 Good morning, everyone, and thanks for coming this morning. September is prepared this month here in Vermont. So we want to make sure we take the time to encourage Vermonters to take action in order to protect themselves, their family, their home, and their friends and neighbors during a disaster. Vermont has dedicated, has many dedicated, and well-trained emergency response community members. But during a widespread event, it helps them when communities, businesses, and families are prepared. The first thing you should do is make a plan for you and your family. Figure out where you and your family will reunite if separated, and how your family will communicate during a disaster. And make sure everyone knows the plan because you can help reduce anxiety if kids know where there is a plan to keep them safe. Stock essential supplies like canned food and water, as well as medications, in case you are ever homebounded and lack essential services like water or electricity. Folks with functional needs who would need to assistance during an emergency should sign up for Citizens Assistance Registry for Emergencies, also known as CARE. This registry allows emergency response agencies to identify and aid those who might need special help during an event. This includes Vermonters who use special medical equipment or need help with transportation during a disaster. You can let local responders know of your situation right now by registering for the CARE program at E911.vermont.gov.ca. I'm pleased to have Barb Neal with us from E911 to answer any questions you might have on this CARE program. We also know the more informed you are about an emergency, the more prepared you are. So we encourage all Vermonters to register for Vermont Alert at vermontalert.gov. Vermont Alert provides real-time information on pending emergencies, weather, and information on things like road closures, boil water notices, and other important public notices. There are also many state resources on social media. On Facebook and Twitter, you can follow Vermont Emergency Management, Vermont Department of Health, National Weather Service, and the Vermont Agency of Transportation. As we all know, while we can plan for disasters, they can happen at any time, including during the school day. We've made a lot of progress, making sure we have emergency plans in place to protect kids, both at school and during events outside the school. Heather Boucher, Deputy Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Education, will share more on that at this time. Thanks, Heather. Thank you, Governor. I'd first like to thank Governor Scott and my colleagues at the Department of Public Safety for highlighting September as Preparedness Month. As we all know, there are a few things more important than ensuring Vermonters can safely live, work, play, and learn across our wonderful state. I'd like to speak today about the importance of strong emergency plans in our schools and education facilities. Specifically, we all need to make sure we're creating, updating, and exercising strong emergency plans in these settings. School districts and education systems face many complex security risks today. From severe weather to interpersonal threats, there are many challenges schools must be able to tackle to keep our youngest Vermonters safe. It is critical that our schools and our pre-K facilities have strong, well-developed, and regularly updated emergency plans. It is also critical that all staff are familiar with plans, understand the various scenarios or possible events that could occur, and are ready to take action to protect their students and their colleagues. At the State of Vermont and specifically at the Agency of Education, we recognize the importance and complexity of these local responsibilities. We're collaborating with our colleagues at the Department of Public Safety to work with school districts, helping them design and update these emergency plans. This summer, we engaged in an outreach process to school districts and independent schools to assess their needs and challenges. Our agencies, in collaboration with contracted vendor Margolis Healy of South Burlington, analyzed and identified several areas where we can help schools. Our next step is to offer a series of two-day planning workshops around the state where designated school emergency contact personnel in high-need districts can learn best practices, can get help developing or updating their school's plans, and can get to know and share information and resources with colleagues from other districts. These workshops will start in October and will help schools align their emergency plans to both national best practices and federal school safety recommendations. In the final phase of the project, we will be offering 60 shorter training sessions paired with voluntary emergency response exercises open to all schools. Again, to all entities across our cradle to career education system, making sure you have solid up-to-date emergency plans is critical to ensuring our state facilities can best respond to emergencies. We're urging all school districts and education systems to develop a plan now if they have not yet done so. Review existing plans and make sure they're up-to-date and based on best practice and ensure that all staff members are familiar with your plan and what to do in various situations. We're also committed to providing resources and assistance to schools that need it to help make sure all Vermont learners are safe in any emergency. Another great concern for Vermonters is the impact of disasters on their property. The best defense against costly losses is flood insurance. And now, Vermont Emergency Management Director Erica Bornman will speak to that. