 Committee we're going to shift gears for a couple of minutes to talk about the MOU that we were talking about a week or so ago, and I do understand there has been some progress and conversation. Pat Gable I see is joining us. She had asked to be part of the conversation pat I don't know what time you actually signed on to this zoom conference but if you were listening to the tail end of that story you would have heard the story of a black man who had been in the Revolutionary War and had to go three years to try to get his pension in the Vermont court system. I didn't want you to come away thinking that that's that's normal for the course for us in the court system right now. I'm sorry I missed that story. It was a great story. It really was. I don't want to belabor this or spend a whole lot of time this afternoon if it's not necessary but Pat this is your first time here I didn't know whether you wanted to weigh into the conversation I do understand that Commissioner Fitch and Sergeant and Arms Miller have both been communicating with each other. And that the court system is the third leg on that stool if you will for completing this MOU. And I don't know whether you've had conversation with the two of them or not but I was going to at least give you the opportunity to say what you know and what you'd like to see happen. I know what the last MOU says, and I'm also very aware how important it is that the Sergeant at Arms and the Commissioner and I have a good collaborative understanding of how to work together on capital complex security. So I'm not aware of any particular issues that have come up other than understanding that it may be time to renew the MOU and you know the there are certain environmental issues. I don't mean environment environmental issues but certain circumstances that you know have arisen lately where we want to take close attention so I think the one point I would make before stepping back and letting others more about the recent discussions go forward is that I think our the people who report to us in security have a pretty good working relationship and I think are providing good support to us. I know I would have appreciated maybe having one or two leadership updates a few weeks ago in terms of what circumstances were and so that would be the one issue is remembering that it will be important. I have a statutory responsibility for the security of all the courts in the state and so I just want to make sure that I have enough information and enough updates so that I can exercise that responsibility but I have always appreciated the collaboration with the Sergeant of Arms and the Commissioner and look forward to what issues may come up that may require changes in the MOU. Pat, I didn't ask you to identify yourself when you began so perhaps we'll do that just to make it formal. Okay, so I'm Patricia Gable and I'm the Vermont State Court Administrator and I say hello to all the members of the committee. Thank you. Jennifer Fitz, Janet Miller, I don't know which one of you would like to go next. I'm happy to have Janet go next. She was probably going to say the same thing about you. Either way is fine. Good afternoon so Janet Miller, Sergeant and Arms here at the Vermont State House. So Jennifer and I did have a conversation the other day. And I think Jennifer had sent out an email to Pat and I as well. I think the place that we've landed and Jennifer just chip in any time that you want but you were going Jennifer was going to take a stab at putting her changes into the existing MOU. And then kind of pass it'll maybe check it out with people she needs to check it out with and then pass it along and then we could add something or if we had something just to put it in. I have a starting place of somebody to look at this MOU. So I'm fine and Pat, I won't speak for you Pat but that if some Jennifer you just want to start that process I'm good with that. And I the other thing I would like to add is that when Jennifer and I had spoken. I thought one of the little bit of a stumbling block was going to be. When does the event plan turn into a regular from a regular event over to a law enforcement, or like how can that be put into the MOU Jennifer Mike correct and and what we discussed. Right that is that is correct so Senator betting my name is Jennifer Fitch I am the BGS Commissioner for the record. Thank you for inviting me here today. Just to give everybody every everything that Pat and Jenna has said is true which is, I actually called both of them last week and had a short conversation letting them both know that we were going to be revisiting the MOU. And I did follow up with an email on Friday, basically just reinforcing what I had said to both of them over the phone. I also had an internal meeting this week with our legal counsel as well as Bill McSullis who is our director of the Office of State Safety and Security. And so yes, all of that is true and we are advancing as quickly as we can. After reflecting from our meeting last week and learning about mutual aid right I'm a new commissioner so I'm learning these things as I go. I'm rereading the the 2016 MOU it what it clearly does is it clearly redefines our jurisdiction in terms of judicial branch has jurisdiction within their court houses. The