Incumbent Francis Brooks is expected to face a challenge from Janet Miller of the Legislative Council and or Chuck Satterfield, a detective for the Northfield Police Department, according to an article in Seven Days. The joint chamber vote is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
The issue surfaced Wednesday during a discussion of capitol security by the Senate Committee on Institutions, where lawmakers said they were concerned by a lack of emergency training for people who work at the Statehouse.
Some lawmakers have criticized Brooks’ handling of protests at Gov. Peter Shumlin’s inaugural last month and at a Feb. 11 hearing that drew several hundred people to the Statehouse to debate gun legislation.
Wednesday’s hearing came a week after Rep. Butch Shaw, R-Florence, introduced H.183 to take some responsibilities away from the sergeant-at-arms office and the commissioner of Buildings and General Services and reassign the duties to the Vermont State Police.
The bill would change police responsibility from a piecemeal structure – with the capitol police covering the Statehouse, the state police handling the governor’s office and the Washington County Sheriff’s Department covering the Supreme Court building – and establish a new chain of command for the capitol complex.
Brooks, a former legislator who has been sergeant-at-arms since 2007, said Wednesday that some legislators have felt “intimidated” since the gun legislation hearing.
Brooks, who earns an annual salary of $63,752, added that he was frustrated by the criticism after the two major events because he received critical feedback too late to make any changes.
“Its validity is harmed by the fact that no one came to me,” Brooks said. “If we didn’t do the big rally correctly, or you have criticism, at what point do you tell me? …No individuals or group have come up and said it to me that, ‘You were wrong,’ or ‘You should have handled it this way.’”
Testifying at the committee hearing Wednesday, Vermont State Police Lt. Col. Matt Birmingham said state police are ready at all times to support local police agencies across the state, including the Capitol Police Department.
Birmingham told Sen. Peg Flory, R-Rutland, chair of the committee, that the state police’s current responsibilities are to follow the lead of the capitol police, which is overseen by the sergeant-at-arms.
“When we come in here, we come in here in an ‘assist’ capacity, kind of like the way a town police department would answer to a Selectboard,” Birmingham said. “It’s not one over another. It’s kind of a consolidation and cooperation.”
He told Flory that the Inaugural Day protests “went very well,” despite disruptions from protesters from the Vermont Workers Center. He also said the current governance structure “works well” and lawmakers should feel secure.
“When there are issues, when there are protesters, we come in, we follow their lead, (and) we do what needs to be done,” Birmingham said.
Flory said, “I find that reassuring that you guys have been trained. I find it not reassuring that we haven’t. We’re clueless what to do in an emergency, and that’s a little discomforting.”
Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, told Brooks that lawmakers like himself are untrained.
Mazza said he would not know how to handle the presence of a shooter or the appropriate protocol to follow if a fire alarm went off and the building had to be evacuated.
“I wouldn’t know what to do, and neither would I know what to do if there’s a fire alarm,” Mazza said. “I think we’ve got to do better.”
Flory said, “We owe it to our visitors,” adding that visitors to the Statehouse usually outnumber the 180 lawmakers, and many schoolchildren come to visit.
She asked Birmingham to begin work as soon as possible to set up fire drills and active shooter drills, and he said he would start planning immediately.
