Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: Yes. We live.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: We are live, folks. Alright. Little after 1PM again on Wednesday, and we are gonna hear from representative from the Vermont Retired State Employee Association. We have Shelley Martin here, and it's a request for amendment. So we're going to just kick things off. Good to see you again. It's been a while.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: It has. I think it's been a couple of years. Yeah. Yeah. So Thanks for having me.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yeah. And since it's been so long, we don't do this a lot because we have a lot of people circulating through, but we'll just do a introduction around the table, to faces, to names. So, yeah, at Birong, representative of Addison 3 in Northwest Addison County.

[Vice Chair Lisa Hango]: Representative Lisa Hango, I'm vice chair of the committee, and I represent Franklin V, which is the Northwestern border of the state.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yeah, know we're kind of like unrehearsed with this thing. Yeah, dusting off the cobwebs. I

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: represent Lucy Boyden, I represent Memorial 3, you mentioned Watermelon.

[Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault]: I Sandy Pinsonault, I represent Bennington Rutland Warren, which is duty person, October, Landfill, Vancouver. Michael Morgan, Grand Isle, Chipman District, which is all five Grand Isle County towns, which is Albert, Silamont, North Yor Grand Isle, South Yor, and West Milton.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: I used to be his first Vice President England.

[VL Coffin IV]: VL Coffin, Windsor District 2, which is Cabin Deschweiler Sheffield, Baltimore. Just a moment.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: I'm Chea Waters Evans from Charlotte. And I'm Chea Waters and I'm the President of the Vermont Retired Student Employees Association, also known as the RSEA. And, I'm here because, we would like to amend, the statute for the REC E committee, the Retired Employees Committee on Insurance. And this committee is an advisory committee only. And a few years ago, the Sunset, Commission was considering dissolving it. At the end of that meeting, they decided that it was important that we keep the committee and that I make an attempt to have the RSA actually mentioned in the committee itself. And since we had been here working on other issues, I thought I'd give you all a break and then come back this year and see if we can have something done. And we've already submitted a short form for language, and representative new Nugent has the language, and it's our goal to have it, put into action to change the statute that's currently on the board on on the books. And the statute is three VSEA, six thirty six. So that's the recce committee. VRSEA, we are unique in that we actually represent 8,200 retirees and their beneficiaries, similar to AARP, I would say. We have dues paying members, but we do represent everybody. So anybody can contact us, if they have retirement issues or questions. Last year, we had 3,300, that were either dues paying or their dues had lapsed. So at some point, they were members. And this year, at our last board meeting this month, our membership chair said that we're ahead of where we were last year. So it sounds like more people are retiring at the moment. So, it's an ever changing number. Our retirement board consists, just to let you know who we are, it consists of almost fiftyfifty split between those who worked in management and non management, or exempt or non exempt employees, and so we have a lot of knowledge that comes to the board from different points of view. And we also have, in the non management group, we have, some of our board members still belong to the SEA through their retirement chapter, and some of our members have never been with the union before. So we also have a veteran on our board and a past representative in our own congress. So we do have quite a variety of members on our board. What's nice is we work well as a team to benefit retirees because as retirees, we're all equal. Nobody has a position. So, that's a benefit for our board. And, the reason why we want to be actually mentioned in the, statute is because we have to be appointed if we want to be on the committee. VSEA is mentioned in the committee with three members, and then there's three members that are appointed. And with an ever changing staffing with government officials or employees, Sometimes people want us on the board and sometimes they don't. Last, we all we can do is submit a letter requesting the three members you'd like on the board, I mean on the committee, and several years in a row, we've been able to have three members on the committee, and their term is two years. Last the last two years, we only had two people on the committee, and therefore we could not call a meeting. And the board, the committee is supposed to meet two times a year, and in the last two years, it only met once. So, we did not have any ability to call a meeting, and they weren't following the statute in the committee. So, our hands are tied. And the, Sunset Commission thought that we should rec we should recommend an amendment. Currently, it says that, the agency, the secretary of the administration appoints the other three members and VSCA has three members. And what we're asking is that VSCA continue to have three members, because we feel it's really important that they hear anything that's going on with insurance because as retirees, we mirror what the state employees have and the union bargains for those insurance issues. So it's to me, it's very important that they stay on the committee. We just want to rather than be appointed, we would like three members from the RSEA, since we only focus on retirees and nothing else, and the committee is only advisory. So, it's not a power play of any kind. It's a way for us to have a two way conversation, learn what the state is thinking about our insurance. And if we hear from our retirees that there's issues that they're having, we can share with the state what those issues are. I know that when things were happening a few years ago with Medicare Advantage, the VSEA and several other people were sent emails from the human resources office, and we were not. We heard it through the grapevine, and we want to be actively able to hear if things are coming up so that we can help our retirees. And, the statute currently, what we would like to have changed is in section A, and it says, and we want to clarify how many members. So, we'd like it to say the committee shall consist of seven members and add the word seven. Three to be selected by the Vermont Retired State Employees Association and three to be selected by the Vermont State Employees Association. And we wanted to have it added, the commissioner of human resources or designee, add the word designee, shall be an ex officio member of the committee. So everything would be pretty much the same other than us actually being named in the statute. And I did learn this morning that when the RSEA was created, this statute went into effect when we didn't exist. Oh, wow. To amend it would just be updating what it already says.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Okay.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: So that's a little history so you can kinda get an idea why we weren't mentioned.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Because I was always kind of wondering, like, why is this, like, an absence of opinion from this organization within the structure of this so that

