Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Alright. We are live. Alright, everyone. Welcome back. It is shortly after 11AM on March 11. We are picking up work on h five nineteen. This act relating to authorizing officers of the town of Vermont Golf Police Department to enroll in group c of the Vermont State Employees Retirement System. I'm going to invite counsel up, mister Wood. We have a committee amendment to review, and we do have this scheduled for possible vote.

[Cameron Wood, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Morning. Cameron Wood, Office of Legislative Counsel. So, we did a walk through of this bill a few weeks ago, but it was at the time it was kind of drafted from representative Zachowitz. So, what I've done is I've redrafted that as an amendment from this committee. Other than that lead in language, there's been no change to the substantive language of the amendment itself. But just quickly, we can walk through together. So as you see here, committee amendments, gov ops, bill five nineteen. Mister chair, you mentioned the the act. So we have a strikeout. It's a short form, so striking out and then inserting afterwards the following. And if you all recall, this is about Group G membership. So the first real important language is going to be on page three, moving the following employees into group G. So, it's municipal employees that have a level two, level three law enforcement officer certification and are required to perform law enforcement duties. And then the remainder of the amendment is the corresponding necessary changes to accomplish that. So, amending the normal retirement dates. Relevant language is bottom of page four, top of page five, just moving over the corresponding employees, depending on when they became employees pre-two thousand and eight, post-two thousand and eight, because the retirement years could be slightly different. But all this is just the necessary language needed to accomplish the overall intent of moving those employees over to Group G. Then you get to section two, which is going to be on page six. This is just adding in those sections into the normal and early retirement date. We've added the definitions. We've given them normal and early retirement dates. Now, we're adding that in here to cross reference back to the definitions. Section three, this is in the municipal retirement system section saying that these employees are group F, except for elected employees, the sheriffs and deputies, which you've moved over to group G previously. And so now we're adding in here the municipal law enforcement officers who meet those requirements are going to be members of group G. It's on page eight. And then in section four, you have the standard language that you have used in the past when moving individuals from one group to another, allowing them that one time irrevocable election. And I believe this has been set out to occur by 12/01/2026. So you have all of the standard language there throughout. Individuals who are employed after 01/01/2027 would be in this group, but the individuals who are currently employed would have that election prior to December 3, excuse me, 12/01/2026. And then you have the effective date, which is July 1 this year. So, I mentioned, none of this language has changed from the proposal from representative Sackowitz when we walked through that a few weeks ago. This is just cleaned up to come from you all as an amendment as a committee. Any questions for counsel?

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yes, representative of Waters Evans.

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: So when it, like, when it appears the title of the, the bill says group C in it still, are we not allowed to change that?

[Cameron Wood, Office of Legislative Counsel]: I spoke with my team lead, Mr. Anderson, about this. And the information I got was that we would ask for that to be changed after the amendment were to go through. Technically, the bill at present is still as it is titled because it hasn't been amended. You all are proposing the amendment. And if that were to pass, I would go to the clerk's office and seek a change to that title.

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Oh, Okay. Thank you.

[Cameron Wood, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Yes. Great point, because I asked the same question, because it's also not limited to the town of Randolph anymore. If this were to be approved, it would apply to all municipal law enforcement officers that are participating in the state system. I believe the town of Randolph is the only one that currently it would impact, but conceivably it could impact a few other towns as well. So we'd probably seek a change to clarify the act title. Thanks. Thank you, Council. I was loving this technical question with a educational response.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Anything else from the committee table? I wanna just be conscious of the gallery with interested parties. Anything to offer folks? Saying no hands on the shit. It's shaking in the negative. Alright. So we do have this scheduled for a vote. Are any further discussion coming from the table? I would like to make a motion.

[Cameron Wood, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Make a motion. It's five nineteen. Let's try and vote. Okay.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: Yep. Second. Alright. So the motion is to find favorable h five nineteen draft number 1.1, committee bill or committee amendments. Alright. Or call the roll.

[Lucy Boyden (Clerk)]: Representative Boyden? Yes. Representative Coffin? Yes. Representative Mango?

[Vice Chair Lisa Hango]: Yes. Representative Hooper Randolph? Yes. Representative Cooper of Burlington? Representative Morgan?

[Rep. Michael Morgan]: Yes. Representative Nugent? Yes. Representative Pinsonault? Yes.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault]: Representative Stone? Representative Waters Evans? Yes. Representative Birong? Yes.

[Lucy Boyden (Clerk)]: 902.

[Chair Matthew Birong]: And Representative Hooper of Randolph will be recorded. Have a wonderful day. You too, sir. We got you out of here on time. You are you are released. Going to my next committee. Alright. With that committee, we are back on at 11:30. We're taking up more testimony on our emergency management bill. This would be relevant to the Public Safety Communications Task Force conversation. Little e nine one one board and care program witness testimony with Barbara Nail. Until