Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Get used to this notion of going on Mayor Lachittenden. Good afternoon, and welcome in to the Senate Committee on Government Operations for Tuesday, January 2026. This is our first meeting of the second year of the biennium, and we do have a new committee member, and we'll get to, that are more than just a second, we have a couple other people that are coming in, 01:30 and 02:30, to hear their suggestions about priorities with one of the Vermont State Employees Association and the Secretary of State. Tomorrow, we have a joint assembly for the governor's state of the state, and when we finish that, we'll go back to the chamber, but we will not meet tomorrow, so you'll have an early day, hopefully. Thursday we have the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs meeting in at two, and also Mike Peachak, the state treasurer, will be in at three, and then finally we're gonna take a look at Retirement 101 with Tim Duggan, who's the director of Vermont Retirement Systems, and then this came up from someone that's not my constituent, but lives in Reedsboro, Act 57, which we passed last year. I believe it started out as, oh gosh, I can't remember what it was, maybe three ninety seven, I think, H397. And he had some questions about part of that, and so I've invited the VLCT folks to come in and also Tucker, and then this person from Rutland has given me a couple of questions. It has to do with so called unassigned funds. So if a municipality had originally voted to spend, pick a number, dollars 50,000 on the new pool or a roof, and that money was not expended, it was spent in that year, the legislative body of that municipality now has the authority to take the money and spend it however they want. And I have a problem with that. Why? Well, Senator White?

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: I thought that we allowed them to have a vote by their communities on what to do with that money. Wasn't that what you asked really decided to do?

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: No, it's not as a statute. And that's what we're gonna talk about on Friday. The OCT's very firm that this is something that they think is a good thing for municipalities to be able to take money that was not spent and divert it to other places. And mine, at least right now, my view is fine, but you've got to get permission to do it from the voters.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Yeah, I think I'm, thank you for bringing this up. My understanding was I thought we could pass up that they had to get it voted on or there had to be some sort of I

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: don't think so. Anyway, that's what we're gonna do Friday. It has a potential to run at least an hour, so although I appreciate being able to release you folks at a good hour on Friday, we'll probably go to at least 03:30, maybe even 04:00, depending on how it is. So Senator Hart is no longer with us. I wish him the best. I don't know what he's doing now, but he did call me a couple times in the summer and we had decent conversations. And so we have Senator John Morley joining us as our new Senator, along with John Benson, who's across the hall in institutions. Both Johns are in Senate Health and Welfare in the morning. And I know based on what I've heard about you, Senator, that I'm lucky, we are lucky, to have you in this committee, that you are very smart and very thoughtful, and you were in the house at one point I think. We were

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: in the house together.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay. So why don't you give us a five or ten minute biography? It'll be short. I live in Orleans, Vermont, town of Harton, and we have been managing a municipality. We have an electric utility, water, wastewater, street department, fire department, ambulance for thirty three years.

[John Morley III (Clerk)]: So I kind of got a feel for some of the stuff that you're talking about on here actually. And I'm also a first class alignment, so I came up through the ranks from Crown and I've always really, really enjoyed working with the community. I'm also on the board of directors of the VAPS over multiple power supply authority. I've been with the Alliance Club. I've been with a lot of other entities. I was on the MBDA board of directors for a while and I guess I won't be again since I just got elected an elected official, but that's just a little bit about me. I served in the House Senator. For four

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: years together, 'five to 'eight.

[John Morley III (Clerk)]: Yep, and I served two years on the Commerce Committee, and six years on appropriations. I'm going gonna be testing a little bit because I'm a manager and I deal a lot with budgets right now, especially coming to the end of the calendar year for all of our departments. I'm getting right back into the policy type of things, especially in health and welfare. So there's going be some quite a few challenges in there. Hopefully there won't be quite as big a ones in here. I don't know if there will be.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: We some, we get really big

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: There's some big ones too? Yeah. I don't think we're gonna have an elections bill, thankfully. That turned into little bit of extra work. Know. There you go. Elections. I think the citizens

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: I think Biden bill was coming out, isn't it?