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you, Governor. Thank you, Deputy Commissioner. Thank you to Commissioner Sherling as we highlight preparedness month at the Division of Emergency Management. It's truly our holiday month of the year as our day-to-day responsibility is to ensure that all Vermonters are prepared for what disasters might bring us. So I wanna highlight a really important topic today. When we experienced a catastrophic disaster like we did in 2011 with Tropical Storm Irene, there are programs through FEMA that can aid homeowners in recovering from damage to their homes. Those programs are capped at $33,000 per home, and really the average program grant is about $8,000 per homeowner. Now, that is not going to make you whole. The only thing that can do that is flood insurance. Bear in mind, one inch of water in your home can cause as much as $25,000 in damage. So again, flood insurance is really your best method for ensuring that you don't have to rely on your own resources to recover from a disaster. Yet, only 16%, 1.6% of Vermonters in special high-risk flood areas in Vermont are covered by flood insurance. That means over 10,000 structures in Vermont are not insured against our number one hazard, which is flooding. Flooding also occurs outside of these special flood hazard areas. About 20% of all flood insurance claims or damage from flooding actually occurs outside of these special flood hazard areas. Yet, only 1.5% of all Vermonters are covered with flood insurance outside a special flood hazard area. So, what can homeowners do? First, check with your town to see if your home is located in a special flood hazard area. Your towns have that information. Then, you should check with their insurance agent. Often, depending on the elevation of your home, the value of your home, there are relatively inexpensive and or affordable ways to insure yourself against floods. It's very dependent on where you are and where your structure is located, but like I said, as we all know in Vermont, if it can rain at your house, it can flood at your house, and flood insurance is the best way to prepare yourself and your family for Vermont's number one hazard. You can get more information at floodsmart.gov or you can go to floodready.vermont.gov. And of course, anytime that you have any questions, feel free to contact any one of us at Vermont Emergency Management and we'd be happy to point you in the right direction. With that, that concludes our remarks and I would like to hand it back over to Governor Scott. Well, thank you, Erica. And we'll open it up for questions on the topic at this time. Do you think this has become more important with climate change that we're just getting more and more storms that are more violent and this is gonna be a continuing if not growing problem in the future? I do believe that's going to be the case. I mean, these weather patterns we're seeing throughout the winter as well. We see extreme temperature changes, shifts. And then we see snow, then we see rain, which can lead to ice jams and so forth, which can lead to flooding. So I think a lot of what we're seeing today in terms of weather is due to climate change. So we need to better prepare, become more resilient in a lot of respects. And we've taken a lot of steps in that direction here in Vermont. We're ranked as one of the leading states in resiliency, I believe. So we have a lot to be proud of, but there's more we can do. And there's a lot of things we can do individually as well. And that's what we're here to highlight and just make sure that people don't take things for granted. Since Irene, we obviously haven't seen anything as dramatic as that is like a singular instance, but is there, is the statement tracking claims that have been made for damage or has in some way tracking, I guess the flooding damage that we've seen since then and how it's changed over time? Yeah, I would be happy to get to that. So since Irene, or actually since 2011, the state of Vermont has experienced 11 declared major disasters. And that is over $250 million in public infrastructure damage, which includes the damage from Irene. Irene, we had about $23 to $24 million that was issued to homeowners. And since Irene, through the Hazard Mitigation Grant program and various other mitigation grants, we've actually spent about $53 million in mitigating future disasters, which is a huge success for Vermont. To your point, Bob, I'm not sure that we probably have kept track and there probably is a way to get the data from the previous decades to see if it's escalating in many respects. That number of events, it'd be interesting to see. Other questions on emergency preparedness? Be happy to answer any other questions you might have. Governor Scott, initially you were supposed to head to the arrival of the F-35s. Why did that change? Well, I don't know if it's changed. And we weren't sure exactly when it was going to be. We put my schedule together long in advance of that. And when we can't get a specific date, then I'm not able to attend. I have to make choices. But there are more aircraft to arrive. This is only two of the number of F-35s that are coming. We'll have other events when all the aircraft arrive in Vermont. Looking forward to it, I've been a support of the F-35 and continue to be. It's a big day for the Air National Guard. In light of the allegations that came forward