The Vermont Press Association (VPA) presented The Commons with first prize in the “Best of Vermont - General Excellence” category for the non-daily division at the association's annual awards luncheon on May 31 at the Capital Plaza Hotel.
Commons News Editor Randolph T. Holhut also won two awards in the non-daily division: second place for best local news story and third place for best editorial.
Kevin O'Connor, a reporter for the Rutland Herald with local roots whose beat includes his home turf, won two top honors in the daily division, for Best State Story and Feature Writing.
Another prize in southern Vermont went to Jim Therrien, editor of the Bennington Banner, a second place for editorial writing in the daily division.
The annual competition is open to the 10 daily newspapers and more four dozen non-daily newspapers that circulate in the state.
The general excellence award in the non-daily division encompasses a newspaper's overall presentation, including news content, writing, editing, layout, photography, and graphics. One of the issues that The Commons staff submitted was the April 20, 2011 edition, which was devoted to the Brooks House fire.
“Faced with a huge disaster that happened less than 72 hours before our deadline, we pulled all of our resources together and put out a paper that covered every aspect of the fire,” Holhut said. “That was the paper where we came of age.”
The contest period covered July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011.
“As relative newcomers, it was gratifying to see how well our paper stacked up against some of Vermont's best weeklies,” Holhut said. “We've come a long way in a short period of time.”
Speaking at the luncheon was Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, who successfully campaigned for his first term on an open government platform. He said he sees a revised Vermont Open Meeting law as the second major step in his commitment to more open government. He said several pressing issues, including the recovery from Tropical Storm Irene, prevented the Legislature from giving final approval to a new Open Meeting law this year.
Shumlin said he also thinks requiring boards and commissions to keep minutes of executive session meetings is a good idea. He said he also favors a provision - in place in some states - that executive session minutes would become public after the reason for the closed-door meeting had passed or was resolved.
He said the first major step in his efforts for improved transparency came a year ago with the new Vermont Public Records law, which provides for great citizen access to government.
The law, which includes a provision for mandatory legal fees when government improperly withholds documents, has been a success, the governor said.
Vermont judges had routinely balked at ordering state and local governments that illegally withheld records to pay for private lawyers that private citizens were forced to hire to enforce state public records laws. Shumlin had maintained that leaving it up to a judge's discretion had not worked and he advocated moving to mandatory legal fees to get better compliance.
H. Allen Gilbert, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union-Vermont, was selected as the winner of the Matthew Lyon Award for his efforts for the First Amendment and open government.
Gilbert is a former Vermont journalist who also served for nearly 20 years on local and union school boards.