Ben & Jerry's founders weigh in on Burlington Town Meeting proposition: What to know

Clarification: A previous version of this article did not include the Howard Center union vice president and clinician in the list of event speakers.

The famous Vermont ice cream duo Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield spoke out Wednesday in support of the highly-disputed police oversight board on Burlington's Town Meeting Day ballot.

While they don't usually dabble in hometown politics, the pair and their company had an event in Contois Auditorium at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon that drew over 60 people from toddlers to retirees. Speakers included Cohen and Greenfield, two city councilors, leaders from the group that spearheaded the ballot item, a clinician and union vice president at the Howard Center and a representative of the ACLU of Vermont. Ice cream was served after the presentation.

The police oversight board, also called the community control board, would handle the investigation of officer misconduct and complaints and the discipline of officers. The responsibility of the investigation is currently handled by the police chief and the mayor.

Mayor Miro Weinberger, acting chief Jon Murad of the Burlington Police Department, Democratic city councilors, union leaders as well as some non-profit leaders and business owners say the oversight board is too extreme, does not provide enough rights to officers and fear it could lead to loss of more personnel. On the other hand, Cohen and Greenfield and other advocates say civilian oversight of the police is needed in order to build trust between police and the community.

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Why Ben & Jerry's took interest in Burlington police accountability

Cohen and Greenfield see Burlington's police oversight board as an example to the country of what police accountability could look like.

Ever since the murder of George Floyd, Greenfield said he and Cohen have been active members of The Campaign to End Qualified Immunity, a non-profit pushing for legislation that would create stricter police accountability than what is now in place from past Supreme Court decisions. Greenfield and Cohen have spoken at events for the organization and were two of 650 current and former CEOs who signed a letter to Congress asking to move legislation forward.

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Greenfield said in an interview with the Free Press on Wednesday that he and Cohen had read about the police oversight board ballot item in the newspaper and reached out to the group spearheading it out of their own desire to support it.

"Burlington has long been home to bold ideas about how to build a better world," Greenfield said at the event Wednesday. "Over the last three decades, we've seen the city thrive when it leans into and lives up to the values of its precedents."

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Greenfield said that he and Cohen learned while building their business that accountability was the only way to build trust and get desired results, a principle that he sees translating well to policing. He and Cohen also think police overseeing themselves is not enough.

Ben & Jerry's, the company Cohen and Greenfield founded, is also in support of the community oversight board on Burlington's ballot. The company is known for being political on a state and national scale, but does not often speak out about local issues. Chris Miller, Ben & Jerry's head of global activism strategy, said at Wednesday's event that the ballot item aligned with both the company's activism and their desire to stay active in the business birthplace.

"We're a global brand, we sell ice cream in 40 countries but we absolutely want to work on issues that are rooted in our community," Miller said.

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The company has been working on issues around policing and mass incarceration for the past five years, Miller said, including supporting efforts to end cash bail and take school resource officers out of schools. The concept of a community control board for the Burlington Police is in line with their desire for more police accountability nationwide.

"Accountability, particularly because of the great responsibility that police have seems like a fairly simple concept and idea," Miller said.

Why other local business leaders oppose the community control board

Other business leaders in Burlington have the opposite viewpoint of Ben & Jerry's.

Mayor Miro Weinberger had a press conference Feb. 2 with others who oppose the community control board, including some business and non-profit leaders. The main refrain from the business community is concern over how the community control board would impact public safety because of fears that officers will quit if the board is approved.

“The city’s ability to deliver public safety is a concern to everyone, residents and businesses alike," said Kelly Devine, executive director of the Burlington Business Association in a press release sent after the event. "Staff at our restaurants and stores are being harassed, threatened, and assaulted on a weekly basis. This ballot question as written puts our city’s public safety services at great risk by attempting an unprecedented experiment.”

Local union leaders of the city workers' union and the fire department union also question the control board's fairness to police officers and lack of a grievance process for unions and their members. If the board is implemented, police officers would have the ability to appeal decisions to the Vermont Superior Court.

Yard signs and mailers for and against the police oversight ballot item, referred to on signs as "#7" or ballot item 7, have appeared around the city in the past week, indicating a contentious election in two weeks.

Contact Urban Change Reporter Lilly St. Angelo at lstangelo@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @lilly_st_ang.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Ben and Jerry's founders support Question 7 in Burlington VT