Government ‘transparency tour’ hits the road

State officials are touring Vermont to talk with municipal and elected officials, as well as the public, to encourage more open government.
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Published October 14, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Government ‘transparency tour’ hits the road By Josh O’Gorman VERMONT PRESS BUREAU MONTPELIER — State officials are touring Vermont to talk with municipal and elected officials, as well as the public, to encourage more open government. Secretary of State James Condos is embarking on what he’s calling a “Transparency Tour,” which will make stops from Newport to Brattleboro. On it, he said, he’ll address everything from open meetings law to public records access. For Condos, who has held about 30 of these types of meetings since taking office in 2011 — with previous tours also happening during off-election years — the meetings boil down to two things: trust and respect. “Vermont residents deserve to be able to trust their government, and our elected officials deserve to be respected by the public,” Condos said Tuesday. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Good government is open and transparent government.” The tour kicked off Tuesday night in Newport and continues Thursday at Hartford Town Hall in White River Junction. Condos recalled one of the bigger issues from his tour two years ago, the availability of municipal meeting minutes. State law requires a board or commission to make minutes available within five days of a meeting, but at tour stops Condos heard from the public that municipal boards were not complying with the law. “When I was doing the tour in October, I was hearing that the last meeting minutes that were available were from June,” said Condos, noting subsequent legislative action in 2014 requiring municipalities to post the minutes on their websites. Condos said he expects to hear more about the meeting minutes mandate during the upcoming tour. Although the law went into effect last year, it included a one-year grace period, meaning that not posting the minutes within five days did not become a violation of open meetings law until this year. Another change borne out of past transparency tours is the tightening of regulations surrounding the warning of upcoming meetings. Previously, state law only required a municipal board or commission to make an agenda available prior to the start of a meeting. Now, Boards must warn a regularly scheduled meeting 48 hours in advance, or a special meeting 24 hours in advance. All meetings will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. In addition to Thursday’s gathering at the Hartford Town Hall, upcoming meetings include: — Oct. 19 at Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier. — Oct. 27 at Springfield High School. — Nov. 4 at Stowe Free Library. — Nov. 9 at Brattleboro Town Hall. — Nov. 12 at Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury. — Nov. 16 at the Bennington Fire Facility. — Nov. 17 at Rutland Free Library.