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MEET JOAN: 

MEET JOAN

Get to know Joan's background and her record as your South District City Councilor.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my web page! Here’s a little background information about me:

 

Joan lives in Burlington’s Lakeside neighborhood with her husband Ken, daughter Julia, and a revolving door of rescue dogs (3 at the time of this writing). Joan first stepped up to serve on the City Council motivated by her deep love of Burlington and concern that some community concerns were not being heard by the Council.

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As a public servant, Joan believes the job of a City Councilor is to listen to constituents, City Staff, and other stakeholders to move forward on City policies that benefit the community as a whole. Joan believes it is essential to dig deeply into the details of important issues in order to make the best decisions for the City. With an understanding that listening to all stakeholders is different than agreeing with all stakeholders, she sees it as her responsibility to make the best decision possible based on available information, community input, fairness, and compassion. She also feels it is important to follow up by reporting back to both those who agree and those who disagree about why she chose a particular position.

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Joan appreciates and recognizes the great privilege of serving on the City Council, and commits to doing the hard work to raise issues, build policy, and resolve conflicts in a way that respects and honors her South District constituents and the greater community of Burlington.

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But all of the above is easy to say and much harder to do.  Here are some of the actions Joan has taken:

  • Establishing the South End Arts District

  • Shepherding smoking bans including most recently a smoking ban on Church Street and in our Parks.

  • Sponsoring the Resolution that created our community vision PlanBTV

  • Leading the process to resolve the Burlington Telecom crisis

  • Initiating plastics reduction practices in Burlington.

  • Supporting infrastructure bonds to make sure we are not polluting Lake Champlain

  • Supporting fiscal stability initiatives.

  • Initiated Zoning changes that allowed the Women’s Rape Crisis Center (now Hope Works) to open a new location.

  • Proposed Zoning changes that allowed for the current redevelopment of the Soda Plant, ArtsRiot, City Market, and other arts and business investments along the Pine St. corridor.

  • Working with CEDO and other City Staff on saving and renovating Memorial Auditorium

 

Much of the work also happens right in your neighborhood:

  • Convening neighbors, City Market leadership, City staff to mitigate negative impacts and assure City Market South End moved forward.

  • Following up with landlords who are in violation of City Ordinances.

  • Working with neighborhoods to minimize negative impacts of City street projects.

  • Working with a group of neighbor engineers who wanted to address drainage problems during street repaving.

  • Seeking input from constituents before making decisions on controversial subjects.

  • Making sure she is well informed and decisions are based on facts, public input, and never on partisan politics.


Please call me or email me with any questions or concerns. My email is Joan@JoanShannonVT.com

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Joan

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