BURLINGTON, Vt. -
Governor Peter Shumlin answered questions about one of his former staffers.
Shumlin tapped Karen Marshall two years ago to lead the effort of bringing broadband to all of Vermont. But Marshall recently took a job at VTel. Her move came just weeks after she participated in a vote to award a 5 million dollar grant to VTel Wireless to expand cellular services in four southern Vermont counties. Shumlin said everything was done by the books.
"I think our ethics laws on the books right now serve Vermont well. We have to remember that we got to find the balance between taking good people from the private sector and putting them in the public sector often at some financial sacrifice. We have to understand when you're done with your public service it's not unusual to expect them to go back to be able to make a better living then they did for the state of Vermont," Shumlin said.
Because Marshall is going from the Governor's to the private sector -- she will not be able to lobby for or be involved in crafting any legislation.
