Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Speaker 0]: Good morning. This is the House Appropriations Committee. It is Tuesday, 02/17/2026. It's nine a. M, and we are continuing our tour of the FY '27 budget. And this morning, we have the Labor Relations Board with us. Judith Dillon is the Executive Director. And since you haven't been with us in this room, that means that the new group of people, why don't we introduce ourselves? I'm going to start on camera there with Dave.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Good morning. Greetings. Dave Yacovone from Morrisville, and I represent the Lamoille, Washington district.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: Good morning. Welcome. I'm John Kascenska from Burke. I represent the Essex Caledonia District, 10 Towns. Michael Nigro, represent Bennington and Tom.

[Marty (Committee staff/analyst)]: And Tom Stevens, Richardson's Waterbury and Some others. He'll be along soon. I'm Martha Feltus from London, and I represent five towns around London.

[Speaker 0]: And I'm Robin Scheu from Middlebury. I'm Tiffany Bluemle from Burlington.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: Trevor Squirrell, Under Helen Jericho. Wayne Laroche, Tigate, Franklin, Berkshire, and Richfield.

[Speaker 0]: I'm Laroche, he's from Putney in South Wales. Deloreson. Deloreson. I'm Lynn Dickinson, and I represent St. August Town. Great. So I think we have your budget in front of us. And if you will introduce yourself for the record, and then we can talk Sure. About

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Thank you. My name is Judith Dillon. I'm the executive director of the Vermont Labor Relations Board. The Vermont Labor Relations Board administers the seven Labor Relations Board statutes in the state. The bulk of the work of the board is with respect to unfair labor practices, grievances, elections for and petitions for representation. The board also gets involved in collective bargaining disputes and some other, matters. The board, the Vermont Labor Relations Board, is comprised of six independent, or I should say, six board members. Two members represent backgrounds in labor. Two represent backgrounds in management. The board should have two neutrals, meaning their experience and past work experience isn't necessarily affiliated with management or labor. So they're identified as a neutral. Right now, we only have one neutral. And since the beginning of 2025, we've been operating with only one neutral. In 2024, two of our neutrals announced that they would be retiring or not seeking reappointment. One of our neutrals, their last day of work or working for the board ended at the 2024, and the other neutral member continued working through about April 2025. The governor appointed one new neutral in May, Gwyneth Peters, and she began working for the board, doing important work for the board beginning in June 2025. But unfortunately, she is our only neutral member, meaning she is the one that the board relies on for all matters where a three panel member, three panel is required. So anytime there's a contested case, not for labor practice or a grievance, the board is comprised of three panel members, three board members, one from labor, one from management, and one neutral. Because we only have one neutral, Ms. Peters has hit the ground running, sprinting, doing a marathon. So what's going

[Speaker 0]: on with getting a second person?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: It's in the governor's office. So the governor appoints the neutral. There is a panel of mem not a panel of representatives from the court administrator's office, the Vermont Bar Association, the Department of Labor that make recommendations. They're the ones who elicit and recruit for new My understanding is that they've provided some names to the governor. So that's Do you know

[Speaker 0]: when the names were provided? How long ago?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: I don't have that information. And if I do, it's anecdotal. So I don't feel comfortable sharing that. I I I didn't verify that information myself. I don't feel comfortable. But it strikes

[Speaker 0]: me that's quite a long time to go without somebody. It is

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: a long time. And it impacts the board's ability to schedule because we only have one neutral member. And the neutrals, they're paid a stipend. The stipend is $125 a month. The board, the Vermont Labor Relations Board, unlike a number of other boards, has its own independent statute which recognizes the type of deliberative and fact finding type of work they do. Unfortunately, that statute hasn't changed in twenty years. So the stipend is fixed as what it was twenty years ago. So there are some challenges, I would imagine, to recruiting a new member, and we're seeing the result of that, unfortunately. What is the stipend? The stipend is $125 member, and where a member acts as a chair. For example, we have hearings. We had three days of hearings over the past two weeks. One of our board members acted as chair. There are additional responsibilities. For those additional responsibilities, the stipend is $175 a month. So is this this is $125 a day, a month, A day. A I'm sorry. So it's 125 a day per board member. You're acting as a chair, it's 175. Just I know we're talking about the budget that we've submitted to, the legislature as part of our original budget request. The board did make a plea, a request, to increase the stipend. We requested that it go up to $250 a day, which matches the stipend that the legislature recently imposed for the broadband board, I think it was two or three years ago, and the community broadband board. And also, it approximates what side judges or assistant judges are paid, because a lot of what the board does is comparable to that. They hear cases, they adjudicate facts. They also, more so than an assistant judge, they have to apply the facts to the law, which is something that the side assistant judges don't do. So it's a lot of responsibility. Our working Vermonters rely on the decisions of the board to kind of set standards for how labor and management should interact. And having those kind of rules of the road help employers and employees have confidence in that they will be treated fairly, they know what to expect when dealing with an employer. So, you requested that.

