Vermont Municipal Highway Association Equipment Show & Field Day PACIF Difference #2: “No Fault” Sewer Backup Coverage From Main Street to the Mountains: Vermont’s Musical Landscape! Managing Town Social Media Platforms Serving and Strengthening Vermont Local Governments June 2018 From the Executive Director Diversity is a subject that many Vermonters and Vermont institutions have been discussing for years. It is a noteworthy, complex topic. When the conversation turns to what can be done to support diversity in our state, I hear many different opinions and recommendations about how to best address the issue. While traveling around the state and talking with VLCT member officials and municipal leaders, I have discovered that people want to know how we, as municipal governments, can support an increasingly diverse Vermont. What steps should we take to ensure that we treat everyone – our residents, our colleagues, and those who visit our communities – in a consistent, unbiased manner? To do that successfully, it is essential that we understand the concept of implicit bias. This is becoming an increasingly common term. The U.S. Department of Justice defines it well, referring to implicit bias as “the unconscious or subtle associations that individuals make between groups of people and stereotypes about those groups.” Without us being at all aware, these associations can significantly change our behavior and decision-making based on the person or people with whom we interact: we treat different people differently based on any number of variables – race, religion, gender, sexual identity, education level, and so on. If these influencers affect each of us on an unconscious level, what, then, can we do about it? And where do we, as individuals who interact daily with a wide range of people from our communities, see implicit bias at work? Fortunately, implicit bias is an area of active research for social scientists and those who examine the workings of the human brain. As a result, numerous training programs exist to help people identify implicit bias, understand the depth and breadth of its influence on how we relate to one another, and provide us with techniques to counter its influence. I am pleased that we will cover this topic at Town Fair 2018 in South Burlington in October. In addition, I have been talking with experts from around the state and with members who are working on this important issue to figure out the best way to make implicit bias training a regular offering to VLCT members beyond Town Fair, and I will keep you apprised of our progress. In the meantime, I am always eager to hear from you. Is implicit bias a topic you are talking about in your community? What type of assistance could VLCT offer you? Send me your thoughts and suggestions at [email protected]. I am very interested to know what you think. VERMONT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LAW Warm regards, JAMES W. BARLOW plc Maura Carroll Executive Director, VLCT Attorney Jim Barlow [email protected] 802.274.6439 Reasonable Rates. Responsive Service. Attorneys at Law Knowledgeable. Dedicated. Responsive. Live Local. Put our team to work for you. CONTACT US • 802.660.2555 • www.FirmSPF.com www.vtlocalgovlaw.com 2 VLCT News Inside this issue Serving and Strengthening Vermont Local Governments From the Executive Director. 2 89 Main Street, Suite 4 Montpelier, VT 05602-2948 [email protected]/www.vlct.org Ask the League. .4 802-229-9111 U.S. Dept of Labor Offers “PAID” Program. .5 Follow us on: @ Twitter: VLCTAdvocacy Vermont’s Musical Landscape. 6 Facebook: VLCT Advocacy YouTube: youtube.com/vlctexec RMS Trust Matters. .8 VLCT Board 2018 RMS Calendar. .9 Dominic Cloud, President City Manager, St. Albans City PACIF Difference #2. .9 Hon. Miro Weinberger, Vice President Mayor, Burlington Jared Cadwell Immediate Past President Selectperson, Fayston Managing Town Deb Beckett Town Clerk/Treasurer, Williston Social Media Platforms. .10 Peter Elwell Town Manager, Brattleboro William Fraser City Manager, Montpelier City Mary Ann Goulette Town Manager, West Rutland Sandy Pinsonault Town Clerk, Dorset Charles Safford Town Manager, Stowe Ted Simmons Selectboard Vice Chair, Orwell Rebecca White Selectperson, Hartford Brendan Whittaker Selectperson, Brunswick Lucrecia Wonsor Town Fair 2018 Preview . .11 Town Clerk/Treasurer, Killington th Maura Carroll Trivia (100 !). 11 Executive Director Shawna Brulé Staff News . .12 Graphic Designer David Gunn Classifieds. 13 Editor/Copy Editor A Great Golfing Deal Returns. .15 The VLCT News is published eleven times per year (the August and September issues are combined) Upcoming Events . 