BELLOWS FALLS — For nearly two hours, Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark was grilled by an audience of 50 last week about his proposed Liberty Mill Justice Center project, which aims to transform a derelict paper mill into a detention center.
Sitting in the audience was Jeanette White, one of the county's two state senators who represent the communities surrounding the former Chemco plant at 203 Paper Mill Rd. - including many residents who have come out strongly in opposition to the project.
She is also an employee of the Windham County Sheriff's Office.
There, she has served as administrator for the controversial Liberty Mill project this past summer and as a contact named on several grants, including one submitted in August seeking $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program for architectural, legal, financial, and other project planning services.
White's dual roles have sparked confusion and accusations, with some questioning a conflict of interest on several Bellows Falls–themed Facebook pages and groups.
At least two residents shared correspondence which have called for the senator to step down, and White also came under fire later for a comment that a resident overheard during the Dec. 18 meeting, for which she has apologized.
Conflict of interest?
White was hired last spring by the Windham County Sheriff's office “to move [Clark's] project forward,” by writing grants and doing other tasks that help the sheriff “hone in the purpose,” she said.
She has been very clear she sees no conflict of interest between her duties there and her legislative role.
“My involvement [in the project] has nothing to do with my role as a senator,” she stated unequivocally.
White chairs the Government Operations Committee, which deals with law enforcement, among other entities, and she serves on the Committee on Judiciary, which oversees legislation that touches on judicial and legal affairs.
The senator believes that the two roles can be compartmentalized.
A senator since 2002, White said that citizen legislators “must have other jobs during the summer in order to have income.”
She described herself as a “very good administrator” who has done special projects in the past.
White has worked as director of Sojourns Community Health Clinic and has had multiple jobs writing grants for local nonprofits. She has worked with multiple state agencies and has served as grants manager for the town of Brattleboro.
Liked the idea
From the moment she asked Clark to talk about his idea to the Government Operations committee last year, White has liked the idea of the project, she said.
Clark, the Vermont Sheriffs' Association president at the time, was in the capitol to seek funding from the Justice Committee for the electronic monitoring program about 1{1/2} years ago, White recalled.
When he returned a year later to give an update on the program, she said she invited him to swing by the committee and talk about his other idea for in-state alternatives to incarceration programs and a proposed transitional housing facility.
“It was not a presentation,” she said. “He just talked to us informally.”
Then, she said, this spring, when White was approached to help administer the project, she and Clark “looked very carefully into the question of any conflict of interest,” she said in response to a question by email.
After doing so, she said, they were both comfortable that her role there doesn't cross ethical lines.
He is not asking for financial support or approval by the state, and neither of the committees I serve on would have any influence with funding or approval in any case,” White said.
She emphasized that she has been helping to “develop the vision,” but said that Clark could more appropriately answer questions about the project.
White, who said she does not want to become the focus or distraction from the LMJC project, explained that Vermont's small population complicates matters.
During a similar issue several years ago, “We went through all the legislators, then looked at boards they served on, the jobs they had, and it ended up there would be three people left in the whole body who could vote on a budget or tax bill, or any other bill, without a conflict, if you extend conflict of interest that far,” she stated.
She said “personal profit or gain” is the bottom line, and that wages from project management in a short-term job do not cross that line.
'I am human'
At the meeting, when Nancy McAuliffe, president of the Village Trustees, stood to ask White a question - whether the senator had considered the social and economic impact of putting a detention center within Bellows Falls, as she seemed to be supporting the project by working for the sheriff's office - Clark intervened, asking that questions be addressed to him.
White had “not prepared ahead of time to answer questions,” Clark said.
This response did not sit well with residents who felt that White should be in the hot seat with Clark to answer questions, and her silence led to further recriminations the next day on Facebook.
But White told The Commons afterwards that she was not aware of people's expectation to have her answer questions as well.
Many of the answers to the questions people repeatedly asked during the meeting are available on the Liberty Mill Justice Center website.
According to Gaetano Putignano, who posted the allegation on an open Facebook page, he overheard White say, “These people really are stupid.”
She called the remark a mistake.
“At the end of the day, I shouldn't have said it,” she said. “It was one of those moments that remind me I am human and make mistakes.”
She said that the comment was not truly about the people, but about the quality of the questions.
“I understand their fears, and they need their questions asked,” White said, noting that she apologized to Putignano. “I'm embarrassed, and I'm apologizing for making an insensitive remark.”
Moving on
For all the discussion about White's dual role in the project, anticipated to cost $22 million, the problem is about to get a little less complicated.
She said that with the Legislature session starting in January, “next week will be my last week.”
At that point, an intern from SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro who has been working with her and Clark to help envision the project, will assume her duties.
In addition to the Rural Development grant, the Sheriff's Office applied in November for $22,500 from the state's Human Services & Educational Facilities Grant Program.
That application looks to use as a match $22,968 of funds already spent on the project from the sheriff's budget, described in the narrative as “not state or federal money but are generated by the entrepreneurial efforts of each sheriff.”
Grant awards for the program will be announced this month, according to the grant application, administered by the Department of Buildings & General Services.
Clark said additional meetings will be held when the public needs to be updated, and that all public information will be made available on the website.