BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Burlington City Council voted 10-2 on Monday night to confirm Anthony Geraci as police chief, after a councilor said no one in the city had been able to review gender discrimination allegations from his past and called the process "what institutional sexism looks like."

Councilors McKnight and Litwin cast the two no votes. The other 10 members, including Council President Travers, voted yes. Geraci, the mayor's nominee and a veteran New York police leader who told the council he had worked in departments in Albany and Newburgh, was chosen after a national search run with the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

McKnight said a conversation with members of the search firm's hiring team showed that "no one in Burlington, not the mayor, not the hiring committee, not the recruiting professionals, and certainly not this council, has been able to review the underlying details of the allegations of gender discrimination" against Geraci.

"I am in no way making a judgment on anything that happened. I cannot do that because I don't have the facts," McKnight said. "A sealed file is not the same thing as a clean record."

McKnight said councilors had suggested the mayor ask the candidate to agree to unseal the records, "but she refused." McKnight also said there "weren't even enough applicants to have a B list" of candidates, adding, "A shallow applicant pool is not a reason to lower our standards."

"I'm really disappointed that our first ever female mayor has brought forward a candidate with this history," McKnight said.

Mayor: 'There are no sealed records'

The mayor, who does not vote, asked for the floor and said she was disappointed "that that's where the level of debate was taken tonight."

"I really call into question a counselor's in questioning my integrity, not only as the first female mayor, but as someone who has a strong and very um very public record going to a proud historical women's college, a proud feminist," she said.

"There are no sealed personnel records," the mayor said. She said the search firm reviewed Geraci's personnel file, "and there is no report in that file," and that it produced a 50-page background check. "Gender discrimination claims should not be taken lightly," she said. "I have vetted this personally, um, inside and out."

Litwin disputed that account, saying that in a meeting with Geraci and three other councilors about a week earlier, "it was stated that there was a file that was sealed." Litwin also criticized the length of the search and said there "was not a substantive community process from where I stood," but promised to "get behind this chief immediately if he is appointed tonight."

Councilor Grant, who served on the interview committee and backed Geraci, said councilors had been told the allegations were unfounded and noted that the state of Vermont's required background check includes a lie detector test. "This candidate has been vetted," Grant said.

Councilor Bergman said opposing Geraci on this record "makes absolutely no sense" and that a no vote "would throw this department into a tailspin." Later, McKnight said Bergman had characterized raising the candidate's work history as "bare knuckling."

"And to every woman who has ever been scared to bring up issues of unfairness, discrimination, or worse, in the workplace, yes, it is scary to do that," McKnight said. "Yes, you will get criticized by your colleagues. Do it anyway."

A motion to cut off debate failed 2-10, short of the two-thirds it needed.

Before the final vote, Geraci asked to be judged on his record. "I would just encourage people to really, you know, evaluate me based on my my record, and then moving forward, evaluate me based on the relationships that we build beginning tomorrow," he said.

After the debate, the mayor apologized to Geraci, his family and police staff in the room "for myself getting a little bit heated and disappointed in the debate tonight."