Love the online access for legislative hearings where the audio quality is poor and the view so expansive that you can’t tell who’s talking. It’s even worse when a powerpoint presentation occupies 90% of the screen and all the little people are confined to a small corner.

But the optics seem appropriate when the subject is Vermont’s troubled emergency housing program, taken up briefly today by the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee. (It was one item on a packed agenda, with a mere 30 minutes allocated for multiple witnesses.) There’s something ironically apropos about those remote figures in an ornate room discussing the state’s failure to provide adequate shelter for our neediest Vermonters.

But enough philosophizing. The subject at hand was how the Scott administration is implementing Act 143, the Legislature’s attempt to create a better emergency housing system. In the eyes of advocacy groups, the administration has taken a heavy-handed approach and fast-tracked a new system without much input from outside the boundaries of its own sphincter.

This process has triggered an impassioned response from advocacy groups and helping agencies, up to and potentially including legal action for what they see as the administration’s deliberate flouting of Act 143’s intent. A small next step took place today before JFC, with more hearings to come in the near future. (The Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules is expected to take up the new process on October 1, and there will be a joint hearing of he House Human Service and Senate Health & Welfare Committees on October 9.) Nothing was settled today, but the lines are drawn a bit more clearly now.

Not that that will help anyone caught in the chaos — planned or otherwise — of a situation that seems to have been easily avoidable except that the Scott administration has rarely acted in good faith when it comes to sheltering the homeless. The constant preoccupation is with cost and with making recipients prove they are worthy, instead of meeting a simple basic human need. Or, to put it another way, doing the right thing.

The crux of the issue is that the administration took Act 143 as a means to rush through the reinvention of a complicated and troubled system. “We had from June 16 to September 1 to develop rules fundamentally overhauling how Vermont addresses homelessness,” said Sandi Hoffman, Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families.

A daunting prospect, indeed. Except that according to one key lawmaker, the rush job was completely unnecessary. “The Legislature didn’t envision that the full program would be completed by September 1,” said Rep. Theresa Wood, chair of the House Human Services Committee and a chief author of Act 143. “We provided the full fiscal year for implementation.”

That conundrum was not settled during the hearing. No administration official responded to Wood’s remarks.

So which is it? An urgent task executed as best as possible with some unavoidable corner-cutting? Or an artificially created deadline meant to bypass normal processes and exclude inconvenient input?

Myself, I come down on the latter side. Maybe I’m overly skeptical, but it’s based on years of experience watching the administration’s “work” on this issue.

There were two specific areas of concern besides the seemingly pointless rush job. First, the administration ended its agreement with the Vermont 211 phone service — meaning that starting on September 1, unsheltered people could only access help by calling the state during normal weekday business hours. Many have reported hold times of up to seven hours. And if/when they get through, they are faced with an expansive new questionnaire designed to assess their eligibility. Representative Wood expressed dissatisfaction with both aspects of the new system. “I’m hearing concerns on a daily basis,” she said.

One administration figure, I think it was Hoffman, actually claimed that there are no emergencies outside of business hours. Wood responded that that “doesn’t pass the smell test.” Yeah, it’s kind of the nature of “emergencies” that they happen at unpredictable times.

Wood had specific issues with the new assessment system. Act 143 called for a better way to assess people’s needs and get them to appropriate support services, but she said the law specifies that the assessment process should be “brief and clear.” Instead, the new system seems designed to reduce demand by discouraging applicants — especially those with disabilities or medical conditions. The most vulnerable of all, in other words.

Administration officials insisted that implementation of Act 143 “meets legislative intent” while “supporting the governor’s goal of reducing reliance on hotels.” That “meets legislative intent” is going to be a bone of contention; clearly, the law’s architects believe the administration has missed the mark in ways that appear designed to frustrate applicants and reduce access.

Not mentioned at all during the hearing: The administration’s reported refusal to appropriate $200,000 to End Homelessness Vermont for support services. This was clearly part of Act 143, and the administration’s action sure seems to violate legislative intent. Perhaps this will come up at the October 9 hearing.

This whole affair is a new and unpleasant variation on Scott’s veto-crazy ways. On Act 143, the Legislature did its best to work with the administration and delivered a bill that Scott signed. And then he began working around the new law to create the program he wanted, not the one defined in statute. And the very aggressive timeline? It worked to limit public input and general awareness of what was going on. So far, it has worked. Will the Legislature allow this to stand? I guess we’ll find out.

Also, this flouting of legislative intent ought to be a vulnerability for the governor in a campaign season. Will Democrats and their gubernatorial candidate Amanda Janoo take advantage? And if they do, will our news media report it?

I guess we’ll find out about that, too.