Thursday, January 7, 2016
Legalize marijuana, he said, while adding a list of caveats that include ensuring that the state wipes out the drug's black market. And divest state money from fossil fuels, starting with coal and ExxonMobil stocks.
Both the marijuana and divestment statements were new nuances for the governor, who is heading into the last of his six years in office. Shumlin announced in June that he will not seek reelection. He had previously hedged on whether to back marijuana legalization this year and dismissed divestment as impractical.
Shumlin made no outright mention of his pending departure from office a year from now, but the reality was ever-present. Looking to his post-office future, Shumlin made a point of introducing his new wife, Katie Hunt, who sat in the audience, calling her “my love” and referring to her as “your first lady.” He and Hunt were married December 15 and plan to move back to Windham County after his term ends.
Tags: Cannabeat , marijuana legalization , Peter Shumlin , Vermont Legislature , Image , Web Only
That was understandable. Just moments earlier, McAllister had become the first lawmaker in Vermont history to be stripped of his power to vote in the state Senate. His colleagues had voted 20-10 to suspend him, pending the resolution of criminal sexual assault proceedings against the 64-year-old farmer.
"Was this the outcome you expected coming into today?" Vermont Press Bureau reporter Neal Goswami asked as McAllister made his way down the Statehouse driveway toward his red pickup truck, parked 30 yards away.
"I think this was a foregone conclusion before we even started this week," the suspended senator said, pausing in the path as a crowd of reporters and photographers caught up to him.
A green-jacketed doorkeeper from the Statehouse Sergeant-at-Arms' office broke into the scrum to offer his assistance, presumably to help McAllister navigate past the rabid reporters.
"You all set?" the doorkeeper asked.
"I'm all set," McAllister responded. "Yeah, I'm fine. OK. Thanks."
Then the senator did something he's grown quite accustomed to doing since plainclothes detectives arrested him on the opposite side of the Statehouse last spring: He talked. And he talked. And he talked some more.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
In an unprecedented move, the Vermont Senate voted 20-10 Wednesday afternoon to suspend Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin) from the legislature as he faces trial for sexual assault.
After an hour and a half of intense debate, a tri-partisan majority voted to prevent the Highgate farmer "from exercising any of the powers of his office as a Member of the Senate until all criminal proceedings currently pending against him have been dismissed." The senator will continue to be paid his weekly wage of $694 during his suspension.
Sen. Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden), who authored the suspension resolution, told his colleagues that they must live up to the standards they set for employers throughout the state.
“No other workplace would hesitate to suspend the alleged abuser,” said Baruth, the Democratic majority leader. “The question is whether the Vermont Senate, having mandated that the rest of the state act quickly and appropriately in cases just like this, whether we will now find the will to do so in our own house.”
McAllister, who was elected to five terms in the House and two in the Senate, was arrested outside the Statehouse last May and charged with three felony counts of sexual assault and three misdemeanor counts of prohibited acts. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Authorities have said that the 64-year-old farmer coerced a woman to have sex with him in exchange for rent and attempted to do the same to another. They say he repeatedly sexually assaulted a third woman, who worked for him at his farm and, last legislative session, as a Statehouse assistant or intern.
McAllister has maintained his innocence since his arrest eight months ago — and he continued to do so Wednesday. Mere moments before his suspension, he stood up on the Senate floor and, in a three-minute speech, declared that he was “not guilty of anything” and had “not done anything to warrant this.”
He continued, "Nobody knows more than me the seriousness of these charges, these allegations. I have people who want to put me in prison for the rest of my life. I'm very much aware of what is at stake."
Tags: Norm McAllister , suspended , Vermont Senate , Image , Web Only
Dr. James Hebert, a general surgeon at the University of Vermont Medical Center, described being in crowded rooms with patients and their relatives and opening up a computer to review medical records. "It is hard to find a nook where only you can see it," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "One of the unintended consequences of electronic medical records is that it makes privacy very difficult," Hebert said.
Paul Harrington, executive vice president of the Vermont Medical Society, argued the new right to sue was unnecessary. Patients already can file complaints with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights or with the Vermont Attorney General, he said.
Allen Gilbert, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, countered that the Office of Civil rights rarely imposes sanctions in small privacy breaches. He told lawmakers that other states allow patients to sue, "so you would not be doing anything unusual by creating this private right of action."
The provision allowing lawsuits for breaches in the privacy of health data is one of four areas of protection that the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to provide consumers. The bill also would put restrictions on law enforcement's use of drones, electronic communications and images captured by license-plate readers.
Tags: ACLU of Vermont , Allen Gilbert , cannabis related , Paul Harrington , Sen. Dick Sears , Vermont Medical Society , Image , Web Only
But the gov's office appears intent on keeping the focus on Shumlin's valedictory. Last week, it launched a new website dedicated to his State of the State speeches, past and present. The site features short clips from the archives, highlighting the proposals that actually passed and not-so-curiously omitting those that sputtered out.
