 Hello and welcome to Under the Dome, returning to Town Meeting TV as part of our ongoing legislative coverage. Thank you for joining us. We'll be checking in with legislators from around our coverage area. And today we're kicking it off with Ray Garifano and Karen Dolan from Town of Essex and Essex Junction specifically. And we'll be talking about the issues they're looking at in the legislature and just what the legislature has been like this session. And if you'd like to watch, you can always watch a YouTube slash Town Meeting TV or on our channel at Comcast 1087 or Brillington Telecom 17 or 217. And if you have a question you'd like to ask, you can call in at 802-862-3966 and we'll get you on the air. So thank you for joining us guys. It's nice chatting with you and nice having you in here. Thank you for having us. Yeah. We're just talking and for both of you, this is a somewhat new experience. You're both new representatives. So I was wondering if you would like to talk about that. Ray, let's start with you. Sure. So I'm very new. I was appointed on January 18th to replace Mayor Beth Redman who sadly had to step down. She had done some amazing work in the house in her time there. And on my first day, on the 18th was the first day that legislators actually came back since the pandemic or had the option of coming back. So I got to experience first day with a lot of my colleagues, similarly who especially folks that were elected in 2020 that hadn't really had the opportunity to be in person. And since then in the last two and a half months we've had a couple iterations of what hybrid looks like and it feels like we're in a really good rhythm of just a few people who zoom in and most of their activity is in person, which has been really wonderful. Yeah. I think Karen? Yeah. I think some similar thoughts for me as well. This is my first biennium serving and it has been kind of a lesson in going with the flow. But also I feel like it has been a reflection of how we can work through things. So it was on Zoom, we made things happen, made the best of it, switching to the state house, we're able to come together. So for me that's been a big part of it, it's like okay, you know, like we are a team in the state house and how do we keep moving things forward? And for me too, like starting remotely, it is what it is, like we didn't really have any other option but in some ways it was kind of easing into it. For me, also for my family of two school age kids and so we were able to kind of adjust and then this year being fully in the state house, I can see what we were missing last year, last session. You know, the more experienced folks were like, oh, this is not like we're missing a big piece of it. I didn't know what I didn't know and so now seeing that we're in the state house you can see like you can really connect with folks, you can build on conversations, you can follow up on the things that you heard and hear and hopefully know a little bit more too. Right. Well, great. Well, thank you guys for stepping up to be a part of the legislature and I think it's very interesting experience for, you know, doing the remote portion of it and then coming into the state house. It's interesting. It's an interesting perspective. So I want to dive into kind of the big question in Essex and Essex Junction for the last several years which is separation. So I wonder if you could give us a little overview of what that process is like. So Essex Junction separation and then just where that's at in the process. Yeah. I can start with things. So saying that it's been a few years in the making, I think it's a few decades, maybe even centuries in the making that we've been in this and we are in the home stretch of really a milestone of hopefully having a new city in Vermont which is really historic. So tomorrow it actually goes up for third reading in the Senate and this is our charter change bill to separate and it, you know, had a unanimous vote on second reading last week in the Senate. So hoping the same thing continues and then it will be to the governor for his signature and it has been a tremendous journey and I think Ray will probably share like, you know, we've gone through different things and if you had asked, you know, a year or two years ago the plan was merger to come together and that didn't happen and so now our village is really excited to become a city and really focus on our community and building, building forward and hopefully the same for the town as well. Ray, do you have any thoughts from? Yeah. I think similarly, you know, in the town I think right now we're just really focused on moving forward and really leveraging the opportunities that this change brings us. I think there's a lot of great economic development opportunity within Essex Town. We've had a lot of population growth in the last decade with the New census numbers coming out. So it's exciting. You know, I think many people may not have been excited about the outcome and the way things turned out. As Karen mentioned and as you know, this has been going on for decades. But in one sense it feels good to not have the conversation anymore, the question of are we going to separate, are we going to merge? So now we're going to be separate. We love working with our partners and our other community members, same as Westford and now the city of Essex Junction will continue to do that. The town offices have brought on new staff and are really gearing up for really working on services and efficiencies and opportunities for growth and development. So it's exciting time I think for the Essex Town community. So let's talk about committees. So you're on the Human Services Committee, that's right. And you are on the Corrections and Institutions and Government Accountability Committee. Is that right? Yeah. So Corrections and Institutions is my regular committee and then the Government