Meetings
Transcript: Select text below to play or share a clip
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: We are live.
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Shout out preparations, April 29. We have finished budget. Now we're doing some bills that they've introduced to us. I actually, there's one bill today. Age six seventy four in Creation of the Ron Sister Faith Program. And then we have counselor here.
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Walk us through it. Yes. Good afternoon. Rick Seig with the office of Lifestone Council. So six seventy four, I'm gonna share my screen in case you wanna look at it as I go through it. A little bit of background. This was initially a working group that the Assembly passed two years ago to look into the creation of a sister pay program. The working group met several times in the last year and a half and submitted a report to the General Assembly, which this bill is largely based on that report. They have recommendation from how to stand up this sister state program. So here you have, in statute, the creation of this program. So kind of a 10,000 foot overview, it is a program for the purpose of connecting Vermont to other nations, other cities and other nations, not nationally, but internationally. So Vermont's associated with another country like England or Ireland or Taiwan or one of those. It could also be a town in a country. So the oversight is by a committee that's made up of nine people It goes to the committee members. The Secretary of ACCV, or designee, a member of the House appointed by the Speaker, a member of the Senate appointed by the Committee and Committees, the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Council on Rural Affairs, the Vermont Adjutant General, or designee, the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Arts Council, or designee. And then three members. One with expertise in cultural exchange or Peace Corps operations, one by the government. One represented a private institution of higher education, appointed by the committee and committees, and then one represented a public institution of higher education, appointed by the speaker. So that's nine that's the nine people. They serve two year terms, but there's some staggering done to ensure it's not turnover every two years. Standard language. They shall meet, this is, I guess, work for you all, at least once quarterly. So there'd be at least four meetings per year when it comes to the per diem, that's important to know. They could be more than that, but at least quarterly. And those quarterly meetings would have to evaluate current agreement, proposed new agreements, prepare to annual report, and other matters. The next section, subsection D, is a timeline of how this actually works. So ACCD creates the implementation process, they develop the guidelines for admittance into the program. So they do that. They determine the interview I'm sorry, the confidential internal review procedure to be used. They set the minimum eligibility to be in the program. They set the rubric to be uniformly applied by the committee, and they developed the MOU that is used between these two entities when they decided to become a sister state program. Once they get an allocation, ACCD reviews it to make sure it meets minimum eligibility requirements, and they conduct a confidential internal review, geopolitical social issues that may come up in that review. Ten days after that, they submit their review to the committee, the program committee, for a review. That confidential process is exempt for public inspection and copying, it's going be from the Public Records Act because it's gonna be fairly sensitive. So at this point, the committee needs to review the application that has received approval from ACCD, preliminary approval. The committee has two choices. They they apply their rubric, and they either give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If you get a thumbs up, it goes to the governor. The governor. If it gets thumbs down, it is not going to go. So the committee stops. The governor, upon receiving a thumbs up application, that's fine, which the board thumbs up is not in the bill. When the governor gets a application approved by the committee, the governor has the sole authority to approve or disapprove it, it's up to the governor. If the governor approves it, the governor sends notice to the agency like, hey. This is a new applicant. We approve it. Please develop the MOU within a certain time period. If the governor disapproves an application, the governor will send an explanation of why the governor disapproves to the committee so they know what the governor disagreed with them about. The agency submits approval or notice to the applicant that they have either been approved or not approved once the governor makes that decision. The committee, subdivision five, has the sole authority to terminate a program partnership upon a majority vote. Reporting, the committee shall submit an annual report on for January 15 year. That includes the previous year's developments, description of their activities, updates on the program, new partnerships, financial overview, and outlook for the program. Subsection F, the compensation reimbursement, this is the standard language. A legislative member shall be reimbursed Okay. Percent to VSA 23 for out north of eight meetings. Those are monies perverted to the General Assembly?
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: There's only two that should have been
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: No. There there could be you scroll up to the actual
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: There's one from the house up in the senate. So But some of the other members could
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: be there. But The sub yeah. Subdivision g. You know, three members. Okay. So it's a member of the committee. It's not a member of the assembly, but it could be a member. That means that it's the board member is used to signify they're a member of the committee. My point is that one, two, and three, Roman dev one, two, and three
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: could be But also be a list.
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Yes. Right. Okay. But then they're
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: just too specific. Yes. Okay.
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: The reimbursements at the 80 meetings per year, they don't have to be daytime, they're at least four, but they could get paid up to eight. Other members are reimbursed at fifty-thirty two-ten 10. Those payments are made or are appropriated to ACCD. So that is the sister state program, and section two is a little bit different, so I may pause there if you
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: have questions about section one. This legislature's come out of the legislative budget. Yes. The only cost is in the fairness. Yeah. The. There could all be two, and that could all be made four times. Okay.
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: The. I can't use that phrase. JF Hogan said
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: that. I think it's not. We can just say whatever we want. You can. Yes. Yes. Of course. Vermont, Ireland,
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Oh, I didn't see any appropriation in here. There's not. That's just policy changes. Okay. And it's just how
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: reading the fiscal note. It's just gonna We restructuring the Vermont. Think we're gonna have to go to the. K. Westman, is there anything else you want to ask? Any other questions on this motion for the acting clerk? No. The acting clerk shall call the roll. Baruth. Brandon. Lyons. Yes.
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Norris. Yes.
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Watson. Yes. That's me. Yes. Perchlik? Yes. Your chair is a clerk taker. He's got the number 329. Assistant 0. Is the assistant's good?
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Enjoy your lunch. Thank you. Excellent.
[Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Thank you. But the successful passing of
[Rick Seig (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: page