Tuesday, December 16, 2014
An influential state lawmaker will introduce a bill to restrict police agencies' use of the Pentagon's surplus equipment program, which Vermont agencies have used to obtain an arsenal of assault rifles, Humvees, night-vision goggles and other military gear.
Janet Ancel (D-Calais), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, told Seven Days she is concerned that police are obtaining military gear through the federal 1033 Program with little oversight or public debate. Ancel expects the House Government Operations Committee to hold hearings on her bill in the upcoming legislative session.
"I want public discussion and legislative focus on the program," Ancel said. "I have concerns about the use of military hardware, particularly by some of our smaller law-enforcement agencies. It's a subject we need to discuss. The bill is a vehicle for the discussion."
Currently, police apply directly to the state's 1033 Program coordinator, an official with the Vermont National Guard. Often citing the war on drugs, agencies ranging from the Vermont State Police to the Middlebury Police Department have obtained 158 assault rifles, 14 military Humvees, one mine-resistant vehicle, and scores of scopes, sights and other equipment, according to a Seven Days review of nearly 4,000 pages of documents. Law-enforcement agencies have requested, but been denied, more than twice as much stuff.
Tags: Police , Politics , Janet Ancel , militarization , 1033 Program , legislature , Vermont State Polie , Image , Web Only
Saturday, December 13, 2014
At separate meetings in Montpelier, the Senate and House Democratic caucuses met to discuss their priorities for the coming legislative session and to elect those who will lead them through it.
The proceedings were largely free of drama. Though races emerged after Election Day for House Democrats’ No. 2 and 3 positions — majority leader and majority whip — both were settled before lawmakers descended upon Montpelier.
Meeting at the Statehouse Saturday morning, House Dems unanimously elected five-term Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D-Bradford) to replace Rep. Willem Jewett (D-Ripton) as majority leader. Nominating her was Rep. Kesha Ram (D-Burlington), who waged a spirited campaign against Copeland Hanzas, but who dropped out of the running on Tuesday.
“We know that a rising tide floats all boats, but I think that we as Democrats are keenly aware that part of our job is to throw a lifeline to the Vermonters who’ve been swept overboard in our great recession,” Copeland Hanzas told her colleagues. “And that’s going to be [House Democrats’] central focus.”
Tags: Vermont House , Vermont Senate , Shap Smith , Sarah Copeland Hanzas , Kesha Ram , Kate Webb , John Campbell , Phil Baruth , Claire Ayer , Dick Mazza , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Races for two House Democratic leadership positions have been settled ahead of this weekend's caucus.
Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D-Bradford) is expected to become the party's next majority leader in January. Barring any last-minute maneuvering, she'll succeed Rep. Willem Jewett (D-Ripton), who announced plans on Election Day to relinquish the leadership post.
“I am honored to be chosen by my House colleagues to help lead us through this next biennium,” Copeland Hanzas says. “I’m humbled by that support, but also energized to help ensure that we are communicating together not only across the wide range of ideas from within our caucus, but with independents, Republicans and Progressives in the House to do good work for Vermonters.”
The five-term legislator has spent the past month competing with Rep. Kesha Ram (D-Burlington) for the House's No. 2 post. Ram informed her colleagues by email Tuesday evening that she'd dropped out of the race. Instead, she'll seek to become "caucus election chair," a position House Dems expect to create during their organizational meeting on Saturday.
Ram called the contest "a very close race," which she left "on [her] own terms."
"I was becoming increasingly sensitive to the number of people from Chittenden County in the race for other leadership positions," she explains.
Tags: Sarah Copeland Hanzas , Willem Jewett , Kesha Ram , Image , Web Only
Thursday, December 4, 2014
As he prepares for a challenging legislative session, Gov. Peter Shumlin filled two key administration positions Thursday afternoon.
Shumlin promoted Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources Justin Johnson to the post of secretary of administration, a powerful position with authority over all areas of state government and its budget.
"He's the right man for this job right now," Shumlin said during a press conference Thursday afternoon in the governor’s ceremonial Statehouse office. “He knows how to get tough things done. He’s an honest broker with a history of bipartisanship and he has extraordinarily great, sound judgment.”
Tags: Peter Shumlin , Justin Johnson , Hal Cohen , Image , Web Only
Monday, December 1, 2014
Defender General Matt Valerio and Prisoners' Rights Office supervising attorney Seth Lipschutz said that they rarely visit prisons in Kentucky and Arizona that are owned by Corrections Corporation of America and house nearly 500 Vermont inmates.
