Municipal and Town Meetings

We have acted on several bills to accommodate continued remote participation at municipal meetings and at this year’s Town Meeting if needed. Governor Scott has signed S.172 which allows a municipality to:

(1) by vote of the municipal legislative body, apply the Australian ballot system to the municipality’s 2022 annual meeting; and
(2) move the date of the municipality’s 2022 annual meeting to a potentially safer date later in the year.

and is considering S.222 which would allow:

(1) a person shall not be required to collect voter signatures in order to have the person’s name placed on the ballot as a candidate for a local election that is held at a 2022 annual municipal meeting.
(b) any school district article of agreement that requires the ballots of member municipalities to be commingled by the district, the legislative body of a school district may vote that ballots for the 2022 annual district meeting shall not be commingled before counting. The ballots may be counted by each
member town and the results reported to the school district clerk for determination of the official district-wide results.

S.222 hasn’t been sent to the governor yet. This bill allows for the temporary suspension of a designated physical meeting location.

S.223	An act relating to authorizing temporary elections procedures for annual meetings in the year 2022
S.222	An act relating to authorizing temporary Open Meeting Law procedures in response to COVID-19
S.172	An act relating to authorizing alternative procedures for 2022 annual municipal meetings in response to COVID-19

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Secretary of State Jim Condos and Deputy Secretary Chris Winters Launch Elections ‘Myth v. Fact’ Page

Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos and Deputy Secretary of State Chris Winters launched an Elections ‘Myth v. Fact’ page on theSecretary of State’s website in an effort to inoculate voters from election related disinformation stemming from baseless conspiracy theories surrounding elections.

This resource is being released in conjunction with the launch of the #TrustedInfo2022 campaign by the National Association of Secretaries of State. #TrustedInfo2022 is a bipartisan effort to combat election disinformation by promoting trusted, official sources like the Vermont Secretary of State’s office.

The ‘Myth v. Fact’ page on the Secretary of State’s website is divided by category, based on some of the more common baseless claims made about U.S. and Vermont elections. The page will be updated as a resource to Vermonters as we enter the 2022 election season, and beyond.

The Secretary of State’s Office encourages all Vermonters to reach out to their local election officials (Town Clerks are a great resource!) or to the Secretary of State’s Office with questions about how elections are administered in Vermont and to, please, think before you link!

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Schools and COVID, Pupil Weighting and Vermont’s Education Finance System

The Pupil Weighting Implementation Task Force issued an incomplete final report on December 17th. Stakeholder concerns about the December 17th report, including whether or not new recommendations would violate students civil rights, were held at bay while final calculations that had been made by the Task Force were requested from the nationally recognized education finance scientists from Rutgers and UVM that assessed the current equity of Vermont’s formula. That report was issued this week, validating stakeholder concerns. I will ask for a public hearing on the final recommendations now that the tbd information in the requested memo has been received by the Task Force. In addition, districts that have been harmed in this process need to have their voices heard and be invited to participate in the correction of this 20 year injustice, and I will be working to ensure concrete actions to stop ongoing harm to students, districts and taxpayers is brought forward this year.

Last week House and Senate Leadership decided to send various pieces of the recommendations from the Weighting Task Force Implementation Plan to different committees to debate and discuss. According to a Vermont School Boards Association webinar, the House Ways and Means Committee anticipates receiving all of the work and passing out final legislation from their committee. In anticipation of that, the committee will be talking about education finance on Thursday mornings from 9 – noon. The sessions will be recorded and can be viewed on YouTube.

Many thanks to our local boards throughout the Valley and Southern Vermont that are working so hard to correct this 20 year injustice to our students, communities and taxpayers. We have made a lot of progress, and the work continues.

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Public hearing on Vermont’s teacher and State employee pension systems: The Vermont Pension Benefits, Design and Funding Task Force has published its report, including recommended changes to the pension and retirees’ health systems. The report can be found at  https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Legislative-Reports/WRebecca-WassermanPension-Task-Force-Final-Report-and-Recommendations-January-20221-10-2022.pdf

The Senate Committee on Government Operations will hold a public hearing regarding Task Force recommendations on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to register to speak at the hearing and/or submit written testimony. The Committee encourages the public to review the Task Force’s Final Report before testifying. Anyone interested in testifying must sign up in advance of the hearing through the following online form: https://legislature.vermont.gov/links/pension-benefits-public-hearingInstructions on how to access and participate in the hearing will be sent once you have signed up for the hearing. Testimony time will be limited to two minutes per person. To submit written testimony, please e-mail an MS Word file or PDF file to testimony@leg.state.vt.us.The public hearing will be available to watch live on YouTube at the following link:  https://legislature.vermont.gov/committee/streaming/senate-government-operations For more information about the format of these events, contact Mike Ferrant at mferrant@leg.state.vt.us.

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The Reapportionment of Vermont’s House and Senate Districts

Today the House voted to consider both the majority and minority redistricting maps that the non partisan Legislative Apportionment Board proposed changes which includes a set that does away with all two member districts and a set that preserves two member districts. The work now goes to the House Government Operations Committee. My vote on the final maps will rely almost exclusively on the information that I receive from each town in our district. If you have concerns about the proposed maps, please first be in touch with your Town Clerk and Board of Civil Authority to find out when and how they will be weighing in with the legislature.

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2022 Bills Sponsored by Rep. Sibilia

H.467	An act relating to extending the baseload renewable power portfolio requirement
H.511	An act relating to promoting housing in Vermont’s centers
H.518	An act relating to the creation of the Municipal Fuel Switching Grant Program
H.552	An act relating to transportation initiatives to reduce carbon emissions
H.566	An act relating to the establishment of the Vermont Forest Future Program
H.581	An act relating to rural economic development
H.582	An act relating to the creation of the Pipelines and Pathways Grant Program
H.584	An act relating to the creation of an antiracist education certification
H.585	An act relating to reapportionment
H.609	An act relating to technical corrections to Title 16
H.628	An act relating to amending a birth certificate to reflect gender identity
H.673	An act relating to permits for overweight and overlength motor vehicles
H.674	An act relating to requiring the removal of snow and ice from vehicles operated on public highways
H.678	An act relating to legislator compensation and benefits

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Noteworthy legislative items:

VTDigger: With a quick trip to Montpelier, Vermont lawmakers kick off 2022 session

Brattleboro Reformer: Surge in COVID cases has lawmakers making remote return

Rutland Herald: Rural caucus unveils omnibus bill to help forest industry

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Latest OpEds and Blog Posts

• Rep. Sibilia: 1/6/2022 COVID-19 Updates
• Rep. Sibilia: A look at the 2022 Legislative Session
• Rep. Sibilia: Join Team Schools and Hospitals in 2022!

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