As the legislative bodies of towns, cities and villages across Vermont consider the ways to spend their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, many are choosing to form an advisory committee to help them gather resident input and create spending plans. If you are one of the communities choosing this approach, we have created an ARPA Advisory Committee Formation Toolkit to help ensure you and your new advisory committee have a strong start.
Your ARPA Advisory Committee will be comprised of citizen volunteers many of whom may be unfamiliar with the requirements of a public body, which your ARPA Advisory Committee will be. They must quickly become familiar with Open Meeting Law and learn how to successfully hold public meetings that are organized, productive and transparent. We have compiled the following resources to assist you and your ARPA Advisory Committee, in defining the work ahead and carrying out meetings that are open, orderly and legal:
- ARPA Advisory Committee Formation Template
- Resources for Open Meeting Law (1 V.S.A. §§ 310-314)
- Managing public meetings: Model Rules of Procedure for Municipal Boards
- Information on understanding Ethics and Conflicts of Interest (guidance HERE and model policy HERE)
- Tools for Community Engagement: scroll down on VLCT’s ARPA page to "For Community Members Tab" (HERE).
Should you have any questions, please email them to ARPA@vlct.org.