Accountability is the one that I guess it's session long, but we kind of meet mostly in the off-session. Okay. All right. So let's talk about some of those bills that you guys are looking at right now. Ray, do you want to start? Sure. I'm currently with crossover behind us. We are working on looking at the Senate bills that have been crossed over to us and over to our chamber. So what we have been taking testimony on the last couple of weeks is the modifications to Vermont's patient choice and end-of-life laws and that has been really interesting. That's S-74 and really updating the law. We were the second state in the country to enact a law for end-of-life issues and the end-of-life laws. And it just needs some updating in the process the physicians and the patients have to take in order to move through the process. And we've been hearing from various family members and physicians and advocates about what needs to be changed. So it's nice to be able to have the opportunity to update the law to be more in line with what we've learned in the last 20 years of this movement moving forward. We're also looking at S-206, which is planning and support for individuals and families impacted by Alzheimer's disease. We haven't started taking testimony on that. We'll be taking testimony this week. And we also looked at S-91, which is the parent-child center network and again there's already language in statute about the parent-child center network. This is really strengthening that language and solidifying certain things. So it's not a money bill at this time. That's where we are right now. Some of the big legislation that we passed prior to crossover had to do with a lot of opioid substance use disorder bills the governor had in his budget and the big budget, a lot of programs that are going to be implemented. And we also had the large settlement from the opioid settlement that we received last summer that needed certain legislature to set up an advisory committee and processes to draw down that $64 million over the next 18 years. Great. Yeah. Karen? Yeah, there's a lot going on. So I feel like that's one of the benefits, just kind of thinking about being in the hybrid remote is that in Essex there's five of us on the delegation and we're in different committees and there's so much that is going on this session. So to have us on those different committees in following the different pieces it is just really such a benefit for our communities that we're so connected because I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I don't know how people keep up with all this stuff because we're doing lots of good work. So I can share a bit about what's going on in my committee. So an interesting piece about my committee, which of course I learned when I started and got on there was that corrections and institutions is unique in that it is a money committee and also a policy committee. So money committee and working on the capital bill and policy of working for corrections policy. And so the big piece that we work on with the institution side, the capital bill is we just passed that out of the house. It's now in the Senate, but that includes $261 million in spending, it's mostly bonded dollars for infrastructure. So that is our buildings, our construction around the state. It's also a lot that has to do with clean water initiatives, which I didn't necessarily think of, but there's a lot of that. And we've actually got a lot of federal funding that has come in in the past year. And so we incorporated a lot into this. There also is a lot of community grant programs, which I was exciting to learn more about and see how we could boost those because again, it's the money coming in to us as a state and then how do we get it to the communities that need that. So we're excited to have that move forward. And then some things that we are looking at on the corrections side, the policy part of our committee is justice reinvestment, which is getting, because we're trying to reduce the number of folks that we have incarcerated, especially in out of state beds. And so we're working to move folks from out of state into our state facilities and we're trying to collect that savings, that savings that we have from folks that we're not putting there is being intentional about how that's reinvested, focusing on transitional housing, on mental health, on domestic violence programming and such. So we're working on that. And we're also working on those criminal justice reforms to hopefully work on having fewer people be incarcerated. I was looking at something about S224, which is something coming up this week, which is I think around juvenile offenders. Do you have any thoughts about that one? I don't know. That one might be in Judiciary. I'm not familiar with that one. We're not talking about it in committee yet. And what I have found is there are some bills that, which is great that we're starting to look at the intersect between things. So there are bills that come in either through Judiciary, through corrections, or last year we had one that was in health care, because we're looking at the intersection between mental health issues, corrections, criminal substance abuse. All these things come together. And so what we're finding is that committees really need to communicate more into your end. So maybe it's coming our way. We haven't seen it yet. I'm interested in this government accountability. I guess it's not a committee exactly. It is. It's a joint committee that there's standing committees that meet throughout the biennium. And so government accountability is one of those. And how does that work? What's the process there? Yeah, so the piece that we're looking at with that is there are, I think it's 10 objectives that we're saying that we're trying to meet in Vermont for the well-being of Vermonters. I'm not going to be able to say all of them on the top of