appointed and qualified. The Mayor shall also have the authority to appoint the superintendent/director of any City department that may hereafter be created by the City Council.

(b) The appointments described in subsection (a) of this section shall require the approval of a majority of the whole number of the City Council. In cases where the Mayor appoints an individual for a term longer than one year, the City Council must also approve the duration of such term. (Amended 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019.)
§ 123. Repealed. 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015.
§ 124. Chair; clerk, records

Each of the boards and commissions named in section 120 of this charter shall organize by the election of a chair and by the appointment of a clerk and, with the exception of the Board of Assessors and the Board of Tax Appeals, the clerk shall keep a written record of the proceedings of his or her respective board, such records to be the property of the City. The clerk need not be a member of the board or commission.
§ 125. Mayor and City Councilors

(a) Term of Mayor. On the first Tuesday in March 2003 and triennially thereafter, the legal voters of the City shall, from among the legal voters thereof, elect a Mayor who shall hold office for the term of three years from the first Monday in April next following such election.

(b) Term of City Councilors.
(1) On the first Tuesday in March 2015 and biennially thereafter, the legal voters of each of the South, Central, East, and North City Districts shall, from among the legal voters of their respective district, elect a City Councilor for a two-year term.

(2)(A) On the first Tuesday in March 2015, the legal voters of each of Wards One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight shall, from among the legal voters of their respective ward, elect a City Councilor for a three-year term.

(B) On the first Tuesday in March 2018 and biennially thereafter, the legal voters of each ward shall elect a City Councilor for a two-year term.

(3) The term of each City Councilor shall begin on the first Monday in April following his or her election. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 126. Commissioners and Board of Tax Appeals

(a) Except as specified in section 179 of this charter with respect to the library commissioner elected from the library staff, each public works commissioner, cemetery commissioner, police commissioner, fire commissioner, light commissioner, park and recreation commissioner, airport commissioner, planning commissioner, library commissioner, member of the Board of Health, and member of the Board of Tax Appeals shall hold office for the term of three years, from the first day of July following his or her appointment or until their successors are appointed and qualified.

(b) Each assessor, except the City Assessor, shall hold office for the term of three years from the first day of April following the appointment and until his or her successor is appointed and has qualified. (Amended 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015.)
§ 127. Department heads and other officers

All officers whose terms of office are not herein or by general law otherwise specified, shall, except as herein otherwise provided, hold their offices for the specified terms from the first day of July following their appointment, and until their successors are appointed and have qualified. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 7, eff. May 19, 1999; 2009, No. M-17 (Adj. Sess.), § 4, eff. April 24, 2010.)
§ 128. Manner of filling

(a) In case of a vacancy in the Office of Mayor, occasioned by death, resignation, removal from said City, permanent inability to serve, failure to elect, or disqualification of the person chosen, the President of the City Council shall act as Mayor until such successor is elected and has qualified.

(b)(1) In case of any vacancy in the City Council from any of the causes described in subsection (a) of this section, the same shall be filled by a new election in the proper ward or City district.

(2) If any City Councilor shall remove out of the ward or City district for which he or she may have been elected or no longer reside in such ward or City district as a result of reapportionment, his or her office shall thereupon become vacant and the same shall be filled by a new election in the proper ward or City district.

(c)(1) In case there shall arise an occasion for any such new election, as a result of a vacancy in the Office of Mayor or City Councilor for any of the causes described in this section, the same shall be held within 90 days of the date of such vacancy, provided such vacancy shall occur before the first day in October in any year, unless a citywide election has been prescheduled to occur between the 90th and the 120th day of the date of such vacancy, in which case the same shall be held on such prescheduled election date; otherwise it shall be filled at the next annual City election.

(2) In every case, the person so elected shall serve for the remainder of the official term.

(3) In the case of reapportionment, such election shall be held at the next ensuing annual City meeting and the term of the City councilor who no longer resides in the ward or City district as a result of reapportionment shall continue until the newly elected City councilor assumes office on the first Monday in April. (Amended 2003, No. M-14, (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 129. Appointing body or person has power to remove

The City Council with Mayor presiding shall have power, for such causes of incapacity, negligence, or bad conduct as to it shall seem sufficient, to suspend or remove from any office any City officer who may be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding and to fill all vacancies in any such office from whatever cause arising. The Mayor and each board shall have like power of removal in respect to any officers who may be appointed by them, except as herein otherwise provided, and provided that in case the appointment of such officer is made subject to the approval of the City Council or City Council with Mayor presiding, the removal of such officer shall likewise be made subject to the approval of the City Council or City Council with Mayor presiding, as such appointment was made. Additionally, the City Council may, on the initiative of the Mayor, by an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of its entire number, remove at any time at its pleasure any City officer or department head it should determine is no longer effectively serving the City, and all City officers and department heads shall take and hold office subject to this authority. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 130. Manner of filling vacancy and residency requirement

(a) In case of a vacancy for any cause in any office referred to in section 129 of this charter, such vacancy shall be filled in the manner herein provided for appointment thereto, but only for the remaining months of the then current fiscal year, plus one additional year, or for the balance of the unexpired term, whichever is the shorter.

(b)(1) Any individual elected to the position of Mayor must be a legal voter of the City as of the date the written consent required by 17 V.S.A. § 2681(a) is filed and at all times during his or her term of office.

(2) Any individual elected to the position of City councilor or school commissioner must be a legal voter of the City and of the ward or City district he or she proposes to represent as of the date the written consent required by 17 V.S.A. § 2681(a) is filed and at all times during his or her term of office.

(3) Any person appointed to serve as a member of any City commission must, except as otherwise specifically provided for herein, be a legal voter of the City at all times during his or her term of office.

(c) Except as provided below, any person appointed by the Mayor and approved by the City Council for the position of City Assessor, City Attorney, Chief Administrative Officer, City Constable, Civil Defense Director, Director of the Office of Community and Economic Development, Harbor Master, Director of Planning, Director of Permitting and Inspections, or Human Resources Director, and any person appointed to be the superintendent or corresponding Chief Executive Officer of the Cemetery, Electric Light, Fire, Parks and Recreation, Police, Public Works, or School Departments shall, in order to be legally eligible to serve, either be a legal voter of the City as of the date his or her term of office commences and at all times thereafter or, if not a legal voter as of the date his or her term of office commences, shall become a legal voter within the City within one year from the date such term of office commences and maintain such status at all times thereafter. In case of personal hardship found and declared to exist by the City Council with Mayor presiding, the time limit for an individual to become a legal voter of the City may be extended for a set period of time beyond one year.

(d) The above subsections hereof shall not be considered applicable to an incumbent in the above listed positions so long as such incumbent remains in the position that he or she holds as of March 1, 1994. Nor shall the above subsections be regarded as applicable to any City position that is not listed above or to the appointed assistants in any position listed above.

(e) In case any person holding any elective or appointive office in the City shall at any time for any reason become legally disqualified to hold such office, such office shall thereupon become vacant and shall be filled for the unexpired term in which such vacancy occurs and in the manner herein provided for filling such vacancy. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015; 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019.)
§ 131. Dual positions prohibited

No City councilor may serve as a City employee or as a commissioner of a City department. However, a City councilor may be appointed to serve as a member of a regional board such as the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, the Chittenden Solid Waste Management District, or other similar board. No member of a commission provided for in this charter shall be eligible to serve as a member of any other such commission, except that a planning commissioner may be a member of a Development Review Board. No City employee may be a member of any commission having jurisdiction over the department in which he or she is employed, provided membership on the Retirement Board is permissible, should such employee be elected thereto. The Mayor may not be employed in any other City position, but may serve in all capacities specifically authorized by this charter. Provided further, this section shall not be read to preclude continued service, including reappointment, of any incumbent commissioner. (Amended 1999, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 5; 2001, No. M-11 (Adj. Sess.), § 3.)
§ 132. Mayor, City Council, and other City officials

(a)(1) The Mayor shall receive such annual compensation as shall be voted by the City Council, but the same shall not be less than $12,000.00 per year.

(2) Each member of the City Council, beginning on July 1, 2017 and thereafter with the first Monday of April 2018, shall receive the annual sum of $5,000.00.

(3) Compensation shall be prorated according to actual months of service.

(b) A member of the City Council shall receive proper reimbursement for any expenses necessarily incurred in fulfilling the duties of the member’s office. Regulations for determining eligibility for necessary expense reimbursement may be promulgated by the Board of Finance. The City Council shall fix the compensation of all other City officers, except as herein otherwise provided. (Amended 2017, No. M-9, § 2, eff. May 22, 2017.)
§ 133. Conflicts of interest

(a) No City officer shall participate in any fashion or cast a vote on any matter in which either a direct or indirect conflict of interest is present. Nor shall a City officer participate or vote on any question in which such participation or vote would reasonably create in the mind of an objective person the appearance of a direct or indirect conflict of interest. The presence of a circumstance as above enumerated shall be regarded as a conflict of interest situation. In the event a conflict of interest situation arises, the affected City officer shall at the first opportunity formally declare the existence of the conflict of interest situation. Thereafter, such officer shall not participate in any fashion at any level, formally or informally, in the discussion of the matter, nor cast a vote of any kind at any level with respect to the matter to which the conflict of interest situation applies. For the purposes of this section, the following definitions shall be applicable:

(1) “Direct Conflict of Interest” shall mean a situation in which the City officer has a direct and immediate financial interest in a matter that is officially before such officer or before a board of which such officer is a member. Such financial interest shall be regarded as present if the City officer is either the self-proprietor of the organization seeking to do business with the City or an officer, partner, professional associate, shareholder holding at least five percent of the outstanding shares of any particular class of shares, director, or managerial employee of such organization. It shall also be regarded as present if the City officer serves as legal counsel, accountant, architect, or consulting engineer, or has another such professional relationship with such organization. For purposes of this subsection, doing business with the City shall mean contracting within the City, seeking or opposing a permit or similar permission for a particular activity, seeking or opposing a legal enactment or some amendment thereof, soliciting employment with the City, or otherwise requesting some status, right, or benefit from the City that has a financial value. Doing business with the City shall not include supporting or opposing the passage of a legislative measure unless such measure relates substantially to the City officer’s business or business organization rather than to a broad scope of private and public interests that may include the private financial interests of the City officer.

(2) “Indirect Conflict of Interest” shall mean a situation in which the City officer is a spouse, parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent or grandchild, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, or first or second cousin of an individual who would have a direct conflict of interest were such City officer involved in the situation.

(3) “City Officer” shall mean the Mayor, a member of the City Council, a member of the Board of School Commissioners, a commissioner appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding, a superintendent or corresponding department head of a City department, or any City official who is appointed by the Mayor subject to the approval of the City Council.

(b) The proscribed appearance of a conflict of interest shall be deemed to be present when either the City officer formally announces the existence of such or two-thirds of the whole number of the City Council, or in the case of a City officer in the School Department two-thirds of the whole number of the Board of School Commissioners, shall vote in a particular situation that such a conflict of interest situation exists for a particular City officer. In such a proceeding, the Mayor shall preside and vote as a member of the City Council, but no City Council or School Board member shall participate or vote if such officer is the subject of the discussion as to whether a conflict of interest situation exists.

(c) Any City officer who violates the provisions of this section shall be regarded as guilty of bad conduct. City officers other than the Mayor, members of the City Council, and members of the Board of School Commissioners shall be subject to removal or suspension in accordance with the procedures set out in this City charter and applicable State statutes. The Mayor or a member of the City Council shall be subject to official censure upon affirmative vote of two-thirds of the whole number of the City Council with the Mayor presiding and voting as a member thereof. A member of the Board of School Commissioners shall be subject to official censure upon the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the whole number of such Board. Provided, neither the Mayor, a member of the City Council, nor a member of the Board of School Commissioners shall participate in such discussion and vote if such individual is the subject of the discussion.

(d) While not proscribed by the precise requirements of this section, a City officer is also requested to consider declaring a conflict of interest situation and not participating in any matter where as a result of close personal friendship with an applicant or for any other reason unrelated to the merits of the matter, the City officer is not able to consider the matter at issue without being influenced and guided by such friendship or other reason unrelated to the merits of the matter. Further, a City officer who holds less than five percent of the shares of any particular class of shares in any organization seeking to do business with the City is also requested to declare his or her ownership of such shares when voting on a matter in which he or she would have a conflict of interest if the percentage of ownership were five percent or greater.
§ 134. Required of Treasurer and other officers handling City funds

The Treasurer and all other City officers who receive or disburse any of the funds of the City shall annually, before entering upon the duties of their office, give bonds to the City in amount satisfactory to the City Council for the faithful discharge of their respective duties.
§ 135. City Council to approve surety company; costs to be paid by City

All City officers from whom bonds are required shall furnish bonds of a surety company satisfactory to the City Council. The Chief Administrative Officer shall pay the cost of such bonds from the money appropriated for incidental expenses. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 136. Officer to be removed from neglect to give bond after notice

In case of the neglect of any officer to give bonds as above specified after 10 days’ notice from the City Council that he or she is required so to do, his or her office shall thereupon become vacant and the vacancy shall be filled as hereinbefore provided.
§ 137. Form

All officers of the City shall, before assuming office, take, subscribe, and file with the City Clerk the following oath:

“I solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office (duty or trust), of ______ of the City of Burlington to the best of my judgment and abilities, according to law, so help me God.”
§ 138. Duties of Chief Administrative Officer generally

(a) The Chief Administrative Officer shall, subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer, have direct responsibility for those administrative, financial, and record keeping responsibilities that are not assigned by this charter to another City entity. The Chief Administrative Officer shall have supervisory responsibility for those functions, herein outlined, which were formerly the responsibility of the City Clerk and City Treasurer.

(b)(1)(A) The Chief Administrative Officer shall perform for said City the same duties devolving by the law of the State upon town clerks, except insofar as the same are changed or modified by the provisions of this charter and shall receive and collect for and on behalf of the City to be used for City purposes all and the same fees to be paid to town clerks for the performance of those duties under the general laws of the State.

(B) The Chief Administrative Officer shall keep a full and complete record and account of all fees as received and as paid to the Chief Administrative Officer in a form and manner as the Board of Finance and the City Auditor may prescribe, and shall give a proper receipt for every fee collected.

(2) The Chief Administrative Officer shall receive only an annual salary or other compensation as shall be determined by the City Council.

(3) The Chief Administrative Officer shall be ex officio Clerk of the City Council with Mayor presiding, City Council, Board of Civil Authority, Board for the Abatement of Taxes, and Liquor Control Commissioners.

(4) The Chief Administrative Officer shall have exclusive charge and custody of the public records of the City and of all records, papers, and documents belonging to the Town of Burlington at the time the City of Burlington was organized.

(5)(A) The Chief Administrative Officer shall be the presiding officer for ward, City district, City, and legislative district elections.

(B) An assistant within the Chief Administrator’s office may be designated by the Chief Administrative Officer to be the presiding officer for ward, City district, City, and legislative district elections.

(c) The Chief Administrative Officer shall have the same powers and be subject to the same liabilities as are prescribed by the laws of this State for town treasurers, shall perform all of the duties relating to the issuing and paying of school bonds, and bonds to retire outstanding indebtedness and such other duties as are herein specified. In the absence or inability of the Chief Administrative Officer to perform his or her duties, the next ranking employee within the Chief Administrative Officer’s office (First Assistant City Treasurer) shall have the same powers, be subject to the same liabilities, and perform the same duties as devolve upon the Chief Administrative Officer.

(d) The Chief Administrative Officer shall be responsible to employ such other employees as may be approved by the City Council.

