by Rep. Dave Yacovone
To some people, traditions are very important. To suggest abandoning the traditional ham dinner on Easter might create a revolution of sorts for some families, for others, it is no big deal.
There are some in the Legislature who like tradition. Me, not so much really. A conversation came up recently regarding allowing legislators to work remotely from home. During the pandemic, it has been permissible to work from home if you had COVID-19 or needed to quarantine or had a family member who had it.
In the Legislature, the rules committee acts as if it is a governing body for a corporation. As its name might imply, it proposes rules to govern the day-to-day operations of the House. The full House votes on whether to accept them. Recently, the committee decided to allow legislators with disabilities to work from home with the approval of the speaker.
During the discussion, one legislator stood up, and while indicating she would vote for the measure, she expressed reservations, in part because it was a break from tradition, and in part because she believed working remotely was not an effective way to represent voters.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but I saw it differently. Tradition for the sake of tradition is not the way to run an organization. With modern tools, such as Zoom, to assist with remote communications, why wouldn’t we let someone work from home who was ill, was fighting harsh weather or was needed on the home front to help with a sick family member? The world is different today than it was many years ago when legislative rules were drafted requiring legislators to work in person.
To be sure some legislators are social gadflies who love the backslapping and face-to-face kibitzing that goes on in the Statehouse. While they like that kind of work does not mean they should impose it on everyone else. Some legislators can make a persuasive point with a pencil or a computer just as effectively as a backslapper can.
I appreciate that rules are needed but forcing legislators to work at the Statehouse in this age of remote work makes little sense.
The business world, where it makes sense, has adopted remote working because they see it as being efficient. The Legislature needs to do the same. In my opinion, anyone who thinks a legislator cannot work effectively from home remotely has a narrow view. In working remotely, legislators can multitask and watch other committees that are debating issues in real-time.
Yes, traditions are nice but the times we are in demand more than embracing what is comfortable.
The author, a Morrisville resident, represents Morristown, Elmore, Woodbury and Worcester in the Vermont House. He is a Democrat.
Categories: Commentary
Right…working from home as a lawmaker is great for the ruling party lawmakers. Facing others..including other lawmakers and advocates that might be adverse to the ruling party agenda is far more uncomfortable in person…in the State House, in the halls, in the cafeteria…that being isolated from them.
Dear VT General Assembly: If you want to hang out at home, PLEASE ADJOURN. You would be doing the overburdened taxpayers and freedom-minded Vermonters a huge service. You are accomplishing NOTHING of value, only actions that create virtue signaling for your left wing agenda. The members who are candidates for higher office are (ab)using the legislature to campaign.
Any Legislator is not a full-time permanent employee. Most are all ready employed or retired. The pick-your-pocket-clean citizen legislature is a lucrative financial venture. Over the past two+ years, we can see they can steal and cheat taxpayers from home just as easily as if they were sitting under the dome. As the Washington (com)Post declares, democracy dies in darkness. RIP VT
Interesting. The elitists prefer to legislate from home. With less accountability than the small amount they are subject to now. I suppose it would make lobbyist to legislator meetings and transfers that much more discrete. We Vermont citizens have allowed this elitist crap from legislators for decades. Until accountability is demanded of these petulant legislators, we will continue to be ruled, not governed.
GET YOUR BUTTS BACK IN THE GOLDEN DOME PERIOD FOLKS!
$300.00 A WEEK TO WORK AT HOME ENOUGH IS ENOUGH PERIOD FOLKS!!
PROUD MEMBER OF THE LET’S GO BRANDON FJB, FJT COMMUNITY!!
REMEMBER ON OR BEFORE NOVEMBER 8TH 2022 TO VOTE OUT THE LIBERAL DEM SWAMP RATS 🐀 🐀 🐀 PERIOD FOLKS!!
PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT RINO REPUBLICANS AND VOTE IN TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT REPUBLICANS THAT DO NOT CROSS PARTY LINE PERIOD FOLKS!
PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE AUGUST 9TH FOR THE PRIMARYS!!
THE VERMONTER FROM THE RIGHT SIDE PERIOD!!
Stay home and pass a new Workfarce Relocation Grant Program that pays me $10,000 If I promise to move to Idaho where they still appreciate Constitutional delegation of powers that STILL reside in the People! I will be first in line to take your fake dollars and leave…
Alternative 2: Start a real revolution by sending all these new in-migrant urban elitist snobs like Sen. Baruth home to release their peculiar brand of havoc on New Jersey and Massachusetts etc.
No way!!! We need these people where they can be confronted by the citizens in person. Isn’t the high price of gasoline the Democrats forced on the rest of us a tax write-off for them anyway?
These sniveling, power hungry, chicken_____ need direct in person oversight ! Go back to Mount Peculiar and open committee rooms where those that chose to, can stand behind you, and oversee your attempts at regulating humanity into serfdom in person !