Committee hears competing requests on S.59 open-meeting changes for VHFA site visits and communications union districts

The House Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs heard testimony on S.59 on changes to Vermontting law on Tuesday, as lawmakers and stakeholders worked to reconcile competing requests from the Vermont Housing Finance Agency and communications union districts.

Why it matters: S.59 would change how public bodies may meet and when in-person locations are required. The decisions could alter how municipal-style utilities and quasi-state entities conduct public business and how Vermonters without reliable internet access can observe local governance.

Maura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, told the committee the Senatelanguage that reached the House "does exempt quasi state agencies like VHFA from the hybrid piece of Open Meeting Law, when we do site visits." Collins said her board values site visits to construction and completed affordable housing projects and that the VHFA statute is silent on site visits; she opposed the Secretary of Stateoffice's suggested language as written because it would rely on a statutory mandate VHFA does not have. "As written, the Secretary of State's request wouldn't work for us," she said, and asked the…