Following a recent assault of a state social worker, Vermont will no longer use motels as holding areas for youth in the state’s care who are awaiting placement in other treatment facilities or foster care, according to Sean Brown, commissioner of the state Department for Children and Families.
Brown told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that the youth had been at the motel after as a process of “stepping down” following a release from a treatment facility and awaiting placement in “high-end” foster care.
“I have asked our family services leadership team,” Brown said, “to quickly develop some community alternatives that we can quickly stand up and staff with not using motels and not using our staff on nights and weekends to care for youth for our youth in that way.”
—Alan Keays
Brown also spoke to the committee about the October closure of the 30-bed Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Essex.
He updated the panel on the work to iron out a deal with Beckett Family Services to provide six secure residential beds for “justice-involved” youth at a facility in Newbury, which would be called Covered Bridge Treatment Center.
The commissioner said that he hoped to have that facility up and running in Newbury by late December.
“Our hope is we would be open by this time next year,” Brown said. —AK
In the Senate Democratic caucus, Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, who chairs the appropriations committee, gave her colleagues an update on the discussion around potentially reducing pension benefits for teachers and state employees.
The Legislature is looking into the pension issue after Treasurer Beth Pearce submitted a report to lawmakers last week that recommends cutting benefits.
“We just need to make it clear to people that there’ll be a lot of testimony, there will be legislative review and ultimately, no changes can be made without action by the Legislature,” Kitchel said Tuesday.
—Kit Norton
Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling told the House Committee on Government Operations that the executive order from Gov. Phil Scott to unite public safety and law enforcement divisions into one state agency is hardly a new idea.
“The work on this began actually before I was born,” he told the panel which is reviewing the reorganization plan.
Under the executive order, the Agency of Public Safety would consist of two departments: the Department of Fire Safety & Emergency Management and the Department of Law Enforcement.
Asked what challenges Schirling thought the new agency might encounter ahead, he offered a quick reply, “Convincing the Legislature that this isn’t some nefarious thing that is going to break state government.” —AK
NOW FOR SOME D.C. NEWS…
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, swore in Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Tuesday as the presiding officer in the second impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump.
After taking the oath, Leahy then swore in all 100 senators as jurors in the impeachment process.
The impeachment trial is expected to officially begin the second week of February.
It was confirmed on Monday that Leahy, the current president pro tem, will be the presiding officer for the duration of the U.S. Senate’s impeachment trial.
“When I preside over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, I will not waver from my constitutional and sworn obligations to administer the trial with fairness, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws,” Leahy said in a statement Monday. —KN
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