(e) The Chief Administrative Officer shall be authorized to perform other administrative and executive functions and responsibilities as assigned by the Mayor. It shall also be the responsibility of the Chief Administrative Officer to provide adequate staff resources for the City Council, provided such resources are approved as a portion of the annual City budget. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 7, eff. April 23, 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 139. Public records to remain in Chief Administrative Officer’s office; Council may regulate removal

Such records shall not be taken out of or away from said Chief Administrative Officer’s office except upon the order or process of a court of competent jurisdiction; but said City Council may, by ordinance or bylaw, regulate the removal from said office of all papers and documents belonging to said City and in the custody of said Chief Administrative Officer as aforesaid.
§ 140. Certified copies of records to be made

Said Chief Administrative Officer shall, on being tendered therefor the fees allowed town clerks under the law of this State for similar services, and to be accounted for and paid to the Treasury for City purposes, as provided in the second preceding section, make duly certified copies of said records, papers, and documents, and such copies so certified shall be legal evidence, of the same validity and effect as those of town clerks, in all courts and for all purposes.
§ 141. Certification that notices, ordinances, etc., have been posted required

Whenever any notice signed by the Mayor, City Council, or any City officer or officers, or any advertisement, ordinance, resolution, or bylaw shall have been published in some newspaper or newspapers or publicly posted under the provisions of the general law, this charter, or the ordinances thereby authorized, the Chief Administrative Officer shall examine and ascertain whether such notice, advertisement, or ordinance has been duly published or posted, and if such be the fact the Chief Administrative Officer shall so certify upon the proper City record; and such record or a duly certified copy thereof shall be treated as prima facie evidence of the facts so certified.
§ 142. Assistants

An assistant may be designated by the Chief Administrative Officer to make duly certified copies of any records, papers, or documents in the same manner as the Chief Administrative Officer, without regard to the absence or disability of the Chief Administrative Officer, and such copies, so certified, shall be legal evidence, of the same validity and effect as those of town clerks, in all courts and for all purposes.
§ 143. [Reserved.]
§ 144. Chief Administrative Officer to keep record of notes and bonds issued

The Chief Administrative Officer shall keep a record of every note or bond issued under the provisions of this charter, therein stating the number and the denomination of each note or bond, when and where payable, to whom issued, and the rate of interest thereon; and shall also keep a record of payments thereon of principal and interest; and if coupons are taken up, shall cancel and preserve the same.
§ 145. Record of school bonds to be kept

The Chief Administrative Officer shall keep a record of all school bonds, the issuance, payment, and discharge thereof, as hereinbefore provided for other bonds issued by said City.
§ 146. Redeemed bonds, notes, and interest coupons to be kept

When old notes or bonds and any interest coupons are taken up by payment thereof, by exchange or by sale of the new notes or bonds, the Chief Administrative Officer shall keep a record of the same and such old notes or bonds and interest coupons shall be cancelled and kept on file in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office for a period of 14 years from the date when the note or bond is taken up and cancelled and after such period of 14 years such cancelled notes or bonds and interest coupons thereof may be destroyed.
§ 147. Chief Administrative Officer to keep separate account of school appropriations

The Chief Administrative Officer shall keep a separate account of all monies appropriated for the use of schools, which money shall consist of the income accruing in every legal way for the use and maintenance of schools in said City, and of all money appropriated by the City Council for that purpose; and the Chief Administrative Officer shall pay out of any monies mentioned in this section all warrants drawn by the Board of School Commissioners for the use of schools.
§ 148. Duties

The City Attorney shall be corporation counsel and shall prosecute and defend in behalf of said City all suits in which said City is interested and shall prosecute all violations of the City ordinances and bylaws except when absent from City or disqualified or unable to serve. The assistant City attorneys shall have all the powers and perform all of the duties of the City Attorney as may by the City Attorney be delegated to them and shall receive for the performance of their duties such compensation as the City Council may vote.
§ 149. Subject to same penalties as State’s Attorneys

The City Attorney and assistant City attorney shall be subject to all and the same penalties imposed by the law of this State upon State’s Attorneys for any neglect or violation of official duty.
§ 150. Duties; liabilities; etc

The Board of Assessors shall have the same powers, discharge the same duties, proceed in the discharge thereof in the same manner, and be subject to the same liabilities as are prescribed for listers, except as herein otherwise provided. They shall also be members of the Board for the Abatement of Taxes. The City Assessor shall be a member of and serve as Chair of the Board of Assessors and may also appoint, and remove, at his or her pleasure a Deputy Assessor, who may serve as an assessor in the absence, inability to serve, or disqualification of the City Assessor, and who shall, in addition, have such clerical and administrative duties as said City Assessor shall assign.
§ 151. Powers; duties; liabilities; etc

The City Grand Juror shall have the same powers, perform the same duties, and incur the same liabilities as grand jurors in towns, and shall be entitled to such salary as the City Council may vote, and as the City Attorney may request, a City Grand Juror may prosecute before the applicable Vermont courts violations of the ordinances, regulations, and bylaws of said City. The Second City Grand Juror in case the City Grand Juror is absent from the City or is disqualified or unable to serve shall have the same powers, perform the same duties, and incur the same liabilities as the City Grand Juror, and shall receive for his or her services such compensation as the City Council may provide.
§ 152. Powers and duties

The City Constable shall have the same powers, perform the same duties, and be under the same liabilities as are prescribed by the laws of this State for constables of towns, and the said Constable shall have the same powers as sheriffs in suppressing riots and all unlawful assemblages and of arresting without warrant all persons disturbing the peace and may forthwith bring them before the Chittenden Municipal Court, or a justice of the peace, or detain them in custody until such court can be held. The Second, Third, and Fourth Constables, in case such are appointed, shall have the same powers and perform the same duties and be under the same liabilities as the City Constable except that neither the Second, Third, nor Fourth Constable shall have the power or perform the duties of collector of taxes.
§ 153. Duties

The City Engineer and Surveyor shall be assigned to the Public Works Department. He or she shall make all public surveys of the streets and public grounds of said City, and shall perform such other services as may be required by the Director of Public Works.

Subchapter 006: EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS
§ 154. Composition

The Board of Finance shall be constituted as follows: The Mayor shall, ex officio, be Chair of said Board and together with the President of the City Council, and three additional members of the City Council who shall be elected at the first meeting of the City Council in April of each year and who shall serve a term of one year from the date of their election shall constitute said Board of Finance. In addition, the Chief Administrative Officer shall serve as a nonvoting member of said Board. All of the additional three members elected from the City Council may not be members of the same political party. The members of said Board shall be trustees of public monies for the City and shall have the powers and perform all the duties of similar officers in towns of this State; provided, however, that they shall make no investment or reinvestment of any of the cemetery endowment funds of the City without first obtaining the written approval thereof by a majority of the Board of Cemetery Commissioners. The Clerk/Treasurer’s Office shall provide staff assistance for said Board. In the absence or disability of the Mayor, the Chief Administrative Officer shall sit as a voting member. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. April 23, 1998; 2011, No. M-4, § 2, eff. April 4, 2011.)
§ 155. Board to act as board of audit; uniform system to be adopted

The Board of Finance shall act as a board of audit. They shall establish, and each department shall adopt, such systems of accounting and auditing for each department of the City government, as will give uniform and reliable methods for transacting the business of the City.
§ 156. Monthly reports; annual audit

The Board of Finance shall provide for regular monthly reports to be made by each department to the City Council; they shall also provide for the annual auditing of the books of each department, by a competent professional auditor, and may also provide for such further auditing as shall to said Board seem advisable.
§ 157. Preparation and submission of budget

The Mayor shall, with the assistance of the other members of the Board of Finance, annually prepare an estimate of the necessary appropriations to cover the expenses of each department and branch of the City government for the next fiscal year, to be known as the “budget,” and shall submit said “budget” to the City Council for its guidance and action in making the annual appropriations and the tax levy for such next fiscal year. The Mayor shall submit the “budget” to the City Council on or before June 15 of each year and the City Council shall make the annual appropriations and the tax levy no later than June 30 of each year. The City Council may reduce the items of such budget, but shall not increase them except by two-thirds vote of said City Council. Wherever any appropriation, annual or otherwise, shall be made to any department or branch of the City government, for any specified purpose, no part of such appropriation shall be expended for any purpose other than the one specified, unless authorized by resolution of the City Council or by written permission of the Board of Finance. Nothing herein contained shall authorize the Board of Finance to transfer any appropriation, or any part of any appropriation, from one department or branch of the City government to another.
§ 158. Sinking Fund abolished

The General Sinking Fund of the City, so-called, is hereby abolished and all monies or funds currently deposited in such Sinking Fund shall be appropriated in accordance with the requirements of sections 65 and 157 of this charter.
§ 159. Selection of official depositary

The Board of Finance shall, in the month of June 1994, and not less frequently than once every three years thereafter, procure from chartered banks of known reliability and sufficient capital their offers to act as depositary for the City monies, or for specified portions thereof, and the terms upon which they will receive such monies, and also the terms upon which they will furnish money upon such temporary and emergency loans to the City, or specified portions thereof, as the City Council from time to time may authorize. They shall by vote determine which of said offers, if any, they accept, and appoint such bank or banks whose offer or offers are accepted, as depositary or depositaries of such monies, or any portion thereof, to which any offer relates, as to them shall appear to be for the best interests of the City.
§ 160. Care and control of public buildings

The Board of Finance shall also have the care and control of all public buildings not specifically in charge of any other department of the City under this chapter or ordinance or resolution of the City Council. They shall appoint or employ such persons as may be required for the proper care of the buildings, and may prescribe their salaries and fix their duties.
§ 161. Repairs to public buildings

The Board of Finance may cause such repairs or enlargements to be made to said buildings from time to time as the interests of the City may require; provided, however, that when the estimated cost of any such repairs or enlargements exceeds the amount of money appropriated by the City Council to the public buildings account in any fiscal year, they shall make report thereon to the City Council for their approval before any expenditure shall be made for such purpose, and shall in April and October of each year report the condition of said buildings to the City Council.
§ 162. Board authorized to rent portions of public buildings

The Board of Finance may rent such portion of the public buildings to such public officers or private persons as to them shall seem for the best interests of the City; provided, however, that rentals for a period of more than one week shall require the approval of the City Council.
§ 163. Composition

(a) The Board of School Commissioners of said City shall be composed of 12 school commissioners. One commissioner from Ward One through Eight inclusive and one commissioner from each of the four districts shall be elected as hereinbefore and hereinafter provided.

(b) Anything contained herein or in the general statutes to the contrary notwithstanding, all candidates for the Board of School Commissioners shall be elected on a nonpartisan basis. No reference shall be made on an election ballot to a candidate’s political affiliation or to the endorsement of any such candidate by political party or parties. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 164. Terms; elections

(a) On the first Tuesday in March 2015 and biennially thereafter, the legal voters of each of the South, Central, East, and North City districts shall, from among the legal voters of their respective districts, elect a school commissioner for a two-year term.

(b)(1) On the first Tuesday in March 2015, the legal voters from each of Wards One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight shall, from among the legal voters of their respective ward, elect a school commissioner for a three-year term.

(2) On the first Tuesday in March 2018 and biennially thereafter, the legal voters of each ward shall elect a school commissioner for a two-year term.

(c) The term of each school commissioner shall begin on the first Monday in April following his or her election. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 165. Manner of filling vacancies

In case of a vacancy in the office of school commissioner, occasioned by death, resignation, removal from the ward, or as a result of such school commissioner no longer residing in such ward as a result of reapportionment or other causes, the same shall be filled by a new election in the proper ward; and in case there shall arise an occasion for any such new election, for any of the above mentioned causes, the same shall be held within 90 days of the date of such vacancy, provided such vacancy shall occur before the first day in October in any year; otherwise it shall be filled at the next annual City election. In the case of reapportionment, such election shall be held at the next ensuing annual City meeting and the term of the school commissioner who no longer resides in the ward as a result of reapportionment shall continue until the newly elected school commissioner assumes office on the first Monday in April.
§ 166. Meetings

Said Board shall, by general regulations, provide for the holding of regular meetings. The Clerk shall call special meetings whenever a majority of the commissioners concur in requesting him or her so to do. All meetings of the Board of School Commissioners shall be open to the public except when an executive session is deemed advisable by a majority of the Board for discussion of appointments, disciplinary action, or termination of contracts of school personnel, and except when an executive session is deemed advisable by a majority of the Board for consultation with the Board’s attorney on legal matters or for communication of collective bargaining instructions to the duly appointed negotiator for the Board.
§ 167. Duties

Said Board shall have the care and custody of all property belonging to or used for the several public schools of said City and such care shall include authority to make ordinary repairs on school property and finish any unfinished apartments and make such alterations in any school building, as said Board shall deem best; shall employ teachers and fix their compensation; have the management and control of all the public schools of said City; establish and maintain an adequate system of financial disbursement, accounting, control, and reporting procedures that ensures that all payments are lawful and in accordance with a budget adopted or amended by the Board.
§ 168. Adoption of budget

(a)(1) Said Board shall annually be responsible for the preparation and adoption of a budget, which shall include a detailed estimate of revenues and expenditures for the ensuing July 1 to June 30 fiscal year. The budget shall be formally adopted no later than January 20 of the fiscal year prior to its applicability, but it may be amended by the Board from time to time thereafter.

(2) The Board shall, not earlier than 21 days prior to its formal action to adopt a budget, make a formal presentation to the City Council, at a City Council meeting to be called for this purpose, concerning its proposed budget. At such meeting, the City Council will also allocate time to receive public commentary on the proposed budget. The Board shall also present information concerning its purposed budget, the status of the current fiscal year to date, its educational goals and outcomes, its strategies for improvement, and other pertinent information.

(b)(1) Annually, immediately following the formal adoption of its budget, the Board shall pass a resolution placing before the voters at the annual City meeting the question of whether the education spending portion of the Board-adopted budget will be approved. The City’s Chief Administrative Officer shall place such budget approval question upon the ballot of the annual City meeting.

(2) Should a majority of the voters present and voting approve the presented education spending portion of the budget, it shall be considered approved. If such portion of the Board-adopted budget is not approved at the annual City meeting, the Board may make alterations thereto which it deems appropriate, if any, and thereafter resubmit such portion of the budget to the voters at a special City meeting to be arranged for such purpose by the Chief Administrative Officer. This sequence may be repeated until the voters approve the education spending portion of the budget presented to them or until July 1 of any year, whichever sooner occurs. Should such portion of the budget not be approved by the voters by July 1 of any year, the Board shall amend its budget and may permit education spending for that fiscal year in an amount that does not exceed the education spending last duly approved by the legal voters adjusted by the total dollar amount change in the base education payment for the budget year multiplied by the equalized pupil count for the budget year. No question that is submitted to the voters on or after May 20 of any year shall be subject to a petition for reconsideration or rescission under any provision of this charter or under 17 V.S.A. chapter 55.

(c) [Repealed.] (Amended 1999, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2003, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 3.)
§ 169. Powers generally; authority to establish graded schools

Said Board shall have in general all the powers and authority, and perform all the duties, pertaining to school officers in towns of this State, not inconsistent with the provisions of this charter. It may establish graded schools and provide for instruction in the sciences and in the higher branches of a thorough education.
§ 170. Authority to establish bylaws and regulations

Said Board may establish such bylaws and regulations for carrying out the powers herein granted as are consistent with the provisions of this charter and the general law of this State.
§ 171. Appointment; compensation; removal; term

Said commissioners shall, if applicable under the circumstances, during the second week in April, appoint the Superintendent of Schools and/or fix his or her compensation, which shall be paid by the school commissioners in the same manner as other expenses for the support of schools; and for causes of incapacity, negligence, or misconduct they may remove such Superintendent of Schools from office and they shall by appointment fill all vacancies in such office arising from any cause. Such Superintendent shall be appointed to serve a term, the length of which shall not be for less than one year nor more than three years which term shall commence on the first day of July following such appointment. The Superintendent shall hold his or her office for his or her full appointed term unless excused therefrom by the school commissioners or unless sooner removed as hereinbefore provided.
§ 172. Duties of Superintendent; commissioners to file monthly report

The Superintendent of Schools shall perform such duties in connection with the public schools of said City as shall be assigned him or her by the Board of School Commissioners. The Superintendent shall annually report to the City Council such statistics as are required by the law of this State, and such other information as the Superintendent shall deem proper or the school commissioners shall direct, or the City Council shall request. The Board of School Commissioners shall make a monthly report in writing and file the same with the Chief Administrative Officer on the first day of each calendar month, showing the repairs on public school buildings and grounds in connection therewith for the month previous and shall give such other information as the City Council shall request with reference to the administration of the School Department.
§ 173. Appointment; duties

Said Board shall appoint truant officers for said City, as provided by general law. Said truant officers shall have the same powers and perform the same duties as prescribed by the general law of this State for truant officers in towns and cities, and shall have such further powers and perform such further duties as shall be prescribed by said board or by any ordinance, regulation, or bylaw of said City.
§ 174. City to provide, equip, and maintain

It shall be the duty of said City to provide, equip, and maintain suitable schoolhouses for the accommodation of all the public schools of, or required by, said City.
§ 175. Commissioners to control location, construction, sale, and purchase

The location and construction of the schoolhouses and the management, sale, and purchase of school property shall be under the control of the school commissioners, subject to the limitations herein provided, and the limitation upon their power of incurring liabilities in behalf of said City.
§ 176. Statement showing necessity for construction or purchase required

Before the school commissioners shall purchase any real estate for school purposes, or enter into any contract for the construction of any school building, other than repairs of and additions to existing school buildings deemed necessary by said school commissioners, they shall file with the Chief Administrative Officer of the City Council a statement showing the necessity of such purchase of real estate, or of the construction of such building, together with an estimate of the cost of such real estate, or of the construction of such building, and the amount of money necessary for such repairs.
§ 177. Council to approve purchase or construction

They shall not purchase any real estate, nor enter into any contract for the construction of any school building, until such action has been approved, and the funds for the same provided, by the City Council.
§ 178. Funds for construction or purchase to be provided by tax levy

Upon the approval by the City Council of such proposed purchase of real estate for school purposes, or such proposed construction of a school building, said City Council shall provide the necessary money for such purpose by levying a tax sufficient to meet the whole or any part of the expense of such purchase or construction, or by the issuance of bonds authorized by the legal voters of the City pursuant to the provisions of section 63 of this charter.
§ 179. Composition

The Board of Library Commissioners shall consist of ten members. Six of such members shall be designated the public commissioners and four of such members shall be designated the trustee commissioners.

(1) Four of such public commissioners shall be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding. One public commissioner shall be the Mayor or his or her designee and one public commissioner shall be an employee of the Library elected by the employees thereof.

(2) The four trustee commissioners will be appointed on a self-perpetuating basis by the trustee commissioners.

(3) The term of all voting commissioners other than the Mayor and library staff shall be three years. The Mayor’s or his or her designee’s term shall coincide with the Mayor’s term of office. The public commissioner elected from the Library staff shall be elected for a one-year term.

(4) The initial terms of the commissioners shall be staggered. During the first week in June 1991, two trustee commissioners shall be appointed by the present Trustees of the Fletcher Free Library for a term of three years, one for a term of two years, and one for a term of one year. Thereafter, all such appointments shall be for a term of three years commencing the first day of July following their appointment and continuing until their successors have been appointed and qualified.

(5) The four public commissioners appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding must at all times be residents of the City. Neither the public commissioner elected by the Library staff nor the trustee commissioners must reside in the City, but all trustee commissioners must reside within Chittenden County.

(6) In addition, the Board of Library Commissioners may appoint not more than two additional nonvoting advisory members of the Board to serve for terms that the Board shall deem appropriate.

