[V]ermont Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tom Anderson is stepping down from his post at the end of the month, according to a statement issued Tuesday afternoon by Gov. Phil Scott.
In the statement, the Republican governor called Anderson a “valuable member” of his administration.
“Under his steady and professional leadership, the Department of Public Safety has tackled some of Vermont’s most complex and important challenges,” the governor added, “including the ongoing opioid crisis, school safety, fair and impartial policing, roadway safety, violent crime, officer safety, emergency preparedness and other critical public safety issues.”
According to the statement, Anderson “decided it was time to rejoin his wife in Washington, D.C., in support of her career. The two have been living in separate states since he took this position.”
The release also stated that Anderson is hoping to teach and be involved in public service in the future.
Anderson, a former U.S. attorney for Vermont, had served in the post since January 2017, when Scott first took office.
In a statement, Anderson thanked the governor for the opportunity to head the state Department of Public Safety, calling his time in the position, “a truly remarkable and rewarding experience.”
Adam Silverman, a spokesperson for the Vermont State Police, said Anderson as well as Col. Matthew Birmingham, the director of the Vermont State Police, were both declining further comment on the matter.
“We’re going to let the release from the Governor’s Office speak for itself,” Silverman wrote in response to an email from VTDigger on Tuesday afternoon seeking interviews with both Anderson and Birmingham.
Anderson, as commissioner, frequently testified before lawmakers on criminal justice-related matters. He also clashed with members of the Democratically controlled Legislature, particularly around issues related to drug reform.
He strongly opposed supervised injection site legislation as well as a bill that would have made it legal to possess small quantities of buprenorphine, a prescription drug used to treat opioid withdrawal.
Also last session Rep. Nader Hashim, D-Dummerston, a member of the Judiciary Committee and then a state trooper, was among the lawmakers at times challenging his boss, Anderson.
Anderson had pushed for a roadside saliva provision should the Legislature adopt a tax and regulate market for marijuana in Vermont. Hashim disputed the accuracy of such tests.
Ultimately, the legislation to establish a retail marijuana market stalled in the Legislature last session.
Hashim has since resigned from his post as a trooper and is pursuing a career as a lawyer.
Troopers, Hashim said Tuesday, felt that Anderson “had their back.” He also said that the commissioner was “extremely dedicated” to the job.
“One the other hand,” Hashim said, “I think that he held onto some of the more traditional views of policing, which in my opinion, over the past 50 years have proven to be ineffective.”
He then said of Anderson, “I think that he put a lot of faith in the Reagan-esque war on drugs mentality and I don’t think that is necessarily the best way to approach the issues that we have in Vermont.”
As the head of the Department of Public Safety, Anderson oversaw the Vermont State Police, emergency management, crime information center, forensics lab, and safety divisions.
Prior to his roles as U.S. attorney for Vermont and commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, Anderson served as an assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the narcotics unit. He started his career as a deputy state’s attorney in Orleans County.
Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan, a Democrat, said Tuesday he worked with Anderson for many years, including when Anderson was the top federal prosecutor in Vermont and Donovan was the state’s attorney for Chittenden County.
He said although they didn’t always agree on all the issues, they could agree to disagree and still work together.
“I think he did a good job,” Donovan said of Anderson.
Asked to describe Anderson’s legacy at the Department of Public Safety, Donovan used the word “competence.” “He was a good manager,” the attorney general said.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington and the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also dealt frequently with Anderson, who often testified before the panel.
“I think he kept things steady, he kept it moving forward,” Sears said of Anderson’s tenure as the head of the Vermont Department of Public Safety. “I’m sure not as fast as some would like.”
Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio said Anderson brought a unique perspective to the post of commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. Instead of having come through the uniform ranks of law enforcement, he took the job as a career lawyer and prosecutor.
“He could understand, even if you didn’t agree with him, all of the sides of criminal justice questions,” Valerio said. “It seems most of the commissioners have either come out of the Department of Corrections or state police.”
The defender general said at times, it’s difficult to determine if someone in a commissioner’s post, like Anderson, is speaking for themselves or the administration, particularly when it came to establishing a retail marjiuana market in Vermont.
“He couldn’t get by the whole issue of the traffic safety and I don’t know if that was policy coming from him and his office, or if he was responding to his constituency, which is the troopers, or whether it’s something the governor wanted him to push,” Valerio said, referring to Anderson’s insistence for roadside saliva testing.
“That’s probably one of the biggest policy hang-ups we had,” Valerio said of their disputes over whether such testing could prove driver impairment.
Valerio also said that Anderson could at times be “gruff,” and often “direct.”
The defender general then added, “That never bothered me. At least I knew where I stood.”
Rebecca Kelley, the governor’s spokesperson, said if Scott hasn’t appointed anyone by the time of Anderson’s departure, he’ll name the deputy commissioner, Christopher Herrick, as the acting commissioner.
Anderson did send an email to all department employees at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday, about 20 minutes before the governor’s press release was issued, letting them know of his plans to step down at the end of the month.
The email’s subject line read, “Some news.”
He then spoke of intentions to resign, calling it a “very difficult” decision. “Leading the fine men and women of the DPS for the past 30 months has been the highlight of my career,” Anderson added in the email.
