This is what the Rutland Herald had to say about Jim Condos’ announcement this week that he will not seek re-election:
A lot has happened in the world since 2011.
That was the year of Tropical Storm Irene, which devastated communities around Vermont. It forced our state to rethink how it did business. We reshuffled priorities in the recovery; we took bold steps to build back better.
That effort took massive feats of engineering to recreate infrastructure. You could see the roads being rebuilt; our towns and cities re-emerging.
That epic moment in Vermont history pulled triggers — be it funding, policies, regulations and the like. It required streamlining. It needed consistent leadership.
But 2011 was also the start of Jim Condos’ first term as secretary of state. And while he was not overseeing the projects aimed at getting the state re-opened, his leadership was transformational in that the team in his office made the functionality of our state seamless.
Condos, 71, announced this week he will not seek re-election this fall. Chris Winters, deputy secretary, has thrown his hat into the ring to replace Condos.
Condos has had a distinguished career in politics, from serving on the South Burlington City Council for 18 years, to the various regional and county boards he sat on, to serving as a state senator in Chittenden County for four terms.
That résumé has made him a highly effective secretary of state. He understood the office from all sides.
On “Vermont Viewpoint” on WDEV on Thursday, Condos, who did not rule out another run at public office someday, broke down what the secretary of state’s office does in keeping Vermont going (business registrations, professional licenses, local and state elections, archives) in a very behind-the-scenes but very necessary kind of way.
In his six terms, Condos converted the office to online services, made every effort to streamline processes, funded the office’s work through the fees it collects rather than out of the General Fund; and ensured voter registration and the election process in the state is free from outside threats or tampering.
Consider the dramatic national and many state elections that have taken place since 2011, and what has transpired as a result of them. Consider the accusations made against election officials nationwide? And consider the lengths that had to be taken to not just ensure — but reassure — Vermonters that their votes were safe.
“Every city, town and village in Vermont owes Secretary Condos a debt of gratitude for his role as protector of Vermont’s democratic principles, process and practice for the past decade. As a former city councilor and Vermont League of Cities and Towns board member, Jim assumed statewide office with a deep understanding of local government. Thanks to his advocacy, leadership and efforts, local government is in a stronger position to deliver today than it was when he assumed office,” said Ted Brady, executive director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which represents most Vermont communities at the Legislature. But it is Condos and his team who have to keep municipalities in check.
“One need look no further than his successful leadership through multiple pandemic elections to see evidence of his success. (He) made it easier to vote, improved access to local government by championing transparency, and provided invaluable service and resources to the VLCT membership. He has managed to set an aspirational vision of where local government should be while balancing the practical realities of our resource constrained environment,” Brady said in a statement following Condos’ announcement.
During his news conference today, Condos said: “During these many years as a public official, I have worked hard to serve Vermont’s citizens in a professional and dutiful manner, always striving to make our government more efficient, accessible, and transparent for all Vermonters … For me, the end result of the work of government should always be to improve the health, safety, and lives of all residents. After each election, I took an oath to uphold the constitutions of our nation and our state, and I have worked every day to abide by those governing principles.”
From the media’s point of view, Condos has been a valuable ally. His “Transparency Tour,” in which he travels around the state to educate public officials about the state’s Open Government and Open Meeting Laws paved the way for better public access to local decisions, and fewer abuses by towns and cities when it came to executive sessions, warning meetings, posting meeting minutes and the like. Condos cleaned up the old boy network.
Very few elected officials are able to walk away from their years of service to the citizenry, all 246 town clerks and countless public boards, the lawmakers, the various governors and their administrations, and a small army of pesky journalists, and still get a resounding “thank you.”
But Jim Condos deserves that high praise. Despite a whirlwind of a decade that probably made the job a lot harder than Condos ever expected, he and his team have made Vermont a better place for everyone.
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