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay. Yeah. So Okay. I already know more than me.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Yeah. Well, I think I think we still have some election stuff.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay. So that's basically it. So you are familiar with the sort of mechanisms that go on in the state house. I am. Yeah. With all due respect to the members of the hardworking other chamber, including senator Clarkson, and senator Vyhovsky.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: You are surrounded by

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: four year periods.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yeah. The Senate operates a little differently, and if you have any questions, please lean on the four of us to answer them. You probably got a sense of some of that today. We are not allowed to have any electronic devices in the chamber. Well, you can have your phone, which you can better shut it off because John Glover will come down the hall and grab it. He's already explained it to you. Okay. It's like his first thing. We do have a dress code, which is much more strict than the house. We don't wear lariat ties and shawls and all that kind of stuff. Well, the women can, but the men can't. We'd have the ties and jackets. And if you don't I thought the house I

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: thought our dress code was sort of the same in the whole state.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Mhmm. Mhmm. The house has a pretty explicit dress code that is explicitly

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Permissive. Loose. Oh, it used to be and tie.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: It used to be suit and tie.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Oh, they changed it. My second year in the house, it got changed. So,

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: I mean, some people feel strongly in the old ways, some people feel that we should change things from time to time. I guess I'm in the former category, but

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: It's also represented one of our finest men's outfitters in the state.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Well, thank you.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Perhaps maybe the

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: And I'll pass that along to McNeals. We, you know, have certain decorum in the senate, which from what I've seen on occasion is not true in the other body. A lot of times, they go on iPads, if you sit up in the balcony, you'll notice that they're playing a game while listening to testimony on a particular bill. I don't mean, again, to to cast aspersions that deeply, but it's different. It really is different. We don't take our jackets off. If it gets to 95 degrees, tough. Actually, we haven't really tested that. Well, we have to

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: ask If it got to 95,

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: I might ask, but the gentleman could remove their jackets, but we got kind of a suit up instead. Yeah.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: It tends to be on the colder versus the hotter side. It tends to be our Yeah. Main

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: We need a clerk because senator Hart was our committee clerk and sat in that same chair.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: No pressure, John.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Rookie. Unless there's a burning desire on the part of three other people to be the clerk, I'll I'll point you as the committee clerk. All it does is when there's a bill introduced on the floor that's referred to the committee on government operations, at the end of that floor session, Melissa will come and give you the bill. We had three of them this morning. She gave it to me because we don't have a clerk. And it's very important you don't lose them or misplace them. You gotta make sure that they get down to every, and then he makes the little cards that indicate what the bill number is and what it does. So if you are willing, we'd we'd love to have you as our clerk. It's no more than that. You're just responsible for the school at all. OT votes. And

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: deliver those to the To

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: the Senate Clerk. Yeah. Do. It's a protocol on occasion.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Yeah. I'm happy to help. I'm the most recent previous past clerk for the committee. Okay.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Do you have any questions about how this will proceed? Whenever you're recognized, although it's the same in the house, they stand up saying, Madam Speaker or Mr. Speaker, depending, we say Mr. President, and then you have permission to, if you recognize, talk. So that's not different. We don't do as many point of orders, don't think. We don't explain our votes. No. Big and different. Very, very rare.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: We are also not members. I got corrected for that in my first year all the time when I was able to member for senator from.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Okay. That's true. And you know who made that mistake today was senator Baruth. More than once, he referred to us as members. So there's just little, you know, No. He didn't. He didn't. There's no news for that mistake. Yeah. Floor debate is pretty much the same. You know, if you wanna speak about a certain bill, and you're listening hopefully to the other side of it, and you wanna stand up and express your own opinion on it, that's great. Senator White?

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Thank you, chair. One thing that's nice that our chair did last year was you gave Larry, I would say, less complex bill to kind of practice presenting. Mhmm. I think it was veterans. It was a veterans memorial holiday bill, but that you that may be something to expect. Yeah. Because you might be one of our if we have a easier Right. Slimmer bill. The government just need no Okay. You might about who's who

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: this boy is ready for the. Okay.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: But you're right. Charters

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Yeah.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Most of the time are not controversial, and they're just going from three members, like, we're to five. It's not a big deal. But there will be questions on occasion from some of the other senators who stand up and say, can I inquire the report? Okay. I can't think of anything else. Oh, I'm sorry. That's me, Emery. Emery Matthias is our new committee assistant.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Not new to us because you've been working in Ledge in IT and Ledge Council

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: for a couple of years. One year. Just not? In the Department of Operations, not IT. Right. Department of Operations. That's the case. And he'll be an expert help on Friday when you do your expense reports. Vision has apparently decided again to change passwords every ninety days? Yes, sir. I

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: don't have any more passwords

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: in me. I just don't like to even make

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: them for It just is amazing how often we have to do that, but anyway, he is an expert at that. So on Friday, normally, people go to the lounge. Don't do them on the iPad. It doesn't work very well, but you could do it in in the lounge and put your expenses in. The salaries are done automatically. Yep. You don't have to worry about those.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: May I just ask, Amber, would you share with us a little bit about yourself? Yeah, sure. Because it's been great that you're sort of growing in your state house service. Thank you very much. We'd love to know what prompted you to do that and a little bit about yourself.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yeah. Yeah. My wife and I moved here in 2017 for me to attend Vermont Law School.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Yes. Yes. An economic development driver.

