Rikki Risatti is running for both a 3 year or a 1 year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard.
Tell us about yourself….
I feel thankful to be elected as a 2020-2023 district representative and on the art committee, we need more People to apply online or through the municipal manager’s office. I recently have been welcomed to join partnership with People in the Post 5 Legion Auxiliary and the Adult/Adolescent Sibling match program. Neighbors passionately involved with making community impact efforts have been positive influences for me. I also feel so grateful of all the past and upcoming opportunities to meet with People dedicated to their causes; like the Masons, Co-Op, and Time Trade Bank members.
Why are you running for the 1 and 3 year seats on the Brattleboro / Wantastegok Selectboard?
For the last three consecutive years, I ran for every term seat available to Select Board candidates, so People may decide how long they want me to serve for, if at all. Last year, I was 3 times more popular in the electoral poles than my 1st year running. If I have continued to consistently earn Peoples’ trust, at least at this rate, I have a decently valid chance at winning the majority vote this year. I find the other candidates to be sadist voyeurs of poverty, making meetings into exhibitions for them to wake up from their ignorance by witnessing and confronting classist trauma for their first time. Cultural white supremacy has sheltered their exposure to historical and presently manifested injustice and hindered their capacity for resolve. Whereas, I have motioned for referendums to supersede state and federal jurisdiction to cease causes of poverty and on full decriminalization of cannabis. I personally would vote against any; preexisting, new, increases, or additional taxes to cannabis. As complicated as taxation is, I oppose when legislators entitle their selves to spending public tax collections.
Are there any specific issues you’re are concerned about and want to work on as a board member?
Because I believe legislative decisions should not be only entitled to People occupying assemblies, I have been motioning for Charter changes to recognize everyone’s right to vote on how articles and the annual budget are allocated, because I support both People who want to vote in favor of and against my models for anarcho-syndicalism and business proposals.
I moved to repeal amendments made by Municipal Legislators blocking the public from bringing ordinances to the ballot only at the annual Representative meeting, so that we may we have means to facilitate family and disability/difference accommodated public restrooms with running water, dog waste bag supplies, receptacle placement increases in high density parks, affordable lab certified water quality testing/filtration, renovating the old home depot into affordable housing, and the empty municipal building’s rooms into office spaces for hiring reparations department professionals, district, and committee representatives.
In what direction should Brattleboro be heading? What’s your vision for the future of the town?
I endorsed a referendum on seceding to become a sovereign Municipality and decolonizing the name Brattleboro back to the Indigenous Sokoki Tribal address of here; known as Wantastegok, Sokwakik County, N’Dakinna, 05302/05301
We can celebrate home rule independence by prioritizing more public voting opportunities on how we can co-create sanctuary with decentralized currency regulations, including;
- Defending equitable welfare by stopping enforcement of cis gendered assigned at birth men to enlist in the draft or similar military selective services
- Pay to update the Civil War Monument in the Commons Park by adding commemoration of the missing 65+ names of People drafted by classist bounty and BIPOC Soldiers, including a 2020 year marker
- Add the Civil War Monuments to the #AfroVermontHeritageTrail
- Establish a Municipal Reparations Office
- 54 PoC Soldiers enlisted in 1863 are owed $16,200 total in bounty contracts. That is now equivalent to $331,862.14 total, $6,145.60 per family descendants or local PoC organizations if no surviving relatives accept payment. Municipal funding is anticipated to dispense contract fulfillment sooner than failed federal delivery
- Require and compensate all businesses and elected officials to maintain annual cultural inclusion training certifications
- Change our schools’ racist colonel/kernel name & municipal logo into egalitarian symbology
- More safety cross walk flashing light button signals
- Turning the property at 17 Canal street into a public garden and playground
- Add the cucumber magnolia tree by Abbiati Monument onto an annually published local treasured tree map and protecting it historical preservation rights
- Employ a hoarding intervention committee
- Fully operational public restrooms and dog waste stations
- Bike lanes with car barriers
- Free and environmentally sustainable 24/7 public transit
- Gas car / motorboat to electric conversion exchange incentive program on to prevent further pollution
- Give Migrants/denizens equal residential/citizen rights
- Green Technology Factories
- Decriminalize Sex Work / Free the Nipple
- Pass an anti-nuclear proliferation act and variation of the United Nation’s World Conference of the Durban Declaration against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
- Invest in a Space Center
Recent zoom meetings have been very long. How good are you at staring at screens?
I already stare at screens way too long and I am trying to have a healthier lifestyle by working out and doing yoga while meeting. I practiced physically active learning in college, because my high schools wouldn’t accommodate movement. I often have found my business productivity to be more effective with integrating exercise. Stationary communication can cause stagnant conversations, and I expect real progressive results from what I invest my time into. I also have motioned scheduling more frequent meetings at 4 hour maximums to not exhaust People. Computer glasses should be covered under health insurance and or workers’ compensation to block symptoms of blue light over exposure. Enabling meeting settings for participant chat box conversations is particularly important, to me.
In the last year the board passed two major community-driven initiatives; a rent ordinance and a community safety review. Did you agree with these board decisions? Why or why not?
