Burlington, VT- There’s a third candidate for Burlington mayor: Democratic City Councilor Joan Shannon announced her bid Thursday on the steps of City Hall, surrounded by friends, family and about a hundred supporters.

With the motto “all hands on deck,” Shannon also has a chance to be the first female mayor the city has seen. But she says that’s not why she ran.

Shannon has served on the council for 20 years, three of them as council president.

She says she’s ready to take this next step after motivation from friends. Sharing goals of housing infrastructure, helping homelessness, and improving public safety with other mayoral candidates, Shannon says she’s different from her competition for her views on community policing, which she says the city has lost.

She also aims to restore the Street Crimes Unit and work with community members on a variety of property crimes.

Shannon said, “I know I have what it takes to make those hard decisions in Burlington’s best interest. We face enormous challenges in the domain of public safety alone. I stand by my record as the only candidate who consistently supported investments in public safety, supported community policing, and opposed misguided efforts to defund the police.”

Shannon says she’ll consider all viewpoints and ideas from any side of the aisle.

Current mayor Miro Weinberger, who announced he wouldn’t seek another term at the end of September, says it’s encouraging to see a number of candidates stepping forward and says it’s a possibility the city could see its first female mayor in its 150-year history.

Weinberger said, “I think it’s a great thing about our system that people can have different backgrounds and succeed as mayor, I had not been on the council before, I ran, but certainly, people who serve as councilors have a really unique and important perspective and it’s really encouraging to see councilors stepping forward.”

Weinberger says he remains concerned with issues of homelessness, drugs, and the environment throughout the state, and says he’s seriously considering the possibility of staying involved.

Shannon is the latest candidate to join the race. Progressive state representative Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and democratic City Council President Karen Paul were the first two to announce.