Monday, February 16, 2015
“I saw enough theatrics at the Statehouse this week,” he says.
Now chief of staff to House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown), the 28-year-old Wallingford native has long since traded his musical aspirations for political ones.
“I want to be in a job where I’m serving the public,” he says. “I truly am bought into that.”
On the surface, Giambatista fits the mold of the up-and-coming political aide: clean-cut, polite and a touch overeager. He even bears a striking resemblance to his boss, which prompted Smith to introduce him at a Democratic caucus last December as his “doppelgänger.”
But in the Vermont Statehouse, Giambatista’s background is anything but ordinary. He dropped out of high school in 10th grade, couch-surfed for years, toured with a band he describes as “quasi-straight-edge hardcore” and has more than a few tattoos.
Tags: Dylan Giambatista , Shap Smith , Rough Francis , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 13, 2015
Two challengers are running against Francis Brooks, who has been sergeant-at-arms since 2007. The legislature on Thursday is to elect one of three candidates to a two-year term.
Janet Miller, who is director of operations for Legislative Council in the Statehouse, and Chuck Satterfield, a part-time detective with the Northfield Police Department, are challenging Brooks.
Legislators say the protests led to concerns. “There’s a general level of discontent with the way the office is run,” said Rep. David Deen (D-Westminster). He also said, “There is no organized effort for a candidate that I am aware of.”
“There were concerns about the way security and access to the chamber were dealt with during the govenor’s inaugural,” said House Majority Leader Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D-Bradford). “That’s when the conversations started happening.”
Brooks said he was surprised by the challenge. “It bothers me that people are supposedly upset or whatever and I can’t honestly tell you why,” Brooks said.
Tags: Vermont Statehouse , Francis Brooks , Chuck Satterfield , Janet Miller , Image , Web Only
Greg Guma, an independent candidate who considers himself a peace activist, has been running on WPTZ an ad, produced by his son, that criticizes Weinberger as being overzealous about developing Burlington.
In an email to reporters Friday afternoon, Shannon described Guma's claims as "absurd and inaccurate," but she said she was particularly offended by a still image (pictured above) of Weinberger with a target on his face. A gunshot goes off as the video cuts to a view of the city, and a menacing voiceover states, "Development Mayor Weinberger is putting a target on the entire city for speculators, corporate vultures and chains only interested in profits."
Shannon wrote in her email, "I urge Greg Guma to stop airing the ad immediately, so we can go back to the kind of honest, fair, civil debate that Burlingtonians expect from their politicians. Debating the issues and visions for Burlington is an appropriate debate to engage in. Putting a target on anyone’s head followed by the sound of a shot is something we all should be speaking up against, no matter our views on the mayor or development."
Tags: Burlington , Miro Weinberger , development , Image , Video , Web Only
Thursday, February 12, 2015
School board members cheered and hugged after voting to appoint Obeng — one of two finalists who came to Burlington weeks ago for interviews with the board, teachers, students and community members. Obeng emerged as the strongly favored candidate after those sessions, according to board chair Patrick Halladay.
He comes from Burlington, Ontario, where he oversees 12 schools in a 100-school Halton district.
Former superintendent Jeanne Collins signed a buyout agreement last spring after significant financial problems came to light. The board then appointed an interim leadership team of administrators. They resigned en masse several months later, citing an untenable working relationship with the board.
Since then, the board has worked on its self-governance and to improve the district's budgeting procedures. Howard Smith, who was hired as an interim superintendent in the fall, has received high praise from the board and will continue to lead the district through June.
On Thursday, the board introduced Obeng to reporters via a spotty Skype connection. He emphasized his experience working in very diverse school districts and his ability to stick to a budget. Burlington has suffered repeated deficits in recent years. In Ontario, the law prohibits superintendents from running a deficit, Obeng noted.
Tags: Burlington school board , superintendent , Yaw Obeng , Image , Web Only
Life on the streets of Denver looked – and smelled – pretty much the same as anywhere, except for one thing. “You can’t throw a stone without hitting a [marijuana] store out there,” said Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn. One of those stores, he said, reported grossing more than $1 million a month.
The impact of those sales on the lives of Colorado residents was harder to determine, the trippers said.