The community safety review and other committee members are all too underpaid. Applicants need to be offered competitive salaries to be compensated for their qualifications and time.
I objected to this rent ordinance not preventing people from eviction due to in affordability. With municipal currency, we could ensure rental payments to protect against evictions during times of crisis and gentrification.
Since I moved to the Abbey Neighborhood section 8 housing in 2018:
- People from VSHA have provided 1/3 the Vt Health Department recommended water quality tests
- Compost service was formalized
- A new bike lock station, washers, dryers, and foot pedal opening receptacles were installed
- Medically endorsed reasonable accommodations were denied becoming covered by property owners/managers/agents, which are cited as state regulated policy requirements (not commodities):
13 V.S.A.532(4),365 (e)(f) Assures adequate food, water, shelter, sanitation, and medical attention:
But we need Municipal mediation to resolve negotiating leases protecting People
- To not be charged non sufficient fund fees
- Full provision of Vt Health Department Water certified lab testing and filtration
- Supply shared laundry rooms with disposable gloves, anti bacterial wipes, and masks
- Sanitization hand pumps installed by entrances
- Acknowledgement of furniture as household trash removal covered by rent
- Without threat of eviction, pay rent at the end of the month at a sliding scale cost after all living expenses/debts have been paid off
In the coming year the board will be tasked with implementing some or all of the community safety recommendations. Thoughts? Do any of the recommendations bother you? Are there any you really want to see implemented immediately?
The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act sections 1021 and 1022 expanded on the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), in violation of freedoms of speech and consents to indefinitely detain suspected people without charge or trial and to be deported to military black sites using rendition. Eight Municipalities in the U.S. have over ruled this federal jurisdiction, and we can nullify it too.
Also in 2012, the United States Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency and the People in Brattleboro’s government administration made an agreement called the National Incident Management System resolution, without publishing a transparent review of the contract for a proper public warning. Consequentially, all infrastructure became under control of federal domain and disempowers local autonomy of designing layouts for rebuilding massive construction projects.
I avidly uphold reclaiming local Peoples’ precedence in all matters.
Who was your best teacher and what did they teach you?
Everyone I disagree with teaches me how to experience deeper levels of compassion. When I learn what I do not want to emulate from People, I mature capacities to become the being I can be proud of becoming.
COVID. How well is the town holding up? Anything we should worry about?
I’m not a Doctor and I would appreciate diverse advisory expertise to expand my knowledge on and guide my understanding of the practicality of manufacturing vaccines and compounding prescriptions locally. I resent when the only treatments offered aren’t a vegan composition. Investigating Municipal viability of evolving accessible vegan options is worth pursuing, especially while the US FDA still allows medicine and over the counter products to be sold with known carcinogens. Money should not hinder ingenuity and innovation is necessary to resource.
Does Brattleboro’s / Wantastegok’s system of government allow for equal and full access by everyone in town?
No
Is everyone represented?
No
What could be improved?
The last 6 decades of local Municipal Representative Electoralism have normalized traditions of intentionally neglecting to schedule ballot and “special meeting” events transparently, and not publishing Reps. voting records; methods actively denying People awareness of and access to and civic duties.
I have been campaigning to expand direct democracy; by petitioning to cease appointment nepotism, accept People who are excluded from qualifying as the public electorate, enabling voters with online voting/petitioning access, to have equally participation of voting count record as Representatives, and introduce impeachment processes for office recall in adherence to public accountability.
In the finale of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer; the Witch Goddess disseminates the power a magical fasces axe to every potential Slayer during the Armageddon. This symbolic story is a poignant metaphor for the reality of protecting equal public vote count access as Reps to counter democide, conscription, imperialism, and climate crises. The majority of over 250 Vt municipalities let constituents vote on the annual municipal budget, rendering us the most regressive formation in the state.
Who or what inspires you?
Peace, Love, Unity, Generosity, Respect, Refuge
Have any hobbies or special interests at the moment?
We need a sliding scale 24/7 open downtown gym with kinetic energy equipment. I have a goal to enroll as a student at the North East Center for Circus Arts Ariel Silk classes eventually, but cherish hiking trails.
Is there anything voters should know that we didn’t ask about?
Not all service dogs are required by law to be leashed and enforcing false authority over strangers is ignorant bullying and discrimination. ADA Act Article 27 protects service animals under alternative training controls (like hand and audio) signaling obedience corrections, whose training is interfered with by a leash, and persons’ whose differences / disability prevents use of physical restraining tether devices; to be allowed off leash at hospitals, public schools, restaurants, stores, and any public space regardless of what animal dispatch officers, lawyers, and security guards say and do. Even if this legality did not exist, I pity people that refuse to graciously extend this compassionate courtesy. Please at least ask for permission before petting, speaking to, or distracting People’s Dogs. Not all disabilities/differences are visible. Some Service Animals overheat too easily to wear vests with patches. So, keep to yourself unless explicitly permitted.
If people want to know more, what is the best way to contact you?
These links connect People to my Facebook, Linkedin, and other platforms.
Thanks for spending time with iBrattleboro!
