If you believe its not right for Party Committee Players to control your Town

[DebLemaster]

Hey Vamp:

Signed the petition because it is the right thing to do. Surprised to see how few others did, although not really that surprised considering how few people take an involved interest in and/or act to bring better governance.

Really think it’s a wasted effort in that I have no faith in any political arm policing itself. Political patronage is rampant in all municipalities and practiced by all parties.

And yes, I agree with your statement that Democrats and Republicans Suck Alike – with rare exceptions.

You wrote in another thread: “Per the person I spoke with at the DA's office, these ethics reforms would apply to elected town officials and town committees.” Would towns really come under the county’s edict? I would think there would be a lot of pushback.

I signed the petition earlier today as well. It never hurts to send a message so hopefully more people will do the same.

[TheDude]

The town committees are established under county law. Members of a town committee are actually considered County Committeemembers. The town committee is just a faction of the county committee, not its own separate entity. State Election law establishes the State and County Committees and leaves it up to the counties establish town/city committees.

Town committees are established by County Party Rules, not by County Law.

[Lee Chowaniec]

To be honest with you guys. I noticed the threads that are not about politics are read far more

Hobbies and stuff. The reason I post some of that up is to pull people in. Once here they tend to catch other items we are talking about.

I'm getting my second wind so perhaps we'll start promoting speakup more and do a few meetups.

Well thank you for sharing that bit of information and for offering a venue for individuals who:

- Are not interested in politics

- Have really no idea how corrupt their governments have become and are more concerned about the Dancing with the Stars competition, how big Kim Kardashian’s ass is, etc.

- Where today’s college youth can’t identify the vice president or Speaker of the House when asked

- Where today’s youth are supporting a Socialist for a president and others a liar on one side, and on the other side candidates who are willing to carpet bomb other countries

- Where some people are so oriented to voting one party line while having no knowledge of the candidates qualifications and the potential consequences in doing so. It is unfortunate some have the right to vote at all

- Where political correctness has eliminated politics from being discussed in a group gathering, where debates and sharing of political ideology and policies can take place. It has gotten so bad that at some parties I attended the host made it a point to tell attendees straight out that there will be no political discussions allowed. Politics isn’t for everyone but for those that choose to engage it is unfortunate that they are being silenced.

Politics isn’t for everyone. It has even been labeled a blood sport. Some individuals can’t participate because of lack of knowledge. That should not prevent them from reading and learning – while being careful not to believe everything written and to do some fact checking and research to ensure the poster has provided credible information.

For some that is not possible because of the nature of their daily activities. We have all been there. But for those that now have the time to get involved in politics and try to pass information along, it is disturbing for some to hear from others that they have too much time on their hands and to get a hobby.

The town creates the problems, the residents complain and the town blames the residents – and too often the residents remain silent

[gorja]

From the OSC's 2015 Annual Report on Local Government -

2015 Proposed and Enacted Legislation Affecting Local Governments

Strengthening of Local Government Ethics Laws (A.7669)
OSC has identified ways in which the current statutes governing conflicts of interest of local
officials can be improved. Through audits and surveys of local governments, OSC has found
that knowledge and understanding of, and consequently compliance with, conflict of interest and
ethics requirements may not be as high as desired. This bill would address these concerns by
strengthening the current law to, among other things, prohibit municipal officers and employees
from acting in certain matters in which they or a relative have an interest. The bill also would
require local governments to expand their codes of ethics to provide standards of conduct relating
to nepotism. Currently, the law allows, but does not require, a board of ethics to be established
in a county. The bill would require the establishment of local boards of ethics by every county,
as well as by cities, towns and villages having populations of 50,000 or more, and every board
of cooperative educational services (BOCES). Local boards of ethics would be authorized to
investigate citizen complaints. The bill would clarify that a municipality’s board of ethics has
responsibility to collect, review and enforce requirements related to annual financial disclosure
requirements. Each member of the board of ethics would be required to complete a training course
approved by OSC. The bill also provides for a board of ethics to have the advice of counsel.

