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There are a number of qualities I look for in an elected official, whether local or on the larger stage.
I think it’s important that those who represent me research to learn the history and contributing factors for each issue they’ll deal with. They must talk to the people involved and affected and listen well to each. They need to relay comprehensive information to others clearly, in a concise, respectful way.
Oscar Heller will be a thoughtful member of the Brattleboro Selectboard, progressive in his values but mindful of the financial facts of life. I have served with Oscar for several years on the Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee (both of us have chaired in different years) and I know his abilities well. Heller is diligent and well-informed. He respects different opinions, listens well, and has an admirable ability to contribute to the development of reasoned decisions while maintaining group cohesion.
It is clear from this year’s Finance Committee work that Heller strongly believes in the necessity of multi-year financial planning and rigorous consideration of budgetary alternatives. He knows that nothing good can come from undisciplined spending.
Below is some helpful information for the March 4th Town Meeting and WSESD School Board Director Elections.
Absentee Ballots
Absentee ballots for these elections were mailed by request. Please make sure to follow the instructions provided
with your ballot, including:
• Signing the certificate envelope and ensuring your ballot/s are inside the certificate envelope.
• Using a black pen to mark your ballot.
I’ve known Isaac Evans-Frantz for several years and I am glad he is running for Select Board.
Isaac’s Brattleboro roots run deep. He was born in Brattleboro, grew up in a low-income family and graduated from BUHS before going on to college.
His at times challenging upbringing gives him the experience to understand those in town who can’t afford huge increases in local property taxes. So I admire the way he has shown a light on the way the current Select Board has stonewalled the RTM Finance Committee and its recommendations. I know he will bring a more responsible fiscal outlook to the board.
A colleague on the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) Finance Committee and I undertook a comparative analysis of the funds Brattleboro’s Human Services Committee had to allocate and similar spending by our adjoining towns and Putney and also such spending by eight towns, four just larger and four just smaller than Brattleboro in population. Data were collected in all cases for the current fiscal year.
Because all Brattleboro voters will have the unusual opportunity to express their preferences so as to advise RTM which will set a sum for social services spending in the next fiscal year, I wish to share what we found.
Brattleboro provides human service organizations with more money ($367,810) than is allocated in the 13 comparison towns. Rutland is close, at $342,243, and this is more than double what any of the other towns spend for the purpose. Brattleboro also has the highest percentage of general fund dollars set aside for social service organizations—2%. Our nearest rivals are Dummerston and Rutland (1.2% and 1.3%, respectively). Restricting attention to our neighbors, Brattleboro’s social service spending per capita is over $34; on a per capita basis, Putney comes in at $16.27 and Guilford at $11.27; the other three are below $10 per capita.
As former members of the Brattleboro Human Services Committee, we are writing to encourage all members of the Brattleboro community to read the detailed, informative report to the town, from the current members of the Committee, which appeared in the February 12 issue of The Commons.
Article Vl, on this year’s Annual Town Meeting Ballot, asks Brattleboro voters to choose one of five town funding options for local Human Service organizations.
We think that voting to eliminate or drastically reduce the town’s share of funding of these organizations would be a short-sighted, major mistake, and would be detrimental to Brattleboro’s well-being. During the time that we served on the committee, each one of us came to more deeply understand and appreciate what a critical role the nonprofit organizations, whose funding requests we carefully reviewed, play in the healthy functioning of our community.
Many Vermonters are in the Benefits Trap. You can’t earn over a certain amount of money or you will lose your benefits, and the benefits have more financial value than the value of rent which could put you over the benefits limit by renting a room to someone.
In the Benefits Trap scheme of things, you are allowed to own one home (up to a certain value) and one car (up to a certain value). If you have an extra bedroom, and you rent it out, that is income, and poof! you could lose your benefits which have a value greater than the rent a person might pay.
Isaac Evans-Frantz is running for a one year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard.
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Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you and why are you running for a one year seat?
I was born and raised in Brattleboro, and I love this community. The gap between rich and poor, the opioid crisis, and the housing shortage are hurting us. We all want a community where we can earn a living wage, put food on the table, and let our kids play outside without fear of drugs or violence. We need a selectboard member who listens and helps us achieve a stronger Brattleboro. I will bring energy, hope and determination to the Brattleboro Selectboard.
Hello Neighbors,
I am running for re-election to a three-year term as a Representative Town Meeting (RTM) member for District 9 (formerly known as District 3).
I am asking you, if you feel comfortable doing so, to vote for me and, more, to encourage your friends in District 9 to do so as well.
I have been a member of Representative Town Meeting since 2019. Beginning in 2019, I have been elected every year to its Finance Committee which scrutinizes the Town budget to provide a report each year to inform RTM (and the public generally) of issues before that body votes on the budget article; in three of those years, I was chosen to chair the committee.
Brattleboro Town Meeting and WSESD School Board elections will be held on March 4, 2025. There are three major ways to vote in these elections.
