Colchester in the Spot Light
Well that title is a bit of an exaggeration, but this week there were a number of Colchester oriented actions in Montpelier. The resolution I had put together honoring out town manager Dawn Francis came to the floor. A similar resolution that Representative Pat Brennan put together for Karen Richard came to the floor that same day. And finally, the Colchester Charter Change bill I've been shepherding, cleared the House and is now in the Senate. Tuesday was a busy day. |
| Karen Richard, Me and Dawn Francis |
Wednesday my brother-in-law came up from Massachusetts for a couple-day visit, and Thursday Ruth came down to do some lobbying for climate change legislation.
Otherwise it was a slow, somewhat confusing, week. The Capital Bill, our big responsibility, is being reviewed and revised over in the Senate, as is the Budget. The window for bills to get out of the General Assembly and on to the Governor's desk is narrowing fast. We expect to be done in four weeks.
Making Bills Match
There are two bills (H.874 and S.166) working their way through the House and Senate that modify the same piece of current law. Both bills add a definition of Medication-Assisted Treatment to Vermont Statutes and Acts Title 18 on Health. So, which one is will be the legal definition? This is particularly important as this definition is, and will be, used in other portions of law and in the general community. When people ask, "So what is Medication-Assisted Treatment?", this will be the official state definition that will be referenced. In fact, whichever bill is signed last by the governor will be the one that becomes the final law, but it's better to make the definitions match. The trick is to keep all the committees in the House and Senate that touch the bill from changing that definition. There was a good deal of running back and forth between committees to keep things in line until they both hit the House floor this coming week. I'll be reporting out the changes that the Senate and the House have made to H.874, the one dealing with Inmate Access to Prescription Drugs.
Long Range Planning
I continue to get letters from the Vermont inmates at the Camp Hill Corrections Facility in Pennsylvania. They remind me that we really haven't done anything about getting those out-of-state prisoners back to Vermont. There has been a lot of people saying that we should do it but nothing has been done. I cornered the Chair and Vice-Chair of the committee and told them I think we should do some long range planning while we have the time at the end of this session. In fact, I find myself getting a bit frustrated with the amount of time spent on things that have very little to do with what I think we should be doing. It may be just that spring is taking forever to get here. At any rate, this week we started taking testimony and talking about long term planning of Vermont's Prison population.
Near the beginning of the this session the Secretary of Human Services issued a report proposing a ten-year plan to build a 925 bed Corrections Campus in Northwest Vermont. We never really took a hard look at that. We are now.
Weekly Summary
- Tuesday
- 10:00 On the floor - announcements etc.
- 10:30 Start orders of the Day
- H.482 drew some attention. This is a bill designed to reduce the number of credit card debt cases going through the courts. The idea is to set up a process whereby debtor and debtee can meet and resolve differences without going to court.
- 11:00 break for Caucus - Some discussion in caucus about the Jack Sawyer case and the need for an "intent" law. That would be charging someone with the "intent" to commit a crime. This is a tricky area because there are free speech issues and we don't want to charge people with a crime every time they say "I'd like to kill that guy." The Red Flag bill passed early in the session and signed by the governor involves the confiscation of weapons, not the charging of a crime.
- 12:00 back on the floor with more on credit card debt. That bill passed second reading and will be back on the floor Wednesday.
- 12:30 Done on the floor - Lunch
- 1:30 In committee with discussion of the definitions in H.874
- 2:15 or so - Long Range Corrections Planning discussion
- 3:00 - Testimony for Home Detention with legislative counsel. This is the one having to do with real-time electronic monitoring of inmates on home detention. It's confused by the Jack Sawyer case mentioned early as there are some people who do or do not want him on Home Detention. We're thinking of getting rid of the program entirely as it does not seem to be working. I believe I mentioned this last week.
- 4:00 Break - but back to the same afterward.
- 5:00 Done
- 7:00 School Board meeting in Colchester
- Wednesday
- 9:00 in Committee, though I'm not sure why. we really didn't start for half an hour. Some talk of that $1.9 million left over from Vermont Telecom that we want to use for Mental Health beds.
- 9:35 Offender Files - This issue drags on. Which parts of a prisoner's files should be made available to them. The decision was reached to have four members of the committee and Monica Weever from DOC and any advocates get together on Friday and pick through some of the details of this to decide which records should be made available.
- 10:29 Break
- 10:35 The room was suddenly crowded with people wanting to hear what the Secretary of Human Services had to say about a plan to increase the number of mental health beds at the Brattleboro Retreat. We moved the meeting downstairs to Rm 11 for space.
- 11:37 Done in Room 11 - Back to Committee for discussion of the Retreat plan
- 12:00 Break
- 1:00 On the floor
- 1:30 Done with announcements etc.
- 2:45 Colchester Charter Change bill passed.
- 2:50 Adjourn
- 3:00 Back in committee for offender files and other cleanup things.
- 4:30 Done for the day
- Thursday
- 8:00 IT Advisory Committee meeting - These always seem to go well. Less wasted time. Senator Pierce runs the meeting well.
- 8:30 Done with IT. Back to Home Detention
- 10:00 Working on S.222. Sent Leg Counsel off to do another draft. Break for half hour.
- 10:27 Back in Committee for committee vote on S.222. Passed unanimously. I believe in the last two years we have not had a vote that was not unanimous.
- 11:00 Discussion of long term planning until noon.
- 12:00 Break
- 1:00 On the floor
- During announcements I introduced both brother-in-law Steph Bader from Concord, MA and Ruth to the House. Too nervous still. I referred to the Speaker as Madame Secretary for some reason instead of Madame Speaker.
- 2:00 - Back in Committee to go over H.874 which I will be reporting out next week
- We voted it out of committee (10,0,1 that's 10 approve, 0 disapprove, and one absent.)
- 2:25 Testimony from BGS and the Retreat Option
- 2:50 Tuning up language about relocating the Secure Residential facility now in Middlesex
- Testimony from State's Attorneys and Sheriffs (Campbell) about Long Range Planning. We're doing the pros and cons about a regional vs. centralized model for detention.
- 4:30 Done for the day
- Friday
- 9:00 In committee for discussion of Home Detention
- 9:30 On the floor
- 10:05 Adjourn
- 10:30 Workgroup on Offender Files in committee room.
- 12:00 Done for the week.
Coming Up
Minimum Wage
A minimum wage bill (S.40S) came over from the Senate and is about to be reported out of committee to the House floor for a vote. I'm still doing some research on this one and have not really decided where I stand. I believe the bill brings the minimum up to $15/hr by 2024.