last year with misconduct and all that, how far have we come in the dialogue and public discussion about the Air National Guard and relating to the F-35 too? Well, I think in terms of transparency, we've come a long ways. We have a long ways to go. But I think the policies that have been put into place, the way we've tried to handle this and learning from mistakes of the past are something that we can always improve on. But again, I value the Vermont National Guard, the Green Mountain Boys, and all that they offer and bring to Vermont has been something that's been essential to our economy as well as the defense of our country. You said you were a big supporter of the F-35. Is that wise? Is it an economic consideration? It's all the above from my standpoint again, I'm very, very proud of our history in terms of defense and what we can do as a state and as we've evolved as a National Guard, we've taken steps in trying to protect our national security. So I'm proud from that standpoint but also from an economic standpoint, it means a lot to Vermont. The facility that we have in the Burlington area has become upgraded, employs a lot of people, and again is vital to what we're doing. We're trying to attract more people to the state as well and we want to make sure that we continue to protect those we have here and the economic resources we have. Do you share any of the concerns about quality of life issues, the noise that this could create and obviously the protests? Yeah, well we've had this. There's a lot of history with the aviation in Vermont. I remember I grew up in nearby Berry and remember some of the sonic booms from the F-4s and that was when I was just a kid 40, 50 years ago. So this is nothing new but I share the concerns. I know the guard is taking this seriously and doing everything they can to alleviate any disruption in the lives of Vermonters. We want to be good neighbors. You were talking earlier about climate change and emergency preparedness. Seems like there's going to be a lot of students out on the street tomorrow. High school students, college students, climate strike. What are your thoughts about this approach to raising awareness about the issue? Well, I value this public dialogue. I think it's good for students to get involved and I think we, again, as long as it's civil and respectful, it's the way we learn and it's the way we evolve. So we'll see what happens tomorrow but I know there are many that are going to participate throughout the country, I believe and we'll see how many come to Montpelier. Last session, legislation relating to climate change and passing meaningful legislation kind of fizzled out on the floor, didn't really get passed. What can your office do and are you looking at anything going into the upcoming session as well? Well, I think we've taken a lot of steps over the years. First of all, we have a goal in the state of 90% renewables by 2050. I believe that that is doable and we're taking steps in order to achieve that. We've also, as we migrate towards electric vehicles, I think that's part of the answer. I believe a major, large percentage of carbon emissions are transportation related so the sooner we can get to electric vehicles, the better off we're going to be and the better off we're going to be in terms of attaining our 90% renewable goal by 2050. And I believe, again, I believe we can do that. We put together an infrastructure, a charging infrastructure that we're going to be able to put in place along our I-89 and I-91 corridors and that's something that we passed last year and utilizing some of the money from the Volkswagen settlement. So we're taking steps in this area as well as trying to walk the talk, so to speak and we're taking some steps to put some more electric vehicles in the state fleet as well. Do you think our statutory emissions reduction requirements are at all realistic in any way that we're going to be able to meet those? Well, again, I think what we're going to see is not linear, it's not going to be a steady transition from start to finish. I believe it's going to go because technology changes and advances and the more we acclimate ourselves to electric vehicles, so to speak, we're going to see a ramp up at that point. So that's what I'm looking forward to and it takes a while to change people's viewpoints and again, we're seeing this right before our eyes how quickly I believe that we'll get to electric vehicles very quick once we, better battery storage and that's being engineered as we speak, all wheel vehicles and electric vehicles and again, we're just seeing so much advancement and acceptance in that area, so I believe we'll see it in the next decade. Huge swing. Are there any climate change policies or proposals that you plan on pushing for in January? We haven't put our packages all together at this point but we'll see where we can make some gains. And we think we should generally be going whether it's more investments in EVs. Yeah, we have a long ways to go in terms of EVs. We have a long ways to go in terms of charging infrastructure. We've taken some steps but we need to do more and get behind that and focus on areas. I don't want us to take off on another initiative but we haven't completed the one right before us. What are there about 5,000 EVs now in the state and the goal is to hit 50,000? Yeah, I'm not sure that, I don't even know if there's 5,000 that may be fewer. I mean, is that a realistic goal? I do, I believe so. Again, if you look at the number maybe in the last year or two and start to see the uptick and