Week 8 - February 20th to February 23th

Guns and Coyotes

Last week brought gun related national and state issues to the Legislature. Events in Florida prompted a gathering outside the capitol Tuesday morning as I struggled up the hill to work. The next day, on the House floor, we debated a bill about coyote hunting derbies in Vermont.  National events are putting pressure on the Legislature to move gun violence related bills toward becoming law.

One of the common responses made to  those advocating gun violence legislation is that Vermont is one of the safest states in the Union. Though we have very loose laws on gun ownership, we are, indeed, free of many of the incidents reported throughout the United States. However, on Tuesday we heard of events in Fair Haven, Vermont that snapped this issue to the fore. Even Colchester had its share of drama early in the week.

Rumors around the State House were that Governor Scott was shaken by these events. Later in the week he released a memo on school safety that heartened those advocating an immediate response. This is an historical shift. There are three gun related bills currently receiving attention in the Senate: S.6 proposes universal background checks, H.422, allows police to seize guns from those arrested or cited for domestic violence, and S.221, will enable authorities to confiscate guns for up to a year from those deemed by a court to be an "extreme risk" to the public.

Meanwhile my committee tries to move forward on the considerable work we're trying to get done before the Town Meeting break. That break a full week from March 5th to March 9th.

Weekly Summary

• Tuesday 
• 9:40  Took a quick picture of the crowd outside the Capitol then stopped in to see my school funding expert at JFO about my understanding of what Dollar Yield means. He said he has passed it on to two others. He's very busy. However, that does mean he sees some legitimacy in my approach. We'll see.
• 10:00 - 11:30 On the floor to pass some bills. Nothing really controversial. All the votes were voice votes and only one (H.779 about the printing of the Legislative Directory) had some grumbled No's.
• Public Democratic Caucus where we received a budget update. It appears that changes at the Federal level are not going to have a significant impact on this year's budget; some losses and some gains.
• 12:00 Met with a person from DEC about a display I'm working on for Colchester's Town Meeting.
• 1:00 - 2:20 Committee Discussion - We really wanted to get down to some discussion of the various Corrections and Mental Health facilities and what might be done with them. This time was set aside to do that. The Secretary of Human Services, people from DOC and DMH (Dpt. of Mental Health) were there. It was a productive hour and 20 minutes and put some important questions on the table. Though there are some big questions yet to be resolved.
• 2:30 Barbara M. Neal, Executive Director, Enhanced 9-1-1 Board was in to talk about money in the Capital Bill allocated to expanding 911 service in the schools. The concern is that with many systems a person can call 911 from a classroom, but the dispatcher sees only that the call came from the school. The Enhanced 911 would track it to the specific phone.
• 3:05 - 3:47 Presumptive Parole. This is H.844 dealing with bail reform. I explained this in last week's post. We wanted additional input from DOC. My impression is that the current system is really working well and it may be best not to mess with it.
• 4:15 Meeting of the Joint Justice Over-site Committee about Camp Hill inmates in PA. The feeling seems to be that DOC should look for an alternative. There might be issues if the alternative is a privately run facility, but the hope is to find another location in PA. We do not have the facilities here.
• 7:00 School Board meeting in Colchester 
• Wednesday
• 8:30 - 9:45 Eric Blatt from DEC to talk about Municipal Pollution Control Grants. This is interesting in that there is about $6 million total that Brattleboro and South Burlington would like to get from the Capital Bill adjustment. The funds are for projects that have already been completed and one about 5 or 6 years ago. At the time DEC said they qualified for the funds but because of Irene we didn't have the money. Now they want it. Eric briefly went over a system they're developing to prioritize grants from the  program. That system results in list of projects and their priorities call the Intended Use Plan (Download the Plan).
• 9:45 I had a short conversation with a person from JFO about my School Funding explanation (see last week's post). She seems tolerant and said she will go over any explanation I write up. Perhaps I'll get to it over the weekend.
• 9:53 Back to Clean Water and the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund. Tiresa Thomas gave an excellent presentation on H.777 and the changes it would bring to how the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund can be used. The fund has about $80 million waiting to go out. And that $80 million is usually match 1 to 5 with Federal funds.
• 10:40 Vermont Council of the Arts. This too was discussed in last week's post. It's getting interesting as the committee is split on what to do. Vice Chair Rep Shaw wants to give them half of what they want. Three others on the committee seem to agree. The rest lean to giving them all of what they want (about $40,000). I'm on the fence. It will be discussed again. 

