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Committee backs amendment to S.109 requiring courts and judges to report county courthouse capital planning
Summary
The committee supported offering an amendment to S.109 (version 3.1) that would require the Court Administrator and a representative of the Vermont Association of County Judges to jointly report on implementation of revised capital‑budget request criteria; the committee gave a straw vote in favor, 10‑0‑1.
Eric Fitzpatrick of the Office of Legislative Council described a proposed amendment to Judiciary’s miscellaneous bill S.109 that would add criteria for how county courthouse capital requests are evaluated and require a joint report on implementation.
Fitzpatrick said the amendment (version 3.1) would ask the court administrator to consider whether a county request is consistent with a capital program under Title 24 V.S.A. §133, whether the project appears in the county’s capital list in the annual budget, and whether the county has a capital reserve fund and the amount contributed to it. He said those elements are optional in current law but the amendment would require the court administrator to record that information when reviewing requests.
Joyce McKeeman, an assistant judge in Orange County and president of the Vermont Association of County Judges, said the association supports the change and that an appointed representative would work with the court administrator to prepare the required report. “We’ll decide among ourselves who the best person will be ... to work with the court administrator over the next few months to get the report together,” she said.
Court Administrator Terry Horzano told the committee the language is workable and that the revised drafting addresses earlier concerns about the report being prepared unilaterally by the court administrator. The committee discussed a delayed effective date for the statutory changes; the amendment sets an effective date of July 1, 2026, and requires a report back in January next year describing steps taken, processes considered, and any proposed legislative changes.
The chair moved that the committee support offering the proposed amendment to the House Committee on Judiciary for S.109; the motion was seconded and the committee gave a straw vote in favor, recorded as 10 yes, 0 no, 1 abstention. The chair said the amendment will be offered to House Judiciary and that a new draft (4.1) will reflect the joint‑report wording.
Committee members and witnesses discussed next steps: assistant judges and the court administrator will use the summer and fall to routinize capital planning and prepare the joint report describing implementation and any recommended legislative changes. The committee placed this item on a path toward formal consideration by House Judiciary rather than immediate local action.
