Spurred by social media, at least eight Vermont communities used March Town Meeting to voice support for an advisory article calling for Gov. Phil Scott to guard against “federal overreach.”
“It was last-minute but seems to have taken off,” Putney resident Laura Chapman said after posting an online resolution a week ago calling for Scott to “publicly reaffirm his commitment to upholding the rule of law, protecting the rights of Vermonters and the Vermont Constitution amidst federal overreach, even if confronted with federal threats related to funding or other matters.”
According to local officials, Town Meetings in Guilford and Westminster approved the article by voice vote as part of their closing “other business” Saturday. Wallingford used its Monday gathering to ask it be placed on its selectboard’s March 17 agenda. Brookfield, Dummerston, East Montpelier, Peru and Putney endorsed it Tuesday.
Chapman wrote the resolution in response to recent federal cuts by President Donald Trump and the new Department of Government Efficiency.
“Everything we’ve come to rely on is being threatened,” she said. “I believe our congressional delegation is standing up, and I’ve seen our governor listen to us, so I’m hopeful that by hearing from enough people, he will take it to heart.”
Scott’s office had not responded to requests for comment as of noon Wednesday.
The advisory article was one of two considered by multiple communities, joining a citizen-petitioned call in six municipalities to join an apartheid-free.org pledge for “freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people.”
Before the vote, the resolution drew letters to the editor in which some residents deemed it supportive of people in the Gaza region and others labeled it an attack on Israel. “Yes” signs outside polls in Brattleboro featured the apartheid-free.org logo, while “no” signs offered the words “Harms local Jewish families,” “Is antisemitic” and “Divides our community.”
The results were equally split.
Newfane voted 46-16 for the article, but only after amending it to add calls for all sides “to acknowledge the pain and trauma they have inflicted on the other” and “to accept the right for both sides to exist,” according to Town Clerk Carol Hesselbach.
Thetford approved the pledge in a nonunanimous voice vote after an unsuccessful attempt to reword it, Town Clerk Tracy Borst said.
Casting ballots, two communities approved it, with Brattleboro voting 1,291-964 and Winooski voting 655-252, local officials said, while two cities rejected it, with Montpelier voting 887-1,181 and Vergennes voting 162-392.
“There was a strong organized push to vote it down, so I think that’s what happened,” Montpelier City Clerk John Odum said.
Local leaders reported few defeats of municipal government budgets and other spending requests, with expensive water and sewer capital projects approved in Burlington, Killington, Middlebury, Rutland City, St. Albans City and St. Johnsbury.