[Emery Matthias (Committee Assistant)]: We moved to Randolph in 2019. She's now librarian, Eric Kimball, and I was elected the town clerk and treasurer of Randolph, and I served at three years term. When my second child was born, I decided to be a stay at home dad for most of the year. It's a great decision. Then, shortly after that, I was hired by a previous director of operations here to serve as the operations coordinator, and now I am in this department. Which is great. I'm very happy to be here. Yeah. Well, it's

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: nice to have you keep growing.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yeah. You. In your work,

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: and wonderful that VLS brought you VLS brought me too.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Nice. It didn't bring me to the student. I was dragged here if I'm not to your scrubs. I enjoy starting on time, so I'll just He's very finely. As gently as I can. If there's a quorum and we're supposed to start at 01:30, we're going to start at 01:30 and if there are not deer, it's going to, it'll be up to them to get caught up on you. I guess that's all I have. But literally, if you have questions, and I can't believe that you want to some. Oh, will. No. I certainly will. And you're surrounded as a center of truth set by a couple of jokes to hear. Yeah. I saw Westman on one side. Yeah. Ingalls on the other side. I mean, holy cow. So yeah. You didn't have a chance to put any bills in yet. No. Because you weren't sworn in. And I was wondering why Senator Penson wasn't in the room when we started, and then I got it. Yes.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: I had the same thought. I was like, oh, no. John needs to get out of here. He's gonna walk in too, but that was

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Chittenden was the only one that didn't make it for some reason. Yeah. He's out always. Oh.

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Yeah. I always it's always has a conflict with UVM schedule.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Mhmm. But you can, as you can see, feel free to eat here. I mean, always been I mean, I seem to get to lunch at one, which is terrible, but I apologize. It doesn't get away too much. But

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: this is a great committee, and our range is quite substantial and I understand, Mr. Chair, that we're also going to be meeting with House Cub ops to hear from the three adjutant general candidates,

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: which I really look forward to. Oh, there were three. I believe one is stepped up. Oh, okay. Could be wrong, yes, we'll meet next Tuesday in a joint committee meeting room at 01:00 and interview the two potential candidates. I'm sorry. 43 if they're aren't you? Yeah. I'm so glad we're having that opportunity. That's great. We're still the only state that does it this way. I'd like to. Also, we have a basic point.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Yeah. It'd be unique. Yeah. Mister Chittenden, do you I know that we're gonna have VSEA here in in about ten minutes, but I'm wondering if we were at all going to have conversations about priorities in general and Sure. Kind of where you saw some of the bills that were introduced today, and even the elections conversation, think probably we should maybe have earlier rather than later. I don't know if you have time that you wanted to set aside for that or

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yeah. We could do it. Well, could do it now, but it may take longer than the Yeah, seven

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: yeah.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Tanya and I, excuse me, Senator Vyhovsky and will meet Wednesdays at 12:30 to go over the agenda for the following, and I'll be meeting with Tucker on Friday mornings at 08:15 to get his Thomas Neal Collins. We're all meeting with him? Yes. All of us who are under his jurisdiction under his supervisory section.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: I wonder I'm looking at Thursday, and it looks like we've given a whole hour to the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs. I wonder if maybe we can give them a half an hour to

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: Yeah. Get

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: That's a good

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Priorities conversations.

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yep, that's a A good chance to actually look at what's still And on the

[Alison Clarkson (Member)]: because we have childcare licensing, I mean that

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: So, I know we can change the agenda on Thursday, January 8, at 02:30, we'll have a committee discussion about priorities. Got it. Okay. You have a five minute break if you wanna use it? If not, we'll have to sit here and let each other, I guess.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Well, should know the most important, well, if we're still online. We're not online?

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Yeah, we're live.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: We are live?

[Brian Collamore (Chair)]: Would you like me to, I can answer you too? We, we, it doesn't matter. You wanna go out? Sure. Okay, let's go out and we'll be back in five minutes.

[Rebecca “Becca” White (Member)]: Her name.