[Speaker 0]: I might understand that that didn't go through.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: It didn't go through. So, I'm saying it here. I don't know what power you Well, you have a lot of power. But

[Speaker 0]: To know that you requested it, and the governor chose not to increase it after twenty years of whatever time. Forty years. Forty years? No, they said twenty. She said twenty. No,

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: go ahead. I'm not ready to ask a question.

[Speaker 0]: So how many days and then I'll get to you later. Just let me finish up on this one question. How many days a year do you meet? Or is it dependent on the issues?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: It's dependent upon the issues. The board meets four times a year for a board meeting. So we meet quarterly for a board meeting. The board also meets to deliberate on cases. Last year, the board met 17 times to deliberate on cases, whether that is deciding whether to issue an unfair labor practice complaint or how to resolve a grievance for an unfair labor practice complaint. And in addition to that, last year, the board was also involved in elections. There was a large election involving the Department of Corrections, you might recall, last fall, at the end of the year. So because it was voluminous And the board So I talked about the board members. The board staff consists of myself, one full time executive director, and a clerk, whom right now is at thirty two hours a week. So, because that was a fairly voluminous, large election, board staff needed assistance to make sure that everything was done properly and efficiently. So, they were involved in that. In the past, last year, the number of hearing days the board had was unusually low, and the year before, it was low. So, ordinarily, like three years ago, the board would probably meet approximately 15 have 15 hearing days a year. Last year, there were only three. This year, we already have we've held three hearing days so far, and we have scheduled through, excuse me, September, thirteen hearing days. So some of those hearings of the cases for which those hearings have been scheduled may ultimately settle. But the average over the past five to ten years is approximately fifteen days. Okay, thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Lynn, go ahead. Yeah, I just had a question. Is these board members, do they have to be

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: attorneys or working in

[Speaker 0]: private the industry? What's the

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: The mix or the makeup is, we have one working board member. So one of our management board members currently works, and they're currently in the workforce. The other board members are all retired, and none of them are lawyers. So I am an attorney, so I have to provide the board with background and the standards and the rules regarding the cases and the matters presented before them. So they're the ones who are assessing credibility and deciding findings of fact, but they're also the ones that apply the facts to the law. So, I, as the general counsel executive director, have to provide them with what the board precedent is on a particular matter, also if there's any evolving legislation on a particular matter, and if it's a new issue, what the research is from, let's say, the National Labor Relations Boards or from our sister states. So, in the past, there have been attorneys who have been more board members. But for the past, I guess, I think maybe six years, there haven't been any attorneys who are board members. So there are laypeople. Laypeople. Thank you. There are laypeople. Yes. Yes.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: So just to be I have a couple of questions. Labor board was very much part of my old portfolio, so I'm kind of now that you're here, I'm filling up to here with all of this past information. Question on the board, you said there's one vacancy. So the board is made up of six people. Any hearing is from three of them. So there's two things going on here. You're one short on the board. Yes. Which has little to do with actual budgeting. It's just a question of availability. Correct. And

[Speaker 0]: is that lack

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: causing the holdup and or the backup in some of these cases because you can't put three people together?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Some and also the deliberation and scheduling because they are laypeople. This isn't their full time job. Scheduling, making sure that we have the time for the composite of three people to get together to deliberate, to review, and also to sit on panels to hear cases.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: And so the folks are again, you have two people who quote on these are all quoted represent the management side. That's their way experience is management. Two people are supposed to be representatives of labor, and then two people are considered neutral. I know there's been this isn't the criticism of you or your work, but the the board has been shaped in ways recently that have it's been very difficult to get a full balance, so there's been people who have been appointed to the board that they're neutral slash management or neutral I mean, there's been accusations I've read in the past. Nothing newsworthy, but just sort of like who the folks are. So what you're asking for more people, I mean, your predecessor was here for forty years. Correct. And there was this feeling of when somebody's in a place for forty years, they knew everything. They knew all the cases, they wrote all the cases, and the boards were able to respond, I think, using that kind of expertise. So now there's a natural evolution here in China. And I just get this sense, you can correct me if I'm wrong, that you're almost like retraining the boards on how to do their work and your work because you weren't here for forty years. It's not right to expect you to be able to go, Oh, I remember that case in 1979, and this the result that happened, so maybe this is what you should be looking at.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Yeah, yeah. I don't have that institutional knowledge that my predecessor had. So when a case comes before me, unless I've dealt with the subject matter recently or if it's something fairly new to me, I have to kind of go to the books and the research, whereas my predecessor would say, Oh, that's right, we did that in 1979, and then we did it in 1986, and then we did it in, three years ago. On the one hand, it takes more time to do it. On the other hand, it also there's a fresh perspective in looking at it. But yes, I never say that I replaced my predecessor. I said I, you know, I stepped into the job. And I think to replace my predecessor, there should have been at least two people hired.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: I I just want to say I support I've always supported the notion, especially the transition of allowing more staff to be here because justice delayed is not justice served. And so having people who can do that work, know, it's not that it takes three people to replace your predecessor, it's that it takes three people to actually do the job, you know, you build it from zero to a 100 and now you so I just you

