The proposed measure comes after 55 percent of Burlingtonians voted on Town Meeting Day to ask the council to “request the cancellation” of the planes and find a less noisy, less risky option.
“The voters asked us to take action, so we’re going to take action,” said Councilor Joan Shannon (D-South District), who sponsored the resolution.
It includes a lengthy list of questions for Air Force secretary Heather Wilson: whether an alternative mission would be plausible, the safety and environmental risks of the F-35s, how often pilots would use afterburners and whether Burlington is the only populated area where F-35s will be deployed. The resolution asks for a written response from Wilson by May 1.
The resolution, though, hasn’t put to rest the debate among groups both in favor of and opposed to the F-35s.
“The resolution is good but not as good as we’d like,” wrote Rachel Siegel in a “call to action” posted on the Peace & Justice Center website last week.
Siegel is a member of Save our Skies, a group that opposes the planes. The organization wants to see the questions for Wilson removed and replaced by the “full language of the ballot question.”
The inclusion of the questions led Councilor Max Tracy (P-Ward 2) to remove his name from the resolution after he originally signed up as a cosponsor.
The voters “asked the council to request the cancellation of the F-35s. It didn’t say do that and ask a bunch of questions,” Tracy said. While the information requested would be helpful, he added, “I just wanted a simple statement that just deals with voter intent.”
Before the March 6 vote, some councilors, as well as Mayor Miro Weinberger, had argued that the issue was already decided and that the city had no authority to change the outcome. The F-35 fighter jets are currently scheduled to arrive in 2019. They’ll replace the Vermont Air National Guard’s F-16s.
“It’s not the decision of the city — we can’t stop [the planes] directly,” Shannon said. “But we can ask.”
Groups on both sides of the issue are mobilizing to turn out to the council meeting. The Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce sent out an email on Friday asking its members to reach out to city councilors to “express support for the F-35s.”
The issue was decided by the council five years ago, Chamber representatives argued in the email, and the wording of the ballot language was “misleading and confusing and the margin of passage was within the margin of error.”
The Election Day vote tally was 6,482 in favor to 5,238 opposed.
On Saturday, fighter jet opponents sent out a public email response pushing back. “The president of the Chamber of Commerce is attempting to use the business community to pressure the city council based on bogus allegations,” wrote Jimmy Leas, a member of Save our Skies, which lobbied for a “yes” vote leading up to Town Meeting Day.
The council meets Monday at 7 p.m.
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
The Chamber calls 55% to 45% “within the margin of error”? In what world?
This is a price we pay for freedom. Many have paid a much higher price. I would not trust the citizens of other, less trustworthy locales. Stand up for our continued freedom.
All the military personnel in my family are angry about this waste of money. The military does not want the F-35s. These planes are nothing but welfare for politically connected military contractors, the money allocated for these planes ought to go to our veterans. Veterans who are desperate and very badly treated by our government, our country, and the military.
Our veterans need better care, our veterans need our tax dollars. It should be a crime to give tax dollars to obscenely wealthy military contractors to build equipment our military does not want. VTANG will be just fine with the millions of dollars of equipment they have now. They don’t need more toys, the guard didn’t help prevent or fight back with all their fancy equipment when we actually were attacked.
Our veterans need our help! Our military people need better clothing and supplies overseas. You may as well post VTANG in Nova Scotia for all the good it’ll do Vermont or the USA. At least then they’ll have good lobster and a nice view.
“Equally impossible to ignore is the $1.5 trillion price tag for one of the biggest failures in Pentagon history. $1.5 trillion is the cost of operating the air craft for 55 years, an amount that has been consistently increased as the program drags on. Its the most expensive weapons system the Pentagon has ever commissioned. And as problems mount, there are growing concerns that the F-35 will never fly a combat mission.”
https://reason.com/blog/2014/01/03/biggest…
Regardless of whether one supports or opposes the basing of F-35s in our communities, I think that we can all agree that sometimes, in the heat of battle, the easiest course of action is to simply make shit up and pass it off as the gospel truth to one’s sycophants and camp followers.
In this vein, beaucoup kudos are due Fightin Tom Torti and his minions at the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, for their willingness to shamelessly and publicly embarrass themselves by promulgating the false claim that the ballot language for the recent public vote against the basing of F-35s was “misleading and confusing, and the margin of passage [55 percent to 45 percent] was within the margin of error.”
As President Torti is well aware, there is no margin of error when we vote. Margin of error is a measurement of uncertainty that results from sampling, (ie. as in a public poll prior to a vote). In a vote, ALL the votes are counted. There is no partial random sample, and, therefore, no margin of error.
55 percent of the voters oppose the basing of F-35s at the Burlington Airport, President Torti, with No Margin Of Error!
Mercy sakes, My Misinformed and Malcontent Mathlete Minions!
55% of Burlington voters said the F-35 does not belong in Burlington. 45% said yes, base it here. The last president to win at least 55% of the popular vote was Ronald Reagan in 1984, versus Walter Mondale. This was widely considered a landslide. Tom Torti & the Chamber of Commerce considers it “within the margin of error.”
The Chamber’s “margin of error” comment about the F-35 vote is somewhat absurd but the kind of double-speak & spin-meistering one unfortunately expects from them now. Not much different from the other lobbying groups that crawl along K Street in DC controlling Congress. And, sadly, seem also to control Montpelier these days.
With exception of handful of courageous state reps doing their jobs, such as now retired George Cross from Winooski, Democrats in Montpelier all happily complied with the orders of Tom Torti and Senator Leahy’s real estate developer relative, Ernie Pomerleau. Shumlin, Shap Smith, etc. suppressed proposed legislation from George Cross to simply examine potential impacts of F-35, whether positive or negative. What were they so afraid of?
Unfortunately not a peep from Democratic Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson; nor from State Senate Majority Leader Becca Balint. These legislative leaders have the power to stand up to protect health and home values of Vermonters. Judging by actions thus far, one can only conclude the estimated 12,000 plus people negatively impacted in Winooski, South Burlington, Burlington and Williston count for absolutely nothing. Perhaps our legislative leaders would finally do the right thing if the people set to lose their homes & neighborhoods due to the F-35 had a lobbying group that could write the same big campaign checks like Lockheed-Martin; Ernie Pomerleau; & Tom Torti and the Chamber of Commerce.