Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, on Tuesday downplayed a consultant’s recommendation that the Legislature bar members of the public and the press from the Statehouse in 2022.
A 50-page report issued last week by the Burlington architectural firm Freeman French Freeman proposed a number of options for reopening the Statehouse as the threat of Covid-19 diminishes. “Option A” would allow only lawmakers and staff into the building for the next eight months, while providing public access via “live broadcasting/interaction and recordings.”
Balint, however, indicated she was not keen on that part of the proposal.
“I just want to go on the record here saying we are absolutely committed to making sure that there is access to our work for the public and the press, and we’re going to figure out what that looks like,” Balint said Tuesday during a meeting of the Senate Democratic caucus.
“There is a part of the report that seems to imply otherwise and, of course, that is a top priority for us, not just because it’s the right thing to do but it’s our constitutional mandate that the doors of the Statehouse are open,” she said.
As the remote session comes to a close, Balint and fellow legislative leaders have been working on plans to ensure they won’t spend eight hours a day on Zoom in 2022.
The business of legislating via the internet has become a divisive topic this year. Lawmakers complain that it’s difficult to know what’s going on in the (virtual) Statehouse, while lobbyists complain that the format gives committee chairs more power to shut them out.
The counterargument, often deployed by Balint and House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, is that livestreaming the legislative process on YouTube has brought transparency and expanded access to the Statehouse.
As Vermont begins to open up and Gov. Phil Scott pledges to ease restrictions by July, it remains unclear whether the 2022 session will be in person or virtual.
“The sentiment is we would all like to be back in the building in some way,” Balint said Tuesday. “We want to do it safely. We want to do it carefully. There’s a lot of factors that go into that decision-making.”
On the House side, there have been rumblings that another virtual session could lead more members than expected to retire at the end of the biennium. House leaders continue to debate what they should do.
Minority Leader Patricia McCoy, R-Poultney, made it clear last week that she opposes continuing to meet remotely after the governor lifts most restrictions this summer.
The Statehouse is currently getting fitted with a new HVAC system to improve airflow and ventilation. That project has not yet been completed, according to Balint.
“We’re in the early stages,” she said. “We have a lot of pieces to figure out.”
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