Smith: Vermont’s transparency problem

According to Courthouse News Service, the state of Vermont has a problem: It lacks transparency. The California-based company says Vermont is the only state in the nation that doesn’t disclose lawsuits filed in court until they have been served on defendants. As a result, the average time for disclosure is 41 days, and almost one-quarter of these lawsuits are kept secret for months. In comparison, suits filed in the state of New York are made public immediately, or within, at least, a day or two later. The news service says this delay is unacceptable, and is suing Vermont in federal court. But this isn’t the only example of Vermont state government being less that forthcoming with information — information that is often readily available in many other states.

Just last weekend, a story on the front page of the Rutland Herald by Mike Donoghue revealed that six months before 26-year-old Alexandra Rooker was found dead on a Poultney property owned by Wayne Oddo, 53, a man was found dead on that same property. The Vermont State Police never revealed to the public this man’s death or the circumstances surrounding it, even though they and the state’s attorney’s office were at Oddo’s residence investigating this death. The details of this prior death were finally reported to the public because Donoghue discovered them while reporting on Oddo’s court case. The Vermont State Police maintain that they have discretion when to inform the public about deaths and chose not to in this case, even though acute heroin intoxication was a contributing factor to the man’s heart-related death. Additionally, Mr. Oddo did not report that this man had died in a timely fashion. Speculation will always fill an information vacuum left when government chooses not to disclose relevant facts.

For example, would disclosing this man’s death six months earlier have sent enough of a warning to Ms. Rooker — or friends or family — to prevent her death? We will never know, but a press release about this man’s death and any ongoing investigation may have quelled future speculation.

Of course, the biggest business scandal in Vermont’s history is still shrouded in secrecy because the state refuses to release the bulk of the EB-5 related emails that are archived on the state’s computers. The state maintains that it cannot release these emails to the public because of future litigation the state may pursue against certain individuals, or potential lawsuits filed by investors against the state accusing officials of failing to protect them.

After deploying a few false reasons for withholding the emails, the state has now settled on a process for EB-5 emails to be released when litigation is filed, access to the information is given to opposing attorneys and a judge approves the release to the public. This could take years, and some doubt whether the public will ever see the emails.

There are other blatant attempts by state government to hide information. More than a year ago, former Vermont governor Peter Shumlin traveled to Paris to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Upon his return, he reported that the cost of the trip was just $1,251— the cost of travel for one aide. WCAX-TV had to go to court to find out that Shumlin tried to hide an expense of nearly $4,000 for a privately chauffeured limousine service, in addition to a rental car for his two-day trip to Paris. There were other hidden expenses involving the Paris trip that the judge did not release, citing restrictions in Vermont’s public disclosure laws against such releases.

In other examples, the public still hasn’t seen the toxicology report on the driver who killed five teens on Interstate 89 last fall. And body-cam video of police shootings in Vermont is held for a much longer period by local and state governments than in some other states. When you combine state, county and local governments, the issue of government transparency is one that needs to be addressed.

The Legislature is now considering laws that shield reporters from revealing sources and requires some additional disclosure requirements to avoid conflicts of interest for members of both the Vermont House and the Senate. Both are needed. But more profound changes to ensure transparency in government are not expected. In fact, the chairwoman of the Vermont House Government Operations committee said that such an effort would take perhaps two years and the formation of a study committee, if there’s interest. So far the Legislature has shown no such interest.

Vermonters often think of our state as unique — that we are somehow different than other states in this country — and indeed, we warrant this distinction primarily because we have shown leadership in our environmental stewardship and in our generosity toward those less fortunate. Vermonters are caring and compassionate. But where we have fallen woefully short, especially when compared to other states, is in the area of government transparency. Being unique because we are the only state that doesn’t release court information on a timely basis is nothing to be proud of.

http://www.vermontbiz.com/news/april/smith-vermont%E2%80%99s-transparency-problem

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