BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Town Meeting Day is less than two weeks away and Burlington voters are poised to possibly elect the first woman mayor in the city’s history. Reporter Katharine Huntley spoke with the two major party candidates — Democrat Joan Shannon and Progressive Emma Mulvaney-Stanak — about their different leadership styles.
For the first time in Burlington’s history, it’s likely a woman will have the top job.
Democrat Joan Shannon and Progressive Emma Mulvaney-Stanak each have laid out ambitious goals for the city of Burlington if they become mayor but both have their own ideas about what it means to lead.
Shannon, a realtor, has ties to Burlington going back to the mid-1980s and has served on the City Council for 20 years. “The courage, the experience and the leadership that I have been providing here — that sets me apart,” she said.
Shannon says she wants to include as many different opinions as she can in finding solutions to the city’s problems. “No one has a monopoly on good ideas. I am willing to listen to people that I disagree with because I learn more from people that I disagree with probably than I do from people that I agree with,” she said.
Shannon says unlike Mulvaney-Stanak, she is not married to one ideology. She says she recognizes the need for more public safety professionals and believes she is the one that can attract them to the city. “I do think our police need to be held accountable. But when they are doing their job, I’m going to support them. So, I think that that’s a distinct difference,” she said.
Mulvaney-Stanak spent many years as a community and labor organizer, which she says will allow her to bring people most impacted by the issues to the table. She also served on the City Council for two terms and now represents Burlington’s Chittenden 17 District in the Vermont House. She also previously served as the chair of the Vermont Progressive Party.
“We need someone who has the experience on a state level with state policy experience and local policy experience in order to find solutions that are going to work both short-term and long-term solutions,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. She says that she differs from her opponent on crime and punishment. “I’m a strong believer in getting to the root causes of why people are un-housed, why people are suffering with substance use disorder and how to build the long-term, safe communities that we are really all longing for.”
Like Shannon, Mulvaney-Stanak says she will work with colleagues in local government. She says she will have no patience for divisiveness as a leader. “I want to see folks on City Council as my collaborators and as my colleagues and make sure that we’re always working, making government work for local people, because that’s how we’re going to solve these really difficult challenges,” she said.
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