Senate committee hears opposition to H.1 changes that delay ethics commission powers and remove required consultation

The Senate Committee on Government Operations on May 7 took testimony on H.1, the bill amending how the State Ethics Commission refers complaints and when its investigatory and hearing authority takes effect.

Michael Grady, with Legislative Council, told the committee that draft 1.1 of H.1 would remove the existing required consultation and instead require the commission to include "an application of the state code of ethics to the allegations and a recommended action" when it refers a complaint. Grady also described a two-year postponement of the commission’s investigatory and hearing authority from 2025 to 2027 in the draft.

The change would, Grady said, strike the prior required consultation language (referenced in the draft as a removal of "section 12 23 a") and make any advice the commission provides to a referred entity "confidential and nonbinding on the entity." He said the draft also removes an exception related to consultation records in section 12 31 and pushes back multiple effective dates so enforcement and hearing powers would not begin until Sept. 1, 2027.

Christina Sibrecht, identified in testimony as the executive director of the Munstead Ethics Commission, opposed the draft as written. She said H.1 "postpones the effective date of the commission's investigatory and hearing authority until September 2027," and that the bill would "bar the commission from investigating complaints" while also requiring the commission to "flag likely unethical behavior, based solely on the allegations made in the complaint, and then make recommendations as to what actions the referring agency should take." Sibrecht argued that the requirement to judge likely unethical conduct on the face of raw complaints is unrealistic given limited staff and often sparse complaint details.

Sibrecht described operational limits the commission faces: the office lacks attorneys, investigators and educators; it added a part‑time executive assistant in 2021 but not the positions needed to carry out investigatory duties. She said the commission currently provides advice to more than 200 municipalities that have appointed ethics liaisons and that delaying authority and removing consultation would "undermine the intent and purpose of a uniform code of ethics." Sibrecht said H.1, as drafted, risks inconsistent application of the code because referral entities would no longer be required to consult the commission’s expertise.

Thomas Jones, a professor who consults on state ethics, told the committee that other states in the Eastern Seaboard manage similar constitutional concerns by placing ethics agencies in an executive branch structure "for administrative purposes only," appointing liaisons and building trust over time. Jones said "in most of the state, particularly New England, there's a high level of trust between the ethics agency and the legislature," but that Vermont’s commission is still building that relationship.

Committee members discussed constitutional concerns raised in prior review and the role of staffing and funding. Committee remarks noted that nothing in H.1 would prohibit a legislative or judicial panel from asking the commission for consultation voluntarily after a referral, but the bill would remove the statutory requirement that such consultation occur. Senators on the committee and witnesses said the draft delays effective dates because of staffing and funding shortages and to avoid imposing enforcement duties the commission could not staff immediately.

No vote or formal motion on H.1 was recorded at the hearing. Committee discussion closed with the chair thanking witnesses and noting the committee will continue work on H.1 and other bills.

The committee hearing record includes references in the draft to "section 12 23 a," "section 12 31," an effective date of Sept. 1, 2025 for portions of the act and Sept. 1, 2027 for enforcement and commission‑related confidentiality provisions, and to the 2024 enactment referenced in the draft as "2024, number 171."