Legislative counsel Damien Leonard told House members Friday morning that to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Legislature is required to designate someone to process accommodation requests.
Accommodations can include services such as closed captioning that make the lawmaking process accessible to Vermonters with disabilities.
But the Legislature does not have that designated person, Leonard said.
“It’s something that we’ve been required to have under the ADA for a while, and I think it probably was just an oversight,” Leonard said.
That became apparent when someone requested accommodations to participate in a House Health Care Committee meeting, Leonard told the House Discrimination Prevention Panel.
The committee’s Friday meeting about insurance coverage for hearing aids included a sign language interpreter and manual captioning.
“I think we were all struck today,” said Rep. Mari Cordes, D/P-Lincoln. “Just on the House Health Care Committee, we all had a quick glimpse into how hard it is for someone with a disability to access policymaking in the Statehouse.”
Accommodations are managed by the sergeant-at-arms office and the Office of Legislative Operations in collaboration with the Office of Legislative Information Technology, according to Cordes, who also chairs the Discrimination Prevention Panel.
Accessibility is a longtime issue at the Statehouse. Advocates listed myriad barriers at a House panel meeting earlier this month. In the physical building, many committee rooms are far too small for wheelchairs to navigate, and there are few accessible parking spaces, according to Sarah Launderville, executive director of Vermont Center for Independent Living. The accessible entrance is sometimes locked.
While Zoom lawmaking has opened up some opportunities for remote participation, online spaces present their own challenges, said Launderville, who also serves as president of the Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights.
Complicated web pages can be inaccessible to people who use screen readers. Members of the public have to specifically request sign language interpretation. Automated closed captioning is often incorrect — the word “deaf” often comes up as “death,” Launderville said.
Plain language on websites would make that content more accessible to Vermonters with intellectual or developmental disabilities, said Susan Aranoff, senior planner and policy analyst for the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council.
Sergeant-at-Arms Janet Miller said her office is in the process of reviewing accessibility at the Statehouse.
But beyond tangible and online design, improved awareness of disability etiquette would also help, Launderville said at a Feb. 4 meeting. She described occasions at the Statehouse where individuals grabbed wheelchairs to try to move people through the hallway.
Launderville also recounted her own jarring experience, referencing one of her first times participating in Disability Awareness Day at the capitol. She was at a table passing out information when “one of the senators, who’s a prominent senator still, today,” she said, approached her and asked, “Well, what’s your disability?”
Now years later, she described feeling taken aback, not knowing how to respond. At that point, she had not spoken publicly about her disability.
“I didn’t want to talk about any of that,” she told the panel, “especially when I was just trying to say, ‘Here’s something about the Home Access Program.’”
— Riley Robinson
IN THE KNOW
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, insists that legislators want to finish up a statewide ethics code this year, despite “some indication in some media that maybe we weren’t even interested.” The bill just isn’t ready yet, she said.
“Our intent always was to get something out this year and to work really hard to get it right,” she said during the Senate Committee on Government Operations meeting Friday afternoon. “I don’t think any of us had any interest in shelving this or dragging our feet.”
The committee reviewed another round of amendments to S.171 on Friday, of which representatives of the judicial branch said they approved. The committee is set for another hearing on the bill Wednesday.
Vermont State Ethics Commission Executive Director Christina Sivret said she was “feeling really good” about Friday’s draft. Her optimism is notable after the Ethics Commission’s Feb. 15 letter to the committee urged them to not abandon this year’s effort after numerous failed attempts in years past.
“The draft Code of Ethics we have been discussing for the last several weeks is the result of years of collaborative research, drafting, and public comment,” the commission wrote at the time. “To gut it now would substitute the judgment of a few for the judgment of many.”
Not so keen on the bill, however, was Vincent Illuzzi, a lobbyist for the Vermont State Employees Association, which represents roughly 6,000 government workers who would be subject to such a code of ethics. He urged the committee to push out the code’s start date to January or July of 2023 to avoid “any unintended consequences” — an idea at which Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, balked.
At the request of Sivret, Jason Grammit, the Executive Director of Rhode Island’s Ethics Commission, attended Friday’s hearing to offer a comparison to a neighboring state’s own ethics code. Compared with other states, he said S. 171’s is “modest.”
Vermont is one of few states to have no statewide ethics code whatsoever.
“When you go from zero to something, of course, it seems very strict, right? But if you look across the country, I think you will find that this is a very modest proposal,” he said.
— Sarah Mearhoff
To exempt, or not to exempt?
GlobalFoundries, a global microchip manufacturer with a plant based in Essex Junction, employs more workers than anyone else in the state’s private sector. It also uses 8% of Vermont’s electricity — comparable to the city of Burlington.
Last spring, the company asked the Public Utility Commission if it could become its own self-managed utility, cutting costs by purchasing its electricity from the regional wholesale market instead of Green Mountain Power. It sought to be exempt from the state’s renewable energy standard, which requires utilities to purchase increasing amounts of energy from renewable sources — 100% by 2030.
On Thursday, news broke that the Public Utility Commission ruled against GlobalFoundries, saying the company will need to comply with the renewable energy standard — barring a specific exemption from the Legislature.
