Vermont Human Rights Commission warns staffing shortfall as federal funds drop

Vic Hartman, executive director and general counsel of the State of Vermont Human Rights Commission, told the Appropriations Committee that the commission expects to lose federal funding next year and faces a consequential budget shortfall.

“We are still going to be planning that we cannot receive any federal funds next year,” Hartman said, adding that the shortfall led the administration to assume a roughly $65,000 vacancy-turnover savings target for the agency.

Hartman said that a previous vacancy-turnover assumption was about $25,000 and that recent turnover — including the March departure of Amanda Garces, the commission’s former director of policy, education and outreach — increased workload and risked burnout. The Garces position was reconfigured and refilled as a director of community…