(7) A Chair of the Board of Library Commissioners and a Clerk of the Board shall be appointed at the first meeting in July. The Clerk need not be a member of the Board. (Amended 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015.)
§ 180. Duties

The City Council may make and establish all proper and necessary rules and regulations for the management and guidance of the Library Department. The librarians shall have charge of the Library building and the grounds and shall appoint such employees as may be authorized by the City Council. The City Council shall have responsibility for the entirety of the collection of books, pictures, materials, and articles of historic, educational, or artistic interest except for those articles that have been acquired with the funds available under the deed of gift from Mrs. and Miss Fletcher, which property shall be under the control of the trust. The City Council shall see to it that all lands and buildings used for Library purposes by the City are kept in good condition and repair. Except for the revenues produced by the deed of gift from Mrs. and Miss Fletcher, the Library Department shall have no power to expend any money or incur any debt beyond the amount of the appropriations made by the City Council. Section 133 of this charter relating to conflicts of interest shall not apply to the Library staff member who is elected a public commissioner, but such commissioner shall not participate in any fashion at any Board of Commissioners’ level, formally or informally, in the discussion of the matter, nor cast a vote of any kind at any Commission level with respect to a matter involving grievances, arbitrations, or other personnel matters that may properly be discussed in executive session. The Board of Library Commissioners shall have such authority and responsibility relating to the management of Library facilities and services referenced herein as may be delegated from time to time by resolution of the City Council. The appointed librarian(s) shall be subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer.
§ 181. Liabilities to be approved and budget preparation

All bills, accounts, and claims on account of the Library and its maintenance, except such as are incurred by the trustee commissioners on account of funds under their control, shall be approved by the City Council or, if such authority has been delegated to it, by six or more members of the Board of Library Commissioners and the Mayor’s warrant shall be drawn upon the Chief Administrative Officer for the payment of such bills, accounts, and claims. By such date requested annually by the Mayor, the Library staff shall prepare and the Board of Library Commissioners shall approve a recommended Library budget for the ensuing fiscal year. Such proposed budget after being presented to the Mayor may be revised as he or she believes appropriate and ultimately submitted to the City Council for its approval in accordance with the procedures set forth in section 157 of this charter.
§ 182. [Reserved.]
§ 183. Board of Police Commissioners; composition; terms

The Board of Police Commissioners shall consist of seven legal voters of said City, to be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding to serve for three years and until their successors are appointed and qualified. (Amended 2015, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 17, 2016.)
§ 184. Same—Powers and duties

The City Council shall make rules and regulations for the government of the entire police force and shall fix the qualifications of applicants for positions and service on said force and the Chief of Police shall furnish the City Council with any information they may require concerning the finances of the Police Department. The Chief of Police shall be responsible for all expenditures made by the Police Department and no expenditures shall be made by the Department except in conformity with the standards promulgated by the City Council. The Board of Police Commissioners shall have such authority and responsibility relating to the management of the Police Department, its services, and facilities as may be delegated from time to time by resolution of the City Council. Said Board shall notify the Mayor and the Chief Administrative Officer, in writing, of any and all changes, modifications, or additions to the rules and regulations of the Department.
§ 185. Officers of police force designated

(a) The direction and control of the entire police force, except as herein otherwise provided, shall be vested in a police officer who shall be called the Chief of Police, and such other ranking police officers as the City Council shall authorize. The order of rank and succession within the Police Department shall be as designated by the City Council by regulation.

(b) Except as herein otherwise provided, such officers shall have the powers and duties granted to police officers by Vermont law and assigned to them by regulations adopted under section 184 of this charter. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 186. Manner of filling vacancies

Whenever a vacancy occurs in any other position, the Chief may appoint a successor. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 8, eff. May 19, 1999; 2003, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 4.)
§ 187. Force to be maintained; selection of members

A regular police force for said City shall be maintained in the City. No applicant shall be deemed qualified for employment on said force until he or she has been approved by the Chief of Police. The process for determining the qualifications of and employing police officers shall fully comply with the City’s comprehensive personnel policy manual as the same may be amended from time to time. (Amended 2003, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.)
§ 188. Manner of appointment

The Chief shall, from time to time, as the needs of the City may require, appoint from the approved applicants a sufficient number of regular police officers. If the name of the applicant has been on the approved list for more than six months, the applicant shall take and pass a new examination by the Board of Medical Examiners before being appointed. (Amended 2003, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 6.)
§ 189. Members of force to be retained as long as they remain competent

The members of said regular police force now serving, or who shall hereafter be appointed thereto, shall, after the expiration of the one-year probationary period above provided, and so long as they shall remain competent, efficient, and capable in the performance of their respective duties be retained as such, subject to the rules and regulations adopted under section 184 of this charter and provided that any member may be removed for cause as hereinafter provided.
§ 190. Chief may remove member for cause; hearing

(a) Whenever it shall appear to the Chief that any member of said force has become incompetent, inefficient, or incapable from any cause, or is or has been negligent or derelict in his or her official duty, or is guilty of any misconduct in his or her private or official life, or whenever any well-grounded complaints or charges to such effect are made in writing to the Chief by a responsible person against such member, the Chief may investigate and, after appropriate notice and hearing, dismiss such member from the force, order a demotion in rank, or suspend the member without pay for a specified time period in excess of 14 days. In connection with any possible dismissal, demotion, or suspension for more than 14 days, the Chief’s notice to the member shall be given at least 48 hours prior to any hearing and shall include a description of the charges being considered. In connection therewith, the Chief shall have the power to subpoena witnesses and to administer the oath to such witnesses. The Board of Police Commissioners shall hear any appeal filed in a timely manner with respect to such actions of the Police Chief. The time of filing an appeal and the nature of the appellate process shall be as determined by such Board of Regulation. Following its consideration of any such appeal, the Board may affirm, modify, or vacate the decision made by the Chief of Police.

(b) Whenever it shall appear to the Mayor that the Chief has become incompetent, inefficient, or incapable from any cause, or has been negligent or derelict in his or her official duty, or is guilty of any misconduct in his or her private or official life, or whenever any well-grounded complaints or charges to such effect are made in writing to the Mayor by a responsible person, the Mayor may suspend the Chief from duty pending a hearing thereon by the City Council. The City Council shall forthwith notify the Chief of the charges preferred by them, or of the complaints or charges presented by such responsible person in writing, and shall thereupon proceed to consider and investigate the same. It shall appoint a time and place for the hearing of such complaints and charges so made, shall give the Chief reasonable notice of the same, not less than 48 hours, and the City Council shall have the power to subpoena witnesses and to administer the oath to such witnesses.

(c) If, upon hearing, the City Council shall find such complaints or charges to be well founded, it may dismiss the Chief from the force, demote him or her in rank, or suspend him or her without pay for a period not to exceed 60 days. The procedures outlined in this section shall control in the event of any conflict with section 129 of this charter as pertains to the removal of the Chief.

(d) The Chief may, without notice or hearing for any infraction, violation, or disobedience of any of the rules and regulations of the Police Department that may seem to the Chief sufficient, suspend from duty without pay any member of the police force for a period not to exceed 14 days. (Amended 2003, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 7.)
§ 191. Political activity restricted

No person while an officer or other member of the regular police force of the City shall publicly endorse any candidate for political office, serve as a campaign assistant on behalf of any candidate for political office, or perform any public campaign activity on behalf of any candidate for public office for which Burlington voters are casting ballots. The foregoing shall not prohibit a police officer from voting in any election; or from expressing his or her views concerning any referendum question being considered; and shall not prevent a collective bargaining unit that represents police officers from endorsing candidates in elections, provided that no bargaining unit representative announcing such endorsement may do so while wearing a police uniform. No person shall be appointed to or retained in the Department as a reward for political service rendered, nor in any manner be discriminated against because of his or her failure to render such service.
§ 192. Authority to appoint; defined; powers

(a) In addition to the regular police force hereinbefore provided for, the Chief, with the approval of the Board of Police Commissioners, may appoint for a term not to exceed one year such limited and special police officers as he or she may consider desirable. Such appointments shall be revocable by the Chief, without cause, with the approval of said Board.

(b) The term “limited police officer” shall be construed to mean police officers appointed upon request for the protection of private property, and their appointment shall restrict their powers to a jurisdiction described as on or about designated premises. Limited police officers shall receive no pay from the City. The term “special police officer” shall be construed to mean police officers appointed for special public service. A special police officer shall have the same general powers and authority as a regular police officer, and may receive pay from the City according to the service performed by him or her, except that he or she shall not receive pay for more than 90 days’ service during any one fiscal year of the City unless he or she shall have been subject to the same conditions of appointment as are herein provided for regular police officers, or unless there shall exist a shortage of regular members of the police force and a lack of qualified applicants for appointment thereto.
§ 193. Service and process; fees allowed

All police officers shall have authority to serve anywhere within the State and return process in criminal causes returnable within the City; and for such duties there shall be taxed and allowed the fees provided by law for a sheriff, for similar services, which fees shall belong to the City, to be paid into the City Treasury whenever such police officer shall be under pay from the City.
§ 194. Police to have same powers as constables; jurisdiction limited

The said police officers shall have the power of constables in all matters arising under the criminal and police laws of the State and the ordinances and police regulations of the City, except that the jurisdiction of the limited police officer shall be restricted as set forth in section 192 of this charter.
§ 195. Compensation to be set by Council

The compensation of all police officers, including that of the Chief of Police, shall be fixed by the City Council, and all fees accruing to them under the laws of the State or the provisions of this charter shall belong to said City and shall be paid into the City Treasury.
§ 195a. Authority of University of Vermont police officers

University of Vermont police officers are hereby empowered to enforce City of Burlington municipal ordinances and to issue citations for the violation thereof. (Amended 2003, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 8.)
§ 196. Composition

(a) The Board of Fire Commissioners shall consist of five legal voters of the City, to be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding, to serve for three years and until their successors are appointed and qualified, except as herein otherwise provided.

(b) The City Council with Mayor presiding shall also at the time of the commission appointments appoint up to five fire wardens. (Amended 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015.)
§ 197. Authority to establish rules and regulations for Fire Department

The City Council may make and establish all proper and necessary rules and regulations for the management and guidance of the Fire Department and for the control and regulation of the fire protection of the City.
§ 198. Fire Department; created; members; appointment

There shall be a paid Fire Department for said City, which shall consist of the following members, to wit: One Chief Engineer, and such subordinate positions as the City Council may authorize from time to time. The members of said Fire Department shall be employed by the Chief Engineer. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 9, eff. May 19, 1999; 2001, No. M-6 , § 2.)
§ 199. Department to be under supervision of Chief Engineer

Said Department shall be at all times under special and immediate care and practical supervision of the Chief Engineer, subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer and the ordinances and orders of the City Council. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 200. Powers of fire commissioners

The Board of Fire Commissioners may exercise such of the referenced powers relating to the Fire Department as may be delegated from time to time by resolution of the City Council.
§ 201. Powers relating to Fire Department

The City Council shall have full power to try and determine all complaints against any member of said Department, and to remove them, or any of them summarily, or on conviction of insubordination, neglect of duty, incompetency, or violation of the rules, regulations, or ordinances governing said Department. The City Council shall also have the power, upon the recommendation of the Chief Engineer, to make such changes in the positions held by any member of the Department, either to remove him or her or place him or her in a subordinate position, as they may deem for the best interests of the Department.
§ 202. Political activity restricted

No person while an officer or other member of the Fire Department of the City shall publicly endorse any candidate for political office, serve as a campaign assistant on behalf of any candidate for political office, or perform any public campaign activity on behalf of any candidate for public office for which Burlington voters are casting ballots. The foregoing shall not prohibit a fire officer from voting in any election; or from expressing his or her views concerning any referendum question being considered; and shall not prevent a collective bargaining unit that represents fire officers from endorsing candidates in elections, provided that no bargaining unit representative announcing such endorsement may do so while wearing a fire uniform. No person shall be appointed to or retained in the Department as a reward for political service rendered, nor in any manner be discriminated against because of his or her failure to render such service.
§ 203. Commissioners to manage parks; composition of Board

The public parks of the City of Burlington now in existence, and those that may hereafter be established, together with all park property that may be acquired and all public recreational activities hereafter sponsored by the City, shall be under the management, care, and control of the City Council. The Parks and Recreation Department may likewise cosponsor recreational activities with other public and/or private agencies. The City Council may by resolution delegate any of the powers relating to parks and recreation to the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners. The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners shall consist of seven legal voters of said City, to be appointed as hereinbefore provided. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 18, eff. April 23,. 1998; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2015, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 17, 2016.)
§ 204. Records to be kept; annual reports to City Council required

The Parks and Recreation Department shall keep an accurate record and books of account, and shall annually transmit to the City Council a full and detailed report and statement of all its acts and doings, together with a complete and itemized account of all receipts and disbursements. The books of account and records of the Department shall, at all times, be open to inspection and subject to an annual audit by the proper municipal officer.
§ 205. Parks and Recreation Department; appointment of Superintendent, and engineer

The Superintendent shall prescribe and assign the respective duties, powers, and authority, and shall, subject to the approval of the City Council, fix and regulate the compensation to be paid to the several persons so employed. The Superintendent shall have the special and immediate care and practical supervision of the Parks and Recreation Department, subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer and the orders and ordinances of the City Council. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 10, eff. May 19, 1999.)
§ 206. Establishment and maintenance of athletic activities authorized; charging admission fees permitted

Said Department may establish, manage, and promote athletic and recreational activities in the parks and other appropriate buildings and places; and in the management and promotion thereof, said Department may, subject to the approval of the City Council, charge admission and/or user fees, which fees shall be used by the Department first, in defraying the expenses of such activities, and any excess in the amount of such fee after such expenses are paid shall be used by the Department in the maintenance and improvements of the City Parks and Recreational Program. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 207. Authorization to establish and alter rules for park operation

The City Council shall have power to make and alter from time to time, all needful rules and regulations for the maintenance of order, safety, and decency in said parks and for said Recreational Program and to fix penalties for disobedience thereof; which rules and regulations shall have the force of ordinances of the City of Burlington; provided, that no such rule or regulation shall be of any effect unless it shall have been first published in full in one or more of the daily newspapers published in Burlington, and also printed and made available for inspection at the office of the Superintendent. Any member of the Police Department may arrest, without warrant, in any such park or places, any person who has broken any park or recreational rule or committed any other offense in a park or place of public recreational activity.
§ 208. Determination of location of sewers, water pipes, wires, etc

The City Council shall have sole power to determine the places in said parks where sewers, gas, and water pipes shall be laid; and no trench, for these purposes, shall be opened until the City Council has designated the location of the same and given permission in writing. No telegraph, telephone, or electric light wires, or other wires, or posts or supports therefor, shall be erected in, upon, through, or over said parks without the consent in writing of the City Council, who shall designate the place and manner of maintaining the same, to be altered at such time and in such manner and under such conditions as the City Council shall deem best.
§ 209. Regulation of planting and care of trees in parks

The City Council shall have authority to direct and regulate the planting and preservation of shade and ornamental trees and shrubbery in the streets and in the public grounds of said City; and to appoint a City Forester to superintend and regulate the planting and culture of such trees and shrubbery in said streets and public grounds, and to perform such other similar duties as may be prescribed. The City Council is also authorized to enact such rules and regulations as it may deem proper to carry out the purposes of this article. It shall have general care of all shade and ornamental trees and the shrubbery growing in the streets and public grounds of said City, and may direct the removal of any that it may deem detrimental or undesirable. No shade or ornamental trees growing in the streets and public grounds of said City shall be destroyed or removed except by leave in writing, first obtained from the City Council.
§ 210. Direction that trees be planted along public grounds and assess abutting land

The City Council may in its discretion, cause suitable shade trees to be planted along and upon any street or any portion thereof, and upon any public grounds in said City; and may cause to be assessed upon the piece or parcel of land abutting upon such street or public grounds, and benefited by such improvement, the cost of purchasing and planting such trees. The sum so assessed shall not be greater than the amount actually expended for the purchase of such trees and the expense of planting, with an additional sum of 20 percent of that amount; and any trees that may die within three years after having been so planted shall be replaced by the City Council without additional assessment. The City Council shall by resolution direct the amount to be assessed against each piece or parcel of land; and such assessment shall be collected and the payment thereof enforced, with, and in like manner as State, county, and other taxes are collected, and the payment thereof enforced, and such assessments when collected by the Chief Administrative Officer shall be placed in the park fund.
§ 211. Authority to regulate parking

The City Council shall have control of the parkings upon each street of said City, including the right to permit, regulate, or prohibit the placing of signs within and upon said parkings. Said parkings shall be understood and held to be the space between the curb or gutter and the street line on each side of the street, except so much thereof as may be occupied by publicly owned and maintained sidewalks. The City Council shall also have control of these areas in the center of streets not used for traffic. In case said parkings are not properly cared for by the owners of the property abutting thereon, the City Council may, in its discretion, and shall, upon petition of the majority owners of the abutting property on such street or any block or blocks upon such street, cause such parkings to be properly cared for, the grass cut, weeds destroyed, and such work done as they deem necessary; and the cost of doing such work shall be assessed upon abutting property as provided in the preceding section. Provided, however, that nothing in this section shall interfere with the necessary work of the City in its work on the streets, curbing, sidewalks, or in making sewer connections in any such streets, or of the City in making or repairing water connections.
§ 212. Authority to declare weeds, underbrush, etc., a nuisance and direct removal

