Vermont sheriffs outline staffing, compensation and dispatch concerns to Senate Government Operations Committee

Sheriffs and their central office staff briefed the Senate Government Operations Committee on Jan. 21 about staffing pressures, compensation changes and several systemwide issues that the association says need legislative attention.

The meeting focused on three near-term concerns the Vermont Sheriff's Association raised for the committee: (1) compensation and a multi-year effort that produced a retirement provision for deputies that went into effect this month; (2) a compensation bill under development (including a statutory 5% contract-augmentation mechanism under Title 24) intended to improve pay parity with other law enforcement; and (3) a state dispatch study that the sheriffs say raises difficult governance and funding questions.

The sheriffs presented their remarks to the committee as a statewide, operational briefing rather than to seek a specific bill at the hearing. "Being sheriff is kinda like a three-legged stool. You need to be a politician, you need to be a businessman or business person, and you need to be a law enforcement officer," said Sheriff Mark Anderson, Windham County, president of the Vermont Sheriff's Association. Anderson described a range of services sheriffs provide to the Agency of Human Services and local communities, including transporting inmates from out-of-state facilities back to Vermont, transporting youth for Department for Children and Families cases, and assisting the Department of Mental Health with high-risk medical transports.

Why it matters: committee members and sheriffs framed the issues as statewide operational problems with fiscal and legal dimensions. Sheriffs argued that pay and benefits affect recruitment and retention and that disparate local dispatch arrangements raise equity questions if the state proposes regional consolidation or new funding models.

Compensation and retirement: The sheriffs thanked the committee for a retirement measure they described as the result of an eight-year effort and said it "went into effect this month," improving parity for deputies. Sheriff Roger Marcum, identified as first vice president of the Vermont Sheriff's Association, described ongoing work on a compensation bill and explained the historical statutory mechanism that allowed sheriffs to augment salary through contracted services (commonly described in testimony as the Title 24 provision permitting up to a 5% augmentation). Marcum said the association has discussed capping that supplemental amount and making total sheriff compensation comparable to similarly situated state law-enforcement ranks.

Dispatch study and governance: Committee members asked about a contractor report on dispatch options. Sheriffs said drafts exist and that the analysis separates infrastructure (radio towers, interoperability, backup power) from operations (staffing at answering points). Anderson said Vermont's dispatch landscape is "organic" and fragmented — county, municipal and state answering points exist alongside interstate arrangements — and cautioned that any state-directed change would have to consider equity so that taxpayers who now pay for dispatch are not asked to take on added costs without offsetting support. The association said it will serve on technical advisory work related to the state—9s regional and county governance study.

Immigration enforcement and fair-and-impartial-policing policy: Committee members asked about how sheriffs will respond if federal immigration enforcement requests increase. The group described an existing statewide fair-and-impartial-policing policy developed through the Vermont Criminal Justice Council and updated on April 23, 2024, that the council and many agencies have adopted. "That policy is under review again," Anderson said, noting the policy must be revisited periodically and that legal complications can arise when federal civil immigration requests intersect with state criminal processes. Tim Dumont, executive director of the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs, and Tracy Patenaude, director of Sheriff's operations, also said that sheriffs rely on the attorney general's office and Criminal Justice Council legal staff for guidance but that smaller sheriff offices often lack in-house counsel for rapid legal decisions.

Transport workload and staffing requests: Sheriffs told the committee that transport workload has increased sharply since COVID-19 and that transport teams are sometimes deployed for 16 to 18 hours in a day. Anderson said counties weigh cost options (airline, driving, U.S. Marshals contracted transport) and that personnel and travel costs have risen. The association said an appropriation request for additional transport personnel is expected to the legislature soon; no formal request was voted on during the hearing.

Training, curriculum and professionalization: The association described recent investments in investigator training and a death-investigation school and said it is working with the Vermont Criminal Justice Council and the Police Academy to develop internal-affairs and supervisory leadership curricula. The group said mandatory trainings occur on a recurring schedule (members described alternating-year requirements for topics such as domestic violence and fair-and-impartial-policing).

Other details: Committee staff and sheriffs discussed the number of Vermont law-enforcement agencies (testimony cited roughly 74 agencies encompassing municipal departments, 14 sheriffs and multiple state law-enforcement components). Sheriffs said two agencies had not yet adopted the model fair-and-impartial-policing policy and that council procedures provide for the model policy to be applied if an agency fails to adopt it, potentially resulting in loss of council services for noncompliance.

The committee did not take votes on bills at this hearing. Sheriffs asked to return to the committee when they have specific appropriation requests and technical items ready for legislative action.