sergeant of our at arms excuse me Janet has jurisdiction within the State House and then the BGS Commissioner has jurisdiction in state owned buildings that's underneath the jurisdiction of BGS, as well as all grounds and so it sort of reinforces the statutory the three of us, and then it also discusses that the sergeant at arms has the authority to basically act on my steed, if you will, and that is to reinforce state facility rules so I have a number of state facility rules that BGS has established and through that MOU in 2016 it basically says that the sergeant at arms may reinforce those rules on the State House lawn. It also mentions mutual aid which is a lot of the discussion last week which is to say that if anything happens on the State House lawn that requires law enforcement to to take action. Whatever law enforcement is the one that's closest to the scene and can arrive and aid the BGS Commissioner. We do so as quickly as possible. And so for me whether that whether that's the sergeant at arms or the Montpelier Police Department or let's say we had guards working for the judicial branch that could respond right away then that would be great. And that's basically what the MOU says. The other thing that it notes is that we will, and this is where I think we really should spend a lot of our time which is, it talks about having you know communication plans, and it talks about developing plans in to me, kind of reflecting on the last four years in in BGS I think that's really the area where we have the most opportunity to improve because I can't speak on behalf of the prior BGS Commissioner and he definitely led sort of the safety and security in it, but being a casual observer in the background I don't remember or recall many meetings between Patricia Gable as the court administrator or Janet Miller as the sergeant at arms and one of the things that Bill and I talked about that we think is a real opportunity is to do just that and that we should be meeting periodically and that we should develop a communication plan and that we should be talking about how we plan for events whether they're planned or unplanned. So there's definitely a lot of opportunity for us to work much more closely and collaboratively together, and I'm dedicated and committed to doing that. So, so in terms of reflecting on the MOU from my perspective it contains sort of all the aspects that I would be hoping to have within the MOU from from my perspective. I just want to add a little bit more in there around communication, but other than notification and concurrence but other than that which is just a very minor modification, which I plan to make this week hopefully and get it to folks next week. That would really be the only aspect that I would recommend changing at this time. In addition to like I said outside the MOU really focus on that coordination and that communication and that planning and coordinating and working together. I think that I am concerned about about putting too many fine details into the MOU itself is that it constricts our ability, right, whatever we put in there is sort of what I would call more rigid versus us working together outside of the MOU is much more flexible, which means we can be a lot more dynamic, right and we can modify our plans as needed to address whatever may be occurring at the time. So, so we are very actively working on it we're dedicated and I am committed to working with both Patricia and Janet, both on the MOU but I think there's a lot of work and coordination to be done outside of the MOU as well. Okay, I appreciate hearing all this and I obviously believe all of you are perfectly capable and competent and moving forward. I want to tell you that the reason we're having this discussion right now is the MOU itself was launched through statute. And part of the legislative responsibility is to have this committee known as the Capital Complex Security Committee, which is technically involved in this discussion anyway, I don't want to use the institutions committee as some kind of a barrier to be able to hammer this out. Just the opposite in fact I want to be able to use this committee as a conduit for further conversation if you feel it would be necessary. And we also have access to really good legislative council in the event that some tweaks of an MOU that you're not quite understanding might be able to be resolved with legislative council chipping in with whoever the council is that you're on the table. And that's not to insult anybody we just happen to have a group that handles drafting things like that a lot so there's some experience there if you need it. Our committee is going to get a lot busier after the 19th of March. That's crossover date for the capital bill to come into our room. So we're going to be really occupied after that but I'm going to hold open the week of March 9, just in case you need to have any further discussion or want to flesh something out. I'll leave a spot there available in case you do but I'll just keep my fingers crossed from here that everybody's talking and able to finish up a product. Anything else questions comments or whatever. Okay, I think that means you're all free to go. Have a great day and thank you very much once again. Thank you very much. Thank you.