On Wednesday, Shumlin's office released a four-minute "sneak preview" of this year's version, filmed in the governor's corner office on the fifth floor of the Pavilion State Office Building. To call it a preview, though, might be a bit of a stretch. Shumlin, eyes awkwardly affixed to a script or a teleprompter above and to the right of the camera, spends much of the video rattling off his proudest achievements since taking office five years ago.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , State of the State , Image , Video , Web Only
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
"People marvel that they can walk into this building and not feel like they are being watched or followed by some security apparatus," said Vincent Illuzzi, a lobbyist and former senator who has spent 35 years in the Statehouse. More than once, he headed a committee that weighed increasing security in the building. "Maybe we were naive or foolish or nostalgic, but we thought it would change the atmosphere in the building," he said.
But after a spate of mass shootings and the public slaying of a Department for Children and Families social worker in Barre, some lawmakers see a need for training in how to respond to potential emergencies: shootings, fires and bomb threats.
"There are some legislators who think it is not going to happen here," said Rep. Linda Myers (R-Essex). "That isn't true."
Tags: Sergeant at Arms , Capitol Police , Vincent Illuzzi , Linda Myers , Alice Emmons , Image , Web Only
Smith, who is not seeking reelection and scrapped plans to run for governor after his wife was diagnosed with cancer, acknowledged that the coming session will be different, but he urged representatives to keep their focus.
“There is no reason, just because we are in an even-numbered year, to refrain from tackling the thorny issues,” Smith told his colleagues, referring to the looming election season. “Let’s get to work.”
Smith isn’t the only state leader starting his last year in office. Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin, who announced in June that he’s not seeking reelection after three terms, delivers his final State of the State address Thursday afternoon. Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican who is running for governor, gaveled the Senate into its last session with him serving as presiding officer.
In the halls of the Statehouse on Tuesday, two other candidates for governor — Democrat Matt Dunne and Republican Bruce Lisman — mingled with lawmakers and met with members of the Vermont State Employees Association.
For all those changes on the horizon, the 2016 legislative session appears to be very much a continuation of what lawmakers left behind when the 2015 session ended last May.
Tags: cannabis related , John Campbell , Norm McAllister , Peter Shumlin , Shap Smith , Image , Web Only
Embattled Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin) showed up early to work Tuesday morning, taking a seat in the mostly empty Vermont Senate chamber and flipping through stacks of pending legislation. The Highgate farmer sat alone in his aisle seat as his colleagues ambled in for the first day of the 2016 legislative session.
Every now and then, a small pack of reporters, armed with microphones and television cameras, approached McAllister. One asked how it felt to return to a Senate from which he may soon be suspended.
"Look at this!" he exclaimed, gesturing to the reporters. "What do you think? It's a little uncomfortable, but I'll get over it."
McAllister said he was simply hoping to "get through today — and tomorrow. That'd be it."
A week before the legislature adjourned last May, McAllister was arrested outside the Statehouse and charged with sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Much of Vermont's political establishment called for his resignation from the Senate, but McAllister demurred. In December, the Senate Rules Committee approved a resolution to suspend the senator, pending the conclusion of his criminal case.
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Monday, January 4, 2016
So why would the Shumlin administration approve 22 new positions at the Agency of Transportation in late December? This expansion comes after Gov. Peter Shumlin announced in early December his plan to add 35 positions in the Department for Children and Families and a new Superior Court judge — to respond to the continuing crisis in the child protection system.
Recall that, last spring, the Shumlin administration, lawmakers and the union representing state employees agreed on a retirement incentive to try to avoid layoffs while achieving budget savings. It resulted in 221 retirements, with the administration allowed to refill only 25 percent of the vacancies. That meant 166 positions were to remain unfilled.
The Agency of Transportation saw 54 retirements and had to leave 39 slots vacant.
But AOT, along with three other departments of state government, is also part of a “position pilot program” begun in 2014 that allows managers to hire more staff if doing so would save money by reducing overtime and the use of consultants.
AOT added 24 positions a year ago under this program and received permission from Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson on December 15 to add 22 new positions to its roster of 1,323.
Tags: Agency of Transportation , Christopher Cole , Patrick Brennan , Dick Mazza , Image , Web Only
Chief Deputy Chittenden County State's Attorney Mary Morrissey and Windsor County State's Attorney Michael Kainen were appointed to the bench, along with veteran Burlington attorneys John Pacht and Michael Harris. Later in the day, Shumlin appointed David Cahill, executive director of Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, to replace Kainen as Windsor County's top prosecutor.
Pacht, a Hinesburg resident, is a founding partner in the firm Hoff Curtis P.C. and has practiced criminal, family and civil law. He is filling a new judicial position designed to address a caseload spike in family and opiate-related matters.
Kainen is a former state representative and defense attorney from Hartford. He is filling a vacancy left by retired judge John Wesley.
Cahill, a Norwich resident who formerly worked as a deputy state's attorney in Windsor County, will serve the remaining three years of Kainen's term. Cahill has been managing the investigation into whether Attorney General Bill Sorrell violated campaign finance laws.
Tags: Shumlin , Kainen , judges , Morrissey , Pacht , Harris , Image , Web Only