Tom Golonka (Chair, Vermont Pension Investment Commission (VPIC)) thanked the House Government Operations Committee on Tuesday for listening to VPIC and the pension boards.  He noted that what they do is a tremendous obligation, and they take it very seriously, including the climate change problem. There is a 5-point plan that VPIC did which is on their website which he encouraged the Committee to read.

Golonka cautioned that the decisions of the Legislature do have an impact on the underfunding of the pension funds.  As an example, in 1970 the Legislature underfunded the pensions by $1M which today would be valued at $150M.  He reiterated that seemingly little changes matter and impact the funding status of the pension plans.

The House Government Operations Committee heard from several presenters Thursday morning speaking on S.42, which would seek to divest public pension funds of fossil fuel investments.

The House Government Operations Committee heard from Representative Brennan on Tuesday who, on behalf of the Town of Colchester, proposed an amendment to H.875 (the municipal ethics bill) which would require towns who have established policies and procedures on Ethics to be exempt from the entirety of the Bill upon submitting a letter from the legislative body to the State Ethics Commission by December 31^st of each year certifying that the municipality has adopted an ethics policy and  framework that does not conflict with the state standards.

Chairman McCarthy opened the House Government Operations Committee meeting on Tuesday morning by saying he was particularly busy visiting with the House Appropriations Committee regarding the grants bill, H.140. He shared with the Committee that he would like to offer an amendment to H.702 to insert the working Group concept from the previous bill into this one.

The Ethics Bill, Draft 24-0229 was passed out of the House Government Operations Committee after many hours of testimony and work by the Committee.  The final bill combined the two draft Ethics Bills that the Committee was working with – one focused on municipal ethics and the other on creating independent oversight authority for the Vermont Ethics Commission.  The final bill was passed out of committee on a 10 to 2 vote and will now receive a bill number and will appear on the House floor for a vote of the full body.

The House Government Operations Committee returned to Draft 4.3 of their municipal ethics bill on Thursday, which would create a uniform statewide code of ethics.

The first witness before the House Government Operation Committee on Wednesday was Carol Parsons (Retired Executive Director, Connecticut Office of State Ethics). She held many positions within Connecticut and Massachusetts Ethics Commissions.

Chairman McCarthy noted that the House Government Operations Committee would be reviewing Draft 3.2 of the state ethics bill on Wednesday morning and asked Legislative Counsel to review the changes made to previous draft. 

The House Government Operations Committee returned to two draft ethics bills on Wednesday. Jaye Pershing Johnson (General Counsel, Governor's Office) was up first, speaking to the good working relationship the Administration has with Ethics Commission. The Administration has no opposition to draft except to note that the Sheriffs already have a financial disclosure requirement. They believe these requirements should be equal and apply to all. Pershing Johnson had one caution however, which was that historically requirements for financial disclosures have a tendency to discourage folks from serving if the burden of disclosure is too great. She suggested that the  Legislature might want to avoid giving the appearance of ‘weaponizing’ the Commission.

The first person to testify on the draft ethics bills in front of the House Government Operations Committee was Ted Brady (Executive Director, Vermont League of Cities and Towns).

NOTE: Brady had submitted a letter to the Committee which we had read when preparing our last newsletter. In my mind, the letter did not clearly present the League’s position on a statewide ethics bill. In listening to this week's presentation, it became very clear what his position is.