Environmentalists lauded the move, while Republicans issued a press release Friday morning calling for the Legislature to immediately create such an exemption.
“Global Foundries paid $36 million for electricity in 2020,” Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, the House minority leader, said in a statement. “Their annual electricity bills in Vermont are nearly twice as much as those in New York where they have facilities in Malta and Fishkill. Global Foundries made clear in their petition that controlling these costs is absolutely critical to its ability to stay competitive in a very competitive chip market. The Legislature must help.”
— Emma Cotton
A proposed change to Burlington’s city charter that would allow officials to bar evictions done without “just cause” passed a critical hurdle Friday and is poised for final approval by the state House of Representatives.
The charter change — which would allow city councilors to pass an ordinance restricting the situations in which a landlord can evict tenants or not renew their lease — was approved by the House in a 98-49 vote, with four Democrats, two independents and all Republicans who were present opposing it.
To pass, the charter amendment must clear the House one more time and get approval from the Senate and governor.
— Jack Lyons
Vermont’s eye practitioners are in the middle of a contentious turf war over the right to cut into eyeballs.
Optometrists, the primary care provider of the eye world, are asking for the right to perform some superficial surgeries in Vermont. Their medical counterparts, ophthalmologists, say these nonmedical practitioners do not have the skills or training needed to conduct these procedures safely.
The latest installment of the yearslong battle played out at the Senate Committee on Government Operations on Friday afternoon. If passed, the bill, S.158, would grant optometrists the right to perform certain superficial surgeries, including injections of anesthetic, removal of skin tags from around the eyes and certain laser procedures.
Most of the discussion fell squarely into the technical world of eye care. There were long lists of difficult-to-pronounce surgical procedures and accusations of contradictory or misleading statements on both sides.
Baffled committee members intended to vote on the issue but decided instead to hand the bill to the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare for review before taking action.
— Liora Engel-Smith
The state and the Vermont State Employees’ Association reached an agreement on two-year bargaining contracts for members of the supervisory, corrections and nonmanagement units, according to a Friday press release. The contracts would cover more than 6,000 state employees.
The agreements include wage increases, lump sum payments, increased shift and weekend differentials, hearing aids reimbursement, and options for additional life insurance, according to the release.
For the benefits to go into effect, they next need to be passed through the Legislature.
VSEA Executive Director Steve Howard said he hopes better wages and shift differentials help alleviate some of the staffing shortages in state agencies.
“It’s a first step toward beginning to acknowledge who the real heroes and heroines are of the pandemic,” he said. “It’s not the politicians at the press conference. It’s not Dr. (Mark) Levine. It includes them, but mostly it’s the people who you don’t see, who have given up their holidays, their kids’ birthdays, their vacations, their weekends keeping the state government functioning throughout the pandemic.”
— Riley Robinson
Witnesses turned up, virtually, in droves Friday to testify during a joint hearing held by the Senate Judiciary and Senate Agriculture committees on S.268, a bill that would limit the types of nuisance suits that neighboring landowners can bring against farms across the state.
Michael O’Grady, a lawyer from the Office of Legislative Counsel, said the bill came after farmers expressed concerns about a pending case against the Vorsteveld Farm in Panton. Neighbors brought a suit because vast amounts of runoff have flowed through their property and into Lake Champlain.
The state’s current right to farm law has scarcely been used since it was updated in 2003. But as real estate prices surge, farmers fear that many moving to the state have resources to bring unnecessary nuisance lawsuits that farmers do not have the money or time to defend. Many cited increasing examples of complaints from neighbors about smells and common farming practices.
Environmental groups and attorneys told lawmakers the state’s existing right to farm law strikes the right balance between protecting farms and leaving room for neighbors to bring action when their health and welfare are jeopardized.
— Emma Cotton
ON THE MOVE
The Senate on Friday morning passed two bills by voice vote: S.175 and S.265. The former would restrict public agencies from releasing identifying information of children when they are arrested unless such information is necessary for public safety. The latter would bolster the state’s criminal threatening laws, in response to increased threats directed toward state elections and public health officials in the past two years. Passed by the Senate, the bills now go to the House.
— Sarah Mearhoff
IN THE FEED
The Vermont Democratic Party on Thursday hosted a virtual “speaker soiree” fundraiser, featuring Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington; Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown; and Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington. According to party Finance Director Kate Olney, the event raised $28,500.
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, on Twitter seemed, ahem, unamused, citing a law passed by the Legislature in 2015 banning political contributions from lobbyists to political leadership PACs during the legislative biennium. While the event didn’t violate the law because checks were made out to the party, Scheuermann said the event flouted the “intent and spirit of the law.”
Avid #vtpoli tweeter Dave Silberman shot back, noting that Scheurmann is no stranger to big-dollar donations. According to state campaign finance records, she received $1,040 from noted conservative donor Skip Vallee — as well as $1,040 from his business — during her 2020 election cycle.
— Sarah Mearhoff
WHAT WE’RE READING
Experts weigh Scott’s decision to end school mask mandate guidance (VTDigger)
Three days along North America’s longest backcountry ski trail (The Washington Post)
Ice fishing newcomers turn to free classes to learn the Vermont tradition (VPR)