  

  A Drone Over a Prison

• 11:05 Drones and Corrections - This issue too is a repeat. We're trying get more information and a better understanding of existing law. There is also some concern as to whether or not any law we pass (H.615) will be enforceable. No final decision on this but I think it's close. We should be able to come up with a workable bill by next week.
• 11:30 Legislative Council walk-through of H.777.
• 12:00 Lunch - Incredible weather outside - warm and sunny. Felt like summer. 
• 1:00 On the floor - Everyone knew this would be a long one. "We've got coyotes on the floor today. That'll take a while." Anything that involves gun and/or hunting is controversial. But for the first 40 minutes we plugged along with moving bills. One (H.576) had a roll-call on one amendment but the vote was slanted 125 yes and 12 no, I voted yes.
• 1:41 - 3:30 H.636 Coyotes. This got wonderfully complicated with several amendments and

  

  One Side of the Debate

  

  The Other Side of the Debate

  votes that were turned into Divisions and Roll-calls on Divisions and finally Divisions on Divisions. These are explained near the end of this post. There was some, but not a lot of debate about the guts of the bill: outlawing coyote hunting derbies. Most of the debate centered around the penalty for the crime: possible prison time. Some thought prison too harsh. The Fish & Wildlife committee took the position that they wanted this to me a major wildlife crime and that meant possible prison time. All those penalties are to be reviewed soon so, near the end, they compromised by delaying implementation of the penalty for two year while they work on changing all the penalties.  I voted with the committee but almost agreed with removing the prison sentence. As the clerk went through the list of legislators, requesting the vote I went back and forth. When "Taylor from Colchester" came up I voted to keep the prison penalty, knowing that it would never be used. It's the same prison sentence you can get for shooting a turkey out of season. It was a close vote (75 yeses to take out the prison part, 64 nos to leave it alone). In the end, the bill passed with a roll-call 141 to 7.
• 3:42 Back in Committee for discussion of H.874 on how medical prescriptions should be handled in Corrections facilities. Testimony from Steven Fisher, Medical Doctor for Centurian which is the company that handles all medical services within Corrections. We also heard from The Advocates. This is term given to those that advocate for the rights of others. You could consider them lobbyists, though I doubt if they would choose that name. They do provide a valuable service to our committee, as they present a perspective that is usually not quite the same as that presented by the administration.
• 5:05 Done for the day.
• 6:00 Dinner with friends and Ruth at the Three Penny Tap Room then back to the State House for a Farmer's Night concert.
• Thursday
• 8:00 - IT Advisory Committee - This is the committee to which the Speaker appointed me. It's a joint Senate and House (seven total) committee that oversees IT in the Statehouse. Seems straightforward enough? Well it ain't. Apparently this is a nice tangle of personalities. Not in the committee, but in who's in charge of whom or what in IT. I need to sit down with a couple people and learn more about this before it goes much further. We met in the Senate Finance committee room and will meet again next week.
• 9:55 Done with IT - Back in Committee to hear from three Dartmouth students who did a bit of policy research for us on Medically Assisted Treatment of addicts in Corrections. It was a very good presentation with some valuable information.
• 10:30 Field trip to a facility we're considering as a Residential Treatment center.
• 11:20 Back in committee to discuss the various options for replacing the Residential Treatment center in Middlesex. 
• 12:10 Lunch
• 1:10 On the floor with coyotes one more time. No one was sure if this will go quickly or not. Four new amendments. For a short time we left the floor to caucus and find out about the amendment and how the leadership felt we should vote. Three went through on voice votes. The last required a roll-call. In the end, the bill passed on a voice vote.
• 3:00 Back in Committee to hear more about bail reform (H.728). This time from the point of view of the judiciary: David Sherr from the Attorney General's Office. The bill is in the Committee on the Judiciary, but they wanted us to weight in on changes proposed to the Home Detention program. We concluded that the bill, as written, did not do what they wanted it to do and that they should remove the portion relating to Home Detention. We finally sent it back to them at 5:15.
• Done for the day.
• Friday
• 8:30 Generators and Switch-gear - This is that half-million dollar upgrade of the Statehouse emergency generator mentioned near the beginning of the session. We had left Buildings and General Services (BGS) with a view questions: What will it take to include the elevators? How much will that cost? Should we consider batteries instead of a generator. The report back was that it would not cost that much more to include the elevators and the use of batteries just might work. The consensus seemed to be that we would allocate enough for the generator but consider putting it into batteries instead after some more research. No crashing hurry on this, as long as the money is available in the Capital Bill. We also heard more about renovations to the Asa Bloomer building in Rutland.
• 9:30 - On the floor but not for long
• 10:15 - Back in committee for H.806. This is a bill that proposes a commission to figure out what to do with the now-closed Windsor Corrections Facility. After some discussion we decided to do a strike-all and basically rewrite the bill to have BGS hire an independent consultant to figure out what the possible uses might be. This, apparently, was what was done with Waterbury after Irene.
• 10:40 or so -  Gus Seelig and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust and how they can use about a million dollars we gave them in the Capital Bill for FY18. The funds are to be used to match with other sources. It gets confusing as we want the farmer, in this case, to put up at least some money (10%). But VHCB wants to use the money to help out with that 10%. The agency thinks that reduces what they can give in match. Round and round. I strongly suggested we not kick in for part of that 10% in the future, but this will come up for discussion again as the governor has recommended another million to VHCB for FY19.
• 11:15 - Karen Horn, Director, Public Policy & Advocacy, Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT) to testify on H.777 about those changes to the Clean Water Revolving Loan. Nothing really new to add, but it's good to receive support from this organization.
• 11:30 Committee Discussion - about mental health facilities and such
• 12:00 Done in Committee - weather was supposed to turn bad so people wanted to get home.
• 2:00 - After some email and cleaning up paperwork I headed home. Done for the week

