The Week Ahead: May 13-19, 2013

Legislative adjournment? Ha! It's ain't over till the fat lady sings — by which we mean those svelte legislative leaders, Shap Smith and John Campbell.

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week — sure to be the last of the legislative session. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, May 13

• The Legislature couldn't wrap it up on Saturday as planned, which means lawmakers are back in Montpelier for another two days. The House hits the floor at 10 a.m. to take up the latest versions of several bills, including marijuana decriminalization and physician-assisted death-with-dignicide. The Senate's on at 10, too.
• Congressman Peter Welch is in Vermont today and at 12:30 p.m. he'll be making a "business visit" to the Alchemist Cannery in Waterbury. When you can't find any Heady Topper on the shelf this week, you'll know who to blame. 
• In Burlington, there's a Board of Finance meeting at 5 p.m. in city hall conference room 12, followed by a city council budget work session at 6.

Rest of the week after the break...

Burlington Telecom Negotiations End in Failure

Updated with comment from City Attorney Eileen Blackwood

Negotiations aimed at settling CitiCapital’s $33.5 million lawsuit against Burlington Telecom have collapsed, Mayor Miro Weinberger said on Saturday.

The two sides proved unable to reach an out-of-court agreement in talks that got underway in January. BT and Citi met for only a single two-day negotiating session. They did not hold a second round of talks in March, as had earlier been scheduled, the mayor disclosed in an interview in Battery Park during Kids' Day celebrations.

“It didn’t make sense to continue those talks,” Weinberger said, declining to specify the reasons for the breakdown. Because the dispute remains in litigation, the mayor said it would be improper for him to comment in detail.

The battle for control of the telecom network equipment leased to BT by CitiCapital thus returns to federal court in Burlington for adjudication of the lawsuit filed 20 months ago, after BT ceased making payments on its lease agreement.

The Weinberger administration had hoped to negotiate a deal with Citi that would clear the way for BT to be sold to private interests or to a co-op that some Burlington residents are forming. No buyer is likely to take the financially troubled utility off local taxpayers’ hands until the fight with CitiCapital is resolved. The New York-based creditor wants to be paid $33.5 million it says it is owed for the fiber-optic system or have the court order return of BT's infrastructure.

BT has been making small monthly payments to Citi, but at the current pace, it would take decades to cover the full amount.

It could also take more than a year for the court battle to be decided.

“We will continue to do everything we can to defend the taxpayers against further BT liability,” Weinberger said.

This Week's Issue: Why Vermont Domestic Abusers Keep Their Guns; Next Steps for Livable Wage in Burlington

In this week's Home & Garden issue of Seven Days...

• Federal law says domestic abusers are prohibited from possessing firearms, but Vermont has few safeguards to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
• Vermont and other maple-producing states are in the midst of a "liquid gold rush" — but is big maple a bubble in danger of bursting?
• No one checked on Burlington's livable wage ordinance for 12 years. What's next?
• It's commencement season, which means a few lucky folks will have honorary degrees bestowed upon them by Vermont colleges.
• In Fair Game, Paul Heintz breaks down yesterday's grand bargain on taxes and the state budget between Gov. Peter Shumlin and legislative leaders.
• Lastly, "Stuck in Vermont" features a character that might be familiar to lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters and anyone else who makes the Burlington-Montpelier commute: Buddy Longworth, the most interesting bus driver on the road.

The Week Ahead: May 6-12, 2013

It's the last week of the legislative session in Montpelier — or so they say!

Here's what else is happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Got a newsworthy event for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, May 6

• The House gavels in at 1 p.m. On the lengthy calendar: third reading for the immigrant driver's-license bill.
• The House and Senate set to work resolving differnences in their versions of the tax and budget bills. Conference committees begin at 2 p.m. (budget bill) and 5:30 p.m. (tax bill) and are scheduled to continue all week.
• The Legislature might be in crunch mode, but Gov. Peter Shumlin is apparently leaving the arm-twisting to his staff today. The gov's schedule: 9 a.m. in Johnson for a ceremonial lease signing, 10 a.m. in Morrisville for a library centennial, and noon in Montpelier for a state employees recognition luncheon at the Elks Club. 
• Live at 5:25 p.m., State Auditor Doug Hoffer will be on Channel 17. Watch live.
• At 7 p.m., the Burlington City Council meets at city hall, where they'll vote on the appointment of Bob Rusten as Mayor Miro Weinberger's pick for chief administrative officer.

