Department of Public Safety briefs appropriations committee on radio replacements, staffing changes and new animal welfare division

Commissioner Jennifer Morrison told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the Vermont Department of Public Safety (DPS) is seeking targeted funding to address equipment replacement, new positions and grant shortfalls as it presented an overview of the department and its budget priorities.

Morrison said DPS comprises multiple divisions — led by the Vermont State Police, VCIC, Radio Technology Services, Fire Safety, Vermont Emergency Management, the State Forensic Laboratory and the recently created Division of Animal Welfare — and asked the committee for support for several line items in the budget.

The request includes a $500,000 base appropriation to begin a radio replacement cycle, additional federal funding and a proposed one-time general fund contribution. Rick Hallenbeck, director of finance administration, described the funding package as a combination of federal dollars (about $2.5 million), a $920,000 one-time general-fund proposal and the $500,000 base request to reach a roughly $4–4.5 million replacement target. Hallenbeck said the department’s goal is to establish a regular replacement cycle and that, in an ideal scenario, radios would be rotated so the fleet remains on an eight-to-ten-year cycle, replacing about one-quarter of radios each year.

Morrison and Hallenbeck also described a $600,000 match request for a cybersecurity grant program and noted reductions in some federal grants: the Emergency Management Performance Grant and Homeland Security grant funds have declined, with the Homeland Security allocation dropping from a prior range of roughly $5.1–$5.6 million to about $4.3 million in the most recent year, a shortfall the department says reduces the pool available for local equipment and other grants.

Morrison announced that the legislature transferred responsibility for animal welfare to DPS last year and that DPS has hired Lisa Mylott, who currently holds an endowed chair at the University of Georgia Law School, to be the division’s director. Morrison said Mylott will relocate to Vermont after the spring semester to develop a statewide animal-welfare plan within the director’s first eight months. She said the enabling special fund for the position is derived from a surcharge on dog licenses and estimated the surcharge as “a dollar on every dog license,” and that roughly $140,000 would be the expected special-fund amount to support the position.

The department reported several internal staffing and structural changes. Morrison said DPS converted 11 sworn law-enforcement positions to civilian roles where duties do not require arrest powers, citing hiring difficulties for sworn positions; she gave examples including converting a cold-case investigator and the communications director for the two PSAPs (public-safety answering points) to civilian posts. Morrison said the conversions produce savings because civilian pay scales and retirement systems differ from those for sworn officers, but she added those savings were not returned to DPS as base funding.

Morrison and Hallenbeck also described line-item updates: a historical statutory $405,000 appropriation for the statewide drug task force and $190,000 for local officers remains in statute; the department is requesting an increase of $156,000 to modernize the appropriation to current salary levels because vacancies in prior years suppressed spending. They noted other replacement cycles the department is maintaining, including a five-year replacement cycle for duty firearms and ongoing efforts to keep vehicles and other technology on replacement schedules.

On regional dispatch, Morrison said the task force formed under Act 78 has produced a draft consultant report released for public comment about three weeks earlier; the department is taking feedback and expects the task force to prioritize recommendations before work on pilot projects and implementation follows. Morrison said the FY24 appropriation for regional dispatch work totaled $11 million (including $2 million for consultant work and $4.5 million earmarked for pilot projects with the remaining funds in reserve), and that more discussion will be required once recommendations from the task force are finalized.

Rick Hallenbeck flagged an audit repeat finding: DPS had not reported some subrecipient awards to the federal reporting portal (the transcript notes the site name change to sam.gov), and the department revised procedures to capture new and amended awards.

Morrison and her leadership team fielded committee questions about timelines, funding sources and program details and said staff stand ready to provide additional information. No formal committee action on the DPS budget occurred during this presentation.

The department’s presenters who spoke to the committee during this portion of the meeting included Commissioner Jennifer Morrison; Deputy Commissioner Dan Batesy; Rick Hallenbeck, director of finance administration; Colonel Matthew Birmingham, director of Vermont State Police; Jeff Wallen, director of VCIC; Corey Chase, director of Radio Technology Services; Mike Deroscher, executive director of Fire Safety; Eric Forand, director of Vermont Emergency Management; Dr. Tricia Conte, director of the Vermont Forensic Laboratory; and Lisa Mylott (incoming director, Division of Animal Welfare).