Why I testified in the Senate on Friday
April 6, 2025
Dear friend,
Happy Saturday. What did y'all get up to this weekend?
I've bottled the last of the maple syrup I'm mailing out to all those who sent me your address. Look for it this week. I've only just started to mail "Honest Beginnings," the first issue of the Quill Nook Farm Zatalog, a co-production between myself and McKenna Lynn. I'm dropping a load at the P.O. tomorrow. To get in on the print-only insights, humor, and word search, message me any way you can with:
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Taking a left turn out of my driveway and spending close to two hours on I-91 North, I was back in Montpelier on Friday for the first time since the end of my term last year.
I testified in the Vermont Senate committee on Government Operations. Here's a link to the replay, picking up about 2 minutes before I go on to give you some context. I'd love for you to watch and share any thoughts.
a moment in my testimony to Senate Gov Ops
I was invited and urged to testify by Christine Sivret, the Executive Director of the Vermont State Ethics Commission, who assembled the following rag-tag crew of ethics professionals:
Christina Sivret, Executive Director, Vermont State Ethics Commission
Chris Davis, Commissioner, Vermont State Ethics Commission
Thomas K. Jones, Professor, University of Connecticut
Larry Novins, Former Executive Director, Vermont State Ethics Commission
Tristan Roberts, Owner, Quill Nook Farm, Halifax
The message we each delivered to the Senate was simple: don't let Vermont go the way of D.C. on ethics.
H.1 as currently written would embolden elected officials to ignore the very statewide ethics code that we swore to uphold. Why would the Legislature vote to weaken the very law it just passed?
After beefing up state ethics law last year with H.875, H.1 - An act relating to accepting and referring complaints by the State Ethics Commission would be a step in the wrong direction. Vermont now has a Statewide Code of Ethics that applies to all public servants in all branches of government. All branches of government also have a consulting relationship with the Vermont Ethics Commission. The Commission has no executive power and can't tell the Legislature what to do. It's only there to consult.
H.1 is being promoted as a "cleanup" of hastily written legislation that addresses a separation-of-powers issue. Don't buy it. As both Chris Sivret and I point out in different ways, H.1 is a Trojan Horse to consolidate the power of the Speaker of the House.
I plan to write more about H.1 this week. As you can see early in my testimony, I was shut down by the Chair as soon as I mentioned the name of the Speaker. Add this to the list of how powerful elected leaders use their positions of authority to evade accountability.
Thanks for reading!
kind regards,
Tristan Roberts
Quill Nook Farm
Halifax, Vermont
P.S. If you share my concerns about H.1, please contact the Senators listed here today with a brief email stating your concern. Speaking from experience, these emails are easier to ignore if they are cut-and-pasted, so I'm not going to give you any text. All you have to do is write a couple of sentences about how you think H.1 is going in the wrong direction, or the like. It would also be helpful to mention that you support the questions raised by former Rep. Tristan Roberts and by Chris Sivret.
Don't live in Vermont? It don't matter! Let the Senators know that the world is watching Vermont as an example of a strong democracy. Don't touch our ethics! Don't pass H.1 as written.
P.P.S. Here's the view from the shipping department here.
