Vermont mayor under fire

By Ted Cohen/Patch.com

The unsuccessful mayoral candidate in Vermont's largest city came out with proverbial guns blazing, blasting the woman who beat her for barring her from inspecting city homeless shelters.

Joan Shannon, who was defeated in the most recent mayoral contest by Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, used her final council meeting to blast the mayor for her policy governing emergency shelters.

The mayor quickly replied "I'm disappointed it has come to this."

Mulvaney-Stanak called on the city attorney - whom the mayor recently appointed - to defend her policy governing access to emergency shelters by city officials such as Shannon.

Shannon argued that as a city councilor she should not be barred from walking in to a homeless shelter to oversee its operations.

The veteran councilor questioned how the mayor can let a Seven Days reporter do a ride-along with city welfare workers rescuing homeless people from the streets and taking them to shelters, potentially violating their privacy rights, but not let a city councilor go into the shelters.

If the mayor allows a reporter to witness homeless people being picked up by city workers, Shannon wondered how that's legally any different from her wanting to go into a shelter and see how it operates.

Mulvaney-Stanak a year ago trounced Shannon, a 20-year council member, in an upset election for mayor.

Shannon announced recently that she would not be seeking reelection to the council after two decades on the panel, including a stint as council president.

Mulvaney-Stanak denied that she was trying to keep Shannon from visiting city properties, even though Shannon accused her of a so-called "unilateral policy" closing off the shelters to city inspectors such as herself.

"I did not start this policy," Mulvaney-Stanak shot back. "It was started under the previous administration."

Mulvaney-Stanak claimed she is legally barred from allowing unauthorized persons - aka Shannon - going in to city shelters.