[John Kascenska (Member)]: know I have no I

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: personally have no problem with like advocating for more staff in order to in order to get these cases heard in a way that is efficient because sometimes it just takes too

[Speaker 0]: long. And

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: just full disclosure, in the original budget we presented to the governor, we also included anticipating it wouldn't be approved, but we included a position, a request for an exempt, staff attorney position, that was turned down. So I think that's something that we're going to be, each year, gauging the economic waters or the budgetary waters, because there is the need, there is the demand for that. As I indicated in the packet, the board's pace load increased by 29% last year. I don't know what to attribute that to, but it's, you know, there was more work to do with less You know, we had one less board member, and for three months, we didn't have a clerk. So, you know, we are doing important work at the board, and I believe it demands more, the resources to get dedicated to that work. I think the board members are doing, you know, a great job, and I'm very appreciative. We have a new clerk who's taking on the role and is doing a great job. So I do appreciate your support.

[Speaker 0]: So I'm looking at your first page here, and it looks like you have some new operating costs that you maybe were not anticipating.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Yes. So, as I mentioned, there was a period of time where the former clerk resigned and recruiting we for a new clerk. So because part of their job was handling accounts receivable, accounts payable, that's not a function that one person alone can do. I had been checked on that, but because the clerk wasn't there, I needed assistance. So the FSD came in, I worked with them, and they performed that service at a financial services division. And with me today is, Holly Karan. So

[Speaker 0]: if I get asked That's different than financial management, finance and management. Is that Okay. Yes.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: So if I get an acronym wrong, hopefully she'll correct So, they kind of stepped in to help with that. And frankly, the efficiencies that we saw with them performing that work, because doing a councilor's seat, we only have about seven to eight, I think, invoices a month max, I think, approximately. And so that's not the bread and butter of what the Vermont Labor Relations Board does. So the clerk, and certainly not myself, I am not an accountant and a financial expert. So it took more time for the clerk to do that work than it takes FSD to do that work. So when we were recruiting for a new clerk, we were looking for the skills that could help best serve the board and the board's function and promote efficiencies on the board. And when we were evaluating the candidates that we had and the skill sets, we were weighing more heavily on their ability to be efficient with case management versus budgeting. Budgeting is a once a year exercise. And that's not in my wheelhouse. And that took me more time than it takes, you know, Holly or her folk to do. So we thought it made sense to continue that, and that would promote more efficiencies. We thought that was a better expenditure of taxpayer dollars to be efficient. You don't need to hire a whole person with a Exactly. Taxable amount So we thought it made sense. And so you've never seen that cost before. So that's why I think it stands out. One thing I just wanted to note, though, in doing our budget, we were very economical. And I looked at what the number of hearing days were for the prior two years, And I reduced, you know, I reduced the stipend, excuse me, the per diem rate by approximately $19,000 which is a lot, because we had we were anticipating more hearings than we actually had. So going into fiscal year 'twenty seven, we were trying to strike more of a balance. We might see at the end of the year, golly, we might have shortchanged that, but we do have a carryforward that we're using primarily for a new case management system that we're working with ADS on. But there is some, a little bit extra on that, that if we need it,

[Speaker 0]: we can draw from that. Sorry, and John had a question.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: You have a special fund. Is the monies in that just used for regular expense funds?

[Speaker 0]: Yeah.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Something? No. We don't charge a fee to So employers, employees, labor management can just submit a petition for labor practice that we don't charge a fee. But there are times when we have to incur costs on behalf of litigants or our customers. So we have to order a transcript. So, we order the transcript, we pay the transcript, and then the parties pay us. So, we need a fund to kind of house that. So, and there are times when we might other types of printing or publishing costs. So, at the beginning, at the end of last year, someone had requested one of our treatise books. So, we gave them the book, and then we received a check for that. So, that's, it's, we're not funding it. It's basically a placeholder for a type of

[John Kascenska (Member)]: So that fee that you collect, does

[Speaker 0]: that go back into the special fund? Yes. The reverse? Yep, yep. Did you

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: have a question?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: It was relating to and the

[Speaker 0]: it sounds as if you believe you've had enough to cover the per diems with the carry forward and the

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: ADS charge. Yes, yes. But just to, we were really frugal. And so, I appreciate

[Speaker 0]: that. I mean, appreciate that in principle. And the smaller the budget, I think the more willing department is to cut. I mean, think that the smaller departments make a real effort to try to be as skinny as possible. And I guess my only real question is, do you know what the cost would be if, in fact, the per diem would raise up to the

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Yes, it would be 20 we'd ask for an additional $20,000 That would cover the estimated number of hearing dates that we had calculated for purposes of the budget that you have before you. So, it's $20,000 Looking at our time,

[Speaker 0]: and I see that on the ups and downs, so you decreased the per diem by $19,000 Is that because you're fewer, you're just doing Yes. Okay. And then what about Oh, you're using carryforward?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: We could use carryforward for that. I mean, reducing it by $19,000 is reduced the number of anticipated hearing days. If we have more than what we had anticipated, we would then draw on our carryforward. But the And then health insurance,

