Vermonters who were sheltered on an emergency basis in one of five motels across the state will be eligible for restitution for their wrongfully withheld security deposits under a settlement agreement landed by the Attorney General’s Office this week.
Motel magnate Anil Sachdev will pay roughly $300,000 in restitution for withholding deposits from Vermonters who participated in the state’s emergency motel shelter program, Attorney General Charity Clark announced Wednesday at a Statehouse press conference.
The attorney general’s investigation started last year when the office began receiving calls from Vermonters exiting the state’s emergency motel housing program, Clark said.
“These callers wanted help receiving security deposits they were entitled to through the program and had been withheld,” she told reporters. “They felt like they had no option but to take what was offered, if anything, by the motel owner, and they had nowhere else to turn.”
The state paid motel owners $3,300 security deposits for rooms used to shelter people experiencing homelessness. Vermonters who stayed in the program for more than four months were entitled to receive the deposit, minus the cost of any documented physical damages to the motel rooms. The intent was to offer program participants a leg-up as they transitioned away from state-sponsored housing.
But some of the eligible Vermonters who stayed in Sachdev’s five motels — located in Berlin (Hilltop Inn), Brattleboro (Quality Inn), Montpelier (EconoLodge) and Rutland (Cortina Inn and Pine Tree Lodge) — never received the money they were due, according to Clark.
Some occupants were asked to sign written statements claiming that they “may have” caused damage to their rooms and waived portions of their security deposits. The Attorney General’s Office deemed those documents unfair and deceptive under Vermont law. Others, meanwhile, simply had all or part of their deposits withheld without sufficient reason, Clark said Wednesday.
With the settlement, Vermonters whose deposits were wrongly withheld will be eligible to be made whole — whether that means a check for $3,300, if their full deposit was withheld, or the difference, if they received a partial deposit.
Clark said a third-party administrator will set up a website (www.vtmoteldeposit.com) in the coming weeks where qualifying Vermonters can make their claims.
Asked whether the Attorney General’s Office is pursuing other motels for similarly withholding deposits, Clark pointed to her office’s policy of neither confirming nor denying the existence of investigations, “but I will say, this has definitely been our focus these past few months.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
In the know
Members of the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions were chomping at the bit to learn about Medicaid on Wednesday morning.
No, really. Lawmakers wanted to learn about the Scott administration’s plans to get Medicaid to cover some prison health care costs. Historically, Medicaid has not covered health care for prisoners, and Vermont currently pays more than $34 million per year to prison health care contractor Wellpath.
Last year, California became the first state to receive federal approval to cover some of its health care costs in its prisons through the federal-state program.
Vermont is one of more than a dozen states that have now applied for similar approval. The approval would only cover some expenses, with a particular focus on care coordination, during the 90 days prior to a person’s release, Ashley Berliner, director of Medicaid policy at the Department of Vermont Health Access, told legislators.
The concept clearly perked the ears of the committee, as they could hardly let Berliner talk without firing off questions.
“Normally, no one cares about Medicaid policy,” she joked.
One major hurdle before Vermont can join California, though, is updating what Berliner called DVHA’s “clunky, clunky” IT system. Federal funding may help with that transition, she said.
Another catch: The state can’t use federal dollars to cut spending. It must reinvest those dollars into corrections. (And it can’t use the money to build a new prison, either, Berliner said.)
The state is hoping to start receiving reimbursements in 2026, which Berliner called a “very realistic” goal.
— Ethan Weinstein
For years the Vermont Judiciary has been trying to diversify the state’s court system through numerous methods. Today, it was the Legislature’s turn.
Aiming for a bigger and more diverse applicant pool, backers of the bill H.780 want to allow people to make nominations for filling a judicial vacancy. Currently candidates apply themselves, which would continue to be an option and would still be required of someone nominated.
Chief Superior Judge Thomas Zonay was supportive of that idea, but not all of the proposed changes in the bill, he said in his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. “There are some who need that extra push and that’s where I think the nominating process might be that,” he said.
But Zonay questioned the plan to nix the requirement that candidates be residents of Vermont. “I’m a judge in Vermont. We are part of the community,” Zonay said. “I don’t think it’s too big an ask to say, look, you should live here to be a judge here.”
Xusana Davis, executive director of the Office of Racial Equity, testified in support of the change. “A lot of people who relocate here are people who have spent a lot of time here, who have family here, second homes,” she said.
The committee will continue its conversation next week.
— Babette Stolk
Former Rep. John Killacky, D-South Burlington, relayed this story to the House Committee on General and Housing Wednesday morning:
During a recent legislative session, a group of high school students came to visit the Statehouse one day. The kids were invited up to the balcony, where they could get a better view of the House floor. But because there is no elevator to the balcony — only stairs — one student in a wheelchair was left in the hallway.
“Think about how often we welcome people to ‘The People’s House,’” Killacky said. But on that day, “The People’s House didn’t work that well.”
Killacky, who spent two terms in the Legislature, is paraplegic and uses a cane or walker. On Wednesday, he paid a virtual visit to the committee to speak in support of H.463 — a bill that would create a new staff position within the General Assembly, a “permanent, full-time Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator.”
The coordinator would “oversee the provision of reasonable accommodations to General Assembly staff and members of the public who visit the State House and other legislative buildings,” and would help pursue changes and new procedures to improve the building’s accessibility.
As a historic building, the Vermont Statehouse is exempt from some of the requirements of the federal ADA, according to Damien Leonard with the Office of Legislative Counsel.
But the Statehouse is also currently not up to code, and there are “accessibility issues throughout,” according to a report released last month: The building has few ADA-accessible bathrooms, some areas have no elevator access, and some doorways are too narrow, among other issues.
In 2022, however, House lawmakers approved a resolution stating that the House “shall apply the requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act in regulating its procedure.”
“I think until we do get it worked out, we should call it ‘The Some People’s House,’” said Rep. Elizabeth Burrows, D-West Windsor, who sponsored the legislation.
The bill is scheduled for a potential committee vote Friday.
— Peter D’Auria
Since 2019, the Animal Cruelty Investigations Advisory Board, which advises state officials on animal welfare, has been making the same recommendation: Like its neighboring states, Vermont should establish a state-level division of animal welfare.
This year, it may land.
— Babette Stolk
Data dispatch
More than 1,600 Vermont students experienced homelessness in the 2022-2023 school year, according to testimony from the Agency of Education on Wednesday for H.717, a bill that aims to give disadvantaged students more support at colleges and universities.
The rate of students experiencing homelessness is rising, according to the agency’s data. Those students are less likely to graduate high school and less likely to pursue higher education than the Vermont average.
— Erin Petenko
What we're reading
Walgreens settles with state for $275,000 over alleged violations, VTDigger
History repeats as library supporters return a 94-year-old favor, Waterbury Roundabout
As calls grow to crack down on repeat offenders, State’s Attorney Sarah George takes a different tack, Seven Days
Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter misidentified one of the motels in Rutland owned by Anil Sachdev due to an error in a press release provided by the Vermont Attorney General's office.