Norwich
Gov. Peter Shumlin, Human Services Secretary Hal Cohen and Al Gobeille, chairman of the Green Mountain Care Board, will present the proposal and take questions and comments from the audience.
The plan would involve paying more health care providers a set amount of money to care for patients, rather than a fee for each service performed. It still would have to be approved by state officials and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Monday’s 5:30 p.m. forum, at the Montshire Museum of Science, is one of three planned for the state in the next two weeks.
White River Junction
The group, comprised of government and non-government officials, will hold three forums across the state and invites the public to attend and share their experiences.
“Vermont is not immune from the issues that other communities across the nation are facing with regard to how historically marginalized communities — especially communities of color — are impacted by implicit or ‘unconscious’ bias among law enforcement authorities,” Sorrell said in a news release issued this week announcing the forum series. “For example, recent data from one Vermont city shows that black drivers were being stopped and searched by officers at a disproportionately high rate, even though contraband was found on white drivers more often.
“We would like to hear the human stories behind statistics like these.”
Research suggests even the “most open-minded and well-intentioned people” still have biases, he said.
The information gathered at the forums will be passed on to the state Criminal Justice Training Council, the agency that oversees training and certification of law enforcement officers.
“We want to convey to the training council the importance of implementing training to address implicit bias, and how those training efforts will support fair, impartial and effective policing throughout our state,” he said in the release.
The first forum will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Oct. 10 at Hartford Town Hall in White River Junction. The other two forums will be held in Burlington and Bennington on Oct. 19 and Oct. 25, respectively.
Claremont
Mayor Charlene Lovett said Alan Gould of Municipal Resources Inc., the search firm hired by the council, said six applications were received from each New Hampshire and Vermont, with one or two from the other 15 states. The deadline for applying was Sept. 19.
Lovett said MRI will begin reviewing the submissions with requests for essays from the top 16 candidates. Gould expects phone interviews to be completed by around Oct. 21, at which time MRI will refer the remaining candidates to the 13-member search committee. The number of finalists will depend on the results of the essays and phone interviews.
The search committee will hold its first meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in city hall.
Meanwhile, Newport’s acting town manager, Paul Brown, said on Thursday the Newport Selectboard has made no decisions yet on the process to replace Shane O’Keefe, who resigned abruptly on Sept. 1 for what has been termed “personal reasons.”
Montpelier
Shumlin tells WCAX-TV that despite saving overtime costs for his state police protection detail, state officials would prefer that he doesn’t ride in the 56-year-old single-engine aircraft.
The governor said he will continue to ignore his security detail’s advice because sporadic use of the plane is an economically prudent decision.
Shumlin claims the door of the plane has popped open on him mid-flight and he can see why past governors didn’t want to fly in it.
Vermont officials say the airplane also is used for various state needs, including forest and storm damage surveys.
— Staff and wire reports