[Speaker 0]: is that somebody who just doesn't have health insurance?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: No, they have health insurance, but the personal situation is different from the

[Speaker 0]: predecessor. So you really cut $38,000 from your budget off the top. And then the ADS charge, this is a new charge this year, right? That full ADS, the $12,169

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Well, operating it's the ADS, it's the increase in the ADS ICF allocation. So that went up significantly. Yes. You're probably seeing that in other

[Speaker 0]: budgets. Yes. That's what I'm trying to So what's the total in that? All I see on the ups and downs is what the increase is. So what's your total allocation allocated for ADS? For? Oh, Polly, if you have

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: All of the energy services, you get 107 ADS

[Speaker 0]: Wow so it was like 2,000 last year and it's gone up by 12,000. Do you have an explanation for that?

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: I know ADBS changed their billing mod, they're not a billing methodology, so you kind of have to look at the ADBS service level and three minute charge in addition to this, as I understand, one leg can happen, the other can come up. I'm gonna bring bring up the ABS. So the service level agreement last year the Labor Relations Board had nothing, you guys were waiting for that, and this year that actually had $141

[Speaker 0]: right that's not really a lot so

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: I think between the two

[Speaker 0]: that's a huge percentage increase for this

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: organization No,

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: no, no.

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: We did get an explanation from ADS that it was

[Speaker 0]: ADS is coming back into us this week, so let's try to remember what we're

[John Kascenska (Member)]: in this conversation, folks. Yeah. So no new software, no new changes in the system that they solicit?

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: No, no, we haven't received I can't tell you what those funds are for. So we haven't requested anything. And the case management system I alluded to earlier, that would likely be purchased from an outside vendor. And ADS is assisting us with that, kind of like helping us work through the questions to ask and the type of vendor to get a system from, but they're not the ones who are actually doing, creating that system. So I don't know what it's for.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: I mean, my understanding from ADS testimony is that any system would come through them, and you would decide what it would be that ADS would be the ones that would be paying for that going through the

[Speaker 0]: There's a couple of different things going on with ADS. And this feels like this is just usage, and they're changing the way they're billing for that, because

[John Kascenska (Member)]: they You're be able to recapture their suggesting that it's going be changed to your system.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: That but that hasn't been calculated, or we're in the planning process.

[Speaker 0]: So that's not exactly correct.

[Marty (Committee staff/analyst)]: This is something else. No, that's part of ADS' services. They are consulting with them. What are your needs? What do you want to do? All the time stuff. Helping them define what they need and then would perhaps recommend an outside vendor. Correct. Double back.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: So, the ADS does the contracting for that vendor. When that eventually happens. But, then the

[Speaker 0]: agency pays the bills, but that we aren't there yet. If that's not bills, they're not paying bills.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Yeah, and we're going to be on the hook for that, not ADS scope. Right,

[John Kascenska (Member)]: so the volume, the other of course, they're charging based on volume or changes in equipment. So volume gone up, they've anything special for you or anything, it's too strange.

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: I wrote that down. Hopefully one of us will remember it

[Speaker 0]: between all of us, right? Okay, Thank you for trying to explain that. And the agency fee to FSD makes sense because then you don't have a clerk doing that work and you have the clerk doing clerk work. Correct. Okay. Anything else on your budget that we need to know about? Are you

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: seeing any particular trends? We're seeing more elections. Last year, there was card check election legislation, and we are seeing municipal unions and association in place, labor associations, taking advantage of that. For example, there were 12 card check elections in 2025 and seven traditional voting elections in 2025.

[Speaker 0]: Is that calendar year or fiscal year? Calendar year. Okay.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: And one thing I wanted to note, last year, the board did not get involved in, there were no requests for mediation assistance. And just to let you know, I know there's proposals in both the House and the Senate for a mediation position. In the past, when folks are engaged in collective bargaining negotiations and they reach an impasse, meaning they're stuck on an issue, they come to the Vermont Labor Relations Board and they ask them, We need help. Can you appoint a mediator? We would do that, and the mediator was FMCS, which is the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, as part of an executive order from last year. Most of the mediators were fired. Some have been rehired, but the budgeting for this year is not adequate to keep the organization running with the requisite number of mediators. So last year, we didn't have any requests for mediation because there weren't that service wasn't there. And what was important is that the mediators perform that work for free. So right now, when folks are engaged in negotiation dispute, the parties have to hire a mediator at cost, which impacts, especially if you've got a dis you know, if you've got let's look at, you know, a small town that has a five member, unit, and they're trying to negotiate a contract with the municipality, neither the municipality nor those five member you know, that unit might have the resources to pay a mediator. So that impacts the ability of them to resolve their differences and get to an agreement with a collective bargaining agreement. Also, FMCS also helped to resolve disputes like grievances. Sometimes, I think there are approximately 40, nearly 50% of cases settled. So a lot of times, engage a mediator to help with that. So I just wanted to alert you. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Yeah, we haven't heard about that one, but you're the place you hear it from. Okay, anything else that you that's big? I mean, we don't need to worry about the rest of the ups and downs. They're pretty standard. I think that was all the stuff you wanted to say. Mike, is this yours? Yep. Okay. Great. So I'm not seeing any more questions.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Thank you very much. Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

