The state Department of Public Safety has said it cost more than $106,000 in payroll to cover security costs for the Labor Day weekend visit to Vermont by Vice President Mike Pence, but won’t provide a breakdown of how that money was paid out.
Disclosure of payroll security costs broken down by individual employee “unnecessarily reveals” security procedures that “threaten the safety of government officials on future trips,” Thomas Anderson, the department’s commissioner, wrote this week in response to a VTDigger public records request.
“For example, the records could reveal the nature of the security provided, the number of law enforcement officers deployed, and potential travel and staging locations,” Anderson wrote.
“Disclosure of such a breakdown of costs,” he added, “could also threaten the employees providing security to such officials by revealing what role he or she had in the security operation, the specific hours he or she worked and his or her potential locations.”
Last month, VTDigger requested “any and all information regarding costs and expenses to the state Department of Safety, including the Vermont State Police,” associated with the vice president’s three-day, late summer visit to the state.
The department responded 10 days later by stating that the payroll expenses “available at this time” from the department for the visit totaled $106,825.”
Also, in the response, the department stated that more expenses to the department were anticipated to come in through early November, to cover additional costs for supplies and hotel rooms.
Information regarding those expenses is not yet available.
At that time, the department also said, it would not provide a breakdown of the $106,825 in payroll expenses, stating that information is exempt by law from disclosure as ‘“security procedures, and similar information the disclosure of which would threaten the safety of persons.”
VTDigger appealed that decision to Anderson, the department’s commissioner. He responded this week by affirming the denial of the request seeking a breakdown of the payroll expenses.
In denying the request, he cited, in part, a Vermont Supreme Court ruling in a case involving the Herald Association (the former parent company of the Rutland Herald newspaper) brought against then-Gov. Howard Dean seeking information from his future and past calendars.
“While the Court determined disclosure solely of the meetings or events related to the Governor’s presidential aspirations did not necessarily reveal security information, it did acknowledge that disclosure of more specific scheduling information might reveal facts that pose a risk to government officials,” Anderson wrote.
“Based on this guidance, DPS has determined that aggregate security costs are not exempt,” he added. “However … like specific information contained in the calendars at issue in Herald Ass’n v. Dean, certain payroll records may reveal information about security procedures.”
Mike Donoghue, the executive director of the Vermont Press Association, said Wednesday that in his 50 years in journalism he can’t recall any governmental agency refusing to release payroll records.
“The weekly payrolls of public employees, local, state and federal, have always been considered public records since taxpayers are paying the salaries,” Donoghue said.
Also, he said, the issue of public safety is no longer an issue since Pence’s visit to Vermont is long since over.
“I understand they don’t want to say, ‘We’re sending 42 troopers down there and they’re going to be split in 12-hour shifts,’” Donoghue said. “We don’t want to know where they were standing, or where they were positioned.”
He then added, “The issue of public safety has passed and the information should be released.”
Adam Silverman, a Vermont State Police spokesperson, said the state is not able to seek reimbursement from the federal government to help offset the expense. He said it’s considered an agency assist, in this case to the U.S. Secret Service.
Pence reportedly spent most of his time in Vermont during his three-day vacation to the state at a camp on Lake Hortonia in Hubbardton, a small town in western Rutland County.
A large police presence was reported in the Lake Hortonia area during Pence’s visit, including a state police command post set up throughout the three days.