The City Council shall have the power and authority to declare weeds, underbrush, or any unsightly or detrimental growth on any lot of land adjacent to any park or street in said City, a nuisance. It may notify the owner or owners of such land to remove or abate such nuisance; and if, upon reasonable due notice, such owner or owners fail to remove or abate such nuisance, then the City Council shall have the right and authority by its superintendent and employees to enter upon such land and remove or abate such nuisance; and the City Council shall have authority to assess the cost of so doing upon the owner or owners of said land, and such assessment may be collected and enforced as provided in the section 210 of this charter.
§ 213. Issuance of bonds to provide funds for parks authorized

For the purpose of providing necessary funds for the purchase or improvement of lands for park and recreational property, the City of Burlington is hereby authorized and empowered to issue its bonds in such manner and form as shall be determined by the City Council of said City. On request of the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners, duly made in writing, the Mayor of said City shall call a meeting of the qualified voters of the City and submit to them the proposition to issue bonds of the City, the proceeds of the sale of which shall be exclusively applied, under the direction and at the discretion of the Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners, to the acquisition and improvement of land and facilities for public Parks and Recreational Programs, but the said Board shall make no contract of expenditure thereof involving liability to the City of Burlington exceeding the amount of the bonds thus issued. Such meeting shall be conducted, and the result determined, as in other City meetings.
§ 214. Bills and expenses to be approved

All bills and expenses for parks and recreation purposes shall be approved by the City Council and the Mayor’s warrant drawn upon the Chief Administrative Officer for the payment of the same.
§ 215. Definition of “park property”

The term “park property” includes all parks, squares, and areas of land within the management of said Board; and all buildings, improvements, walks, drives, trees, plants, flowers, and other things thereon, and enclosures of the same; and all shade trees, shrubs, or plants on streets or thoroughfares; resting places, public grounds, or the like; and all birds, animals, or curiosities, or objects of interest or instruction; all tools or implements placed in or on any such enclosure.
§ 216. [Reserved.]
§ 217. Condemnation of land for park and/or recreational purposes authorized

The City Council, on behalf of the City of Burlington, shall have power to take by condemnation land for park and/or recreational purposes; and if the City Council cannot for any cause agree with the owner or owners of any land, which it shall decide to take for public park and/or recreational purposes, as to the necessity of taking such land, the damages sustained by the owner, or the compensation to be paid therefor, the same proceeding shall be taken as required by law for establishing highways.
§ 218. Composition; appointment; terms

The Board of Cemetery Commissioners shall consist of five legal voters of said City, who shall be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding, to serve for the term of three years and until their successors are appointed and qualified, except as herein otherwise provided.
§ 219. Duties

The City Council shall have such authority and responsibility relating to the management of the Cemetery Department, its services, and facilities, as provided by the general law of this State respecting cemeteries. The City Council may by resolution delegate all or a portion of such authority and responsibility to the Board of Cemetery Commissioners. The Superintendent of the Cemetery Department shall have the practical care and immediate supervision of the Cemetery Department, but shall be subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer and to the orders and ordinances of the City Council.
§ 220. Bylaws and regulations of Board to have force of ordinances

The bylaws and regulations made by said Board as provided by law shall, when approved by the City Council and published as herein provided for ordinances, have the force of ordinances of said City.
§ 221. [Reserved.]
§ 222. Duties

The Director of Public Works shall have general management and control of the City water works, water pollution control plants, and solid waste disposal facilities as assigned by the Mayor or by resolution of the City Council, subject to any limitation and restriction contained in this charter.
§§ 223, 224. [Reserved.]
§ 225. Powers of Board

(a) The City Council shall, in addition to the other powers granted to it under this charter, have power to make all necessary repairs, extensions, or improvements to said works, and to provide new supply pipes within the City.

(b) The City Council may pledge the credit of the City and incur obligations to be paid in installments over a period of years and only from revenues of the Water Division of the Public Works Department to pay the cost of such improvements and additions to the property and equipment of the Water Division of the Public Works Department as, in the judgment of the City Council, the interests of the City require to be made and, for the purpose of paying such costs, may pledge, assign, or otherwise hypothecate such portion of the net earnings or profits of the Water Division of the Public Works Department from year to year as may be required to pay such installments, and the City Council shall authorize and direct the execution and issuance of such contracts and evidences of indebtedness as may be necessary to so pledge the credit of the City for the payment of such obligations in such installments from the net earnings of the Water Division of the Public Works Department, such contracts and evidences of indebtedness to be in such form and to contain such provisions and to be executed by such officers as the City Council may by resolution provide; provided, however, that all such obligations and all installments thereof shall be payable only from the net earnings or profits of the Water Division of the Public Works Department and shall not constitute an indebtedness of the City or impose an obligation or liability upon the City to pay the same from any funds of the City other than such net earnings or profits, and in case revenue bonds of the City are issued for such obligations, the same shall not be subject to the bonding limit provided by law.

(c) The City Council shall also have all the powers and duties of sewage disposal commissioners under the provisions of 24 V.S.A. chapter 101.
§ 226. Composition; appointment; term

The Board of Light Commissioners, which Board may also be properly referred to as the Board of Electric Commissioners, shall consist of five legal voters of said City, who shall be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding to serve for the term of three years, and until their successors are appointed and qualified, except as herein otherwise provided.
§ 227. Superintendent/General Manager; duties

The Superintendent/General Manager shall have the special and immediate care and practical supervision of the said electric light plant and City property in connection therewith, but shall at all times be subject in respect thereto, to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer and to the orders and ordinances of the City Council. Subject to the foregoing, the Superintendent/General Manager may execute and issue on behalf of the City and the Electric Light Department drafts, checks, and/or other negotiable orders for the payment of the bills and charges of the Department, provided that any such payment shall be made exclusively from the revenues of such Department. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 11, eff. May 19, 1999.)
§ 228. Powers of City

(a) The City shall have power to purchase, hire, construct, or otherwise acquire, or acquire an interest in, to maintain, operate, and to sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any plant or system, located within or outside the State, for the production, distribution, purchase, or sale of electricity, to extend, enlarge, or improve the same and for that purpose to purchase, hire, construct, or otherwise acquire any real or personal property. These powers may be exercised through a taking by eminent domain in the manner prescribed by law except that the City shall have no power to acquire timberlands or other fuel sources by eminent domain. The City shall also have the power to purchase, sell, and otherwise acquire and dispose of electricity including sale to electric distribution companies, cooperative, municipal, and privately owned, within or without the State and to make all agreements, conveyances, and regulations necessary or convenient in connection therewith; all of the foregoing powers to be in addition to and not in substitution for or in limitation of any other power conferred by law. Such plant or system may include facilities described in 1953 Acts and Resolves No. 298 as amended.

(b) The City Council shall exercise the powers of the City with respect to its electric plant. The City Council may by resolution delegate any of its powers relating to the electric plant, improvements thereto, or electric service to the Board of Light Commissioners.
§ 229. Authority to create; powers and duties

The City Council may by ordinance provide for the creation and maintenance of a Harbor Commission or a single Harbor Commissioner, and for the appointment of a Superintendent of Harbors, and define and prescribe their powers and duties in regard to the supervision, control, and regulation, within the jurisdiction of the City, of harbors, public and private wharfs, docks, and piers, and the waterfront within the City on Lake Champlain, under any and all lawful regulations and ordinances that may be made and enacted, and may fix the time of the appointment of such officers and their terms of office, and such officers shall receive such compensation as may be voted them by the City Council. (Amended 2013, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. March 3, 2015.)
§ 230. [Reserved.]
§ 231. Power and duties

The City Council shall have the exclusive general management and control of the work on the City streets, sidewalks, sewers, and bridges and shall see that the same are properly constructed and kept in repair, and shall have the same powers in respect to repairs of streets and highways as road commissioners in towns; the City Council shall, when the public good requires, cause all streets and highways to be worked and graded the entire width thereof and made in such a manner as will in the judgment of the City Council best accommodate the public; and shall be subject in all respects to any limitations or restrictions contained in the ordinances, regulations, and orders of the City Council; but shall have no power to spend any money or incur any debt beyond the amount of the appropriations made by the City Council.
§§ 232, 233. [Reserved.]
§ 234. Purposes and powers

The City Council, except as herein otherwise provided, shall have the same power to lay out, alter, resurvey, and discontinue streets and highways as is vested by law in selectboards of towns; and all proceedings in respect to laying out, altering, resurveying, and discontinuing streets and highways in said City shall be had in the same manner as provided by the law of this State in respect to such matters in towns.
§ 235. Council may lay out certain streets; owners’ petition

Streets and highways in said City of less than three rods in width may be laid out, opened, accepted, established, and maintained whenever the City Council shall so provide by resolution or ordinance, provided the owners of a majority of the frontage on such street or highway shall file their petition therefor in writing with the Chief Administrative Officer of said City.
§ 236. Prior actions regarding streets ratified

All streets or highways in said City of less than three rods in width heretofore deeded or dedicated to said City for public highways and heretofore accepted; and all such streets or highways laid out or opened by it, are hereby declared to be legal streets and highways; and all acts, votes, and resolutions of said City in respect thereto are hereby declared to be legal and valid.
§ 237. Rights of property owners

If any person owning or interested in lands through which a street or highway in said City is laid out, altered, or resurveyed by said City Council, is dissatisfied with the laying out, altering, or resurveying of said street or highway, or with the compensation awarded for his or her damages, or in case no damages are awarded him or her, he or she may have the same proceedings in respect thereto, as if such street or highway were laid out, altered, or resurveyed in any town in this State; and such proceedings shall be conducted in the same manner and shall have the same effect as provided by law in case a highway is laid out, altered, or resurveyed in any town in this State; except that no person by reason of being a resident or taxpayer in said City shall be disqualified to act in such proceedings as a commissioner appointed by the county court.
§ 238. Rights of property owners when street discontinued

In case the City Council shall decide to discontinue any street or highway in said City, any person owning or interested in the lands abutting said street who is dissatisfied with such decision may, within 60 days thereafter, institute proceedings that shall have the same effect, be conducted in the same manner, and subject to the same conditions and provisions as if such person were dissatisfied with the laying out, altering, or resurveying of any street or highway in said City.
§ 239. Power granted

Said City Council in laying out or altering streets and highways shall have power, on giving 12 days’ notice of the time and place of hearing to the parties interested, to assess the owners of lands adjoining such street or highway so much of the expense of opening, making, or altering such highway, including land damages as the City Council shall adjudge such lands will be benefited thereby.
§ 240. Estimation of probable expenses authorized

If the street or highway shall not have been at the time of making such assessment actually opened, made, or altered, as the case may be, the City Council shall estimate the probable expense of such opening, making, or altering, and make the aforesaid assessment upon such estimate.
§ 241. Decisions regarding assessments to be recorded

In making assessments as aforesaid, the City Council shall set forth in its decision touching the laying out, altering, or resurveying of any street or highway in said City a full description of all assessments by it made and of the lands so assessed, and shall cause such decision to be recorded in full by the Chief Administrative Officer in the records of streets and highways in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office; when said decision is so recorded, the amount so assessed shall be and remain a lien in the nature of a tax upon the lands assessed, until the same shall be paid, or said lien is otherwise discharged by operation of law.
§ 242. Proceedings for objections to assessment

In case the City Council shall assess any lands through which a street or highway shall be by it laid out, altered, or resurveyed as provided in the preceding sections, any person owning or interested in such lands who is dissatisfied with the amount of assessment so made against said lands, may have the same proceedings for relief in respect to such assessment as if such person were dissatisfied with an award of damages in the case of laying out, altering, or resurveying a street or highway in said City.
§ 243. Assessment lien suspended until final determination

The pendency of such proceedings shall not vacate the lien created upon the lands assessed as aforesaid by City Council, but shall suspend the same until the final determination of such proceedings.
§ 244. Petition for relief not to delay opening or altering of street

When the petition in such proceedings shall only pray for relief in the matter of such assessment, the opening, making, or altering of any street or highway shall not be thereby delayed.
§ 245. Copy of final determination to be recorded; assessment to become lien

When the proceedings instituted as aforesaid by any person dissatisfied with such assessment shall be finally determined, a duly certified copy thereof shall be duly recorded by the Chief Administrative Officer in the records of streets and highways in said Chief Administrative Officer’s office, within 20 days after the final determination of such proceedings. The amount assessed in such proceedings shall be and remain a lien in the nature of a tax upon the lands so assessed until such assessments are fully paid to the Chief Administrative Officer of said City. In case no assessment shall be made in such proceedings, such records shall discharge said lands from all liens created by the assessments thereon made by the City Council as aforesaid.
§ 246. Warrant to be issued upon failure to pay assessment; collection

If the owner of any lands assessed as hereinbefore provided shall neglect to pay to the Chief Administrative Officer the amount of any such assessment for 90 days after the final record in the matter of making such assessment shall have been made in the records of said streets and highways in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office, the Chief Administrative Officer shall issue his or her warrant to the Constable of said City for the collection thereof; and said Constable shall have power on such warrant to distrain and sell at public auction so much of the goods and chattels of such owner, and for want thereof so much of said lands so assessed as will satisfy said assessment and all legal fees and shall be entitled to the same fees on such warrant as collectors of town taxes on tax warrants; and the Chief Administrative Officer shall proceed in the same manner as collectors of town taxes are required by law to proceed in selling goods and chattels or real estate at auction for the collection of taxes, except that the Chief Administrative Officer shall have no right on such warrant for want of goods and chattels of such owner to arrest the owner and commit him or her to jail.
§ 247. Court to have jurisdiction to determine questioned assessments

In all cases in which proceedings are instituted in the county court within and for the County of Chittenden by any person who is dissatisfied with the laying out, altering, or resurveying of any street or highway in said City, the question of assessment upon the owners of adjoining lands shall also pass to the county court and shall be referred to and reported upon by the commissioners thereby appointed and said question of assessment shall be determined by said court.
§ 248. Establishment and maintenance authorized; assessments

The City Council is authorized, to establish, construct, and maintain public sewers in said City; and it may assess the owners of land or buildings adjoining or abutting said streets or any portion thereof in which such sewers may be established so much of the expense of constructing such sewers as it shall adjudge such land or buildings to be benefited thereby, but in no case shall the expense of construction of any such sewer be assessed against the abutting owner on either side of any such street or any portion thereof in excess of one-fourth of such expense and the City shall pay one-half of such expense, provided that all sewer assessments heretofore made shall remain in full force and effect until paid or abated.
§ 249. Establishment and construction through private lands authorized

The City Council is also authorized and empowered to establish, construct, and maintain public sewers in and through the lands of individuals and corporations, on making compensation for lands taken therefor, in the same manner as provided by law in the laying out and establishing of highways.
§ 250. Assessment of landowners authorized

The City Council may assess the owners of lands through which such sewers may be established and constructed in the same manner and to the same extent as hereinbefore provided in respect to public sewers established and constructed in the streets of said City. (Amended 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 251. Assessment proceedings and rights

The same proceedings shall be had in respect to such assessments, and the same rights shall exist, as in case of the laying out and establishing of streets and highways; and the same lien shall attach and be enforced in the same manner as provided in this charter in respect to assessments upon adjoining landowners in case of laying out or making streets and highways.
§ 252. Required; contents

Whenever, under the provisions of this charter, the City Council is required to give notice of the time and place of any examination or hearing before it, touching the laying out, altering, or discontinuing of any street or public highway in said City, or the award of any damages or the making of any assessment therefor, and in all cases of assessments for sewers, curbing, and sidewalks in said City, a citation shall be issued, signed by the City Council and containing the names of all persons to whom notice is to be given.
§ 253. When given

Such citation shall be made at least 12 days prior to the time appointed for such examination or hearing, except when otherwise specially provided in this charter.
§ 254. Acceptance of service

Service of such citation may be accepted by any or all persons therein named by endorsing their acceptance in writing thereon.
§ 255. Manner of serving

Such citation may be served by any sheriff or constable in this State upon any person therein named residing or being in this State in the same manner as an ordinary writ of summons.
§ 256. Service on nonresidents

Such citation may be served by such sheriff or constable upon a person not an inhabitant of this State by leaving a true and attested copy of said citation with his or her return thereon endorsed, with, or at the residence of, his or her known agent or attorney, if he or she has one in this State; and if not, with, or at the residence of, the occupant of the land to which such hearing may appertain. If there is no such occupant, then such copy of said citation shall be by said sheriff or constable left at the office of the Chief Administrative Officer of said City for such persons so owning or interested in such land.
§ 257. Chief Administrative Officer to mail copy of citation to last known address of nonresident

Said Chief Administrative Officer shall mail to the last known post office address of such person, in a registered package, a true and attested transcript of such copy so left with him or her, which shall be certified by him or her under the Seal of said City. Said Chief Administrative Officer shall certify under the Seal of said City all the Chief Administrative Officer’s doings touching said copy so left with the Chief Administrative Officer by said sheriff or constable and shall attach to said certificate all registry receipts pertaining to such copy received by the Chief Administrative Officer.
§ 258. Return of citation prima facie evidence of service

The return of such sheriff or constable upon the original citation, and the certificate of such Chief Administrative Officer and said receipts, shall be prima facie evidence of the service of said citation as herein provided. Said citation and return thereon, with said certificate of said Chief Administrative Officer and said receipts, shall be made a part of the record of said proceedings and shall be filed in the office of said Chief Administrative Officer.
§ 259. Proceedings to be postponed until all interested parties notified

If at any stage of the proceedings before the City Council, or in any proceedings subsequent thereto, it shall appear that any person owning or interested in such lands shall not have been duly notified, the City Council shall cause a citation to be served upon said persons not notified as herein provided, and shall cause said proceedings to be postponed to such time as will permit such citation so issued to be served in the manner provided herein for the service of original citations in such matters. Commissioners appointed by the county court or by a justice of the peace or agreed upon between the parties shall have the same power to issue citations that the City Council has, which citation shall be served in the same manner as reissued by the City Council.
§ 260. Manner of giving notice to additional interested parties