[Speaker 0]: You. Next we

[Holly Karan (Financial Services Division, AOA)]: have the 09:11. Sorry,

[Speaker 0]: on Zoom? Yep. Okay. So why don't we let Barbara in and Brenda if there's two people? Hi, Barbara, we're waiting. Is Brenda online? I am. Yes. Oh, good, Brenda. There's Barbara. I can't, I'm looking too far away. I see a bee, so I can't tell which. Okay, you're both there. Great, thank you. You would like to introduce yourselves for the record and then we'll talk about your budget.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Okay, great. I'm Barbara Neal, Executive Director of the Enhanced nine eleven Board. Brenda, go ahead.

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: I'm Brenda Berry, and I'm financial manager for e nine one one, and I work for AOA Financial Services Division.

[Speaker 0]: K. Thank you.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: I do have a presentation to share with you if you're ready. Yeah. Okay. Let me get this going.

[Speaker 0]: Is this the one with the blue cover? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yep. Thank you.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Okay. Alright. So good. Feel free to interrupt me if you have questions. I can't see all of you very clearly when I have the screen up, but I'm sorry.

[Speaker 0]: I'll call I'll call on people if there's questions, Barbara.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Okay. Thank you. All right. So again, I'm Barb Neale, Executive Director of the nine eleven Board. Thank you for the opportunity to come in and discuss the nine eleven Board's FY 'twenty seven budget request. I typically start with a little overview of what it is we do at the nine eleven board as a refresher for everyone. So the nine eleven board was established in 1994 as the single governmental agency responsible for statewide enhanced 09/11. That board, our board, was made responsible for the design, implementation, and operational oversight of the statewide nine one one system. And to that end, the board has developed and implemented policy system designs, standards and procedures related to the statewide nine one one system and continues to do so today. As required by the statute referenced here on the slide, we do consult regularly with various state agencies and local communities and service providers to meet all of these responsibilities. We are an independent state board, not attached to any other agency or department. Let's see. It is a nine member board, all appointed by the governor that represents state, local, and county law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire service, municipalities, and the public. And that board has hired 11 full time and two part time board staff members to execute their directives essentially. So I'll say a little bit more about the board staff in just a minute and what it is we do. One thing I like to note whenever I have these conversations is that the nine one one board does not have oversight over dispatch operations or emergency response agencies. We are funded by we are special funded entity funded by the Vermont Universal Service Fund. There was a recent change in, the revenue mechanism for the VUSF that occurred on 07/01/2025. That change, involved moving from a 2.4% charge on retail telecommunication sales to a per line fee of 72¢ per line capable of accessing 911. The prepaid wireless service providers are are still collecting the 2.4% charge on prepaid wireless service. And all of that goes into the the Vermont Universal Service Fund.

[Speaker 0]: And that's 72¢ per line per month. Right?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Correct. Yes. Yes. Correct. I see my bullets are a little bit out of order here. So so hold this thought. The 2024 joint fiscal office reported that at a 70¢ per access line fee, the fund would generate about 7,300,000.0. So doing the math at 72% is gonna up that number just a little bit. But, but hang on to that thought for one minute because what I wanna get to is how the money is distributed from the Vermont Universal Service Fund. So a hierarchy is defined in statute of who gets the money and in what order. So the first 17% of the Universal Service Fund revenue, comes right off the top and goes to the Vermont Community Broadband Board. After that, we pay the or it pays the cost payable to the fiscal agent that manages the fund, and that fiscal agent is managed by hired and managed by the public service department. After that, the Vermont telecommunications relay service and the Vermont equipment distribution program are are funded. The Vermont lifeline program is funded. And then finally, the enhanced nine one one board is well, not finally. Next, the enhanced nine one one board is funded, and we eat up about 78% of that universal service fund revenue. So, we take a pretty good chunk of that. Any remaining funds, after all of these other disbursements, go to the connectivity fund, which is also associated with the broadband board. And the reference, I mean, the statutory references there for how that all works. Can you say in just a couple of

[Speaker 0]: words what the telecommunications relay service is, the equipment distribution, and the lifeline program? What are those programs? Do you know?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: The the telecommunications relay service and the Vermont equipment distribution program are services that help community members that are deaf and hard of hearing or need special equipment. The Vermont Lifeline program, I should double check, but I believe it's it's a program that ensures basic telecommunication service is available to all Vermonters.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. So I I see variation of emergency some kind of emergency thing. Mhmm.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Right. It is not like a a a commercial lifeline device. Right. Correct. It is not that.