Please note that the Town Clerk’s office hours have changed, and we are now closed from 12-1 p.m. daily.
Jill Stahl Tyler is running for a three year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard.
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Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you and why are you running for a three-year seat?
Hi, my name is Jill Stahl Tyler. I decided to run for Selectboard because this is my home.
When we built our house thirty years ago, we planted trees. From sapling to towering shade cover, we wanted to see them grow. Over the same decades, we’ve watched things change in downtown Brattleboro. As the crime situation has worsened, I wondered if we had to leave, and if someone else would enjoy the crisp yellows of the forsythia, the majestic first blooms on the magnolia, and the striking flowering crab apple that now spreads widely near the front patio.
My name is Jane Wheeler and I am running for RTM in District 8. I was born, grew up and worked in Brattleboro. Outside of about 8 years when I lived in close by towns I have always lived in Brattleboro. I have had many lived experiences in Brattleboro- school kid, factory worker, drunk, recovering alcoholic, renter and now a property owner, addictions counselor, houseparent at Kurn Hattin, co-founder of the VT Counsel on Problem Gambling, case manger for Senior Solutions, resource advocate at Grace Cottage Hospital, caregiver for aging family members, and now as a retired older person. I have a master’s degree with the focus in counseling psychology. Informal education includes matriarchal studies and plant medicine.
Hey, candidates for the 2025 Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting. There are a lot of you this year. It is exciting. People want to know who you are and what distinguishes you from the others running. We’ve gotten emails asking for information about you.
You are, as always, invited to use this site to announce your candidacy and to introduce yourselves. It could be close, and every vote is important.
Richard Davis is an incumbent running for a one-year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard.
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Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you and why are you running for a one year seat?
I am Richard Davis, a semi-retired nurse, writer and political activist running for a second one year seat on the Brattleboro selectboard. A Boston area native, I have lived in Windham County for the past 46 years, 41 of those years in Guilford and for the past 3 ½ years in Brattleboro with my wife Roberta Levy.
On my first year on the board I was voted clerk by my fellow board members. During this past year the people of Brattleboro have been actively engaged in a variety of issues that include public safety, taxes, and a new trash system.
I am proud to be a member of a community that is so committed to improving the quality of life for everyone. This past summer attendance at board meetings was the highest in recent memory and people were able to express their opinions freely.
I was born and raised in Brattleboro, and I love this community. The gap between rich and poor, the opioid crisis, and the housing shortage are hurting us. We all want a community where we can earn a living wage, put food on the table, and let our kids play outside without fear of drugs or violence. We need a selectboard member who listens and helps us achieve a stronger Brattleboro. When you elect me, I’ll work to:
Spend Wisely: Create a budget that taxpayers can afford.
Keep Us Safe: Give our community tools to stand up to drug traffickers.
Save Lives: Support local solutions to shelter our neighbors.
Statement on Trump Executive Order Suspending Refugee Admissions, Impact on Afghans in Vermont
Burlington, Vt – The Vermont Afghan Alliance released the following statement in response to the Trump Executive Order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program:
“All of us at the Vermont Afghan Alliance are devastated to learn of the Executive Order suspending entry of refugees into the United States under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), including Afghan refugees awaiting relocation to the United States.
My name is Oscar Heller, and I’m running for the Selectboard.
I will bring six years of Finance Committee experience to the Selectboard. Creating the town’s budget is the Selectboard’s single most important job every year, and I think we’ve gotten off-track. I have a plan to get our budget back on solid footing, and my goal is to guide us through the challenges that I foresee this year.
Noting a Coincidence
As it turned out, Trump’s 2nd Inauguration as President of the United States of America falls on Martin Luther King’s birthday, a federal holiday (King being the only American to be presently so honoured). Interestingly, both had spoken against U.S. regime change wars, but whereas King paid for his outspoken condemnation of America’s atrocity wars with his life, Trump, though initially denouncing the regime change wars as money better spent at home, once in office, seemed to have dutifully served the deep state industrial military complex in its wars and violent foreign policies just as every other U.S. president since Franklin Roosevelt.
Song for the 2nd Inaugeration of President Donald Trump by Cris Ericson (C) 2025
“He’s an elevator man, he’s got fantasies,
he takes a lady for a long ride to the top, it never stops,
he takes a lady for a long ride.”
The answer to the question of whether or not you get fair representation from the people you elect may seem elusive. Every individual has their own political agenda, so when it comes to representation the best we can hope for is that the person we elect closely holds our values.
Vermonters are extremely lucky on this account on the national level. At least Vermonters who tend to be more liberal and vote Democratic or Progressive.
Our federal delegation reflects the ideals of a majority of us and they have the courage of their convictions to work to uphold those principles.
People in many other states may feel the same way, but we all know that once people get a taste of the power they can wield in Washington they often become co-opted by a corrupt system. Especially those who stay in office for a long time. They become beholden to those with money and they eventually want to hold onto power at all costs. Once they cross that line they no longer represent the people who elected them.