“There’s no reliable data in Colorado. That says to me, Vermont needs to wait,” said Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan, who organized the trip, which ran from Sunday through Wednesday.
Two Vermont lawmakers plan to introduce a bill – likely next week – that would legalize the recreational use and sale of marijuana in the state. Donovan and the others said they wanted to see how Colorado’s law was working a year after legalization there.
Tags: Bill Young , Cannabeat , Colorado , Keith Flynn , marijuana legalization , Mary Alice McKenzie , T.J. Donovan , Vermont , Image , Web Only
For at least a month, the mayor has been alluding to an impending announcement about a "major early education initiative" in Burlington. Standing with Gov. Peter Shumlin, Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan and a host of early education advocates, he revealed the details.
A group of 16 people — including the city's police chief and its library director — will design a pilot program during the coming year to make early education available to more children. The program will include home visits to pregnant women and new parents, and early education scholarships for families that are at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty line. The results will be "rigorously collected and evaluated," according to the Weinberger administration.
Tags: Miro Weinberger , Burlington , early education , Image , Web Only
Last spring, the Riverside School eighth grader wrote Sen. Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) to suggest that Vermont adopt an official Latin motto: Stella quarta decima fulgeat — or, "May the 14th star shine bright."
Now a ninth-grader at St. Johnsbury Academy, Kubicke testified Wednesday in favor of legislation that would do just that. After a mere 45 minutes of discussion, the committee unanimously approved the bill — with Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison) voting "affirmativus" — and sent it along to the full Senate.
"I think maybe not all bills go this efficiently," Kubicke remarked after the vote. "I was really excited that it passed all the way through and that I'm spreading the Latin culture. It's just keeping the torch moving."
Not all Vermonters, apparently, were sure which culture Kubicke was hoping to spread. After WCAX-TV reported on her campaign last month, dozens of linguistically, geographically and historically challenged audience members posted venomous comments on the station's Facebook page, evidently confusing ancient Rome with Latin America.
“No way this is America not Mexico or Latin America," wrote Ronald Prouty, Jr. "And they nee [sic] to learn our language, just like if we go there they want us to speak theirs.”
Tags: Vermont latin motto , Stella quarta decima fulgeat , 14th star , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Hundreds streamed into the Statehouse for a hearing held by two Senate committees, filling the House chamber and overflowing into nearby rooms to watch it remotely.
Wearing green shirts and buttons were those who backed a controversial bill establishing new restrictions on guns sold privately to felons and those who are mentally unfit. In blaze orange shirts, vests, hats and stickers were those opposed to any new gun laws in Vermont.
Orange far outnumbered green, but both sides expressed equal passion.
Tags: gun control , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Vermont Gas on Tuesday canceled a planned second leg of a controversial natural gas pipeline project that would have extended from Middlebury to Ticonderoga, N.Y.
The move came after increased costs prompted the project’s biggest funding source and customer, International Paper, to pull out of an agreement with Vermont Gas, according to Don Rendall, the latter company's president and chief executive officer.
“It was IP’s decision to withdraw,” Rendall said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “We tried and could not get to a mutually beneficial outcome.”
IP spokeswoman Donna Wadsworth did not respond to a request for comment.
A new assessment of the project showed that costs had increased by more than $30 million, from $74.4 million to $105 million, according to Vermont Gas vice president Jim Sinclair. Pipeline opponents, who had argued the project was environmentally risky and that its costs were being understated, heralded the decision.
“I’m excited,” said Mary Martin of Cornwall, whose farm was on the proposed pipeline path. “The first thing we’re going to do is organize a party.”
Tags: Vermont Gas , natural gas pipeline , Don Rendall , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
The city made "really a substantial, substantial improvement" to the way it monitors its money, emphasized the independent auditor, Scott McIntire. He noted that while there was a "punch list of items that still need attention," it was much shorter than in previous years.
But having a clean audit was contingent on the council agreeing to write off the books the $16.9 million that the Bob Kiss administration diverted to Burlington Telecom without approval.
On this point, the accounting discussion turned contentious. That money appeared as a debt in BT's enterprise fund, and as money owed — or a receivable — in the city ledger.
Tags: Burlington Telecom , Miro Weinberger , Burlington city council , Image , Web Only