[Speaker 0]: Okay.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Okay. And I was asked when I met with representative Feltus last week to give some sense of trends or projections for this fund. That's why I included that bullet that I said hold that thought a minute ago. I can give you the projection from the 2024 study, and that is the 7,300,000.0 at a 70% access line fee. I spoke to Hunter Tom Thompson at the Public Service Department asking about trends and projections. Because they have not yet collected one year of data, they really don't have that available yet. They're waiting for the final numbers to come in, which will be in midsummer to get a better sense of where this is heading. Having said that, I will note that at the beginning of this fiscal year, or after the first quarter, there was some concern about whether or not the revenue was going to be sufficient to support our appropriation for the current fiscal year. Some of the people some of the organizations that remit to the Vermont Universal Service Fund do so on a monthly basis. Some do so on a quarterly basis. There may even be other cadences. I'm not really sure on that. So once those quarterly payments started coming in, the funds seemed to stabilize a bit more. And at last review, I think we were projecting the possibility, and Brenda will correct me if I'm wrong, of potentially potentially an $80,000 shortfall in our appropriation for the current fiscal year, which we should be able to manage and navigate through with our existing carryforward should that actually happen. And I'm gonna just pause for a minute and ask Brenda, do you have anything to add on that piece of it?

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: Nope. I think that's I think what you're saying is accurate. And I think we've noticed in the last few months, probably four or five months, it seems to be meeting your appropriation where it hasn't done that for a long time. So that's good.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: You're right, correct. Good point. Prior to this change, the appropriation for the past two or three, I think three fiscal years has not been able to be met through the Universal Service Fund, and we've had to have general fund infusions. So we appear to be in a better place now with this I

[Speaker 0]: can remember being on corrections institutions ten years ago and talking to you about challenges with B911. So glad to hear it seems to be on the right track.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Yes, yes. Okay. Continuing on, here's a listing just so you're aware of the current board members and the constituencies they represent. Our board chair is, Roger Markku from the Lamoille County Sheriff's Department, and our vice chair is Steven Locke from, South Burlington Police Department. Chris Badoti, you may be familiar with, is the emergency communications director at the Department of Public Safety. Chief Nordenson is the Montpelier Police Department, chief. Chris Violet is from is a municipal official or, from, Berrytown. Drew Hazleton is from Rescue Inc in the Brattleboro area. And Chris Laroche, you likely remember as the former mayor of Rutland City. And then our two other public members are Lance Burnham, a retired, state police captain, and Brian Keefe from the Manchester area.

[Speaker 0]: We're legislator. Where is, Lance from?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Lance is from, I believe, Jericho.

[Speaker 0]: Okay.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: So we you can see we have a diversity of organizations represented on the board. We do have diversity of of geographic diversity, which we are supposed or the governor is supposed to take into account as he's appointing members of the nine one one board. Great. Okay. Let me get caught up on my slides here, or my notes rather. Sorry. Here is the organizational chart for the nine eleven board. You'll see that we are divided up staff wise into essentially four general areas areas. One is training and communications. This team of two full time and two part time individuals is responsible for the certification, recertification, continuing education for over 100 Vermont nine one one call takers. They're also responsible for quality assurance, quality control, and public education and outreach. In the middle here, we have our administration and compliance department, takes care of all our internal operations and just the office management type responsibilities, and ensures we're in compliance with, things like the records management, requirements. And the the, nine one one compliance and performance improvement manager also is working on us to help develop a more robust, continuous improvement program, all for our internal operations. The IT system department, consists of two, IT professionals. They, manage and, oversee the nine one one system itself and our contracted system provider in digital. And then we have three folks in the GIS database department who are responsible for, managing, multiple critical databases that are, key, to the operation of Vermont's next generation nine one one system. So we are a relatively small team. We are an effective team, with an individual and organizational commitment to the mission, our mission to provide Vermonters and our visitors with reliable 24 by seven access to 911.

[Speaker 0]: So what are some of the

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: what's some of the information you collect in the databases? So address points is probably That's the biggie, but also which or what three responders, police, fire, EMS, respond to any given location in Vermont, that type of thing. Then there there's also data which allows calls to be routed to the correct PSAT, properly routing 911 calls and delivering them to the right, area of the state.

[Speaker 0]: Do you do you track, information about the types of calls you get? So, you know, I've fallen and broken my leg to there's somebody in my house with a gun to, you know, I don't know what else. But do you track the kinds of calls?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Not no. We really don't. I mean, we can determine the type of call it is by listening to the call. We can gather some, but it's incomplete information about where calls are transferred to. Right? We might be able to tell it was transferred to a police department or it was transferred to an EMS agency or a fire department. But without going in and listening to each call, we couldn't get that level of granularity.