Increase Transparency and Accountability in School District Fiscal Operations(A.7675/S.5795)
OSC audits of school districts and boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES) havefound a number of instances where certain significant fiscal activities had been undertakenwithout being adequately transparent to the governing board and taxpayers. These audits alsofound that school boards did not always have current information on the amounts in the districtreserve funds, which could prevent effective management of the school district’s finances. Toaddress these issues and increase transparency in school district fiscal operations, this billprovides that no moneys may be paid or transferred into a reserve fund to increase the reservefund unless expressly authorized by resolution of the district governing board. In addition, the billwould require that a schedule of all reserve funds, and certain related information, be appendedto the district’s annual public budget document. This bill would require the posting on a district’swebsite, if any, of their annual external audit report and corrective action plan prepared inresponse to any findings, of any final audit report issued by OSC, as well as of the final annualbudget and any multiyear financial plan adopted by the governing board.

Improved Transparency and Efficiency of Industrial Development Agencies(Chapter 563 of the Laws of 2015, effective June 15, 2016)
As highlighted in OSC audits and annual reports, IDAs need to improve and standardize certainof their processes. This new law requires the use of a standard application form for individualsor entities requesting financial assistance from an IDA and requires the IDA to develop, andadopt by resolution, uniform criteria for assessing applications. Also, IDAs are required todevelop uniform project agreements setting forth the terms and conditions under which financialassistance is provided. This uniform project agreement will provide, among other things, for thesuspension or discontinuance of financial assistance, or modification of any payment in lieu oftax (PILOT) agreement, in accordance with policies developed by the IDA, as well as the returnof all or part of the financial assistance provided for the project if project goals are not met.

[NY The Vampire State]

Town committees are established by County Party Rules, not by County Law.

Yes you are right. They still would fall under county ethics laws though.

[gorja]

Yes you are right. They still would fall under county ethics laws though.

From the NYS assembly's bill A07669 -
In the event that a municipality described in paragraph (b) of
this subdivision does not establish a board of ethics and is not a party
to an agreement establishing a cooperative board of ethics:
(i) in the case of a municipality other than a school district, the
board of ethics of the county in which the municipality is located shall
serve as the board of ethics of such municipality and have jurisdiction
to act in relation to the officers and employees of that municipality,
provided that if such a municipality is located in more than one county,

It looks like towns and cities only fall under county Board of Ethics laws when the towns or cities have not established a Board of Ethics of their own.

[NY The Vampire State]

Hmmm, but even though it's called the Lancaster or Clarence or Hamburg committee, it's still a faction of the county committee. They really have nothing to do with the towns besides endorsing candidates, as crooked as the system is. Think of it like the library in Clarence. Even though it's called the Clarence Library, they operate under the jurisdiction of the county because it's part of the Erie County Library System. The town has no control over them. It's a loose analogy but they operate under the same kind of structure. It's like saying that the town could write laws to control the Erie County Water Authority or the Erie County Sheriffs, that can't happen.

What your citing though could still be an ongoing a problem. If the patronage or back door dealings didn't involve a committee member, it could still go on. I'm no lawyer but it would have to make sense if at least one of the parties involved under Flaherty's plan was a committee person or chair it would be illegal. We know that most of the nonsense that goes on deals with party players so most of what goes on would have to be covered by this.


I wonder how many towns have a board of ethics in EC?

[Lee Chowaniec]

From the NYS assembly's bill A07669 -
In the event that a municipality described in paragraph (b) of
this subdivision does not establish a board of ethics and is not a party
to an agreement establishing a cooperative board of ethics:
(i) in the case of a municipality other than a school district, the
board of ethics of the county in which the municipality is located shall
serve as the board of ethics of such municipality and have jurisdiction
to act in relation to the officers and employees of that municipality,
provided that if such a municipality is located in more than one county,

It looks like towns and cities only fall under county Board of Ethics laws when the towns or cities have not established a Board of Ethics of their own.

Good find, gorja. It validates my belief that as Lancaster has an Ethics Committee the county has no jurisdiction. The Lancaster Ethics Committee had their hands tied a few years ago and has limited power.

It would be nice to see the 'new direction' board review and update the committees responsibility. However, it is tough to imagine that will happen with that patronage clause included.

This would be a fine time to see new board members Walter and Gaczewski show us the independence they spoke on in their campaign endeavors and bring this matter up for review.