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: And offers I did find out that the RSEA was a part of the union. And at some point, one of the union presidents decided that we should not be a part of the union, and that's when a statute was created to keep us separate from the union. So that kind of was history I learned too.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: No, no, no, thank you for that. Like, I actually really like diving back into the as to why does the language exist the way it does. Because it's important to understand that context while we make these decisions about how to

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: And current track. Well, and just another reference too. Currently, the VRSEA does not have a committee where we are informed on our benefits. But the union does have a committee called the Benefits Advisory Committee, where the state does work with the union to advise them as to what's going on. But VRSEA has no committee where they work with us. Fortunately, we've been able to have a really good relationship with with HR, and their benefits, director comes to our board meetings and keeps us up to date. But if that changes in employment, we might not still have that ability.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Do you have any sense of what the conversations were like within the VSEA when they decided to have this break off as separate entity, like, and as to why they're, or you just know it happened?

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: I don't, but Bob Hooper might because he was involved with the union at the time.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Representative Hooper of Burlington, do you have any recollection of that moment? Do not hear your complete question. When the VSEA decided to break off the retired component, would become the RSEA, do you remember the conversations like why that decision was made? Like, why was it deemed a wise choice to structurally have them bifurcated?

[Robert Hooper]: Yeah. The answer, do I remember? Yes. Bylaws of the organization for a chapter in the retirees chapter was a retirees chapter Specifically said that it should be made up of members and past members. The past president that Cheally mentioned decided that she would grant him to anybody that wanted to. So that opened the door for management to come in, was in violation of the bylaws. So we moved from the chapter being a chapter of the SCA from being an affiliated retiree organization. Affiliated retiree organization.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yes. Thank you very much.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: So currently, we welcome anyone who has benefits from the state, And the

[VL Coffin IV]: then eventually, it got to the point where capital for so dumpers in that direction, so I just started to retire his jacket for the engine.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Thank you for that as to why. Representative Pinsonault.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: I know it was mentioned, but I I missed it. What statute were we talking about, Claire?

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Three PSA three six six? Yes. Six three six.

[Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault]: Six three six thirty six. Six.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Oh, boy. You for the clarification number. Oh,

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: 636.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Sorry. That's good. Okay. Any other questions for Shelley on this one? So, we have short form coming in to have an active piece here. And yeah.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: And we are hoping that it is put into a bill.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: We have vehicles.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: It should be taken care of. And just to let you know, a little bit more history the last two years, we've only had two people from the RSCA on the committee, so we've never had a meeting. So I think I already mentioned that, but I can't remember if they are or not.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: No. That's fine. And this is a bucket of statute that we haven't gotten into in a while too, so this is a good, kind of a good lead in to a dense bucket of subject matter that we haven't explored as a committee in quite some time. So, yeah, we'll be asking more questions, I'll answer short.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: I'm available anytime you need me. I'm very transparent. Just sent newsletter, my phone number is in the letter, and my brochure has my phone number, so anybody can call me and ask questions if you have it.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Beautiful. Thank you so much. Of course. Yes. Okay. And we'll dog you this one for further conversation. That sounds good. Okay. All right. That is the We're a little bit ahead of schedule here. So I would like to because we have some people joining by Zoom. So we'll take a break for oh, they're here. Oh, wonderful. Yeah. Hey. Look up before you say that. Would you like to start earlier or wait till 01:30 for

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: Oh, I think waiting for others

[Chair Matthew Birong]: to I think that's for you to choose too. Okay. Just back. Yeah, let's take us off to 01:30 and we'll start this next block and said testimony as scheduled.

[Shelley Martin (President, Vermont Retired State Employees Association)]: Although, is not part of the.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Just wait for everything at 01:30. Yeah.