Said City Council or tribunal before which such proceedings are pending may cause such further notice to be given by citation, publication, or in any other manner prescribed by it in an order for that purpose. A copy of such order, citation, notice of publication, or other notice that shall have been delivered to such landowner in person and verified by the affidavit of the person delivering the same, shall be prima facie evidence of such further notice.
§ 261. Proceedings not to be voided for failure to give notice

No proceedings instituted by the City Council under said citation, nor any proceedings subsequent and pertaining thereto, shall be void on account of any failure to give notice to any person or persons interested therein or shall for that reason be dismissed, but such proceedings shall be suspended till such person or persons are duly notified; whereupon the same proceedings shall be had in the same manner and with the same effect as if such person had been duly notified by the original citation. If the person so notified shall appear, he or she may be heard upon all matters therein pending in which he or she is interested.
§ 262. City Council may order improvements upon petition of owners

Whenever the owners of the greater part of the lands or buildings abutting upon any street, lane, or alley, or part thereof in said City, shall present their petition in writing to the City Council, praying that such street, land, or alley, or part thereof as specified be graded, paved, or macadamized, curbed and guttered, and that a sidewalk or the sidewalks thereof be constructed or repaired, or paved or laid with flagging or such other material as may be ordered by the City Council, or that either one or more of such improvements be made, the City Council may order and direct that such improvements be made.
§ 263. Authorization to make improvements without petition; assessment of costs

The City Council shall have power, without such petition, to make one or more of the improvements above specified, and to assess against the owner or owners of the lands or buildings abutting upon such street, lane, or alley, and adjoining the part where such improvements shall be made, whether made upon petition or otherwise, so much of the cost and expense of making such improvements as it shall judge such lands or buildings to be benefited thereby; but in no case shall the cost and expense of making such improvements be assessed against the abutting owner on either side of any such street or portion thereof in excess of one-half of such cost and expense in the construction of sidewalks, or in excess of one-fourth of such cost and expense in the making of any of the other improvements specified in the preceding section and the City shall pay one-half of the cost and expense of all improvements therein mentioned, provided that all assessments for street improvements heretofore made shall remain in full force and effect until paid or abated.
§ 264. Notice of hearing

Said assessments shall be made upon giving to the parties interested 12 days’ notice of the time and place of hearing, in the manner herein provided in respect to laying out or altering highways.
§ 265. Statement to be made

The City Council shall make a statement of all assessments, describing the lands or buildings assessed and forthwith cause the same to be recorded in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office, and when so recorded such assessments shall be and remain a lien in the nature of a tax upon the lands or buildings so assessed until the same shall be paid, and shall have precedence over all other liens except ordinary taxes.
§ 266. Chief Administrative Officer to record assessments; notification of owners

It shall be the duty of the Chief Administrative Officer to collect such assessments, as soon as may be after he or she shall have recorded the same. The Chief Administrative Officer shall thereupon forthwith notify in writing the owner or owners of lands or buildings so assessed, their agents, or attorneys, stating therein the amount of such assessments.
§ 267. Deadline for paying

All such assessments shall be paid to the Chief Administrative Officer within 90 days after the same shall have been filed for record in the Chief Administrative Officer’s office.
§§ 268-275. [Reserved.]
§ 276. Composition; terms; powers; airport management

(a)(1)(A) The Board of Airport Commissioners of the City of Burlington shall consist of five legal voters of said City to be appointed by the City Council with Mayor presiding to serve for three years and until their successors are appointed and qualified.

(B) In addition, so long as the public aviation field and municipal airport is located within the limits of the City of South Burlington, the Board of Airport Commissioners shall likewise consist of one legal voter of said City of South Burlington to be appointed by the governing body thereof to serve for three years and until a successor is appointed and qualified.

(C) In addition, the Board of Airport Commissioners shall likewise include one legal voter of the City of Winooski to be appointed by the governing body to serve for three years and until a successor is appointed and qualified.

(2) The City Council shall have the exclusive general management and control of all lands owned or leased and used by the City for the purpose of a municipal airport, and of all buildings, property, and equipment of the City thereon, and shall see that the same are kept in good condition and repair.

(3) The City Council may by resolution delegate any of its powers relating to the airport to the Board of Airport Commissioners.

(b) The City Council shall have power to make and alter from time to time all needful rules and regulations for the maintenance of order, safety, and decency within the boundaries of said airport and to fix penalties for disobedience thereof, which rules and regulations shall have the force of ordinances of the City of Burlington, provided that no such rule or regulation shall be of any effect unless it shall have been published in full in one or more of the daily newspapers published in Burlington and also printed and posted in conspicuous places within the limits of the property to which such regulation is intended to apply.

(c) The Director of Aviation shall have special and immediate care and practical supervision of the Airport Department subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer and to the orders and ordinances of the City. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 12, eff. May 19, 1999; 2001, No. M-6, § 2; 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 161; 2021, No. M-7 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. February 14, 2022.)
§ 277. Composition

The Board of Health shall consist of five legal voters of the City, one of whom shall be a health practitioner who is either a physician, a physician assistant, or a registered nurse.
§ 278. Adoption of bylaws authorized; meetings

The Board may adopt such bylaws as they may deem wise for the regulation of the work of the Board. They shall hold regular meetings at such times as they may determine. Special meetings may be called by the Chair or the Clerk.
§ 279. Local Board to be in lieu of statutory Board; general powers

The Board of Health created in section 277 of this charter shall be for the City in lieu of the local Board of Health provided for by the general laws of this State, and shall have the powers conferred by those laws, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council.
§ 280. Designated

The Board of Health shall, between the 25th day of June and the first day of July 1949, and annually thereafter, with the approval of the City Council, appoint a Milk and Food Inspector and an Inspector of Meat, whose terms of office shall begin on the first day of July and continue one year and until their successors are appointed and have qualified.
§ 281. Board of Health authorized to make rules and regulations

The Board shall make rules and regulations for the conduct of each of the above officers, and may prescribe rules and regulations for the sale of milk and cream, food, and meat and for the installation and maintenance of plumbing equipment within the limits of said City, not inconsistent with law, and all such rules and regulations of said Board, when the same are approved by the City Council and duly published as herein prescribed for ordinances, shall have all the force and effect of ordinances of said City, with penalties for violation thereof as is hereinbefore provided.
§ 282. Powers and duties of Health Officer

The Health Officer shall have all the powers and perform all the duties conferred or imposed upon health officers under the general laws of this State, and such other powers and duties as may be presented by said Board of Health or by any ordinance or bylaws of said City.
§ 283. Generally

(a) The Board of Health is hereby authorized to regulate and grant licenses for the selling or supplying of milk and cream within the City of Burlington, and no person shall sell or supply milk or cream within said City to be used by the inhabitants thereof unless he or she shall first have procured a license therefor from said Board of Health.

(b) Before granting such license, said Board of Health shall make or cause to be made proper inspection of the cows producing said milk or cream, and of the barns and premises used in connection therewith, and of the places where said milk or cream is stored or kept for sale.

(c) Each license shall state the dairies from which the licensee is authorized to sell or supply milk or cream under this section, and no licensee shall sell or supply milk or cream within the City of Burlington produced from any other dairy not specified in his or her license.

(d) The Board of Health may issue from time to time to any licensee an additional license to sell or supply milk or cream from any dairy not specified in his or her license upon the terms and conditions hereinbefore prescribed.

(e) No license tax shall be required of a person selling or supplying milk or cream in said City to licensed milk dealers who sell the same at retail.

(f) A person who violates any provision of this section shall be subject to the penalties hereinbefore prescribed for a violation of a City ordinance.

Subchapter 007: PENSIONS
§ 284. Maintenance of Retirement Fund; Retiring Board; sources of Retirement Fund

(a) The Retirement Fund heretofore established shall hold the assets of the retirement system. From the same there shall be available pensions to employees, appointive officers, and the Mayor of the City, upon the terms and conditions prescribed in the ordinance. The City Council is hereby given authority and power to provide in the annual budget an appropriation to the Fund, as may be necessary to meet the required demands thereunder. The Retirement Board shall consist of two members appointed by the City Council, one class A member of the system elected by the class A membership, one class B member of the system elected by the class B membership, and the Chief Administrative Officer as an ex officio member.

(b) This Fund shall be created from the following sources:

(1) The accumulated contributions deducted from the compensation of class A members as well as those contributions deducted from the compensation of class B members when class B membership contributions were required.

(2) The contributions of the City for benefits under the retirement system shall consist of a percentage of the earned compensation of members to be known as the “normal contribution” and an additional dollar amount to be known as the “accrued liability contribution.”

(3) All interest and dividends earned on the Fund.
§ 285. Trustees of Fund designated; powers; officers

(a) The members of the Retirement Board shall be the trustees of the Fund, and may invest and reinvest the same in such securities and upon such terms and conditions as said Board shall determine.

(b) The Retirement Board shall annually elect a Chair from its members. All warrants on said Fund shall be approved by said Board, or a majority thereof, and signed by the Chair and Secretary of the Retirement Board.
§ 286. Board of Medical Examiners—Created; duties; composition; terms; compensation

(a) There shall be maintained in said City a Board of Medical Examiners of three members who shall perform such duties as may be required of them by the City Council and Retirement Board.

(b) The City Council shall appoint the members of the Board of Medical Examiners. The services and expenses of said medical examiners shall be paid as directed by the City Council.
§ 287. Retirement generally

(a) The Retirement Board may permanently retire any employee, appointive officer, and the Mayor who has reached age 55 with at least three years of service or who has become disabled. In the Police and Fire Departments, the requisite age for retirement shall be 45 with at least three years of service.

(b) Upon the retirement of any person, he or she shall be entitled to receive from the Retirement Fund an amount based upon the provisions found in the retirement ordinance. Any such pension may be increased by cost of living increases as provided for by the ordinance.
§ 288. Reexamination of person on retired list; reappointment, etc

(a) Once each year during the first seven years following disability retirement the Retirement Board may require any disability beneficiary who has not yet attained normal retirement age to undergo a medical examination by the Board of Medical Examiners. Based upon the health status, training, education, background, and job availability, the Retirement Board may reduce the disability benefit or stop it entirely.

(b) No disability pension shall be granted hereunder, in any case, without a report from the Board of Medical Examiners.
§ 289. Record of proceedings to be kept; report to City Council required

The Secretary to the Retirement Board shall record the minutes of all Retirement Board meetings and furnish copies of these minutes to the City Council. The financial information on the Fund shall be published in the annual City report.

Subchapter 008: GENERAL PROVISIONS
§§ 290-297. [Transitional provisions.]
§ 298. [Reserved.]
§ 299. Rights, duties, and liabilities of City to remain as existing at time of organization

The rights, duties, and liabilities of the City of Burlington and of the Town of South Burlington, by reason of the conversion of the Town of Burlington into said two municipalities, shall remain as provided by section 31 of this charter entitled “An act to incorporate the City of Burlington,” approved November 22, 1864, and the agreement said City and Town made by virtue of such section on the 15th day of March, 1865. All the books of record, papers, and documents belonging to the Town of Burlington at the time the City of Burlington was organized shall continue to be deposited and kept in the office of the Chief Administrative Officer of said City, copies of which, duly certified by said Chief Administrative Officer, shall be legal evidence for all purposes for which they would have been evidence if said City had not been created, and they had been duly certified by the Clerk of the Town of Burlington.
§ 300. Copy of charter to be kept in office of Chief Administrative Officer

A copy of this charter shall be kept in the office of the Chief Administrative Officer of the City of Burlington to which shall be affixed a certificate under the hand of the Secretary of State and the Seal of the State of Vermont, that the laws therein contained are statute laws of the State of Vermont, and such certified copy shall be an authentic record of such laws.
§ 301. Designation of chapter

This chapter shall be designated as the charter of the City of Burlington.
§ 302. [Repealed.]
§ 303. Alteration, amendment, or repeal of charter

This charter may be altered, amended, or repealed by the General Assembly whenever the public good shall require.
§ 304. Approval of section 102 of this charter by vote required

The maximum school tax rate of 120 cents upon the dollar of the property grand list of the City, as provided for in section 102 of this charter, shall, notwithstanding the provisions of section 102 of this charter, be 100 cents upon the dollar of said list, unless a majority of the legal voters of said City, present and voting thereon at the annual City meeting to be held on the first Tuesday in March 1950, shall vote favorably upon the following question to be voted upon by ballot: “Shall the provisions of section 102 of the City charter providing for a maximum school tax of 120 cents upon the dollar of the property grand list of the City be approved?”
§ 305. Approval of section 99 by vote required

The limitation upon the tax provided by section 99 of this charter for City purposes shall be 200 cents upon the dollar of the property grand list, in the event that a majority of the legal voters of the City of Burlington present and voting thereon at the annual City meeting to be held on the first Tuesday in March 1950, shall vote favorably upon the following question: “Shall the City Council be authorized to assess annually upon the property grand list for City purposes a tax which shall not exceed 200 cents upon the dollar thereof?”
§ 306. Reserve Fund of Light Department not to be increased without vote

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 65 of this charter, the Special Reserve Fund of the Light Department therein provided for shall not be increased in any one year by more than 10 percent of the net earnings of said Department for the previous year, unless a majority of the legal voters of the City present and voting thereon at the annual City meeting to be held on the first Tuesday in March, 1950, shall vote favorably upon the following question, to be voted upon by ballot: “Shall the City Council, with the approval of the Board of Light Commissioners, be authorized to increase the Reserve Fund of the Light Department by such part of the Department earnings as it may deem advisable?”
§§ 307-320. [Reserved.]
§ 321. Creation of Downtown Improvement District, Church Street Marketplace District, and Marketplace

(a) There is hereby created in the City of Burlington a special district to be known as the Downtown Improvement District, such District to be bounded by the shoreline of Lake Champlain on the west, the north property lines of properties fronting on Pearl Street on the north, the east property lines of properties fronting on South Winooski Avenue on the east, and the south property lines of properties fronting on Main Street to the intersection of Battery Street and then extending southerly to include properties fronting on Maple Street, on the south. The Church Street Marketplace District defined below shall also be included within the Downtown Improvement District.

(b) There is hereby created in the City of Burlington and within the Downtown Improvement District a special district to be known as the Church Street Marketplace District (District) that includes all of Church Street and the properties that have frontage thereon bounded on the north by the northernmost property line of properties bounded by Church and Pearl Streets, and bounded on the south by the southernmost property lines of properties at the northern corners of the Church and Main Street intersection, and more precisely shown on a plan entitled “Church Street Marketplace District” recorded with the Chief Administrative Officer of the City of Burlington on June 27, 1979.

(c) The Church Street Marketplace (Marketplace) shall be that section of the District now or hereafter under the direct control of the City of Burlington including the Church Street right-of-way and adjacent sidewalks. (Amended 1999, No. M-9, § 3, eff. June 1, 1999.)
§ 322. Establishment of Commission

There shall be maintained in the City of Burlington a Church Street Marketplace Commission consisting of nine legal voters of the State of Vermont, no fewer than five of whom must be legal voters of the City, who shall be appointed by the City Council. On the first Monday in June 1993 the City Council shall appoint four commissioners, three for a three-year term and one for a four-year term.

(1) On the first Monday in June 1994, the City Council shall appoint one commissioner for a three-year term and on the first Monday in June 1995, the City Council shall appoint two commissioners for three-year terms. On the first Monday in June 1999, the City Council shall appoint two commissioners for a two-year term. Thereafter, all appointments shall be for three-year terms and commissioners shall serve from the first day of July following their appointment and until their successors are duly appointed and have qualified.

(2) Two members at all times shall be proprietors or managers of retail businesses that are within the Church Street Marketplace District and such members need not be residents of Burlington. Two members at all times shall be proprietors or managers of retail businesses that are within the Downtown Improvement District, with one of such members being located within the Downtown Improvement District but outside the boundaries of the Church Street Marketplace and such members need not be residents of Burlington.

(3) The Commission shall organize by the election of a Chair and Vice Chair and by the appointment of a Clerk and a Treasurer. The Clerk shall keep a written record of the proceedings of the Commission, such record to be the property of the City. The Clerk need not be a member of the Commission.

(4) The manner of removal of commissioners and filling of vacancies shall be as provided in sections 129 and 130 of this charter, and the commissioners shall, except as otherwise herein expressly provided, be subject to all other provisions of this charter relating to public officers. (Amended 1999, No. M-9, § 4, eff. June 1, 1999; 2015, No. M-7, § 2, eff. May 18, 2015.)
§ 323. Expansion of Church Street Marketplace District and/or Marketplace

(a) Upon recommendation of a majority of the Commission to the City Council, the boundaries of the Church Street Marketplace District may be expanded. Said boundaries may be expanded only if all the following conditions are met:

(1) Notification of the consideration of the expansion is given in writing to all persons owning property in the contemplated area of expansion.

(2) A legally warned public hearing on the question is conducted.

(3) Two-thirds of the membership of the City Council present and voting approve the extension.

(4) The expanded boundaries do not extend beyond the boundaries of the Downtown Improvement District above defined.

(b) Upon advice of the Commission to the City Council, that section of the District now or hereafter defined as the Marketplace may be expanded or not within the Downtown Improvement District, subject to the same restrictions listed under subsection (a) of this section. (Amended 1999, No. M-9, § 5, eff. June 1, 1999.)
§ 324. Purposes and powers

(a) The City Council shall have authority and responsibility for the management of the Church Street Marketplace District, its services, and facilities. The City Council shall have the responsibility to establish, improve, and maintain a Marketplace within the District.