Divisions, Divisions of Divisions, Roll-calls and Voice Votes

Generally, when a bill or amendment to a bill is considered, there is a voice vote:

Speaker - "The question is - shall the bill be amended as presented by the member from Newbury. You have heard the question, are you ready to vote. If so, all those in favor signify by saying 'Aye'"

Members - "Aye"

Speaker - "All those apposed - 'Nay'"

Members - "Nay" 

Speaker - "The Ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and you have passed the amendment."

On to the next

Dividing Questions

But an amendment can have several sections with different changes to the underlying bill. So at any time during discussion of the amendment, a member can stand up and stop the process.

Speaker - "The member from Swanton is recognized."

Member - "Madame Speaker can the amendment be divided? I would like separate votes on section 2 and 3."

The speaker leans forward and consults with the Clerk who nods (or not). 

Speaker - "The member from Swanton has moved that the question be divided into two question, one for section 2 and one for section 3."

I don't think a move to divide needs to be seconded and voted upon. I think it just happens. The affect is to create two questions and two votes.

Dividing Votes

A member can also stand up at any time during consideration of a bill or amendment and ask that the vote be taken by division. In that case, instead of a voice vote, the members vote my standing up and being counted.

Roll-call

Speaker - "The member from Chelsea is recognized."

Member - "Madam Speaker I request that the vote be taken by roll."

Speaker - "The member from Chelsea has requested that the vote be taken by roll, is the member sustained?" And if 5 others stand up (they always do) -  "The member is sustained. When the vote is taken it will be taken by roll."

Requests for vote divisions or roll-calls can be made at any time during consideration of the bill.

Divisions of Divisions

This week we had an amendment split into two votes and one of those votes was by division.

Getting Cranky - Point of Order

My committee chair laments the lack of formality and protocol during work on the floor. There are some basic rules people are supposed to follow and they are getting stretched. This week during the coyote debate one very conservative member began a long speech about how outlawing coyote derbies was an attack on the traditional value of Vermonters. Those hippies from Chittenden County forcing their values on the hard working farmers trying to feed their families. It was a bit much and finally a 'point of order' was called to stop him. 

When a point of order is called a member suddenly stands up and says "Point of Order." The member who is interrupted sits down.

Speaker - "Member from Westminster what is your point of order."

Member - "Madame chair the speaker is attributing motive to the presenter of the bill. Members can only address the bill itself, not the motive of those that present it."

The Speaker may then confer with the clerk (or not) and responda

Speaker - "Member from Westminster I find your point of order well taken. The member from Chelsea will refrain from attributing motive to the bill presenter."

Member for Chelsea - "Madame Speaker I apologize." and then he continues without the attributions.

Points of order are rare.

Next Week

Next week is supposed to be a rough one. It's the last week before Town Meeting and there's that gun related legislation coming over from the Senate.