 Rest of the week after the break...

Weinberger Taps SoBu Finance Wiz for Queen City's Number-Two Job

A national search launched last year for a new chief administrative officer of Burlington has ended just a few miles from where it began.

Saying it is “in many ways the most important appointment I have to make,” Mayor Miro Weinberger announced on Thursday that he has chosen Bob Rusten, a top South Burlington official, to fill the post. Weinberger noted that he had personally interviewed about a dozen candidates for the CAO job.

Rusten, 62, would bring diversified administrative and political experience to the city’s number-two post if confirmed by the city council next week. He currently holds three positions in South Burlington: deputy city manager, chief financial officer and treasurer. He also served 10 years in the Vermont House as a Democrat representing Halifax, which Rusten described at a city hall press conference as a conservative Republican district.

“The person the city needs at this time is someone with deep municipal finance experience,” Weinberger said.

The mayor touted Rusten’s handling of the same thorny assignments he would be given in Burlington: fixing an underfunded pension system, cleaning up a fiscal mess and negotiating sustainable deals with municipal labor unions.

In a memorandum sent to the city council yesterday, Weinberger said Rusten “co-negotiated an $8.2 million refunding of an underfunded pension system.” The mayor also pointed to Rusten’s work on a team that “unearthed the severe nature of South Burlington’s financial troubles” and helped solve “cumulative fiscal problems exceeding $17 million.”

State Rep Urges Burlington Council Committee to Recruit Allies on Gun Control

Burlington should encourage other towns and cities around the state to propose their own charter changes related to firearms, the Vermont legislature's leading gun-control advocate told a city council committee on Monday.

"The more towns you have presenting charter changes on this, the more it will prod the legislature to do something," said State Rep. Linda Waite-Simpson (D-Essex Junction). She added that it will be more difficult for the legislature to reject a charter change related to gun control if other municipalities join Burlington in advocating such regulations.

The city council's charter change committee is hearing testimony related to a proposed ordinance that would ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips in the city. The full council voted 10-3 in favor of further considering a resolution containing those restrictions that was offered in January by City Councilor Norm Blais (D-Ward 6).

He and the other two members of the charter-change committee seemed receptive to Waite-Simpson's suggestion. Councilor Tom Ayres (D-Ward 7) said it would be vital to "try to have rational and respectful discussions" with residents of the Northeast Kingdom, "where there's bound to be opposition" to gun control of any sort.

Waite-Simpson (pictured) noted she has received assurance from legislative leaders that the issue will be taken up in local meetings after the current session ends. The hope is that consensus can be reached on some aspects of gun control, she said. Waite-Simpson's own set of proposed regulations never got to the floor of the Vermont House despite the emotional upwelling that followed a lone gunman's massacre of 26 first-graders and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, late last year.

Many Vermonters' resistance to any restrictions on guns remains unyielding, Waite-Simpson said. She cited two examples of the state's status as an outlier.

The Week Ahead: April 29 - May 5, 2013

Here's what's happening in Vermont news and politics this week. Lots doing in the Statehouse, as the Legislature careens toward the finish line. Got a submission for next week's calendar? Email by Friday to submit.

