Senators and representatives from the Senate Government Operations Committee and the House Government Operations & Military Affairs committee convened a joint session to hear two candidates for Vermont's adjutant general and to review the office's duties ahead of the legislature's Feb. 19, 2026 election.

Sophie Sedatny, legislative counsel, opened with a primer on the National Guard's history and its dual mission: serving both state and federal authorities. She described three duty statuses — state active duty, Title 32 (state control with federal funding) and Title 10 (full federalization) — and noted the legal and practical limits on domestic law-enforcement roles when units are federally activated.

Representative Tom Stevens, who has served on the body for many years, recounted the legislature's recent efforts to tighten candidate qualifications and move the adjutant general election to the second year of the biennium. Stevens said those changes responded to prior contested elections and instances in which allegations were raised about a candidate during the campaign process.

Outgoing Adjutant General Gregory Knight summarized work during his tenure and highlighted recent operations. He said the Guard has sent a contingent to train with a joint military training group for Ukraine and cited several short-notice deployments as evidence of readiness. Knight described preparations for a March 1, 2026 transition and said the adjutant general's office manages about a $200,000,000 budget.

Brig. Gen. Henry Otter Jr., one of the candidates, framed his priorities as strength, readiness, resilience and respect, emphasizing recruiting and retention, mental-health resources and a 0-tolerance approach to harassment and assault. In questioning, Otter said Guardspeople are trained to follow lawful orders and that he would seek clarity if an order seemed unlawful. "If it was still clear to me that I had a question whether it was a lawful legal order, I wouldn't do it," he said, adding that he would resign before ordering service members to carry out an unlawful act.

Col. Roger Ziegler, the second candidate, described 33 years of service and a platform emphasizing ethics, workforce development, predictability for service members and improved disaster-response planning. Ziegler told members his first priority would be better identification of service members who need mental-health care and expanding access to professionals.

During the hour of formal testimony and questions, committee members pressed both candidates on recruitment strategies, management style and how they would respond to legal or ethical dilemmas. Both candidates said they would rely on counsel and established legal reviews, and both described resignation as a last resort rather than an initial response to an order they considered unlawful.

The committee closed the formal session for time but said candidates would be available for further informal questions before the Feb. 19 joint assembly vote.