Mayor's Office Response

[William Oetjen]

Hi Folks,

Occupy Burlington Direct Action Working Group sent a letter last Friday to Mayor Weinberger inviting him to meet and discuss with us our use of public space.

The following message is his response, received on Wednesday, May 23.

Dear Occupy Burlington General Assembly members,

Thank you for reaching out to Mayor Weinberger for a meeting. This has long been on his mind, and we are glad to have this email address as a means of communicating with you to set this up. Due to the many demands on his time and our need to schedule in advance, the soonest opening on his calendar is Tuesday,  May 29 from 2:30-3:30 pm. We would like to offer City Hall Conference Room 12 as a meeting space. Please confirm by reply email if this time and location will work for you.

 

Best,

Jessica

 

Jessica Nordhaus

Office of the Mayor

City of Burlington

*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Wednesday afternoon, at our usual meeting time, the Direct Action WG consensed to accept the offered meeting time.  We also consensed to draft a statement that we will deliver to the mayor.  First, we will present it to the General Assembly for amendments and consensus.   The statement will basically explain our need to use public space for outreach and communication with the broader community.  We intend to also outline the conditions under which we intend to occupy public space.  In return, we will expect the city departments to respect our autonomy.

Our goal is to meet our needs for outreach and communication, while maintaining a positive relationship within the community.  We believe that it is possible to meet that goal and spare ourselves and the city unnecessary expense of resources that can be put to better use.

This could be a very important step for Occupy Burlington.   At the very least, it signifies that the established political structure recognizes our resilience and our power.  It could also have far-reaching implications for our long-term actions, including:

holding banks accountable to our standards for serving the community;

holding police and school departments accountable for racial equity;

attaining affordable universal healthcare; 

securing access to reproductive healthcare;

demonstrating solidarity with, and supporting social movements that serve the needs of the 99% (Quebec student strike, Anti-Nato actions in Chicago, Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, Occupy VT statewide GA, etc.)...

Your contribution to this, our initial statement to the mayor, is important  -  magnified through the lens of history.   We need to hear every voice at the next GA. 

Please make every effort to contribute  -  Saturday, Noon (right after we close Citizen's Bank), in City Hall Park.   Please spread the word!  We need the whole 99%!

Yours, in Solidarity, 

Bill Oetjen

Direct Action Working Group

(PS - get in touch with everyone you can, let them know that you understand how important this is.)

"Posterity, who are to reap the blessings, will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors."

Abigail Adams, 1777

[Mia]

Forwarded! Thank you for your incredibly hard work on behalf of the 100%! :)

[Bill Oetjen]

Hi, Folks,

I just received this from Mayor Weinberger's assistant.

Thought I should pass it along.

Begin quote :

Occupy Burlington, The Mayor is looking forward to meeting with 4-6 of your members tomorrow, Tuesday 5/29, from 2:30-3:30 pm in Conference Room 12 on the first floor of City Hall. He has asked several leaders in City government to join him: BPD Deputy Chief Andi Higbee; BFD Chief Seth Laskar, and a representative from the Department of Parks and Recreation. Either Mike Kanarick or I will also be there acting as Assistant to the Mayor.

Until tomorrow, Jessica

End quote.

On May 25, 2012 3:20 PM, "William Oetjen" <billo...@gmail.com> wrote:

Please to do so!

Some important stuff to be worked out at this GA, this is one that we really hope will be well-attended.

Again, the more voices, the better.

Saturday, Noon.  City Hall Park

Or, why not show up an hour early and help close Citizens Bank  -  Burlington's most bailed out bank.

Just sayin.

Bill

[Stephen Marshall]

On 5/28/2012 11:42 PM, Bill Oetjen wrote:
>
> Hi, Folks,
>
> I just received this from Mayor Weinberger's assistant.
>
> Thought I should pass it along.
>
> Begin quote :
>
> Occupy Burlington, The Mayor is looking forward to meeting with 4-6 of
> your members tomorrow, Tuesday 5/29, from 2:30-3:30 pm in Conference
> Room 12 on the first floor of City Hall. He has asked several leaders
> in City government to join him: BPD Deputy Chief Andi Higbee; BFD
> Chief Seth Laskar, and a representative from the Department of Parks
> and Recreation. Either Mike Kanarick or I will also be there acting as
> Assistant to the Mayor.
>
> Until tomorrow, Jessica
>
> End quote.
>

Proposal: meet at city hall park at 2:00 PM to select a delegation.
Since they didn't offer this time, or allow enough time for us to work
out a response, we send the number we want to,

--
This reply email has been edited to reduce volume and to simplify reading it.

Stephen Marshall
11 Hungerford Terrace (out back)
Burlington Vermont 05401
Dispolemic.Blogspot.Com
802-861-2316 Landline
802-922-1446 Cell

[Bill Oetjen]

Hi ALL,

We already worked out our delegation last week.    We just haven't told them that.

Bill

[Stephen Marshall]

Hey Bill,

What happened after the meeting with Miro?

On 5/24/2012 3:19 AM, William Oetjen wrote:
>
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> Occupy Burlington Direct Action Working Group sent a letter last
> Friday to Mayor Weinberger inviting him to meet and discuss with us
> our use of public space.
> The following message is his response, received on Wednesday, May 23.
>

> /Dear Occupy Burlington General Assembly members,/
> /Thank you for reaching out to Mayor Weinberger for a meeting. This

> has long been on his mind, and we are glad to have this email address
> as a means of communicating with you to set this up. Due to the many
> demands on his time and our need to schedule in advance, the soonest
> opening on his calendar is Tuesday, May 29 from 2:30-3:30 pm. We
> would like to offer City Hall Conference Room 12 as a meeting space.
> Please confirm by reply email if this time and location will work for

> you./
>
> //
>
> /Best,/
> /Jessica/
>
> //
>
> /Jessica Nordhaus/
> /Office of the Mayor/
> /City of Burlington/

> Please make every effort to contribute - *Saturday, Noon (right after
> we close Citizen's Bank), in City Hall Park. *Please spread the word!

> We need the whole 99%!
>
> Yours, in Solidarity,
>

--
This reply has been edited to reduce volume and to clarify its meaning.

Stephen Marshall
Dispolemic.Blogspot.Com
802-922-1446 Cell

[William Oetjen]

On Jun 5, 2012, at 10:59 AM, Stephen Marshall wrote:

> Hey Bill,
>
> What happened after the meeting with Miro?
>
> On 5/24/2012 3:19 AM, William Oetjen wrote:
>>

Hi Steve,

We met with Miro and his top administrators from the police, parks, and fire departments.

We told him that we expect to have pop-up encampments and be left alone.

When he and his advisors gave their usual boiler-plate answers, we said that we'd like to hear from them some scenarios that could meet all of our needs, so as not to waste our resources and the PD's resources with arrests, etc.


And so we wait.

Havent' heard anything since.



Yours in Solidarity,

Bill