my head, but basically that we're taking care of all Vermonters. And there's these 10 metrics. And the goal is that it's for us as a legislature, are we passing legislation and moving legislation forward that is positively impacting these levers, basically? And so what the work is that we do in the committee is take a look, are we measuring the right things? Do we have the right objectives? And are we taking steps in the legislature to see how it's moving? And so one thing that just changed that we were working on recently is taking a look at how is, are these looking at through a lens of equity and looking at, are we collecting data to see, are we serving all Vermonters? But are we serving women? Are we serving folks who have different needs? Are we serving minorities? Things like that to make sure that we're collecting the data to really make sure we're taking care of all Vermonters. So we're going to be updating them and looking at them. But how it worked is we were meeting in the off session. And then once the legislature is back in, we kind of take a little bit of break and we'll see where it goes once the summer kicks in. Interesting, interesting. So are there any issues that you are personally passionate about, want to highlight, want to talk about? Ray, if you want to start with that? Yeah, I think one of my biggest kind of driving motivation factors for getting into this work is to be able to bring an equity lens into policymaking, to really understand and ensure that the right people are at the table when decisions are being made. I think often with good intentions, policymakers don't really think about every perspective. And I have just in the last two months of being there have seen that if that perspective is not at the table, those topics don't often come up. And again, that's not because people have bad intentions. It's just that it's hard to have that equity lens if you're not faced with it, if you're not dealing with that, whatever the challenge is. So really, I'm excited to have a voice to kind of always bring up, hey, have we thought about this from this group's perspective? And I don't always know to bring every perspective to the table, which is why I think in policymaking, we need to ensure when we're writing the laws and passing the bills that they include language specifically to be intentional about including all those different perspectives. And I'm seeing some of that work being done this session just in the last couple of months I've been there, which I'm really excited about, which I think has been missing from state legislature and policymaking for a long time. And in the off session, I work for the state. So having that perspective of seeing that work happening at the state level in government from the governor's office and the executive office of the racial equity to have alignment with all of that of those different bodies of work is something I'm super passionate about. And Karen? Yeah, I think definitely the diversity lens and equity lens is important. Something that I have been trying to kind of monitor as discussions are held with the legislature. Another one for me is criminal justice reform. And so my work outside of is working for the local community justice center. And before that, I worked out with the women's correctional facility. So I've seen firsthand how our system is and isn't working and where their gaps are. And so for me, that is something that I really am looking at with the policy that we're creating is how do we have an equitable system that is addressing harms that are being done in our committee, but also doing it in a way that is fair and equitable and isn't leaving people in a worse place than where they started from. And so some of the things that we, well one, it was out of judiciary committee was collecting racial statistics on race and I forget what the different pieces were of it. But one saying like, it does matter. Again, it gets back to that data piece which in some way people are like, this is really simple, why are we doing it? But that's the piece that you need in order to uncover where the gaps in the system are. And so one of the pieces that we're looking at in our committee is the midpoint review of probation which doesn't sound very interesting, but basically what it is is folks who are on probation should be getting a midpoint review. However, what we're seeing is looking at data, it wasn't happening for everyone everywhere. And so one of the pieces that we changed instead of saying may have a midpoint review, they shall, like we're kind of saying it happens because what we were finding is certain counties were moving it forward, other counties weren't moving it forward. And for me, that was an example of geographic injustice of just because you're in one county, you're kind of getting a different sense of the system. And so those are the things that we need to look at through all lenses to make sure that folks are being held accountable but being held accountable in a fair and equitable way. So I've already heard a few things touched on but I think kind of a general question I'm thinking about is themes for this legislative session. I know like one thing we've already hinted at a few times is COVID relief and I know a lot of COVID relief has gone through the legislature this session. So any thoughts about that in general themes or? Ray, how about Ray? Sure, I think I mentioned in the governor's budget and I think as a state, there has been a huge focus on opioid crisis and substance use treatment. So it's really exciting that our state is putting really investing some major dollars and effort and resources into this crisis and really helping folks not only to help those who are the most vulnerable but also a lot of prevention. There's a lot of money and effort going, will be going into prevention for the substance use programs. Also housing, I think