Editor’s note: This commentary is by Sam Lincoln, a Randolph Center native who operates a farm and a mechanized timber harvesting business, one of four Master Logger certified companies in Vermont. He has served previously as president of the Orange County Farm Bureau, chair of the Randolph Budget Committee, vice chair of the Development Review Board and currently sits on the Randolph Planning Commission.
[T]here was a time that the Vermont Legislature was heavily populated by farmers. Farmers, as business owners, have a knack for getting things done with limited means or waste and this made for good legislative stock. Fast forward a few decades and you still see diverse business owners, women and men, volunteering their time in elected and appointed government positions. They bring a wealth of expertise in finance, land use, equipment costs, road and building construction, human resource management, government regulation and others, but most importantly — accountability.
Should we also ask candidates in our towns to sell their businesses to run for the Selectboard if they have done business with their municipality?
Employees, vendors, lenders, clients, families and the government all have expectations that simultaneously need to be met regardless of the workload, time of day, vacation schedule or financial statement. Rural business owners, along with their farming forbearers, still know how to get things done. Their intuition and commonsense approach needs to be well honed when judging proposals, practicality and people. Most of them have devoted their lives to the establishment and growth of their operations and it is who they are. After all these attributes, the one thing you can count on with a successful small business owner is accountability, they have to pay for their mistakes and learn not to make them twice.
All over Vermont, small business owners drive the economy, supplying and purchasing goods and services and employing their neighbors. Their businesses reach all aspects of our lives. When they’re serving our community in government positions, there are occasional times when a proposal comes before their purview and they may have an interest in that proposal, a conflicting interest. There is an established process in our government policies for disclosures of such interests. There are provisions for recusals from overseeing the matter before the body if their oversight and interest is deemed conflicting enough to possibly sway their judgement. Sometimes the conflicts are obvious, sometimes they’re not, but we work through them, adjusting as necessary and go about our business. If we excluded everyone in our small state who had some connection with every project or department in our government, there’d be a lot fewer capable people at the table solving problems. So we trust, we disclose and we verify.
These historical co-existences came to a head in an unsettling announcement on Friday. A political party in Vermont feels it necessary for a candidate in an opposing party to divest himself of his business in order to be trusted to serve in our government without a conflicting interest. They have determined that he should give up his life’s work, without even a hint or accusation of an impropriety. That is a stunning precedent. Should we also ask candidates in our towns to sell their businesses to run for the Selectboard if they have done business with their municipality? Where will the line be drawn for demands of this nature? While the character and integrity of Phil Scott has never been debatable, and regardless of whether or not he is elected, the state has and should continue to protect taxpayers and residents diligently through conflict of interest policies, disclosures and transparency. But for those demanding he sell out, because in your eyes nothing else will do, you might feel the ground starting to slide away under your feet, it’s called “the slippery slope.” With all the issues our state faces, are experienced, accountable and honorable business owners the type of person we want to discourage from running for office?
