Where Are All the Other Witnesses?

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Should be an interesting, perhaps pivotal, hearing Wednesday morning. Two Senate committees will hear from a series of housing advocates about the looming end of Vermont’s emergency housing program. Will their voices be heard, or will they get a polite brush-off as they did in the House?

Tomorrow’s witnesses include former gubernatorial candidates Brenda Siegel and Sue Minter (the latter now head of Capstone Community Action), Anne Sosin of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, Christine Hazzard of the Brattleboro Housing Coaltion, and Susan Aronoff of the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council. It’s kind of an all-star cast for housing insecurity.

But my question is: Where is everybody else?

Given the potentially wide-ranging consequences of ending the motel voucher program, there ought to be a line down the hallway, out the door, and around the building of people wanting to give Senate decision-makers a piece of their minds. The fact that there isn’t is a measure of the cluelessness of institutional Vermont about what might happen this summer.

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We Aren’t Going to Solve the Housing Shortage This Way

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This is the site plan for Stonewall Meadows, a proposed new neighborhood in Montpelier. Need I say that this is a prime example of how to waste a whole lot of acreage and squander an opportunity to build smart on one of the city’s handful of available building sites?

This plan, of course, got a green light from the Development Review Board, so it’s full steam ahead for some nice, expansive backyards where there could have been more housing. This is especially galling since the developer originally proposed a “cottage cluster” type of neighborhood that would have provided twice as much housing as the approved plan. Here’s the original layout.

According to the Montpelier Bridge, the developer “switched tacks after a neighborhood meeting and sketch review with the city’s Development Review Board last fall.” The neighbors complained about the loss of an undeveloped area and expressed concern about increased traffic. In other words, NIMBY.

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Meet the New Health Care Provider, Same As the Old Health Care Provider

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Let there be rejoicing in the streets, for lo, the Vermont prison system has a new health care contractor!

Even better, they already know their way around the place. The new provider is Wellpath, a private equity-owned firm whose name just screams “Corporation Pretending to Care.” Under its former monicker Correct Care Solutions, it held Vermont’s prison health care contract from 2010 to 2015.

None of this is heartening, not the private equity ownership, not the trying-too-hard name, not the return engagement, not the recent rebranding, not the fact that it was one of only two bidders for the contract.

But let us not rush to judgment. Maybe Wellpath is different from all the others. Maybe it does business honorably and with the best of intentions. Wait, I know, let’s DuckDuckGo “Wellpath scandal” and see if we get any — oh dear.

Wellpath Founder and CEO Pleads Guilty to Federal Bribery Charges

Yep, that’s the first hit. It’s from March 2022, when former CorrectCare CEO Gerald “jerry” Boyle faced up to five years in the slammer for bribing a Virginia sheriff over a period of 12 years in exchange for the county’s jail health care contract. (Shortly after htat article was posted, Boyle was sentenced to three years in prison, a substantial penalty for a purely white-collar crime by a top corporate executive.)

But hey, after Boyle was indicted his former company thoroughly distanced itself from him, so it’s all good, right?

Boyle’s case may be an outlier, but this is an industry rife with incentives for abuse. Wellpath is one of its biggest and most experienced players. I’m not sure which I have less confidence in: Wellpath’s dedication to its duties, or the Vermont Department of Corrections’ ability to perform effective oversight of the deal.

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Sometimes, the Lobbyists Don’t Win

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This column regularly bemoans the influence of lobbyists in our Statehouse. It’s less about overt corruption and more about relationships and the difficulty faced by unstaffed part-time lawmakers in assessing complicated issues.

But this week has brought us a couple of cases in which the Legislature — so far — has resisted the blandishments of the Folks In Smart Suits. First, the state Senate has unanimously approved a bill to ban PFAS and other toxic chemicals from a range of products. Second, a bill to establish a Right to Repair for agricultural and forestry equipment has made it through a House committee. Both bills represent modest but measurable victories for consumers over industry.

(And let me note that we may not have heard about either action if not for VTDigger’s Final Reading, which provides a valuable space for coverage of legislative happenings that might not warrant standalone treatment.)

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The Police Protect Their Own, Part Eleventy-Billion

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The guy responsible for this little piece of… art… has been allowed to leave his post at the Vermont State Police with a face-saving resignation. And that doesn’t sit well with Nancy Sheahan, the longtime head of the State Police Advisory Commission, a body not known for taking a harsh line against the Beings in Blue.

The background: In early February it came to light that state troopers had used racist, ableist and misogynist language while playing a rap battle-inspired computer game. After an initial hiccup, VSP Chief Jennifer Morrison launched an internal investigation. A month and a half later two of the troopers — Nathan Greco and Nathan Jensen — resigned, which is lightning speed for a situation like this. The VSP described the resignations as “voluntary,” but added that the SPAC had agreed with Morrison that the troopers’ actions warranted discipline “up to and including termination.”

Now comes Sheahan, calling bullshit. The Commission issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the troopers should have been fired outright. VTDigger reports that Sheahan said “it was atypical for her and her colleagues to make such a public statement,” which, no shit, Sherlock. “But, she said, ‘We felt really strongly about this case, and we wanted it out there how we viewed it and what advice we offered.'”

In other words, Morrison let her two former employees off easy and tried to use the Commission as cover. Slick.