Whereas investigators from the Defender General's Office are inside Vermont prisons daily, they visit CCA's prison in Beattyville, Ky., where most of CCA's Vermont inmates are held, two or three times a year, usually in response to assaults or other critical incidents.
"They’re constantly visiting [Vermont] facilities, talking to inmates, talking to the staff, kind of being the watchdog," Lipschutz said. "We don’t have that in Kentucky. We don’t go down there often and it’s harder to solve problems. That is a legitimate issue that I have tossed and turned in bed over. The place is 1,000 miles away. It’s really hard to keep tabs on it.”
Tags: DOC , prison , CCA , Pallito , Matthew Valerio , Seth Lipschutz , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
"Our readers want to know what's happening in Montpelier," says publisher and coeditor Paula Routly. "They want to know how decisions are made, who's making them and why."
Tags: Seven Days , Burlington Free Press , Gannett , Vermont Statehouse , media , Terri Hallenbeck , Nancy Remsen , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Vermont continues to be among the least active states in the country in sending records of mentally ill people to the national firearms background check system.
Federal records show Vermont is one of nine states that have submitted fewer than 100 records of mental illness to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which licensed gun sellers must consult before closing a sale, according to a recently released report from the gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Tags: Guns , NICS , mental illness , background checks , Image , Web Only
Friday, November 21, 2014
Vermont Department for Children and Families workers failed to protect two abused children who were later killed because they were bent on reunifying them with their families — despite the obvious dangers lurking in their homes, a review panel concluded in a scathing report issued today.
The Vermont Citizens Advisory Panel, tasked with reviewing the state's handling of two cases in which infants under DCF care were killed this summer, issued a 28-page report that found failure in nearly every part of government charged with protecting children, from judges to prosecutors and police and guardians at litem.
But most of their criticism was directed at DCF, which allowed 2-year-old Dezirae Sheldon of Rutland and 15-month-old Peighton Geraw of Winooski to remain at home despite reports of abuse. Both were allegedly killed by loved ones shortly after having contact with DCF.
The panel's report describes an agency in which caseworkers were poorly trained, misunderstood their basic responsibilities, failed to communicate with others involved with the case, and ignored parents' drug abuse and other signs that children shouldn't be left at home.
Most alarming, the report found that caseworkers and others involved with protecting children don't even understand their basic responsibilities.
"An incorrect perception appears to exist among casework staff, the family courts and others in the system that 'reunification at all costs' is the formal policy of the department, and indeed of the entire child protection system," the report says. "This misinterpretation of the Juvenile Proceedings Act appears to result in incorrect assumption that reunification takes priority over the best interests of the child."
Tags: DCF , Peighton Geraw , Sheldon , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
So we probably shouldn't be surprised by what went down this morning.
Republican Scott Milne was due to announce this week whether he will contest the race in the legislature, where lawmakers must chose the winner in January since neither he nor Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin cleared 50 percent on Election Day.
Late this morning, reporters across the state opened emails from the Milne camp, prepared to bring the public the news … and received yet another reminder that Scott Milne doesn’t give a flying cow pie about conventional wisdom.
Milne announced that he had no announcement.
Tags: Scott Milne , Peter Shumlin , legislature , lawmakers , Image , Web Only
Monday, November 17, 2014
Testifying before the Joint Corrections Oversight Committee, Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn said his agency has made progress since a summer audit discovered a litany of errors with the state’s inventory of 1,200 sex criminals, including omitted offenders, people inaccurately included on the list and offenders incorrectly identified.
But Flynn made clear that any potential fixes for the problems, documented in July in Seven Days, are still in the proposal phase.
One key suggestion that Flynn offered lawmakers is to have judges make a binding decision, upon sentencing, whether or not a defendant should go on the registry, and if so, for how long.
Currently, staffers in the Department of Public Safety, who are not trained lawyers, are making that call. But it’s not a straightforward decision. Vermont’s sex-offender law is more than 30 pages long and includes numerous exemptions.
Many of the errors in the registry have been traced back to faulty decisions by Department of Public Safety employees.
“Our job at public safety is administrative. It’s not interpretative,” Flynn said. “When it becomes interpretative, there are problems. It’s something that should be coming from the bench and shouldn’t be left to an administrative or clerical person in the Department of Public Safety.”
Vermont maintains two registries — one privately held by law enforcement, the other accessible to the public — detailing the location and identity of qualifying sex criminals.
Tags: Sex offender , Keith Flynn , Department of Public Safety , sex offender registry , Doug Hoffer , Andy Pallito , Image , Web Only