(b) In furtherance of its purpose, the City Council shall have the following rights, powers, and duties:

(1) To exercise the powers set forth in the first paragraph of section 231 of this charter with respect to the Marketplace; provided that, in relation to the Electric Light Department, the Commission shall have the same status as a private user.

(2) To acquire on behalf of the City by gift, purchase, exercise of the power of eminent domain, or otherwise, all types of interests in real property and rights-of-way that will become part of the Marketplace to be used in connection therewith.

(3) To construct or contract for the construction of improvements of any kind or nature necessary or convenient for the establishment or operation of the Marketplace.

(4) To pay, from the funds provided for herein, the whole or any portion of the cost of constructing and maintaining such improvements, including the cost of preliminary planning for the Marketplace.

(5) To prohibit in whole or in part vehicular traffic, other than motor vehicle traffic on the Marketplace, and to recommend to the Public Works Commission the prohibition or regulation of motor vehicle traffic within the Downtown Improvement District.

(6) To recommend to the Planning Commission the imposition of restrictions on the height, use, and exterior appearance, including restrictions on the use of signs, for buildings fronting on the Marketplace; such restrictions to be imposed only after notice and public hearings and, except for the use of signs, such restrictions to be prospective in nature.

(7) To make such improvements within the Church Street Marketplace District as are necessary or convenient to the operation of the Marketplace.

(8) To enter into contracts in the name of and on behalf of the City with State or federal agencies, including the Chittenden County Transportation Administration, as may be necessary or convenient to carry out the purpose of this article.

(9) To lease space, including air rights, in, below, and above the Marketplace but only in compliance with section 55 of this charter.

(10) To appoint such employees and agents as it may deem necessary or expedient for the operation of the Marketplace. The Director shall be appointed by the Mayor in accordance with the requirements of section 127 of this charter. The Director shall have the special and immediate care and practical supervision of the Marketplace, subject to the authority of the Mayor as Chief Executive Officer and the orders and ordinances of the City Council.

(11) To enter into management and maintenance contracts to facilitate the carrying out of any of its powers and duties enumerated herein, such contracts to be, where the Commission deems it appropriate and practicable, with operating departments of the City.

(12) To issue permits for various uses in the Marketplace, and to adopt regulations and charge fees for such issuance.

(13) To charge rentals and fees for its services and for use of space in the Marketplace.

(14) To receive and expend voluntary contributions for the carrying out of its purposes.

(15) To advertise and promote the Marketplace and its activities pursuant to this section when the Commission determines that such advertisement and promotion will promote the prosperity and general welfare of the citizens of the City of Burlington and of the State.

(16) To do all other things necessary or convenient to carrying out the purposes of this article. Nothing herein shall be construed to mean that the City Council may interfere with or regulate the internal management of properties within the District.

(c) The City Council may by resolution delegate any of the powers relating to the Downtown Improvement District and the Church Street Marketplace District to the Church Street Marketplace Commission. (Amended 1999, No. M-7, § 13, eff. May 19, 1999; No. M-9, § 6, eff. June 1, 1999; 2001, No. M-6, § 2.)
§ 325. Annual taxation for Downtown Improvement District; free parking for two hours in public lots and garages; annual budget of Church Street Marketplace District

(a) The Church Street Marketplace Commission shall annually recommend and the City Council shall annually assess upon nonresidential properties (as defined in section 81 of this charter) located within the Downtown Improvement District a tax upon the dollar of the property grand list to be used for the herein enumerated purposes of the Downtown Improvement District, which tax shall not exceed $0.12 unless a larger amount has been authorized by the City Council upon affirmative recommendation of the Church Street Marketplace Commission. The revenues from such tax will be utilized for the purpose of providing a parking program that shall include not less than two free hours of parking for anyone parking in any designated municipally or privately owned or operated parking garage or parking lot located within the Downtown Improvement District pursuant to regulations to be established by the Public Works Commission.

(b) Annual budget. The Commission shall prepare a proposed budget for each fiscal year showing the proposed expenditures and anticipated receipts of such year. The estimated net cost of operation of the Marketplace, after taking account of all anticipated receipts available to meet such cost, shall, on or before the 15th day of April 1980, and annually thereafter, be reported to the Mayor to be incorporated, with such changes as he or she deems expedient, into the annual budget to be submitted to the City Council for the next fiscal year. In adopting an appropriation for operation of the Marketplace, the City Council shall not determine that any portion thereof be raised by the City tax levy. (Amended 1999, No. M-9, § 7, eff. June 1, 1999.)
§ 326. Common area fees

(a) Common area fees are charges levied upon the owners of taxable properties located in the District that shall be used to defray the expenses incurred by the City in connection with the operation, maintenance, and repair of the Marketplace.

(b) Any amount appropriated under section 325 of this charter that is not anticipated from gifts, grants, voluntary contributions, and rentals and fees other than common area fees shall be raised by common area fees. The City Council after not less than one duly warned public hearing shall propose standards to aid in the determination of the benefit described herein. The City Council after public hearing and after considering the advice of the Commission shall establish standards to aid in the determination of the benefits described herein and shall levy such common area fees upon such properties in the proportion that it judges such properties to be benefited by the construction and/or operation of the Marketplace. An important but not necessarily exclusive factor in determining the extent to which the fair market value of such property has been enhanced by virtue of the construction and/or operation of the Marketplace. The amount raised by such assessments shall be appropriated to the Church Street Marketplace District.

(c) The City Council shall set such common area fees for the ensuing fiscal year no later than June 15 of each year, and in doing so shall have given 12 days’ notice of the time and place of hearing to the parties interested and shall set forth in its notice a complete schedule of all common area fees set by it and of the properties so assessed. During the 12 days’ notice period all parties so assessed, if aggrieved, may appeal, in writing, the assessment to the City Council. The City Council, immediately following termination of the 12 days’ notice period and after soliciting the advice of the Commission, shall make final determination of common fees and shall cause such decision to be recorded in full by the Chief Administrative Officer; and when such decision is so recorded, the amount so assessed shall be and remain a lien in the nature of a tax upon the properties so assessed, until the same shall be paid, or such lien is otherwise discharged by operation of law. The City Assessor, at the expense of the District, shall thereupon forthwith notify in writing the owner or owners of record as of April 1 of each year of properties so assessed, their agents, or attorneys, stating therein the amount of such fees, and such fees shall be due and payable to the Chief Administrative Officer in four installments, on the 15th day of August, November, March, and June following the making thereof. Notice shall be deemed adequate if made by publication of notice not less than three times not less than five days nor more than 12 days preceding each installment date. Such notice may also be given by including such common area fees upon the property tax bill mailed to the owners of taxable properties within the District.

(d) [Reserved.]

(e) Any person owning or interested in properties so assessed who is dissatisfied with the amount of such fee shall have the right to judicial review of the City Council’s decision. Such review shall be initiated by first paying the first installment of the fee so assessed under protest and by filing a notice of appeal in the Chittenden Superior Court within 20 days following August 12 of each year. Notwithstanding the filing of a notice of appeal, all subsequent installments of such fee must also be paid under protest before the court shall have subject matter jurisdiction to render a judgment affecting any such installment. A copy of such notice of appeal shall be served upon the Burlington Chief Administrative Officer. The proceeding before the Superior Court shall be de novo and the appellant may demand trial by jury. An appeal from the determination of the Superior Court may be taken to the Vermont Supreme Court, pursuant to the Vermont Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure. The pendency of such proceedings shall not vacate the lien created upon the properties assessed. Should the Court find that a common area fee assessed against an appellant to have been excessive, it shall order the excess payment to be refunded together with such interest thereon that it shall deem appropriate. When such proceedings shall be finally determined, a duly certified copy thereof shall be duly recorded by the Chief Administrative Officer in the records of streets and highways in said Chief Administrative Officer’s office within 20 days after the final determination of such proceedings. The amount assessed in such proceedings shall be and remain a lien in the nature of a tax upon the properties so assessed until such assessments are fully paid to the Chief Administrative Officer of the City. In case no assessment shall be made in such proceedings, such records shall discharge said properties from all liens created by the assessments thereon made by the City Council as aforesaid.

(f) If the owner or owners of any property so assessed shall neglect to pay to the Chief Administrative Officer any quarterly installment of such fee on the date such installment is due and payable, the amount of such installment shall be increased by a penalty of five percent. If such installment increased by the five percent penalty is not paid by the 15th day of the month after the date upon which it became due and payable, it shall be delinquent and the Chief Administrative Officer shall increase the amount due by an additional one percent of the original installment. On the 15th day of every month thereafter that the installment or any part thereof remains due, the Chief Administrative Officer shall add to the total amount due an additional amount equal to one percent of the original installment, or any portion thereof, remaining unpaid. The Chief Administrative Officer shall issue a warrant for the collection thereof. The amount due from any person against whom a common area fee has been assessed shall thereafter be deemed to be the amount of any such installment or delinquent portion of such original common area fee increased by all penalties and interest accruing thereon to date and also 12 percent interest, compounded annually on all of such delinquent amounts and any penalties and interest added thereto, from the date of such warrant. The City shall proceed to collect the same in the manner prescribed in this charter for the collection and enforcement of assessments made in laying out or altering streets and highways.

(g) The Mayor, two members of the City Council, and two members of the Commission, on appointment of the City Council, shall constitute a Board for the Abatement of Assessments whenever the same are illegal or in the judgment of the Board cannot be collected or are manifestly unjust.

(h) Meetings of such Board shall be convened in the manner herein prescribed for calling special meetings of the City Council; and notice thereof signed by the Mayor or Chief Administrative Officer, and shall be given to all persons paying common area fees by the publication of notices for two days in all the daily newspapers printed in the City, the first of which publication shall be not more than 10 days, and the last not less than three days prior to said meeting. Whenever any common area fee, or any part thereof, is abated, the Chief Administrative Officer shall make a minute of such abatement on the original assessment on file in his or her office on the margin of the record thereof.
§ 327. Powers supplemental; construction

(a) The powers conferred by sections 321 through 326 of this charter are supplemental and alternative to other powers conferred by law, and these sections are intended as an independent and comprehensive conferral of powers to accomplish the purpose set forth herein.

(b) The provisions of these sections shall be liberally construed in order to effect their purpose.

(c) If any provision of these sections shall be held invalid in any circumstance, such invalidity shall not affect any other provisions or circumstances.

(d) These sections shall be construed in all respects so as to meet all constitutional requirements. In carrying out the purposes and provisions of these sections, all steps shall be taken that are necessary to meet constitutional requirements whether or not such steps are required by statute.
§§ 328-329. [Reserved.]
§ 330. Board of Tax Appeals

A Board of Tax Appeals, constituted in the manner set forth in section 91 of this charter, is created. The Board shall have the same duties and proceed in the same manner to hear and determine tax appeals as a board of civil authority under 32 V.S.A. chapter 131, subchapter 1 except as otherwise provided in this charter. Appeals from decisions of the Board of Tax Appeals or from the Board of Civil Authority as referenced in section 92 of this charter shall be controlled by 32 V.S.A. chapter 131, subchapter 2, except that the City Assessor may appeal subject to the approval of the City Board of Finance. The Board shall organize each year by the election of a Chair, Vice-Chair, and Clerk. The manner of removal of Board members and filling of vacancies shall be as provided in sections 129 and 130 of this charter and the Board members shall, except as otherwise herein expressly provided, be subject to all other provisions of this charter relating to public officers.
§ 331. Creation of Community and Economic Development Office

There is hereby created in the City of Burlington a Community and Economic Development Office.
§ 332. Purposes and powers

(a) Subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council, the Community and Economic Development Office shall develop and implement a comprehensive community and economic development strategy.

(b) In furtherance of its purpose, the Community and Economic Development Office shall, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council, have the following rights, powers, and duties:

(1) to work on behalf of the City to stimulate investment, and to attract, retain, and encourage the development of both existing and new economic enterprises;

(2) to develop, coordinate, implement, and administer economic and community development strategies and projects for the City;

(3) to develop, coordinate, implement, and administer a comprehensive program to address the City’s housing needs;

(4) to develop, coordinate, implement, and administer waterfront development activities other than those activities that the Planning Commission and the City Council must exercise under the Vermont Planning and Development Act;

(5) to recommend to the City Council, and to solicit on behalf of the City Council, grants-in-aid funds for the City;

(6) to administer Community Development Block Grants and Urban Development Action Grants and to manage such grants-in-aid programs in accordance with the laws and regulations pertaining thereto;

(7) to coordinate and facilitate citizen participation in economic and community development with community organizations, City commissions, and the Neighborhood Planning Assemblies;

(8) to do all other things necessary or convenient to carry out its purposes in accordance with Vermont Statutes Annotated.
§ 333. Department to be under supervision of Director

The management, direction, and control of the Community and Economic Development Office shall be vested in the Director, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council.
§§ 334-350. [Reserved.]
§ 351. Creation of Burlington City Arts

There is hereby created in the City of Burlington a Burlington City Arts Office.
§ 352. Purposes and powers

(a) Subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council, Burlington City Arts shall develop and implement a strategy to enhance the cultural enrichment of the people of the greater Burlington area.

(b) In furtherance of its purpose, Burlington City Arts shall, subject to the order and ordinances of the City Council, have the following rights, powers, and duties:

(1) to plan, develop, coordinate, implement, and administer a broad spectrum of high quality arts programming and services that is accessible to all sectors of the community regardless of economic, social, or physical constraints;

(2) to support Vermont artists and nurture native talent by making available performance, gallery, and rehearsal space; providing technical assistance and awarding grants and prizes;

(3) to foster partnerships in the arts, education, human service, and business communities for the production of cultural events;

(4) to receive and spend voluntary contributions for the carrying out of its purposes;

(5) to do all other things necessary or convenient to carrying out its purposes in accordance with Vermont Statutes Annotated.
§ 353. Department to be under supervision of Director

The management, direction, and control of Burlington City Arts shall be vested in the Director, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council.
§§ 354-360. [Reserved.]
§ 361. Creation of Human Resources Department

There is hereby created in the City of Burlington a Human Resources Department.
§ 362. Purposes and powers

(a) Subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council, the Human Resources Department shall be responsible for the administration of human resources policies and services.

(b) In furtherance of its purpose, the Human Resources Department shall, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council, have the following rights, powers, and duties:

(1) to develop and administer position classification and salary plans;

(2) to prepare, recommend, and implement policies and procedures for Human Resources Administration;

(3) to assist in the recruitment, testing, selection, and hiring of employees;

(4) to direct employee orientation, training, counseling, and career development in conjunction with department heads;

(5) to review performance evaluations;

(6) to administer, in conjunction with the Treasurer’s Office, the City Health Insurance and Life Insurance Programs and Workers’ Compensation Plans;

(7) to administer in conjunction with the chief labor negotiator, the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining plans;

(8) to assist in the administration of the employee grievance procedures;

(9) to do all other things necessary or convenient to carry out its purposes in accordance with Vermont Statutes Annotated.
§ 363. Department to be under supervision of Director

The management, direction, and control of the Human Resources Department shall be vested in the Director, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council.
§§ 364-369. [Reserved.]
§ 370. Creation of Department of Permitting and Inspections

There is hereby created in the City of Burlington the Department of Permitting and Inspections that shall combine the permitting and inspection functions of the previously existing Planning and Zoning Department, Inspection Services Division of the Department of Public Works, and Code Enforcement Office. (Added 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019.)
§ 371. Purposes and powers

(a) Subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council, the Department of Permitting and Inspections shall provide a single location to obtain permits and inspection services for all zoning, building, plumbing, electrical wiring, and minimum housing and rental unit matters.

(b) In furtherance of its purpose, the Department of Permitting and Inspections shall, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council, have the following rights, powers, and duties:

(1) to review development projects and ensure compliance with the City’s building codes, land use bylaws, historic preservation guidelines, design, and subdivision standards;

(2) to issue permits, as provided in State law and local ordinances, for building, zoning, and related matters;

(3) to conduct inspections, as provided in State law and local ordinances, of buildings, plumbing systems, electrical wiring, and related matters;

(4) to conduct inspections to ensure compliance with zoning requirements and zoning, building, or related permits;

(5) to conduct inspections of rental housing units to ensure compliance with the Minimum Housing Code or other housing codes;

(6) to notice and enforce violations of building, zoning, minimum housing, and other laws, regulations, codes, or ordinances, as provided therein; and

(7) to carry out the orders of the Board of Health. (Added 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019.)
§ 372. Department to be under supervision of Director

The management, direction, and control of the Department of Permitting and Inspections shall be vested in the Director, subject to the orders and ordinances of the City Council. (Added 2019, No. M-6, § 2 eff. May 23, 2019.)
§ 373. Powers, duties, and responsibilities of Zoning Administrative Officer

(a) The Zoning Administrative Officer shall have all of the powers, duties, and responsibilities as are provided in the Vermont Planning and Development Act to an administrative officer. The Director of Permitting and Inspections may also serve as the Zoning Administrative Officer.

(b) The Zoning Administrative Officer may delegate any or all of the Officer’s authority under the Vermont Planning and Development Act to one or more assistant administrative officers as are qualified. Any such delegation must be made in writing and posted in the department offices. (Added 2019, No. M-6, § 2, eff. May 23, 2019.)
§§ 374-400. [Reserved.]

Subchapter 009: RELATED LAWS
§ 401. Revisions effective without publication

The ordinances contained in any general revision of the ordinances of the City of Burlington shall take effect upon the passage of said ordinances by the City Council of said City, without publication in a newspaper.
§§ 402-404. [Reserved.]
§ 405. Authority to establish system

(a) The City Council of the City of Burlington is hereby authorized to establish and create a fund or funds for the purpose of providing, either for City employees or appointive officers of said City, or both, in lieu of all existing provisions of the charter of said City relating to the retirement of City employees and pension funds, one or more of the following:

(1) retirement benefits on account of age;

(2) retirement benefits prior to retirement age on account of accident incurred in the line of duty; and

(3) death benefits.