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The Inherent Conflict of Ram/Hinsdale Comes to the Fore

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So. Prominent Chittenden County Landlord Stiffs Tenant. A story we’ve definitely heard before. But never with a twist like this one.

The landlord: Jason Jacob Hinsdale, scion of the family development/property management firm. The tenant: Scrappy BIPOC-owned Little Morocco Café. The situation: Hinsdale has imposed a 150% 250% rent increase effective in August an increase he himself admits the market doesn’t justify.

The twist: Hinsdale’s wife, small-P progressive stalwart Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, one of Vermont’s handful of BIPOC electeds.

It will be interesting to see how both of them play this out. Hinsdale’s move isn’t unusual for a landlord in a red-hot market but it could be political poison for Ram Hinsdale. She figures to face embarrassing questions about her husband’s power play, and he figures to come under pressure to get his loyal spouse out of this dilemma by not kicking Little Morocco to the curb.

This is the three-dimensional realization of the conflict expressed in the above image: Ram Hinsdale trying to position herself as the progressive in the 2022 Democratic Congressional primary while speaking from the shiny, spotless, open concept kitchen of the suburban manse she now occupies.

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House Dems Vote to End Emergency Housing Program, Then Brag About Protecting “The Most Vulnerable”

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It’s standard practice for a legislative body to pass a bill and for leadership to issue a self-congratulatory press release. That’s what the House majority did after passing a budget bill. Which, OK, fine, passing a budget is a big tough job. A self-back-pat is not out of order.

But right in the middle, we get this:

This year and every year, House Democrats lead on supporting Vermonters in every community and every county. These shared priorities include: protecting Vermonters who are most vulnerable, sustaining support networks that keep people housed and fed, improving access to affordable childcare for working families, supporting thriving schools, investing in our workforce and economy, establishing paid family and medical leave, and meeting the needs of older Vermonters.  

Wait, what’s that? “Protecting Vermonters who are most vulnerable”? “Sustaining support networks that keep people housed and fed”? Come the fuck on.

(Pardon my French, but in this case it’s justified.)

This budget bill will end the emergency housing program that currently provides shelter to more than 80% of Vermonters experiencing homelessness.

This bill doesn’t protect the most vulnerable. It throws them out on the street.

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House Democrats Are Told How They Could Avoid a Humanitarian Disaster, and They Said “No Thanks”

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If there’s anyone on this earth who could understandably be Sick Of This Shit, it’s Anne Sosin, pictured above in a space that Room Rater wold give at least eight out of 10. (“Nice window, background not too busy, solid but unpretentious bookshelf.”) Sosin has gone from arch-critic of Gov. Phil Scott’s Covid policies to interim head of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, where she’s taken on the thankless task of developing plans to tackle the housing crisis that House Democrats routinely ignore.

On Thursday morning, Sosin appeared before the House General & Housing Committee with an articulate, well-researched and professional presentation on why it makes moral, political, and financial sense to address our crisis of housing insecurity. Her presentation was entitled “The Cost of Inaction on Homelessness and Eviction.” (Video available here; Sosin begins at the two-minute mark. Her presentation is downloadable here.)

The committee listened politely and sent her away. And within roughly 12 hours, the full House had approved a budget that ignored her testimony.

In other words, the cake was baked before Sosin got into the kitchen. Her appearance was nothing but window dressing.

(I’ll also note that committee chair Tom Stevens mispronounced her last name, which betrays a certain lack of engagement, especially since this wasn’t her first appearance before his committee.)

(It’s SOSS-in, not “SO-sin.”)

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We Regret to Inform You That Gregory Thayer is Interested in Your Children

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I don;t make it a practice to write about conservative commentators very often because that way lies madness and far too many words about Rob Roper and John McClaughry. But once in a while, an entry in this sad parade is just impossible to resist.

You may recall Gregory Thayer, failed candidate for lieutenant governor, organizer of a series of “educational” events exposing the dangers of critical race theory, co-organizer of a bus trip to the January 6 insurrection, and founder of Vermonters for Vermont, a seemingly defunct organization devoted to dog-whistling all the livelong day. Well, in the wake of yet another school shooting, Mr. Thayer Has Some Thoughts.

His message is that the Legislature isn’t doing nearly enough to protect our schoolchildren. His nifty five-part solution, left over from his lite-gubernatorial campaign: Turn the schools into armed camps full of metal detectors, surveillance cameras, lockdowns, active shooter drills, and guns, guns, guns everywhere.

Yeah kids, have fun at school!

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Really, House Democrats? Shelter vs. Child Care?

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Oh, boy. House Democrats, desperately searching for a way to spend as little money as possible while ducking responsibility for the crisis waiting for us at the end of the emergency motel voucher program, have come up with a real doozy.

They’re offering to put up another $20 million in housing-related spending — but they put one hell of a turd in the punchbowl.

The new, one-time $20 million appropriation for unhoused Vermonters will come out of a $92 million line item that was initially set aside in the budget for child care.

Oh, come on. Those are the only choices we get?

What’s the reasoning here? There’s only so much money for compassionate purposes? You couldn’t find the cash anywhere else? Really?

This sets the stage for a needless battle between housing advocates and child care advocates, two groups that should be able to expect better from Democratic leadership.

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