[Speaker 0]: Okay.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: When people ask for that level of granularity, we typically refer them to the dispatch centers or the individual agency involved to get that type of data.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Sure.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Alright. Moving on. Now of all the responsibilities I just outlined for the nine one one board staff, one thing I didn't mention is who actually takes the nine one one calls. And that is because, we don't do that at the nine eleven board. What we do is we partner with five law enforcement agencies around the state to answer 911 calls for us at six different public safety answering points or PSAPs. So the Department of Public Safety operates the Williston and Westminster, public safety answering points, where they answer 911 calls and also provide dispatch services to, response agencies in their jurisdiction. And on the color coded map, you can see the light blue towns and the yellow towns. Light blue goes to Williston as its primary catchment area center. Yellow goes to Westminster. And then we also have four regional PSAPs operated by up in the Northwest corner, the St. Albans Police Department. In the middle there in lavender is the Lamoille County Sheriff's Department and their catchment area. The Hartford Police Department is on the southern Southeastern side in in magenta, I would call it. And then we have dark blue on the western side, calls being answered at the Shelburne Police Department. So a little bit about how the calls flow. Each of these centers is the primary PSAP for the towns indicated by the various colors on the map. However well so a 911 call from from a yellow town will try first to be answered at the Westminster PSAP. If for some any reason, there's nobody available at Westminster, maybe they're all tied up on 911 calls, maybe they've got some other, you know, major event going on. Who knows? Maybe there's a problem in the PSAP. Right? If no one can answer it there, the 911 call will automatically and seamlessly route to one of the other five PSAPs, and it will try to get to the call taker that has been idle the longest at any of those, facilities. No matter where the 911 call is answered, the 911 call taker has the same training access or is using the same equipment and has access to the same resources, the mapping and and and all of this. So this diversity and the ability to route calls around the state like that has been very beneficial in times when there is exceptionally high call volume in one area of the state, the rest of the state can can help to pick up some of that slack. And it helps it helps ensure that callers aren't waiting in a queue at one of these PSAPs when there's an available call taker elsewhere. Geographic diversity has also been, key in, major weather events, most notably would be tropical storm, Irene back in 2011. So those that is the arrangement with the PSEPs and where your 911 calls are answered. And I should add that in some cases, the needed responders are dispatched out of one of these six centers. And in other cases, in fact, about 50% of the time, the call is transferred to one of 37, I believe it is, other dispatch centers located in Vermont or serving Vermont. There are some on the New Hampshire border that serve Vermont communities. So in addition to the six public safety answering points, there are 30 some odd other dispatch centers in operation around the state as well.

[Speaker 0]: Not seeing any questions about that.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Okay. Some quick stats just because you gotta have stats. Right? In 2025, the system handled and our call takers handled over 233,000 calls, which is up just a little bit from the year before. Of those calls, a 181,000 and change were cellular calls. So that's about 77% of our total. It did re that, percentage remained the same as 2024. But each year, we expect that number to go up a little bit more because everybody's using wireless devices. There were about 15,000, abandoned calls in 2025. An abandoned call happens when the caller hangs up before the 911 call taker has been able to answer the call. And these take up some bandwidth, right, because the call takers need to follow-up with that caller, typically calling them back or texting them back to ensure there's no ongoing emergency. So, we put them on the steps because they they can take up, some time, and they account for 7% of the total incoming calls. In 2025, it took us six seconds to answer your call. That's up a second from the previous year. We, on average, stay on the phone with a 911 caller for two minutes teen seconds, down a little bit from 2024. And during that time, the call taker is determining the location and nature of the emergency, is asking appropriate vital points questions. We call them key questions, identifying what responders are needed and connecting to them as needed, and also providing to the caller any needed pre arrival instructions or offering to provide those instructions to help in the point of the pre arrival instructions is to hopefully keep the situation from getting worse before responders get there. So that can be things like your CPR instructions, your bleeding control instructions, or any law enforcement or fire instructions that might be needed. And the call takers all use standardized protocols that have been approved by the board to provide all of that service. And then finally, on this slide, you'll you'll see, the total number of text to 911 calls received in Vermont is just shy of 1,400, so thirteen ninety one. And that's up a chunk from 2024. Statewide text to 911 is available in Vermont. It is not available nationwide, just something to be aware of. But if you are within Vermont and you are hitting a Vermont tower, your text to 911 should get through to us. Text to 911, I always like to add the little caveat, is is a, best effort best effort situation on the part of the carriers. And if a text for some reason was not able to be delivered to 911, the caller, the texter, would get a bounce back message, indicating that so they know their message didn't go through and they need to find another way to to get help. So that's our 2025 stats. On

[Speaker 0]: to So the recent mostly so just to sort of sum that up, it's pretty consistent year to year with the exception of increasing texts, which doesn't surprise me. Yes. Yep.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: It is fairly consistent. I would I would agree with that.