again, when you see, I've used this example before, when you see companies like Harley Davidson for instance, come out with a line of electric motorcycles, you know things are changing, right? You see Ford going to come forward with an F-150 that's going to be electric. And when you start to see pickups and other types of vehicles using electric propulsion, then you're going to see an acceptance and a ramp up. And so Lamborghini came out with one, Bugatti has one too. I mean, it's just amazing what's happening right now in the electric world. It really is exciting in a lot of respects. Is there a protocol for state employees when it comes to these protests tomorrow? Are they allowed to participate? They're so choose? I haven't heard of anyone asking at this point in time what they do on their personal time if they want to take the time off to do so. It would be just like any other event. But I haven't heard of a widespread case where people want to, but maybe there is. Have you heard of anybody? No, I was just wondering if there's any policy for state employees. I think the governor nailed it. It's basically personal time. Individuals want to take personal time to testify under personal capacity of the legislature or take part in a demonstration. That's between them and their supervisors that it's available on auction. We don't discourage that at all. You know, with all the health concerns about they being in e-cigarettes, I know the legislature addressed that by raising the age and taxing it, but do you think Vermont should follow the lead of some other cities and perhaps states and just ban these things? We'll see where the federal government goes. I mean, the president made some statements. We'll see if he follows through on those statements. And it would be better if we did it nationally rather than individually, but I believe in states' rights. And I think that if the feds don't take action that you see more and more states in Vermont might be one of them that might take some steps in trying to curtail this because it is, as I highlighted in my state of the state budget address, we see the number of kids and it's really something that we need to pay attention to that are becoming more addicted to vaping. Would you like to see the federal government do? Yes, yeah. I would like to see the federal government follow through on something that we know is becoming an epidemic. Vermont State College's trustees announced yesterday that they want to keep the Linden campus open. Is that something that you're gonna support? We'll see what they come forward with, the state colleges. I know that our colleges and universities are under enormous stress. Most of that due to enrollment or the downturn in enrollment, our state colleges suffer from the demographics that we have in the state. I've talked about this a lot. 30,000 fewer kids in our schools than 20 years ago. We have, and that equates to fewer students going on to higher institutions and our state colleges has a 90% enrollment rate of Vermont kids. So this is affecting us and we need to do something about that which we're trying to do, attract more people to the state and taking a lot of measures and trying to do so. But the state colleges, I know they're contemplating what actions they can take to keep their rates lower and also attract more people. Because that's what we need, we need the enrollment to grow to the infrastructure that we have. Speaking of demographics, as well, there's a group of senators that are traveling across the state right now sort of hearing from people about affordable housing, looking into potentially another pond like we saw last session. I guess what are your thoughts in terms of growing affordable housing to accommodate for these demographics that we know of? Well, first of all, I think it's really healthy that the legislators get out throughout the state to see in real time what's happening. We do this with our capital for a day where we take the entire cabinet and go out and visit a different county. And we've heard a lot about this. In fact, when I was Lieutenant Governor, I went out on a Vermont everyday jobs tour. And that's where I learned about the need for housing, safe, efficient, and affordable housing. And that's what we desperately need for the workforce and others. So that's why we passed the $37 million housing bond, worked with the legislature to do so. We know we have other steps to take, but we haven't seen all the effects of the $37 million at this point. There's still many that haven't broken ground, but we're working towards that, but we need to look further. We have a couple of things in mind in terms of renovating existing stock. I talked about this last year. I'm hopeful that we can do something. Many communities have dilapidated housing stock that need to be renovated. And there may need to be some tax credits or something to incentivize that. So we're looking at trying to, we have the same goal and we'll do whatever we can. The problem is in just using another bond is that we can't, it's not an infinite amount of money that we can borrow. We have, our rating was downgraded this past year. It's a concern and we have limits. We have a debt affordability committee that takes a look at that to make sure that we don't borrow more than we should and we're at the cap. So we have to consider a lot before we move forward with this, but the bottom line is we share the goal of more affordable housing for remoders. Thank you very much for coming in. Appreciate it. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you.