Witnesses ask lawmakers to fix meeting‑law changes so site visits and Brattleboro’s representative town meeting remain practical

Maura Collins, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA), told the Senate Government Operations Committee that recent changes to Vermont’s open‑meeting law are preventing VHFA and similar quasi‑state agencies from doing routine site visits and board retreats.

“We are a quasi state agency. We were created 50 years ago by this body legislature, and our specific purpose is to finance and promote affordable, safe, and decent housing for low and moderate income homeowners,” Collins said. She explained VHFA does not receive state appropriations for operations, issues tax‑exempt bonds and uses loan proceeds to finance mortgages and affordable rental housing. Collins said the change in definitions — which now classify VHFA as a non‑advisory state body because the board votes on an agency budget — has restricted the agency’s ability to hold site visits that require staff and board members to move in the field, sometimes through construction sites and tenant units.

Collins said VHFA’s nine‑member board regularly conducts site visits and an annual board retreat that sometimes requires short walks between properties. “There was no way to meaningfully, materially do that meeting while we’re walking down the street,” she said, adding that bringing cameras and streaming every step of a site visit would be inappropriate for tenant privacy and an inefficient use of agency funds.

Collins and other witnesses recommended two fixes the committee could consider: reinstate language that preserves a deliberative or site‑visit exemption, or alter the definition so the term “budget” applies only to state general‑fund appropriations rather than agency operational budgets financed by bond proceeds.

Brattleboro town officials and residents testified that the town’s representative town meeting (RTM) structure — 38 elected representatives who meet in person, typically in the Brattleboro High School gym — is not practical to run as a hybrid proceeding. Town Manager John Fier said hybrid operations produce logistical issues, delays in vote tallying and concerns about vote integrity when some members are remote: “Running a hybrid version of this meeting presents significant logistical issues and hurdles, delays in vote tallying, lost time switching between platforms, questions on keeping a quorum, and serious challenges to maintaining attendance and the integrity of the debate.”

Senator Wendy Harrison, who said she attended a Brattleboro RTM as a resident before serving in the Legislature, described the meeting as an effective local institution and said hybrid procedures have been tried and found wanting in Brattleboro. Several senators and witnesses discussed a possible narrow solution: clarifying that the obligation to provide electronic access applies only when an eligible participant or member requests it and where it is feasible. Committee members noted existing statutory language requires accommodation where feasible and that providing a single phone line or limited remote access for members of the public could satisfy the statute in some cases.

No formal amendment or vote on S.59 was taken in the committee during the recorded testimony. Committee members said they would review the language, consult legislative counsel and consider restoring the site‑visit and deliberative exemptions or otherwise clarifying the definition of “budget” so it does not capture quasi‑state agencies whose operations are not funded by general‑fund appropriations.

The Brattleboro RTM is scheduled for March 22; witnesses said the timing makes a prompt legislative fix desirable if the changes remain unclear.