Rep. Oliver Olsen, photo by Josh Larkin.
Rep. Oliver Olsen, R-Jamaica, Winhall, Stratton, Weston and Londonderry, will not be running for his seat in 2012.
Olsen, 35, has been an outspoken and articulate critic of several Shumlin administration proposals, and he is described even by Democrats as a “rising star.” A year after winning his first election bid last fall, however, Olsen has decided to forgo a second race.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult, Olsen said, to take care of his young family and pursue his professional career while serving four months a year in the Legislature. Olsen manages a consulting practice for RightNow Technologies, a software service company based in Bozeman, Mont.
“I’m grateful that we have a citizen legislature, it brings our government much closer to our communities and the people we represent, however it does make it very challenging for a large segment of Vermonters to serve,” Olsen said in an interview. “There’s a whole segment of folks who have the responsibilities of raising a family and maintaining a career who don’t have the financial resources to take 4 months away from professional life.”
Olsen and his wife, Peggy Floume, have two young sons, Ethan, a 2-year-old who has cerebral palsy, and 11-month-old Karsten. Ethan’s medical condition necessitated a month-long stay in the hospital right after Oliver’s election last year. “Every family has its own challenges, but when you have a family member with complex medical needs it puts additional demands on your time, and that’s a big factor in my decision,” Olsen.
Republican Gov. James Douglas named Olsen to the post in 2010 after Rick Hube, the longtime representative of the Windham-Bennington-Windsor-1 district, died in office.
Olsen serves on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and he frequently (and openly) clashed with Democrats. He most notably led the fight against a cash for tax credit proposal from the Shumlin administration for the Clean Energy Development Fund.
Olsen said supporters and detractors have mistakenly assumed he had bigger political ambitions. “I enjoy serving in the House, and I have never had any intention of serving in any other capacity, including leadership,” Olsen said. “I have a busy professional career outside my political life. Anyone who wants to aspire to higher office has to be committed to a career in politics or be retired — that’s not where my heart is at. I enjoy serving my district.”
Last year, Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, a young up-and-coming member of Ways and Means, also dropped out of the House of Representatives because of the demands of raising a family and meeting work obligations.
Komline to leave GOP House leadership
Rep. Patti Komline, R-Dorset, has taken a new job — as a case manager for victims of Irene for the Stratton Foundation — and she’ll be dropping her old role as assistant minority leader of the House.
Komline, who will stay on in the Legislature, has been a member of the GOP leadership team since 2006. She served as minority leader in 2009 and 2010 when the Legislature overrode Gov. James Douglas’ veto of the budget and the state’s landmark gay marriage legislation.
Since then, the Democrats have further secured their majorities in the House and Senate, and the number of Republican votes has dwindled, making it nearly impossible for the GOP to scuttle — or propose — legislation.
Komline said she and the new minority leader, Rep. Don Turner, R-Milton, have different styles. “We had different directions we wanted to go in,” Komline said in a phone interview.
In her new job, Komline is responsible for helping Vermonters who have lost everything cope with day-to-day needs.
“I was never excited about partisanship anyway,” Komline said. “I wanted to do something where people are working together.”
Lawmakers plan hearings on gravel extraction from streams
A number of streams and rivers have been altered in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene. The Shumlin administration issued an emergency order to allow towns to “channelize” or remove gravel from waterways where necessary to facilitate the reconstruction of roads in towns that were hard hit by the floodwaters.
In many cities and towns, the emergency order gave road crews verbal permission to use heavy machinery to dredge and channelize streams. Some of those municipalities, however, have been asked to stop stream excavation, and in Middlebury, the Army Corps of Engineers is investigating work that “might not be authorized,” according to a report by John Dillon of Vermont Public Radio. The state Agency of Natural Resources now requires towns to obtain written permission for dredging.
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/92215/
Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, and two other lawmakers are calling for legislative hearings to review post-Irene stream alteration. Klein said the hearings will not be finger-pointing sessions.
“We had a natural disaster; we had an emergency expedited process and now the emergency is over,” Klein said. “We need to make sure rules and and regulations are enforced.”
Klein said his committee will examine Act 250 and land use implications in order to “bring the daylight we need to make sure we’re all on the same page and marching in the same direction.”
The hearings, which would also involve the House Fish and Wildlife Committee and the Senate Natural Resources Committee, have not yet been scheduled.
How the winds of renewable politics blow
Steve Wright, an anti-wind activist and former Fish and Wildlife commissioner, wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times (it was reprinted on VTDigger.org) recently that characterized the construction of 21 wind towers on Lowell Mountain as a “desecration in the name of ‘green’ energy.” Wright went on to describe how Green Mountain Power will blast part of the ridgeline to make way for the cranes and other vehicles required to build the 420-foot wind turbines.
Wright argued that the power from Kingdom Community Wind won’t do much to reduce Vermont’s carbon footprint. His final parry was the accusation that the project “represents a terrible error of vision” and a “profound failure to understand the value of our landscape.”
A few days later, Gabrielle Stebbins, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont, had taken umbrage with Wright’s assertions. In an email to members, Stebbins called Wright’s account of the project an “affront to our extensive state regulatory process and undermines the overwhelming public call for Vermont-based renewable energy generation,” in light of climate change and the “major flooding events caused by Tropical Storm Irene.”
Stebbins accused Wright of slandering Vermont’s “extensive and effective” environmental regulations. She concluded her missive with an “urgent call” to members to write a letter to The New York Times website complaining about the piece.
Her plea did get a response.
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FYI – Gabrielle Stebbins is a “she”.
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Thanks, Anne. It’s corrected now.