For the past eight months, municipal officials seeking advice from the Vermont State Ethics Commission have been greeted by an apology on the organization’s website.
“With regret, due to lack of staffing,” the top of the webpage reads, “the State Ethics Commission can no longer provide advisory and complaint services to municipalities.”
In 2024, the Vermont Legislature established a uniform code of ethics for town and city governments, and directed the State Ethics Commission to provide training, advice and guidance on how to uphold it. Lawmakers, however, failed to provide the commission with additional resources to fulfill those duties.
With one part-time executive director and one part-time administrative assistant, commission officials say, providing advice to municipalities has become “an impossibility.” Paul Erlbaum, one of five volunteer state ethics commissioners, told lawmakers this week that the body may disband altogether if lawmakers don’t approve at least $300,000 in additional funding next year for two new staff positions. The commission’s budget this fiscal year is about $250,000.
"The commission staff is just treading water. And frankly we’re going to go down unless we get staff."Paul Erlbaum, commissioner, Vermont State Ethics Commission
“The continued existence of the commission is precarious, I’ll put it that way,” Erlbaum told members of the Senate Government Operations Committee. “We know this is a really, really tight budget year — we’re not doubting that. But the commission staff is just treading water. And frankly we’re going to go down unless we get staff.”
The ethics commission came into being in 2018 after government watchdogs routinely panned the state for its lack of any independent oversight apparatus. Lawmakers expanded the commission’s duties dramatically in 2024 by reforming the ethics regulatory landscape for municipalities, and directing the commission to vet complaints and issue advisory opinions.
Will Stevens, another commissioner, said the panel exists not only “to ensure good governance,” but to signal to Vermonters that “our representative form of government is acting in their broad interests.”
With public trust in government at historic lows, Stevens said, the role of the ethics commission is especially important now.
“The Legislature, while acting with good intent, created what amounts to an unfunded mandate,” Stevens said. “It’s a time-honored practice to ensure an entity’s failure to give it more to do while limiting their resources.”
Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed the 2024 legislation that expanded the commission’s duties to go into law without his signature. While he welcomed the increased oversight, Scott said at the time, he objected to creating new administrative burdens without additional funding.
Though Scott’s concerns proved prescient, the budget he presented to lawmakers earlier this month does not include additional funding for the commission.
“We had to make difficult choices in this budgetary cycle, knowing the limited amount of resources that we have,” Scott said Wednesday.
That leaves lawmakers to decide, once again, whether to fund the good-governance instrument they created.
“The question has to be raised — is the point just so we can feel good and pat ourselves on the back and say we’re doing something without actually doing anything?”Chittenden County Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky
Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, a member of the Senate Government Operations Committee, has advocated for increased funding for the commission for years. The Chittenden County Progressive said it’s been tough to make any headway with members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I think there is often a sense that things are sort of fine. And sure, we should do something, but it can wait,” Vyhovsky said.
Vyhovsky said the commission’s request is small relative to the $9.4 billion state budget. Given the financial strain on the commission now, she said, failure to fund additional staff will raise questions about the Legislature’s commitment to its mission.
“At that point,” Vyhovsky said, “the question has to be raised — is the point just so we can feel good and pat ourselves on the back and say we’re doing something without actually doing anything?”