16 by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, a non- profit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1967 to serve the needs and interests of Vermont municipal- Photo credits: cover, 2018 Plow Rally, Shawna Brulé; page 6, ities. The VLCT News is distributed to all VLCT member towns. Please contact VLCT for subscrip- Northeast Kingdom Community Orchestra rehearsal, David Gunn. tion and advertising information. June 2018 3 Questions asked by VLCT members and answered by the League’s legal and research staff What should our town know about hiring seasonal workers? Many municipalities hire workers to from state minimum wage requirements but DOL Fact Sheet #32 at https://www.dol. assist with warm-weather operations they are subject to the federal minimum gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs32.pdf. such as summer recreational programs wage for youth. and town swimming facilities. Although State law limits the number of hours that these individuals are bona fide municipal According to the Wage and Hour Division minors may work and the functions they employees, they are not subject to the of the Vermont Department of Labor, a may perform. Those restrictions are listed same state and federal laws regarding wages municipality may pay its student employees on the Department of Labor’s website at and overtime. For instance, employees in anywhere on the federal pay scale from a http://labor.vermont.gov/wordpress/wp- municipal recreational programs that operate youth wage of $4.25 per hour to the federal content/uploads//WH-30-Information-for- for fewer than seven months of the calendar minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for a Employer-Child-Labor-Law.pdf. year are exempt from the overtime provisions maximum of 90 days or until the individual’s Sarah Jarvis, Staff Attorney II of federal and state law. For an employee to 20th birthday. For further information, see VLCT Municipal Assistance Center qualify for the exemption, his or her duties must be performed at a facility that is a distinct, physical place of operations that is separate from the main administrative Up-to-date information and helpful templates location of the organization. This means recently added to the VLCT website that a municipality’s entire government cannot qualify as a recreational program (or “establishment”). Similarly, parks and recreation department employees who are employed by a central, non-recreational Find these Online agency do not qualify for the exemption, even if they are employed only seasonally. FAQs: Vacancies in Elected Offices The applicable laws are Section 13(a)(3) of Vermont law states that an elected town office becomes “vacant” if the town officer the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and resigns, is removed from office, dies, becomes unable to perform his or her duties due Title 21, Section 384(b)(2)(A) of Vermont to a mental condition or psychiatric disability, or moves out of the town in which he Statutes Annotated. For further information, see the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) or she serves. 24 V.S.A. § 961. The creation of a vacancy in town government can be Fact Sheet #18 at https://www.dol.gov/whd/ a time of great confusion and uncertainty for municipalities. MAC created a list of regs/compliance/whdfs18.pdf. frequently asked questions and answers to assist members with vacant elected offices. https://www.vlct.org/resource/vacancies-elected-offices-faqs The legal scheme in regard to minimum wage is slightly different. A seasonal employee Model All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Ordinance is exempt from federal minimum wage This model ordinance is for member municipalities that wish to regulate the use and requirements but not from state minimum operation of ATVs within the municipality. wage requirements. In other words, https://www.vlct.org/resource/model-all-terrain-vehicle-atv-ordinance municipal employees performing seasonal functions must be paid the state minimum Model Social Media Policy wage, even though they are only employed MAC wrote this model policy to help member municipalities create and seasonally. However, there is an exception manage their social media platforms. Guidance regarding state and federal legal to the law: Title 21 Section 383(1)(I), for students who work during all or any part of considerations and additional information is provided to facilitiate customization. the school year or during regular vacation https://www.vlct.org/resource/model-social-media-policy periods. Those student employees are exempt For more information, contact MAC at 4 VLCT News 800-649-7915 or [email protected] Featured Upcoming MAC Workshops and Training Building a Sense of Municipal Place: A Forum for Employment Law and Municipal Officials Human Resources and Community Workshop Development Groups Tuesday, June 5, Thursday, June 14, Capitol Plaza, Montpelier Killington Grand Resort, Killington Featuring: Featuring: • Compensation Planning and Pay • Community Building – A Road Map for Your Classification