(b) Said fund or funds shall be available for benefits to such employees and appointive officers of the City of Burlington as the City Council may hereafter from time to time designate by ordinance.
§ 406. Authority to appoint boards and officers, appropriate funds, provide rate of contributions, and designate sums payable

The City Council of said City is hereby authorized by ordinance to appoint and employ such boards and officers as may be necessary to administer, control, and make expenditures from such fund or funds; to appropriate by ordinance or resolution funds from which such benefits and expenses incidental to the administration thereof may be paid; to provide by ordinance the rate of contributions, if any, to such fund or funds to be required of employees and appointive officers to be eligible to benefits therefrom; to designate by ordinance a retirement age for City employees and appointive officers beyond which age such employees may be removed from office and permanently retired; to establish by ordinance conditions and regulations under which such City employees and appointive officers may or shall be removed from office and retired; to designate and establish by ordinance the sums that may be paid to such City employees as benefits and the conditions of payment thereof, and to make, amend or repeal such ordinances as may be convenient or necessary to create, manage, and operate a fund or funds for the payment to City employees and appointive officers of retirement, disability, and death benefits, or any one or more of them.
§ 407. Direction to budget funds for system

The City Council of said City shall provide in the annual budget, beginning with the annual budget next following the due enactment and publication of an ordinance providing for such retirement benefits, disability benefits, and death benefits, or any one or more of them, for City employees and appointive officers, or for either class, and for necessary boards and officers to administer and control such retirement fund or funds and the terms and conditions under which such employees and officers, or either of said classes, may be retired and receive said benefits, an appropriation to any one or more of said funds as may be necessary to meet the required demands thereunder that are not otherwise provided for, and said City Council shall annually, assess, beginning with the annual property tax assessments next following the first such appropriation made, a special tax on the property grand list to provide the funds required for such appropriation.
§ 408. Existing provisions to remain valid until new provisions adopted

The existing retirement and pension provisions of the City charter of said City shall remain in force and effect until the powers granted by this article are exercised by the City Council by the due enactment of an ordinance for that purpose, and such existing retirement and pension provisions of said charter shall, upon the due enactment of such ordinance, be void and of no force and effect, except as to persons theretofore duly retired and pensioned under said provisions, and as to such persons, said existing charter provisions shall remain in force.
§§ 409-414. [Reserved.]
§ 415. Authority to construct and maintain an electric plant

(a) The City of Burlington is hereby authorized and empowered to construct and maintain an electric plant for the purpose of lighting the streets, walks, public grounds, and public buildings of the City, and may furnish electric lights and electric power to parties residing within or without the corporate limits of said City upon such terms and subject to such regulations as are provided by law or may be lawfully agreed upon between the contracting parties, subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission.

(b) Said City is also authorized and empowered to purchase, hold, maintain, and operate from time to time for said purposes, either as an extension, addition, and improvement of the present electric and power plant now owned and operated by said City, and as an addition to the business of the present plant, or as a separate unit, any existing electric or power plant and the lands, buildings, equipment, distribution system, franchises, rights-of-way, business, and goodwill of any such plant now owned or operated by a public utility corporation or individual, or any portion of any such property and business, and may from time to time construct such additions and improvements to said present plant and distribution system of the City and acquire additional lands and buildings for that purpose, as, in the judgment of the City Council, may be required or justified by the growth and development of the business.
§ 416. Authority to construct, maintain, and operate a gas-generating and distribution plant

(a) The City of Burlington is hereby authorized and empowered to construct, maintain, and operate a plant for the generation and distribution of manufactured gas and may furnish such gas within and without the corporate limits of the City to corporations and individuals for domestic and other purposes upon such terms as are provided by law or may be lawfully agreed upon between the contracting parties, subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission.

(b) For the purpose of acquiring, holding, maintaining, and operating such gas plant and distribution system for the distribution and sale of manufactured gas to corporations and individuals within and without the City limits, said City is also authorized and empowered to purchase, hold, maintain, and operate any existing gas plant, gas distribution system, rights-of-way, and franchises held and used in connection therewith, and the gas business of any corporation or individual owned and operated in connection with such plant, and the goodwill of such business, or any part of such plant, distribution system, franchises, rights-of-way, business, and goodwill.

(c) Said City may from time to time enlarge and improve such plant and distribution system as the growth and development of the business, in the judgment of the City Council, may require, and for that purpose may from time to time either construct such enlargements and improvements or purchase the same when available.
§ 417. Authority to acquire property for purposes of sections 415 and 416 of this charter

For any and all of the purposes set forth in sections 415 and 416 of this charter, said City may acquire and hold within and without the limits thereof by gift, grant, purchase, or by the right of eminent domain, such lands, water powers, and rights-of-way as may be needed for the construction, maintenance, and operation of such electric plant and any and all required enlargements and improvements thereof from time to time, including enlargements and improvements of the present electric plant of said City, and also such lands and rights-of-way as may be needed for the construction, maintenance, and operation, and for the required enlargement and improvement from time to time of such gas plant and gas distribution system and may use any public street that it may be necessary and desirable to pass through with the poles, wires, and conduits of such electric plant, or with the distribution mains and equipment of such gas plant, provided the use of such highway for purposes of public travel is not thereby unnecessarily impaired, and further provided that said City may not exercise the right of eminent domain to acquire any existing property or rights owned and used by any existing public utility company or by any individual for public utility purposes.
§ 418. Authority to sell services, merchandise, and equipment incidental to use of electricity or gas

(a) Said City, when engaged in the business of distributing and selling electricity or gas, is hereby authorized and empowered, as part of such business, to engage in the sale, installation, and servicing of such merchandise and equipment as is incidental or auxiliary to the use of electricity or gas or necessary to properly serve the interests of its customers and to promote the sale and use of electricity or gas.

(b) And all acts heretofore done by said City and any of its officers and employees in connection with the sale, installation, or servicing of such merchandise and equipment are hereby confirmed and made valid to the same extent as though this article had then been in effect.
§ 419. Operation of gas business

Whenever said City does acquire any gas plant, gas distribution system, business, and goodwill (hereinafter referred to as the gas business) in accordance with the foregoing sections, such gas business shall be operated and maintained as a separate unit with separate accounting insofar as practicable, and shall be controlled, managed, operated, and maintained by the Light Department and the officers thereof as part of that Department, and all provisions of the City charter relating to the operation and maintenance of the Light Department and the duties of the officers thereof and not inconsistent with any section of this article shall apply to such gas business.
§ 420. Procedure for exercising eminent domain right

In exercising the right of eminent domain to acquire any property or some easement or other limited right in property required by the City for the purposes authorized by this article, said City shall proceed by petition to the Public Service Commission and in the same manner and by the same process as provided in Chapter 242 of the Public Laws for the condemnation of property by public service corporations other than railroads and the Public Service Commission shall have all and the same powers and perform all and the same duties in hearing and determining the matter, rendering judgment, and making findings as in the case of such public utility corporations. Any party who feels himself or herself aggrieved by such judgment or findings shall have the same right of appeal with the same incidents thereof as provided by Section 5969 of the Public Laws in the case of condemnation proceedings by a public service corporation. In exercising its right to use public highways, said City shall have the same rights and be subject to the same restrictions as prescribed for towns in Chapter 259 of the Public Laws.
§ 421. Issuance of bonds authorized

In case of any purchase that the City Council may approve and determine to make of any existing electric or gas plant and distribution system and any gas or electric business and the goodwill thereof and any franchises and rights-of-way in connection with such business, said City Council may by ordinance or resolution authorize the issuance of bonds for the purpose of providing funds for such purpose, and for the purpose of constructing improvements and additions to the present electric plant and system of said City and for the integration of the existing system with any system so acquired, and for the payment of all expenses incurred in connection with the issuance of such bonds and the acquisition and construction of such properties. Such bonds shall bear interest at not exceeding six per annum and shall be in such form and tenor and executed in such manner and shall be payable at such time or times as the City Council shall determine and may be made registerable as to principal only, or as to both principal and interest. Such bonds shall state upon their face that they are payable solely from the revenues of the electric light system and gas plant and distribution system of said City, and said bonds shall not constitute general indebtedness of the City nor be an obligation or liability upon the City to pay the same from any funds of the City other than the revenues of said electric light plant and system and said gas plant and system, and said bonds shall not be within any statutory limitation upon the power of said City to issue bonds. Said bonds shall be sold at such time or times, and in such manner, and at such price or prices as the City Council may determine. The ordinance or resolution authorizing the issuance of said bonds may contain covenants of the City to protect and safeguard the security and rights of the holders of said bonds, limiting the amount of additional bonds or obligations payable from said revenues that may be issued thereafter and the terms and conditions upon which said additional bonds or obligations may be issued; for the creation of a special fund into which all or any part of said revenues shall be paid and the terms and conditions on which such special fund is to be collected, held, and disposed of; the establishment and maintenance of adequate rates and charges for electric energy and gas, and other services, facilities, and commodities sold, furnished, or supplied by said electric plant and system and gas plant and system; the operation, maintenance, management, accounting, and auditing of the said electric plant and system and gas plant and system; the terms and conditions upon which the properties or any part thereof of said electric plant and system and said gas plant and system may be sold, mortgaged, leased, or otherwise disposed of by the City and the use and disposition of the proceeds of any such sale, mortgage, or lease; the pledging of all or any part of the revenues derived from the operation of said electric plant and system and gas plant and system to the payment of such bonds and the creation of special funds into which payment shall be made from said revenues for the purpose of providing for the payment of the principal of and interest on such bonds, and ample reserve funds therefor, and funds for working capital to be used in the operation of said electric plant and system and gas plant and system, and for renewals and replacements thereto, and such other covenants as may be deemed necessary to ensure a successful and profitable operation of said electric plant and system and said gas plant and system. The provisions of this article and of any such ordinance or resolution authorizing bonds hereunder shall constitute a contract with the holders of such bonds and the provisions thereof shall be enforceable by any owner or holder of such bonds by mandamus or any other appropriate suit, action, or proceeding at law or in equity in any court of competent jurisdiction.
§ 422. Rates sufficient to pay for services and bonds to be charged

(a) Whenever bonds are issued pursuant to this article, said City shall charge and collect adequate rates and charges for electric energy and for gas and all other services, facilities, and commodities sold, furnished, or supplied by the electric plant and system and gas plants and system sufficient to provide for the proper operation and maintenance of said systems and for the payment of the principal of and interest on all indebtedness payable from said revenues, and all other payments in connection therewith. All such revenues shall be paid into the City Treasury in a special fund to be called the “Light Department Fund,” and shall be subject to the covenants contained in any ordinance or resolution authorizing the issuance of bonds under this article.

(b) In no case shall funds collected from electric ratepayers be used to cross-subsidize or finance the repayment of any debt instrument used to fund the construction, operation, or utilization of any new cable television, fiber optic cable, or other telecommunications network or telecommunications business, and the expenses from such enterprises may not be included in the cost of electric service, except to the extent that the City has utilized such funds directly for its own utility plant or electric services. (Amended 1999, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 5a.)
§ 423. Bond issuance to be approved by voters

The City Council shall not issue any bonds under the provisions of this article for any of the purposes thereof unless previously authorized so to do by a majority of the legal voters of said City voting on the question at any annual or special City meeting duly warned for the purpose.
§§ 424-430. [Reserved.]
§ 431. Definitions

The following terms when used in this article shall have the following meaning:

(1) The term “City” shall mean the City of Burlington.

(2) The term “electric plant” shall mean the complete municipal electric generating, transmission, and distribution system now owned by the City, together with any improvements thereto hereafter constructed or acquired, and the complete municipal natural, manufactured, or synthetic gas generating, transmission, and distribution system now or hereafter owned by the City, together with any improvements thereto hereafter constructed or acquired, and all other facilities, including those authorized by 30 V.S.A. § 604, equipment, and appurtenances necessary or appropriate to such system, for the furnishing of electric power, and energy or gas for lighting, heating, power or any other purpose for which electric power and energy or gas can be used. Such term may include facilities for the production and distribution of steam and hot or chilled water, timberlands or other fuel sources, facilities for the production, processing, transportation, and storage of fuel to be used in the production of utilities furnished by the City, facilities for the processing or disposal of solid waste involving the production of such utilities (with or without other byproducts) from solid waste (with or without other fuels), and innovative or experimental facilities for the utilization of conventional or other energy sources for the production of such utilities, including pilot or demonstration facilities.

(3) The term “improvement” shall mean any improvement, extension, betterment, addition, alteration, reconstruction, extraordinary repair, equipping, or re-equipping of the electric plant of the City.

(4) The term “electric service” shall mean the furnishing of the electric power and energy or gas for lighting, heating, power, or any other purpose for which electric power and energy or gas can be used. Such term may include the furnishing of steam and hot or chilled water, and the processing or disposal of solid waste. Such term may also include ownership, operation, and utilization of cable television, fiber optic cable, and other telecommunications within the corporate limits of the City, provided that the City shall have no power under 30 V.S.A. chapter 79 to take by eminent domain telecommunications, cable television, or natural gas property, and provided further that before the City may sell telecommunications or cable television services it shall obtain a certificate of public good under 30 V.S.A. § 231 from the Public Utility Commission.

(5) The term “acquire” shall mean to purchase, to acquire by eminent domain, to lease, to construct, to reconstruct, or to replace.

(6) The term “improve” shall mean to acquire any improvement.

(7) The term “bonds” shall mean any bonds, notes, interim certificates, debentures, or other obligations issued by the City pursuant to this article and payable out of the revenues of the electric plant.

(8) The terms “revenues” and “revenues derived from electric service” shall mean all rates, fees, charges, or other income received by the City, or accrued to the City, or any Board or Agency thereof in control of the management and operation of said electric plant, and all parts thereof, and may include, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, investment earnings, rentals, proceeds of insurance, condemnation, or other disposition of plant assets and proceeds of borrowing hereunder. (Amended 1997, No. M-18 (Adj. Sess.), § 22, eff. April 23, 1998; 1999, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 56.)
§ 432. Electric plant; improvement of

The City is hereby authorized and empowered to improve its electric plant for the purpose of lighting the streets, walks, public grounds, and buildings of the City, for the furnishing of electric or gas services within or without the corporate limits of the City and for production of electric energy or acquisition, production, transmission, or distribution of gas for sale to electric or gas distribution companies, cooperative, municipal, and privately owned, within or without the State.
§ 433. Bonds; issuance of

(a) The City is hereby authorized and empowered to issue negotiable bonds, from time to time, for the purpose of financing the cost of any improvement to the electric plant. Said bonds and the interest thereon shall be payable solely and exclusively from the revenues of the electric plant and shall not constitute general indebtedness of the City nor be an obligation or liability upon the City to pay the same from any funds of the City other than the revenues of the electric plant. No holder or holders of any bonds issued under this article shall ever have the right to compel any exercise of the taxing power of the City to pay said bonds or the interest thereon. Said bonds shall not constitute an indebtedness within the meaning of any debt limitation or restriction and shall not be within any statutory limitation upon the power of the City to issue bonds. It shall be plainly stated on the face of each bond that it has been issued under the provisions of this article and that, it does not constitute an indebtedness of the City but is payable solely from the revenues of its electric plant. Said bonds may be authorized by resolution of the City Council adopted by a majority vote of the members thereof present at any meeting of such Board. Each such resolution shall take effect immediately from its passage and need not thereafter be laid over or published or posted. The issuance of bonds under the provisions of this article by the City shall not be subject to the authorization or approval thereof by the legal voters of the City or to any other authorization or approval except as provided in section 447 of this charter.

(b) Said bonds may be issued in one or more series, may bear such date or dates, mature at such time or times not exceeding 40 years from their respective dates, bear interest at such rate or rates, be in such denominations, be in such form, either coupon or registered, carry such conversion or registration privileges, have such rank or priority, be executed in such manner, be payable in such medium of payment, at such place or places, and be subject to such terms of redemption, with or without premium, be declared or become due before the maturity date thereof, as such resolutions authorizing their issuance may provide. Said bonds may be sold at public or private sale for such price or prices as the Board of Light Commissioners shall determine.

