The Norwich Selectboard created a Green Fleet Working Group in September. Not much, if anything, has been publicized about this group since.
As it turns out, the Working Group won’t commit to compliance with the Open Meeting Law. Nor will the public at large have representation on this group. That is the word from Town Manager Herb Durfee who is leading the group.
What is it about “working groups” that causes officials to conclude that such groups are magically exempt from the Open Meeting Law? They are not. Yet, again and again, as noted below, the Town of Norwich encounters the issue and makes the wrong decision. Perhaps the better question is: why do officials feel the need to avoid the public?
Background
Green Fleet policy
A “Green Fleet” policy would represent an effort by the Town to reduce carbon emissions from the vehicles it uses. By one estimate, the Norwich DPW fleet contributes three and a half times the carbon emissions than does the furnace at Tracy Hall. Earlier this year, Town leaders proposed spending $2 million in order to replace that furnace with a geothermal heating and updated ventilation system. Voters rejected the proposal.
Formulating a Green Fleet policy is a concept that gets mentioned off and on by the Selectboard since the passage of the non-binding Article 36 at Town Meeting in 2019. That Article calls for the reduction of fossil fuel use by five percent each year.
The 2020 Town Plan calls for the implementation of that Article “to the best of our abilities” as Action Item 30, for the Energy Committee and Planning Commission.
The internet has lots of information and examples of Green Fleet considerations, goals, policies and plans. A local example is the discussion of Transportation Energy section in the Town of Hartford, Vermont Five-Year Energy Action Plan, March 2017. Mentioned in the Hartford Plan, and elsewhere, is the need to first establish a baseline by collecting data about each vehicle’s fuel use and idling time.
Norwich Green Fleet Working Group
On September 23, 2020, the Selectboard agreed, without a vote, to form a group to study Green Fleet issues, according to draft meeting minutes. Its planned membership included Board member John Langhus and also “members of the Energy Committee and members of the public at large.” However, the minutes later say, “[Town Manager] Durfee agreed to convene a green fleet working group.”
Regrettably, the charge informing the purpose of the Working Group was not discussed.
I didn’t hear anything about the group until nearly two months later. The Planning Committee, at its meeting on November 12, appointed its representative to the Green Fleet Working Group.
Oddly, the composition of the working group apparently changed. According to the draft minutes to the November 12 PC meeting, the composition of the Working Group consists of, in addition to the Planning Commission rep, a “Selectboard member, 2 members of the Energy committee and [only one] citizen at large.”
Public not invited
Chopped liver.
Because it made the Planning Commission agenda, I wanted to learn more about this Working Group. However, my efforts to get information was essentially ignored by both the Selectboard and Town Manager. Even official correspondence to the Selectboard in its packet for the 12/2 meeting was disregarded. Too busy to even say: we’ll get back to you.
Fortunately, Stuart Richards followed up and received a response. A good thing too. The Town Manager indicated that although the group had not met, meetings need not comply with the Open Meeting Law. Residents may never had heard about this group until its work was done. Sadly, that seems like SOP for Norwich. Sorry public – you are SOL.
Open Meeting Law
Given the wide range of possible topics on the table and the creation of the Working Group by the Selectboard, I am surprised that the Town Manager says the Open Meeting Law (OML) does not apply.
Mr. Durfee says in his Friday email to Mr. Richards that he wants to develop “green” protocols for staff to consider in purchasing fleet vehicles and equipment. Town Manager Durfee further said the OML does not apply because “it’s [the Town Manager] asking for help from individuals to help me craft a staff protocol for use with dept heads and their internal functions related to bid solicitation.”
The explanation leaves me confused on two fronts. First, why is the green fleet initiative limited to “bid solicitation”? My cursory and random walk through the available information indicates there is more to a robust green fleet policy than consideration of fuel efficiency when replacing fleet vehicles. Maybe I don’t understand.
Second, and more important to this post, is the conclusion that the Open Meeting Law does not apply. The statute applies to “any board, council, or commission” of a municipality, or “or any committee of any of the foregoing boards, councils, or commissions.” 1 V.S.A § 310(4).
Here, a group of elected and appointed officials will work on a task, delegated to them by the Selectboard. But, somehow the Open Meeting Law does not apply. Wrong-o.
It’s not the first time our leaders chose to exclude the public. What is it about “working groups” that causes officials to conclude they are magically exempt?
Past missteps
Less than a year ago, the Selectboard considered a similar issue regarding the Town Facilities Working Group. For some reason or another, it met several times, without public warning or participation, to discuss the EEI geothermal proposals. The Selectboard said the Group needed to comply with the Open Meeting Law. There was a do-over meeting on January 13 to cure Open Meeting Law violations. But, by then, the Working Group had made up its mind on how to proceed.
More recently, in August 2020, the Planning Commission dissolved the Sewer Working Group and voided its actions to cure OML violations.
Further, in October, the Planning Commission used a lot of attorney time addressing whether working groups used in 2019 in drafting the Town Plan violated the Open Meeting Law. Although the PC exonerated itself, the vote was not unanimous.
Finally, the Town Manager created in September 2020, a “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group”. I applaud the initiative. However, as far as I know, meetings are not publicly warned and minutes are not published.
No public-at-large member
The Selectboard also envisioned “members of the public at large” would be in this Working Group. Not really so. Instead, according to Town Manager Durfee: “The composition [of the group] equals persons asked by me to participate (emphasis added).”
I read this to mean that there won’t be an ‘open position’ advertisement inviting the public to apply for a position with the Working Group. The Town Manager will ask someone he knows to fill the citizen-at-large seat(s).
However, it is not the first time the Town Manager has used that approach. As noted, he created the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group. He selected its members, without public advertisement.
Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to comment below.
Thank you for your efforts and for sharing this. I’m perplexed as to why some feel the need to keep town matters out of the public eye.
I assume CTK is Chris Katucki, correct? Why not make that clear? Comment had author attached, but blog only had initials. Seems an example of “Pot calling Kettle Gray, if not Black”.
Norm Levy
Norwich Energy Committee
These are disturbing accounts. The Open Meeting law is very clear — as well as fundamental to Vermont’s ethic of fair, transparent, and accountable local government.