we're in a housing crisis that has just been exasperated by COVID. So I think again, it's really exciting. I think we have a long way to go. Vermonters can't afford to live in Vermont right now. A lot of people are struggling, they're getting outbid by multiple cash offers and we don't have enough housing stock. So I think that's something that's been a theme across and also workforce development. I mean, Karen mentioned there's been so much stuff happening but again, the workforce crisis has been really hitting certain sectors like childcare, early childhood education, teachers, nursing. So again, exciting to see that there's some resources going to that but it takes time to get those online, get those programs implemented. So hopefully we're kind of on the way to getting out of some of these real big challenges that we've been facing that would just kind of make bigger by COVID and the pandemic. Karen? Yeah, I would echo a lot of what Ray just shared. The three that were coming to mind for me were affordability, definitely a theme, workforce development. And then I think a big one is climate action, climate solution. And so for me, affordability is a buzzword but it's also at the end of the day what folks care about, is how is the work that we're doing making their lives easier? Bringing taxes down or just making it accessible. And so one of the things that I've really leaned into as a lot of the legislation that we're doing is working to make things more affordable and accessible to Vermonters. We did do some specifics around tax credit. There's a child tax credit that passed out of the house but just the work that we're doing to expand housing options, the workforce development pieces, all these federal funds and really being intentional about how we use them and what type of programming and infrastructure we lift up is going to help the average Vermonters bottom line. So that definitely is a theme that we're hearing with it. Workforce development, as Ray mentioned, is huge this year. Again, because we don't have the perspective of knowing previous sessions, but my understanding is it gets back to that intersection on criminal justice reform where all these committees are working together. Our commerce committee took on working basically with every committee of being like, we know workforce is an issue across the board. What is it that you see in your policy area that needs to be done around healthcare workers, around in our committee, it was looking at correctional staff. In others, it's teachers. It's across the board, we know we're in a crisis in what needs to be done. So there was a huge bill that was passed and really excited for what can move forward in that. And then the climate change one is, I feel, I don't know, I think that's like the most bills. I feel like every week we have something that's related to climate solutions, which is wonderful because I again, I think about that with our youth in the longevity of our communities, our planet. So I'm always excited to come home and tell my kids about the great climate work that we're doing, because I know that's really important to them. But some of that has been around forestry, redeveloping our Act 250 process. One, these are things I don't even know and I learned about as we're doing it is that there's microplastics and compost and making sure we get that out of it. And then of course, clean heat standard was one that just passed, which I'm really glad that it did because I know it was a bit controversial. So we'll see where it goes in the Senate and then also looking into a lot to promote electric vehicle infrastructure. So excited about all that because I think that's the direction we need to go. Great, great. Any last thoughts before we get going? This is blown by pretty quickly. Yeah, any last thoughts you wanna share with the community before we go? Yeah, right. Yeah, I'll just say it's really been a privilege. I didn't have the process of an election and kind of planning to be in this role and it's really truly been an honor and a privilege to serve Essex in this way. And I'm excited to continue and eager for the election season coming up. But on the other hand, Vermont as a community where all of us were facing a lot of big challenges and I'm really thrilled to have an opportunity to help work with my colleagues on the house to work on those major problems. And thank you for having us here. This has been a great opportunity. I would say similar thoughts. It really has been an honor to serve by community in this way. That's one of the reasons why I got into this is wanting to give back to the community. And so seeing it like this is what we're doing is we're making decisions each day that impact so many Vermonters. And I've just really appreciated the community input that I received. Granted, we are going through this big thing right now of looking to separate and become our own city. So folks are engaged, but I don't know if it's also a piece of going through the remote hybrid. Folks are contacting us on a regular basis to share their input on legislation and that is so important. And so I really feel like I can be a voice for the community when I'm hearing from folks. So I think I would ask, keep doing that. Keep reaching out. I want to be a voice for our community. And yeah, looking forward to what's ahead. Right. Well, thank you both for being here. Thank you for serving your town so well, so effectively. And thank you for tuning in to Under the Dome. We'll return next week. It will be here Mondays at 12. Next week is representatives from South Burlington. We'll have John Kalaki and Martin Lalonde on. And you can watch this and other local political coverage on our website at ch17.org. You can also find it on our YouTube channel. That's YouTube slash town meeting TV. And on our channels Comcast 1087 and Burlington telecom 17 and 217. See you next week.