For the past eight months, municipal officials seeking advice from the Vermont State Ethics Commission have been greeted by an apology on the organization’s website.
“With regret, due to lack of staffing,” the top of the webpage reads, “the State Ethics Commission can no longer provide advisory and complaint services to municipalities.”
In 2024, the Vermont Legislature established a uniform code of ethics for town and city governments, and directed the State Ethics Commission to provide training, advice and guidance on how to uphold it. Lawmakers, however, failed to provide the commission with additional resources to fulfill those duties.
With one part-time executive director and one part-time administrative assistant, commission officials say, providing advice to municipalities has become “an impossibility.” Paul Erlbaum, one of five volunteer state ethics commissioners, told lawmakers this week that the body may disband altogether if lawmakers don’t approve at least $300,000 in additional funding next year for two new staff positions. The commission’s budget this fiscal year is about $250,000.
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“The commission staff is just treading water. And frankly we’re going to go down unless we get staff.”
Paul Erlbaum, commissioner, Vermont State Ethics Commission
“The continued existence of the commission is precarious, I’ll put it that way,” Erlbaum told members of the Senate Government Operations Committee. “We know this is a really, really tight budget year — we’re not doubting that. But the commission staff is just treading water. And frankly we’re going to go down unless we get staff.”
The ethics commission came into being in 2018 after government watchdogs routinely panned the state for its lack of any independent oversight apparatus. Lawmakers expanded the commission’s duties dramatically in 2024 by reforming the ethics regulatory landscape for municipalities, and directing the commission to vet complaints and issue advisory opinions.
Will Stevens, another commissioner, said the panel exists not only “to ensure good governance,” but to signal to Vermonters that “our representative form of government is acting in their broad interests.”
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With public trust in government at historic lows, Stevens said, the role of the ethics commission is especially important now.
Alex Driehaus
/
Associated Press
Chittenden County Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, seen here in a Statehouse committee room last year, said she’ll be supporting increased funding for the Vermont State Ethics Commission.
“The Legislature, while acting with good intent, created what amounts to an unfunded mandate,” Stevens said. “It’s a time-honored practice to ensure an entity’s failure to give it more to do while limiting their resources.”
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Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed the 2024 legislation that expanded the commission’s duties to go into law without his signature. While he welcomed the increased oversight, Scott said at the time, he objected to creating new administrative burdens without additional funding.
Though Scott’s concerns proved prescient, the budget he presented to lawmakers earlier this month does not include additional funding for the commission.
“We had to make difficult choices in this budgetary cycle, knowing the limited amount of resources that we have,” Scott said Wednesday.
That leaves lawmakers to decide, once again, whether to fund the good-governance instrument they created.
“The question has to be raised — is the point just so we can feel good and pat ourselves on the back and say we’re doing something without actually doing anything?”
Chittenden County Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky
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Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, a member of the Senate Government Operations Committee, has advocated for increased funding for the commission for years. The Chittenden County Progressive said it’s been tough to make any headway with members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I think there is often a sense that things are sort of fine. And sure, we should do something, but it can wait,” Vyhovsky said.
Vyhovsky said the commission’s request is small relative to the $9.4 billion state budget. Given the financial strain on the commission now, she said, failure to fund additional staff will raise questions about the Legislature’s commitment to its mission.
“At that point,” Vyhovsky said, “the question has to be raised — is the point just so we can feel good and pat ourselves on the back and say we’re doing something without actually doing anything?”
ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. (Aging Untold) — For 10 days, the Champlain Valley Fair, a county fair in Vermont, becomes its own little town with thousands of people, hot afternoons and the occasional emergency.
Charlene Phelps, 74, runs the fair’s emergency response team.
“We have a lot of seniors that come and people don’t drink enough water,” Phelps said.
The team handles sprains, bee stings, heat exhaustion and whatever comes through.
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“I like taking care of people, I like helping people,” Phelps said.
Living out a childhood dream
It’s also a childhood dream.
Phelps wanted to be a nurse, but college wasn’t possible, so she found another route into care and has been showing up year after year at the fair.
Aging Untold expert Amy O’Rourke said living out your purpose can improve mental and spiritual well-being.
“When you tap into that, you’re tapping in on a place that’s a risk, that’s a challenge that inevitably creates growth inside you, gives you confidence so that if you’re in another situation you can build on that,” O’Rourke said. “Or, if you’re in an everyday situation where you’re a little anxious, it’ll help create stabilization in that place as well.”
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Saving lives at the fair
Sometimes it’s bigger than a bandage.
“Over on there near the swings way over there is Gustovo, and we saved his life,” Phelps said.
Gustovo had gone into cardiac arrest at the fair a few years ago.
“I mean he was gone,” Phelps said.
Now he’s back and working the rides.
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“Came for my hug, Gustovo,” Phelps said.
O’Rourke said stories like this are also why some people keep working past retirement age. Purpose isn’t a number, it’s a role.
“I’ve seen a 92-year-old still working as a nurse’s aid. I’ve seen people in my neighborhood chilling out and loving it,” O’Rourke said. “So, I think it’s being really self-aware of what you need and making sure that you’re getting those needs met.”
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A plan by Gov. Phil Scott’s administration to make all of the state’s lottery games, including scratch-off tickets, available on a person’s phone never got off the ground at the Statehouse this year.
Lottery Commissioner Wendy Knight told lawmakers in January that the plan was a way to modernize the lottery “because you need to keep pace with technology — you need to meet your players where they are.”
Fifteen states have created a “digital” lottery system, and many have discovered there’s a distinct market of people who don’t buy lottery tickets at retail outlets but will do so on their phones, according to Knight. “We’re trying to ensure the future of the Vermont Lottery, ” the commissioner said.
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But state lawmakers have not been persuaded.
Vergennes Rep. Matt Birong, the Democratic chair of the House government operations committee, said members of the panel felt this year was not the time to move forward with this plan, especially given the recent legalization of sports betting.
“It is digitizing a current system and after moving forward with the sports wagering — people just wanted to take their time with it — so my committee decided to tap the brakes on further testimony.”
The administration estimated that the plan would have raised roughly $5 million a year for the state’s education fund after two years of implementation.
The prospect of that additional revenue is appealing to lawmakers, and Birong said they may reconsider the plan next year.