Monday, April 29

• Congressman Peter Welch is in the Middle East this week. Details are being withheld for security reasons, but the rep departed Sunday with fellow members of the House National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Subcommittee (or, as the kids refer to it, NSHDAFOS) for a trip that includes Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey.
• At 11:30 a.m., the Burlington City Council's charter- change committee takes up the dormant assault-weapons-ban proposal. In city hall, conference room 10.
• At noon, the Senate holds a "token" session. You sure that's not, "tokin'" session? I'm looking at you, Sen. Zuckerman.
• The University of Vermont is holding public forums with candidates seeking Jane Knodell's old job of UVM provost. First one is today at 3:30 p.m. in Billings Library. Full list.

Rest of the week after the break...

Celebrating Cycling, the City and Spring

A cycling celebration tour on a gorgeous spring Sunday attracted 150 bikers who pedaled a 10-mile loop linking some of Burlington’s most scenic spots. The riders also heard about the history of those places as part of the relaunch of the Cycle the City route.

It’s been 15 years since the loop was blazed as one of the first projects undertaken by Local Motion, the Burlington-based cycling and walking advocacy group. To mark the anniversary, the route has been equipped with new smartphone-readable sign posts that direct bikers and pedestrians to sights along the lake, in the Intervale and Old North End, at the University of Vermont and around downtown.

A walking tour was also organized on Sunday. This 3.5-mile route was guided by Barbara Mines of the Montpelier-based Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition.

“My goal is to get people off the Burlington bike path and onto other cycling and walking routes in the city,” said Local Motion director Chapin Spencer, who addressed the cyclists behind Maglianero Café, on lower Maple Street, prior to the ride.

Fudge, Ice Cream and Grandma Appear at Anti-F-35 Protest

With boxes of fudge and ice cream serving as props, opponents of the F-35 fighter jet staged a press conference/protest outside the Burlington office of Sen. Patrick Leahy on Wednesday.

The event wasn’t just desserts, however. The activists also enlisted a local grandmother who warned that basing the planes at the Burlington International Airport (BTV) could force her to move from the home she has occupied for the past 40 years.

The two boxes of fudge resting on top of the Democracy sculpture on Main Street were a reference to a recent Boston Globe story reporting that the Pentagon had “fudged” an assessment identifying BTV as the top choice for the F-35 bed-down. The Globe said the results of an evaluation process had been manipulated in order to ensure the plane would be based in Leahy’s state. The senator had pressed the Air Force to bring the F-35 to Burlington, the Globe also reported, citing anonymous officials as its sources for the account.

Ben & Jerry's Cofounder to Protest F-35 Basing Wednesday

Opponents of basing F-35 fighter jets in Burlington have scooped up a prominent new ally.

No, it ain't Cherry Garcia — but perhaps the next best thing: Ben & Jerry's cofounder Ben Cohen.

"I think the F-35 is the poster child for all that's wrong with the Pentagon," Cohen says. "And I think it's a plane that doesn't have any purpose. Our enemies don't have air forces or fighter jets."

A press release issued Monday by South Burlington attorney Jimmy Leas and other local F-35 opponents said Cohen would join them for a press conference Wednesday outside Sen. Patrick Leahy's Main Street office in Burlington to speak out against the plane's proposed basing in Vermont. According to the release, Cohen would then march upstairs in an attempt to meet with Leahy, a strong supporter of bringing the planes to Burlington.

But Cohen says that's not quite the case. He says he'll meet with reporters, but doesn't plan to storm the castle. 

Leahy's office took exception to the group's press release.

"The group's publicity announcement itself is a trifecta of fallacies, distortions and innuendo. It's the very definition of a publicity stunt," Leahy spokesman David Carle said in a statement, noting that the senator is currently in Washington. "The group's first thought was a press release, and all else was afterthought, including requesting a conversation for Wednesday or even checking the Senate's very public schedule."

Carle added, "Sen. Leahy talked to Ben Cohen this afternoon and Ben told him he had not seen the release and did not write it. The two of them are longtime friends and, of course, Sen. Leahy takes Ben's word for it."

Cohen says he called Leahy earlier Wednesday to give him a heads-up about the action and had a "cordial" conversation with the senator.

Did Leahy sound like he would budge on the issue?

"No," Cohen reports. "He seems pretty locked in."