(c) In case any officer of the City whose signature appears on any bond or coupon shall cease to be such officer before the delivery of such bond, such signature shall, nevertheless, be valid and sufficient for all purposes, the same as if he or she had remained in office until such delivery. Any provision of any law to the contrary notwithstanding any bonds issued pursuant to this article shall be deemed to be investment securities under the Uniform Commercial Code. Any bonds issued by the City pursuant to the provisions of this article are declared to be issued for an essential public and governmental purpose and to be public instrumentalities, and, together with interest and income thereon, shall be exempt from taxes. The resolution authorizing the issuance of said bonds may provide that the bonds shall contain a recital that they are issued pursuant to this article, which recital shall be conclusive evidence of their validity and of the regularity of this issuance.
§ 434. Same—payment of

In order to secure the payment of any of the bonds, issued pursuant to this article, the interest thereon, or in connection with such bonds, the City shall have power as to such bonds, to the extent not inconsistent with the mandatory provisions of this article:

(1) to pledge all or any part of the revenues derived from electric or gas service;

(2) to provide for the terms, forms, registration, exchange, execution, and authentication of such bonds;

(3) to provide for the replacement of lost, destroyed, or mutilated bonds;

(4) to covenant as to the use and disposition of the proceeds from the sale of such bonds and as to the use and disposition of revenues, including of the generality of the foregoing, the establishment of reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses from bond proceeds or revenues or both;

(5) to covenant as to the rates and charges of the electric plant, provided that the City shall always collect revenues adequate at all times to provide for the proper operation and maintenance of the electric plant and for the payment of the principal of and interest on all bonds payable from said revenues and all other required payments in connection therewith;

(6) to redeem such bonds, and to covenant for their redemption, and to provide the terms and conditions thereof;

(7) to covenant and prescribe as to what happenings or occurrences shall constitute “events of default” and the terms and conditions upon which any or all of such bonds shall become or may be declared due before maturity and as to the terms and conditions upon which such declaration and its consequences may be waived;

(8) to covenant as to the rights, liabilities, powers, and duties arising upon the breach by it of any covenant, conditions, or obligations;

(9) to vest in a trustee or trustees the right to receive all or any part of the income and revenue pledged and assigned to, or for the benefit of, the holder or holders of bonds issued hereunder, and to hold, apply, and dispose of the same and the right to enforce any covenant made to secure or pay or in relation to the bonds; to execute and deliver a trust agreement or trust agreements that may set forth the powers and duties and the remedies available to such trustee or trustees and limiting the liabilities thereof and describing what occurrences shall constitute “events of default” and prescribing the terms and conditions upon which such trustee or trustees or the holder or holders of bonds of any specified amount or percentage of such bonds may exercise such rights and enforce any and all such covenants and resort to such remedies as may be appropriate;

(10) to make covenants other than, and in addition to, the covenants herein authorized, of like or different character, necessary or advisable to effectuate the purposes of this article;

(11) to execute all instruments necessary or convenient in the exercise of the powers herein granted or in the performance of its covenants or duties.
§ 435. Same—pledge of revenues

(a) Any pledge hereunder shall be valid and binding and shall be deemed continuously perfected for the purposes of the Uniform Commercial Code from the time when the pledge is made; unless otherwise provided in the resolution making the pledge, the pledge of revenues shall include any contract or other rights to receive the same, whether then existing or thereafter coming into existence and whether then held or thereafter acquired by the City, and the proceeds thereof; the revenues, rights, and proceeds so pledged and then held or thereafter acquired by the City shall immediately be subject to the lien of such pledge without any physical delivery or segregation thereof or further act; and the lien of any such pledge shall be valid and binding as against all parties having claims of any kind in tort, contract, or otherwise against the City, irrespective of whether such parties have notice thereof. The resolution by which a pledge is made need not be filed or recorded except in the records of the proceedings of the Board of Light Commissioners and no filing need be made under the Uniform Commercial Code.

(b) A resolution pledging revenues hereunder may provide for priorities among payments to be made from such revenues, whether required by statute, the City charter, such resolution, or otherwise. The pledge may include revenues otherwise accruing to particular funds established by statute or the City charter. In the event bonds are issued junior and subordinate to other bonds, revenues remaining from time to time that are permitted by the terms of the senior bonds to be used to pay or secure the junior bonds may be pledged for that purpose by the resolution under which the junior bonds are issued. A pledge of revenues under this article shall constitute a sufficient appropriation thereof for the purposes of any provision for appropriation and such revenues may be applied as required by the pledge without further appropriation.
§ 436. Same—refunding

The City may issue refunding bonds for the purpose of paying any of its bonds issued hereunder at maturity or upon acceleration or redemption. The refunding bonds may be issued at such time prior to the maturity or redemption of the refunded bonds as the City deems to be in the public interest. The refunding bonds may be issued in sufficient amounts to pay or provide the principal of the bonds being refunded, together with any redemption premium thereon, any interest accrued or to accrue to the date of payment of such bonds, the expenses of issue of the refunding bonds, the expenses of redeeming the bonds being refunded, and such reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses from the proceeds of such refunding bonds as may be required by a resolution under which bonds are issued. The issue of refunding bonds, the maturities and other details thereof, the security therefor, the rights of the holders thereof, and the rights, duties, and obligations of the City with respect thereto shall be governed by the provisions of this article relating to the issue of bonds other than refunding bonds insofar as the same may be applicable.
§ 437. Same—Anticipation notes

Unless otherwise provided in the authorizing proceedings, if bonds are authorized under this article, temporary notes may be issued in anticipation thereof. The Board of Light Commissioners may delegate the sale of temporary notes to an officer or officers thereof. The principal of and interest on notes may be renewed or paid from time to time by the issue of other notes. Except as otherwise provided, notes issued under this section shall be governed by the provisions of this article relating to bonds insofar as the same may be applicable.
§ 438. Same—regulation

(a) The Public Utility Commission shall exercise its regulatory powers in such a manner as to permit the City to fulfill all of its obligations, including its obligations to the holders of the bonds issued hereunder.

(b) The Public Utility Commission shall not be empowered to suspend the effective date of any change in the rates and charges of the City’s electric plant pending final determination as to the justness or reasonableness of such change, but the Commission may require that the City undertake to refund rates and charges collected in excess of those that are finally determined just and reasonable. Any increase in the rates and charges of the City’s electric plant shall be implemented by means of an identical percentage increase to each class or division of electric plant ratepayers under rate design tariffs previously approved by the Public Utility Commission until such time as the Public Utility Commission shall specifically approve an alteration in such rate design and corresponding tariffs.

(c)(1) If the City exercises its authority under subdivision 431(4) or section 449 of this charter, the Public Utility Commission, in considering any application for a certificate of public good, shall ensure that any and all losses from these businesses, and, in the event these businesses are abandoned or curtailed, any and all costs associated with investment in cable television, fiber optic, and telecommunications network and telecommunications business-related facilities, are borne by the investors in such business, and in no event are borne by the City’s taxpayers, the State of Vermont, or are recovered in rates from electric ratepayers.

(2) Any certificate of public good issued shall contain terms or conditions that are consistent with both the statutory requirements of 30 V.S.A. chapter 13 and the establishment of competitive neutrality between incumbents and new entrants, after the evaluation of factors that include the payment of pole attachment rental fees, and the provision of public access channels, equipment, and facilities.
§ 439. Same—rights of holders

Any holder or holders of bonds, including a trustee or trustees for holders of such bonds, shall have the right in addition to all other rights:

(1) by mandamus or other suit, action, or proceedings in any court of competent jurisdiction to enforce his or her or their rights against the City, the City Council, the Board of Light Commissioners, and any other proper officer, agent, or employee of any of them, including the right to require the City, the City Council, the said Board, and any proper officer, agent, or employee of any of them, to fix and collect rates and charges adequate to carry out any agreement as to, or pledge or revenues, and to require the City, the City Council, the said Board and any officer, agent, or employee of any of them to carry out any other covenants or agreements and to perform its and their duties under this article;

(2) by action or suit in equity to enjoin any acts or things that may be unlawful for a violation of the rights of such holder of bonds.
§ 440. Same—right of City

(a) The City shall have power by resolution of its Board of Light Commissioners to confer upon any holder or holders of a specified amount or percentage of bonds, including a trustee or trustees for such holders, the right in the event of an “event of default” as defined in such resolution or as may be defined in any agreement with the holder or holders of such bonds or the trustee or trustees therefor:

(1) By suit, action, or proceedings in any court of competent jurisdiction to obtain the appointment of a receiver of the electric plant or any part or parts thereof. If such receiver be appointed, he or she may enter and take possession of such electric plant or any part or parts thereof and operate and maintain the same, and collect and receive all revenues thereafter arising therefrom in the same manner as the City itself might do and shall deposit such monies in a separate account or accounts and apply the same in accordance with the obligations of the City as the court shall direct.

(2) By suit, action, or proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction to require the City to account as if it were the trustee of an express trust.

(b) Any such resolution shall constitute a contract between the City and the holders of bonds of such issue.
§ 441. Rates; payment by municipal agencies

The City Council or other board or agency of the City operating the electric plant may charge the City and all departments, agencies, instrumentalities, officers, or employers thereof for any electric service furnished to them, at the rate applicable to other customers taking service under similar conditions and the revenues so derived from any such service shall be treated as all other revenues of the electric plant. Notwithstanding the foregoing, special contracts for electric services may be entered into with another department, agency, or instrumentality of the City, provided that the Public Utility Commission first reviews and approves the contract pursuant to the provisions of 30 V.S.A. § 229.
§ 442. Bonds; proceeds

All monies received from the issue of bonds (other than refunding bonds) shall be used solely to defray the cost of improving the electric plant of the City. The cost of improving the electric plant shall include all cost of acquisition, or improvement, including all preliminary expenses, the cost of acquiring all property, franchises, easements, and rights necessary or convenient therefor, engineering and legal expenses, expenses for estimates of costs and revenues, expenses for plans, specifications, and surveys, other expenses incident or necessary to determining the feasibility or practicability of the enterprise, administrative expense, interest prior to and during the carrying out of any project and for a reasonable period thereafter, such reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses as may be required by the ordinance or resolution under which the bonds are issued, and such other expenses as may be incurred in the financing herein authorized, the acquisition or improvement of the electric plant, the placing of such plant in operation, including the creation of a cash working fund, and the performance of the things herein required or permitted in connection therewith.
§ 443. Energy conservation facilities

The City is hereby authorized and empowered to provide or finance energy conservation facilities within the customer service area of its electric plant. The term “energy conservation facilities” includes facilities or improvements to facilities (whether owned by the City or by others) for load management or the conservation of electric or other energy. Such facilities or improvements may be owned or operated by the City as part of its electric plant or may be owned or operated by others, and may be leased or licensed by the City to others or may be financed by loans by the City to others. Such facilities or improvements may be treated as part of the electric plant and financed under this article or other enabling law. Loans to others for the purposes of this section may also be financed under this article in the same manner as improvements to the electric plant and receipts from such loans may be pledged under this article as revenues. A lending program initiated under the authority of this section shall be managed in accordance with the provisions of section 228 of this charter relating to the electric plant.
§ 444. Construction of article

The powers conferred by this article shall be in addition and supplemental to the powers conferred by any other law. Bonds may be issued hereunder for the improvement of the electric plant of the City notwithstanding that any other law may provide for the issuance of bonds for like purposes and without regard to the requirements, restrictions, or procedural provisions contained in any other law. Any proceedings heretofore taken by the City relating to the subject matters of this article, whether or not commenced under any other law, may, at the option of the City Council, be discontinued and new proceedings instituted under this article. It shall not be necessary for the City proceeding under this article to obtain a certificate of convenience or necessity, franchise, license, permit, or other authorization or approval from any bureau, board, commission, or other instrumentality of the State of Vermont or the City in order to acquire or improve the electric plant or for the issuance of bonds in connection therewith hereunder.
§ 445. Same

This article is remedial in nature and the powers hereby granted shall be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes hereof, and to this end the City shall have power to do all things necessary or convenient to carry out the purposes hereof in addition to the powers expressly conferred in this article.
§ 446. Same; invalidity

It is hereby declared that the sections, clauses, sentences, and parts of this article are severable, are not matters of mutual essential inducement, and any of them shall be exscinded if this article would otherwise be unconstitutional or ineffective; it is the intention to confer upon the City the whole or any part of the powers in this article provided for, and if any one or more sections, clauses, sentences, and parts of this article shall for any reason be questioned in any court, and shall be adjudged unconstitutional or invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remaining provisions thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the specific provision or provisions so held unconstitutional or invalid, and the inapplicability or invalidity of any section, clause, sentence, or part of this article in any one or more instances shall not be taken to affect or prejudice in any way its applicability or validity in any other instance.
§ 447. Ratification

(a) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this article, and except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, no bonds shall be issued under this article unless and until more than 50 percent of the legal voters of the City present and voting thereon at any annual or special City meeting duly warned for that purpose shall have first voted to authorize the project or improvement for which such bonds are to be issued. The warning shall describe in general terms such project or improvement, shall estimate its cost, and shall state the amount of bonds proposed to be issued to finance it.

(b) The City may issue bonds under this article without voter approval:

(1) to pay the costs of:

(A) the completion of a project or improvement previously authorized by the voters of the City, provided that such costs of completion do not exceed by more than 50 percent the estimated cost of the City’s share of the project or improvement as set forth in the warning submitting the question to the voters, and

(B) repairs, alterations, or other improvements necessary to maintain the operational status of any facilities of the electric plant, whether necessitated by casualty, regulatory, or licensing requirements, or other cause; or

(2) in the case of jointly owned facilities not controlled by the City, to pay the City’s share of the costs of improvements which the lead participants are empowered to make; or

(3) for refunding as provided in section 436 of this charter.
§ 448. Powers exercised through City Council

The powers granted to the City hereunder shall be exercised by its City Council, notwithstanding the provisions of section 228 of this charter. No provisions hereof or of said section 228 of this charter shall be deemed to permit the exercise of any power in violation of the rights of bond or note holders.
§ 449. Authority for joint venture for telecommunications

In addition to the authority granted under otherwise applicable law, the City has the power and is authorized to establish a joint venture or any other business relationship with one or more third parties to provide telecommunications or cable television services within or without the corporate limits of the City; provided that before such joint venture or business relationship may sell telecommunications or cable television services, it shall obtain whatever regulatory approvals are necessary, and shall pay all taxes, franchise fees, and similar charges assessed by the City on an incumbent. (Amended 1999, No. M-14 (Adj. Sess.), § 5d.)
§§ 450-500. [Reserved.]
§ 501. City of Burlington utility facilities; taxation of

32 V.S.A. § 3659 shall not apply to land, buildings, and other facilities of the City of Burlington used for the generation of electric energy. Such land, buildings, and facilities owned by the City of Burlington and situated outside of its territorial limits shall be taxed by the municipality in which it is located either in the manner provided for privately owned property, or pursuant to a contract entered into by the municipalities providing for any mutually agreeable methods and amounts of taxation.
§§ 502-505. [Reserved.]
§ 506. Definitions

The following terms when used in this article shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the following meanings:

(1) “Bonds” means any bonds, notes, or other obligations of the City issued pursuant to this article.

(2) “City” means the City of Burlington.

(3) “Improvement” means any improvement, extension, betterment, addition, alteration, reconstruction, extraordinary repair, equipping, or reequipping of the waterworks or wastewater system of the City.

(4) “Revenues” means all rates, fees, charges, and other receipts derived from the ownership or operation of the City’s waterworks or wastewater system and may include, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, investment earnings and the proceeds of insurance, condemnation, sale, or other disposition of system assets and proceeds of borrowing hereunder.

(5) “System” means the waterworks system or the wastewater system.

(6) “Wastewater system” means the complete wastewater treatment and collection system now owned by the City, including all treatment plants and sanitary sewer lines, together with any improvements thereto hereafter constructed or acquired.

(7) “Waterworks system” means the complete water supply, treatment, and distribution system now owned by the City, together with any improvements thereto hereafter constructed or acquired.
§ 507. Bonds; issuance of

The City is hereby authorized and empowered to issue bonds, from time to time, for the purpose of financing the cost of any improvement to the waterworks or wastewater system. The bonds and the interest thereon shall be payable solely and exclusively from the revenues of the waterworks or wastewater system as the case may be and shall not constitute general indebtedness of the City nor be an obligation or liability upon the City to pay the same from any funds of the City other than the revenues of the system. No holder or holders of any bonds issued under this article shall ever have the right to compel any exercise of the taxing power of the City to pay the bonds or the interest thereon. The bonds shall not constitute an indebtedness within the meaning of any debt limitation or restriction and shall not be within any statutory limitation upon the power of the City to issue bonds. It shall be plainly stated on the face of each bond that it does not constitute an indebtedness of the City but is payable solely from the revenues of its waterworks or wastewater system. The bonds may be authorized by resolutions of the Board of Public Works Commissioners. Notwithstanding the foregoing sentence, no bonds other than refunding bonds shall be authorized or issued under this article unless and until more than 50 percent of the legal voters of the City present and voting thereon at any annual or special City meeting duly warned for that purpose shall have first voted to authorize the project or improvement for which the bonds are to be issued. The warning shall describe in general terms the project or improvement, shall estimate its costs, and shall state the amount of bonds proposed to be issued to finance it. Except for purposes of refunding pursuant to section 508 of this charter, the City shall not issue bonds in excess of the amount set forth in the warning as aforesaid unless and until more than 50 percent of the legal voters of the City present and voting at any annual or special meeting duly warned for that purpose shall have first voted to authorize the issuance of additional bonds for any previously authorized project or improvement.
§ 508. Refunding

The City, upon the approval of the Board of Public Works Commissioners and the City Council, may issue refunding bonds for the purpose of paying any of its bonds issued hereunder at maturity or upon acceleration or redemption. No affirmative vote of the registered voters shall be necessary to authorize the issuance of refunding bonds. The refunding bonds may be issued at such time prior to the maturity or redemption of the refunded bonds as the City deems to be in the public interest. The refunding bonds may be issued in sufficient amounts to pay or provide the principal of the bonds being refunded, together with any redemption premium thereon, any interest accrued or to accrue to the date of payment of the bonds, the expenses of issue of the refunding bonds, the expenses of redeeming the bonds being refunded, and such reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses from the proceeds of the refunding bonds, as may be required by the resolutions under which bonds are issued. Except as herein specified, the issue of refunding bonds, the maturities and other details thereof, the security therefor, the rights of the holders thereof, and the rights, duties, and obligations of the City with respect thereto shall be governed by the provisions of the Burlington City charter and the Vermont statutes relating to the issue of bonds other than refunding bonds insofar as the same may be applicable. In the event of any conflict between the City charter and the Vermont statutes in this regard, the City is hereby authorized to act pursuant to the more extensive grant of authority.

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