While the legislature is out of session from June through
December, some members still have work to do as members of oversight committees
or of special study committees. These
committees review the work of various departments or agencies of the state or
research via hearings certain issues that the legislature will have to deal
with in the second half of the legislative term. Here’s a brief account of some of that work.
Energy
Generation Siting Policy Committee
Act 38 of 2013 required the House and Senate Committees on Natural
Resources and Energy to meet jointly during adjournment to review the report
submitted in April 2013 by the Governor’s Energy Generation Siting Policy
Commission. In two joint hearings held
in the fall, the Committees heard from the director of the siting commission,
the secretary of the agency of natural resources, the commissioner of the
public service department, and over 20 members of the public. The siting commission’s twenty-eight recommendations
fell in three broad categories: (1) planning, (2) improved public process, and
(3) greater protections for the environment, agriculture and health in the
energy siting process. Many of the
commission’s recommendations sought to improve transparency and efficiency of
the Public Service Board, including an improved PSB website, a new case manager
position to provide a point of contact with the general public, and a tiered
permitting process which would set requirements based on the complexity of a project. The commission’s planning suggestions focused
on the role of regional and municipal planning commissions in energy
siting. And finally, the commission
sought greater weight for environmental, agricultural and health considerations
in the PSB permitting process. By
unanimous consent, the committees deferred action on the reports to the
legislative session.
Lake
Shoreland Protection Commission
The Lake Shoreland Protection Commission was created by the 2013
Appropriations Bill (Act 50). The Commission was comprised of the Senate
Natural Resources Committee and 5 Representatives from the House Fish, Wildlife
and Water Resources committee. Six public meetings were held in Newport,
Fairlee, Bomoseen, Middlebury, North Hero and Burlington, and included
collaboration with regional and municipal planning commissions and the Vermont
Agency of Natural Resources. The
creation of the commission was in part due to the passage of H.526 in the
House, a bill crafted to establish shoreland protection standards for Vermont
lakes and ponds in excess of 10 acres. The Senate needed additional time to
collect more input from the public, including lakeshore owners and businesses,
and to provide more outreach and education regarding the current health and
vitality of Vermont’s lakes. There was also a demonstrated need to summarize
current regulations, to investigate the need for additional regulation, and to
revisit anti-degradation policies with regard to Lake Champlain. More than 300 public comments from more than
700 attendees were received, logged and categorized. The final commission
report is due to the legislature on January 15th. The draft report and public
comments can be found here:
https://leg2.vermont.gov/sites/legislature/LSP/default.aspx. Work will continue
on this subject in the Senate in this session.
Mental
Health Oversight Committee
The Mental Health Oversight Committee’s principal focus was in
monitoring the on-going creation of the mental health system of care, which
continues to be in crisis. This system
relies on three facilities, Green Mountain Psychiatric Care in Morrisville,
Rutland Regional Hospital and the Brattleboro Retreat, to provide “level one
care” with other hospitals, Fletcher Allen in particular, providing back up. Level one care is acute or emergency/crisis
care. The result is occasional long
waits for some patients in hospital emergency rooms with a negative cascading
effect on the delivery of care throughout the system.
While the Oversight Committee and the Joint Health Care Committee
strongly recommend that the State Psychiatric Care Hospital in Berlin opens all
25 beds as soon as possible and no later than July 1, the Administration
currently plans to open only 16 beds in the facility when it moves patients
currently in the temporary facility in Morrisville at the end of June,
resulting in a net gain of one bed.
Until all 25 beds are opened, currently planned for mid-August, the
burden on patients and the hospitals will persist. Ongoing issues within the system include: management
of a decentralized system to ensure that seclusion and restraint policies meet
state standards; maintaining sufficient facilities and well trained staff and
sufficient funding of designated agencies; and returning focus to the needs of
children within the mental health system of care. The Committee's report will
be released in January.