[Speaker 0]: Okay.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Thank you. Yep. So the reason we're here today is to talk about our budget request, which is approximately 5,560,000.00. That is an increase of 3% from the current year's budget request. I think we have I think we have a pretty straightforward budget request here. I guess you will ultimately be the judges of that. But we've had some increases, of course, in personnel costs, salary salary and wages. Of note is right here in the middle of the screen. I don't know if you can see my cursor circle circling here. We have a line item for approximately $60,000. This is for two part time employees that we hired to assist the training department with that quality assurance, quality control piece. So that was, maybe about a third ish of our total increase for this year of a 161.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: What what's changing in the training world when you need

[Speaker 0]: to hire two temporary people?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: So there's a standard in emergency communications for the number of nine one one calls that should be, quality control reviewed each year. And we have struggled for quite a long time, to meet that level of call reviews. I think it's 2.5% of your call volume with just the two, staff members that we've traditionally had in training. In addition, we've had a couple years really of vacancy in the training department, which really further impacted that. So the board approved the hiring of of two part time people to stabilize that. Right? And and all they do on a part time basis is evaluate nine one one calls. Well, I should step back. They do that, and they also help our our training and communications full time people identify trends and special areas where perhaps remediation might be needed. Or it may inform how the training for the year rolls out, or we may identify individual people that need extra support to ensure they're complying with with the protocols and procedures.

[Speaker 0]: So this is a temporary one year thing and then it would go away?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: No. Well, we we believe that the need for this support will continue. But they were hired as Brenda, do you know the official it's part time temporary. As opposed to part time classified?

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: Yeah. I think usually temporary positions have to be renewed or reviewed after a year or two depending on how they're hired, but yes.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Right. And so we do anticipate that review. If I had to make a decision today on that, I would I would petition, if you will, to have them continue. But we'll evaluate it, of course, when that when that review, comes up.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So, just looking at your budget, you've got another $34,005 for other contracted and third party services. What

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: is Right here.

[Speaker 0]: Need a magnifying glass because this was put for

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: I know. I know. So this would be sorry. I'm just scanning through to make sure I'm speaking correctly here. This would be the the, what we call the PSAP reimbursement fund. So this is the fund that allows us to provide, essentially, it's a stipend to each of the public safety answering points for answering 911 calls, and it goes up about 3% each year. So

[Speaker 0]: under the

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: memorandum of understanding, they answer the 911 calls for the 911 board using our equipment and rules, and we reimburse them based on a couple of performance metrics. So this is the line item where those funds come from.

[Speaker 0]: So this goes up by 3% even if the number of the calls stays the same?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Correct. Yep.

[Speaker 0]: Still okay. And then the other one I noticed is the ADS allocated change of a little over $30,000 and I'm wondering what your, the new total is. Down at the bottom, minus 23. Oh, that's good. And what the new total for that one is too, that both the ADS

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: don't see the toe Brenda, do you have the answer to this?

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: Am I muted? No, I'm not. Okay. So, yes. So as I think you heard in your previous testimony, ADS changed the methodology of their billing.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: So Right.

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: One line, the ADS service level agreement or the SLA for for E nine one one went down 23,000 this year, and the ADS allocated fee went up 30,000.

[Speaker 0]: So But what are what are the new totals?

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: Overall, it's around a $7,000 increase.

[Speaker 0]: What's the total for each of those two line items?

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: So the allocated fee is 30 let's see, that's difference. I'm sorry. The allocated fee is $45,572 and their SLA is $8,216

[Speaker 0]: Okay. But your net increase is around 7,000?

[Brenda Berry (AOA Financial Services Division, E911 Financial Manager)]: Yes.

[Judith Dillon (Executive Director, Vermont Labor Relations Board)]: Okay.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Should I stop sharing now? Yeah, sure. Sorry, that is the end of my planned presentation.

[Speaker 0]: I can see you again. You can see us again.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Let me get this

[Speaker 0]: think those, So, Marty, is yours. You have any other questions? You've to handle on whatever you need to know.

[Marty (Committee staff/analyst)]: Yes, my only concern had been the universal service fund wanting to know the change based on the legislation that we did last year and determining if it looked like we were gonna be on schedule to be able to cover all of your budget effect on that.

[Speaker 0]: And Dave, I see you have a question.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Yes, thank you. Do you keep cost data on each PSAP, PSAP by PSAP? I I divided the $5,600,000 budget by your total calls, which I was either 231 or 233,000. Came up with close to $24 per call. Is there much variation PSAP to PSAP?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: I would have to go in and and check those numbers, which I can do and get back to you. You're looking for a PSAP by PSAP cost per call.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Yes. And you know what's behind that? I know this is controversial. I don't mean to to do that, but I'm just, is one PSAP more much more cost efficient than six or four or eight?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: I I see what you're saying.

[Speaker 0]: Yeah. Okay.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Well, let me get that

[David Yacovone (Member)]: let me get that down on the variability.

[Speaker 0]: Be really helpful for all of us to see. Thank you, Barbara. Sure. Okay. Let's see. I'm not seeing any more questions at this point. So, Marty is your contact, and thank you for your thorough report. It's very helpful to hear from you. Thanks for all the good work you're doing, and we will see you around.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, Enhanced 911 Board)]: Okay, that sounds good. Thank you very much.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Bye bye. So, committee, we have a break to 10:45 ish. Maybe we'll do 10:50 if Logan's okay. He was in here for a minute. We're going to talk about the purchase and use tax to understand because there's a request in the governor's budget that involves us.