The Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says Secretary of Health Dr. Mark Levine will unilaterally sidestep a recommendation from the Vermont Opioid Reconciliation Advisory Commission to allocate $2.6 million to overdose prevention centers at a state public meeting. declared that he had violated the law.
Lawmakers created a 16-member advisory committee in 2022, and its implementing bill would require Vermont to take its share of cash settlements reached with manufacturers and distributors of addictive drugs such as oxycodone. It directs the commission to submit annual recommendations on how the governor and lawmakers should use it.
At the committee’s most recent meeting on Dec. 22, Levine, the non-voting committee chair, told committee members that funding for overdose prevention centers should be included in the 2024 recommendations. recognized a “clear agreement” between the parties. Records obtained by the ACLU show that funding for overdose prevention centers received more support from committee members than nearly any other initiative the committee considered.
“It’s completely irrational to me that what should be a public health process has turned into a political preference process.”
Ed Baker, Overdose Prevention Center Advocate
But when Levine presented the committee’s final recommendations to Congress in January, the proposed funding for OPCs, also known as safe injection sites, was omitted from the document.
Levine acknowledged to lawmakers that the committee had expressed enthusiastic support for funding the center. But he noted that since lawmakers had already introduced legislation that included a separate funding mechanism for OPC, the $2.6 million was reallocated to other efforts “to maximize our ability to support a wide range of efforts.” said.
Harrison Stark, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Vermont, said Levine’s “behind-the-scenes” changes to the commission’s final report constituted substantive policy changes in violation of the Open Meetings Act.
“The Open Meetings Act essentially requires any government agency that exercises government power to meet in a manner that is fully accessible and open to public participation,” Stark told Vermont Public Friday. . “This was a substantive decision that needed to be made in front of the public, so it was given public notice in advance and was open to public debate.”
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Valls said Friday that the allegations are “serious in many ways.”
“It is alarming to think that committee decisions can be modified in public by a non-voting chair,” Baruth said. “The risks associated with this group’s activities are life-or-death, and multiple statutes protect its integrity by force of law.”
Barth, a Democrat, said Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who appointed Levine, has publicly opposed overdose prevention centers and has threatened to veto the bill if it is amended. He said it was disingenuous to cite pending legislation as the reason for the amendment, even though there are many. Reach his desk.
“In this way, Commissioner Levine can claim to respect and support the will of the advisory committee and spend $2.6 million on other initiatives while simultaneously undermining the legislative path to an overdose prevention center,” Barth said. he said.
Rebecca Kelley, Scott’s communications director, issued a written statement Friday saying Levine has been “inappropriately maligned.” He said the statute directs the advisory committee to “provide advice and recommendations regarding spending from the Opioid Reduction Special Fund for the purpose of advising the Governor, the Department of Health, and the General Assembly on spending priorities.”
But the law gives the Department of Health exclusive authority to submit a final spending plan “based on the recommendations of the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee,” she said.
“Notwithstanding the false accusations, the law does not limit Dr. Levine’s discretion in making final recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on budget proposals,” she said.
The Department of Health did not make Levine available for an interview Friday.
Stark said no one is objecting to the law, which authorizes Levine to submit funding recommendations to Congress. But he said the law contains another provision directing the advisory committee to submit its own recommendations to Congress.
Stark said a memo submitted by Levine on behalf of the committee reiterated that the recommendations came from the entire committee. “I am pleased to present the Opioid Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations to the 2025 VT General Assembly,” Levine wrote in his introduction.
“The written memo reiterated that I was speaking on behalf of the entire committee,” Stark said in a follow-up email. “Even if Dr. Levine had the discretion to reallocate certain funds proposed by the committee, which he does not have, all of the open meeting violations alleged in our letter remain. These are substantive decisions made under the commission’s charter and clearly fall under Vermont’s open meetings law.”
Records requested by Mr. Stark show that in the days following the Dec. 22 advisory committee meeting, Mr. Levine exchanged emails with senior government officials. One of his emails referred to a document titled “High-Level OPC Discussion.”
Stark said the government redacted all of these records, citing executive privilege.
“If we want to be transparent about what the government is saying behind the scenes about the OPC and the extent of interference that is going on between senior government officials and this expert advisory committee, we can “We welcome the public disclosure of the exchanges of what was being discussed,” Stark said. “But given that they chose to redact them entirely, I think we can only speculate. And the most reasonable inference is that the OPC has no support from the governor’s team. “We want to influence this process in some way.”
Rep. Dane Whitman of Bennington is one of two members of Congress who serves on the Opioid Reconciliation Advisory Committee. He said he had no legal authority to consider whether Levine violated the Open Meetings Act. But he said the secretary’s decision not to include funding for overdose prevention centers in his final recommendations to lawmakers undermines confidence in the process established by law.
“The purpose of the Opioid Reconciliation Advisory Commission is to hear from Vermonters affected by the opioid overdose crisis,” Whitman said. “So I expected the recommendations and official memo to reflect the votes of our members.”
If Levine wanted to skip the funding recommendation, he should have called a public meeting where committee members could deliberate, Whitman said.
“I really think what was wrong was that there wasn’t a comprehensive process done by the committee,” he said.
Ed Baker is an advocate for overdose prevention centers and urged the ACLU’s investigation. He said committee members’ overwhelming support for OPC funding represented a “major decision.”
“This argument has finally taken hold, and the committee overwhelmingly voted to make overdose prevention centers a top priority,” Baker said.
Baker said Levine’s changes to that recommendation amounted to a “clear abuse of power.”
“It’s completely unconscionable to me how what should have been a public health process turned into a political preference process. And to me, it’s inadvertently… “It’s sacrificing the lives of Vermonters who we care about,” he said. Today we are in danger of death. ”
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