Spend enough time in the Statehouse, and you may begin to understand it as a kind of ecosystem.
Representatives and senators compete over leafy pages of legislation. Lobbyists seek to rustle up the most nutritious bills for their clients. Green-coated pages ferry notes between the building’s understory and its rarefied upper canopy, while tourists, students and visitors pass through on migratory excursions. And sometimes the governor shows up, like a rare and powerful apex predator (Editor’s note: please nobody get mad at us).
Now, VTDigger can reveal that there is another occasional population of wild animals in the building: mice.
After hearing rumors earlier in the session of rodents in the building, your intrepid Final Reading reporters decided to investigate. After weeks on the trail of this story, we can confirm: it’s true, sometimes.
In case of a pest problem in a state building, complainants can submit a work order to the Department of Buildings and General Services.
Data obtained through a records request shows that the department has received seven work orders for rodents in the Statehouse since the beginning of the 2022 legislative session.
In March 2022, a state official submitted a work order after rodents were spotted in the cafeteria. “Mice activity reported,” the request reads.
Over the summer, staff requested mousetraps in the copy room, house clerk’s office and sergeant at arms’ office.
The mouse situation appeared to be most urgent in late fall.
“Is there anything additional that can be done regarding the mice problem in the Senate Secretary’s offices?” an official with the sergeant at arms’ office wrote in a November work order. “The traps located there are catching mice on a daily basis.”
A month later, a sergeant at arms official wrote to request mousetraps in the House speaker’s office and bathroom.
“The painters discovered a petrified mouse in a trap in the bathroom when painting,” the December work order reads. “We had to dispose of a sofa that had been in the speaker’s office due to mice infestation.”
The last mouse sighting reported to the department was in February, when officials requested traps on the Statehouse mezzanine.
Buildings and General Services staff placed traps in all the requested locations, according to the data, and all the rodent-related work orders have been closed.
State officials said that the occasional rodent visitor is simply a fact of life in old buildings such as the Statehouse, which was constructed more than 160 years ago. A mouse sighting every now and then is not indicative of a severe problem, officials say.
“Yes, we’ve had mice occasionally here,” Janet Miller, the Statehouse’s sergeant at arms, said in an interview earlier this year. “Because it’s an old building, and there’s a lot of nooks and crannies and little pathways for a little mouse to get in here. Or mice to get in here.”
“I mean, a couple-hundred-year-old building — yeah, there are mice sometimes,” said Erik Filkorn, principal assistant at the Department of Buildings and General Services. “But I don’t think we have anything out of the ordinary.”
Other work orders deal with insects, such as bees and wasps building nests outside the building.
I know what you’re thinking, Final Reader. “Pests? In the Legislature? Why, the jokes write themselves!”
That may be. But VTDigger is an organization based on Respect. And we will not abandon that principle today.
— Peter D’Auria
IN THE KNOW
A small coalition of Democratic and Progressive lawmakers in the Vermont House is threatening to vote to uphold Gov. Phil Scott’s predicted veto of the state budget if legislative leaders do not agree to continue funding a pandemic-era emergency housing program in motels.
House and Senate budget-writers are at work reconciling their versions of H.494, the state’s $8.5 billion budget. But on one topic, both chambers have thus far basically agreed: Vermont should end a program that, since 2020, has paid to house the vast majority of the state’s unhoused residents in motels and hotels.
— Lola Duffort
The House is moving forward with its impeachment efforts.
Less than 24 hours after House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, announced that the lower chamber would take the first of seven steps toward impeaching Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore and State’s Attorney John Lavoie, two House committees gathered in the Pavilion building for a joint session to discuss next steps.
The House is on its way to forming a seven-member committee to investigate the allegations against both officials. If the committee concludes there are grounds to proceed, the full House would then convene to vote on articles of impeachment, at which point the issue would be referred to the Senate for a trial.
House Clerk BetsyAnn Wrask, an expert of Vermont constitutional law, walked lawmakers through what Rep. Mike McCarthy, D-St. Albans, dubbed the “barely precedented” process to remove a Vermont official from elected office. When Wrask referred to Vermont’s most “recent” impeachment case of 1976, McCarthy said he “almost chuckled.”
“I think we’re taking kind of a one-step-at-a-time approach and making sure we’re being thoughtful about how we start the process and how we engage at each step, because this is such a rare and unprecedented — barely precedented — process,” he said.
One question was top of mind for Rep. Barbara Rachelson, D-Burlington: How long could this take? Would a final impeachment vote — if recommended by the investigatory committee — not happen until the 2024 session kicks off in January?
“I’m hoping that if we move forward, the option that gets taken off the table is, ‘We’ll do it in January,’” Rachelson said. “Because if it’s so bad that somebody needs to be impeached, waiting until January seems problematic.”
McCarthy didn’t make any promises, but hinted that leadership wants to move on a more expedited timeline than that. Leadership is in talks to pass a resolution to reconvene sometime this summer or fall to potentially take up the impeachment vote — so they won’t have to depend on Republican Gov. Phil Scott to call a special session.
“I don’t need the governor’s permission to do this,” Krowinski said Thursday.
— Sarah Mearhoff
ON THE MOVE
Vermont lawmakers in both chambers have now given approval to legislation that would create an indefinitely operating universal school meals program, though it’s unclear whether the governor will sign it.
On Friday, Vermont’s Senate voted to give initial approval to H.165, which would require schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to Vermont students. The legislation passed the House in March.
“About a year ago, when I heard about universal school meals, I remember thinking to myself, ‘That sounds nice, it makes sense, and let’s make sure kids are fed,’” Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, said on the floor Friday.
“And then I visited a local high school in my district and sat with a group of students and staff to hear about the program,” he said. “And when I heard the stories from the kids, and the world of difference that the teachers and staff noticed, I walked away recognizing that universal school meals was going to be one of my top priorities in the Legislature.”
— Peter D’Auria
WHAT WE’RE READING
Progressive champion Dean Corren dies at 67 (VTDigger)
Small acts with impact: How to help the environment this spring (VTDigger)
In surprise, Vermont’s deer test negative for COVID-19 virus (Vermont Public)
‘I can’t believe he shot me’: Road maintenance dispute prompted shooting, police say (VTDigger)
