Saturday, April 18, 2015

About the Conservation Advisory Council

In June 2014, the legislation creating a Conservation Advisory Council was finally passed, after two years of discussion, but almost a year has passed and no one has been appointed to the CAC. Some have criticized the law for setting the bar too high for members of the CAC, requiring them to have "expertise in environmental sciences, planning, engineering, arboriculture, Geographic Information Systems, and associated skills by specified professional or educational credentials and relevant attainment." But what good is advice if it doesn't come from people with verifiable expertise in what they are talking about?

On Monday night, during the discussion of the proposed sewer separation project at the informal Common Council meeting, Ellen Thurston, supervisor for the Third Ward, asked about the Conservation Advisory Council, suggesting that the CAC could help with the issue. She wanted to know if any appointments had been made to the CAC and was told by Council president Don Moore that there were "four or five people already in the pipeline," whose names and CVs Alderman David Marston had left with Moore before he resigned his seat on the Council and left for Minnesota.

On Thursday night, at the Common Council Economic Development Committee meeting, the identity of the candidates was revealed. There are six. The law establishing the CAC requires that there be no fewer than five and no more than nine members of the CAC. The candidates are Holly Gardner, Lauren LaFleur, Jonathan Lerner, Michael O'Hara, Dianne O'Neal, and Nick Zachos. A resolution appointing these six people to the Conservation Advisory Council will come before the Common Council in May.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

9 comments:

  1. Technically - which is to say legally - there are actually no "requirements" for membership on Hudson's CAC. The listed subjects of expertise are merely suggestions.

    The candidates listed are all worthy. We'll be in good hands if and when they're finally appointed.

    Not that anyone asked, but for years I attended the "Roundtable" meetings of the county's assembled CACs, which is why I was the first person to volunteer to be on Hudson's CAC.

    It's amusing to now learn that I am not being considered. Perhaps it's a perverse sign that my efforts to protect the city's wetlands from the machinations of City Hall have been successful after all. I'll wear the rejection like a badge.

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  2. Yes, good deal. But I respectfully disagree with my friend Unheimlich on one point. The sentence laying out the qualifications for membership, as written, is a straightjacket: "Such members shall have expertise in environmental sciences, planning, engineering, arboriculture, Geographic Information Systems, and associated skills by specified professional or educational credentials and relevant attainment." The "shall" is unforgiving, but so is the "and" at the end of the list of qualifications; each member must have ALL of them! This sentence needs to be rewritten AND Unheimlich should definitely be made a member, toute suite. --peter m.

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    1. I respectfully disagree Peter, in that the "skills by ... relevant attainment" override the otherwise unforgiving "shall."

      Whoever gets to decide on a candidate's relevancy determines who shall be appointed, which is as wide open or as narrow as the appointer's criteria permit.

      We may infer from the above list of names that it's also crucial to not appoint the wrong sorts to this advisory council. -- Timothy

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    2. Sorry, but the "and" after "Systems" -- a conjunction connecting words "to be taken jointly" -- is a killer. So, it should say "shall have expertise in... Geographic Information Systems, OR associated skills...." The "relevant attainment" is no override without the OR. --pm

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    3. Peter, you've convinced me.

      Here's how I'm reading the passage now:

      "Such members shall have expertise in [A - Z] AND associated skills by specified professional or [specified] educational credentials AND relevant attainment" (caps added).

      I see now, the qualifications call for ALL of the above. Is there anyone in the entire state, or even the whole nation, who has all of the credentials on that list? I sincerely doubt it.

      The irony is that Article 12-F of the General Municipal Law lists no such requirements for advisory bodies.

      I often turn to Westchester County's excellent guide to the organization of CACs, as I'm sure many Hudson residents do, in which it states that "there is no minimum professional qualification for a CAC member."

      http://clctrust.org/pdf/CAC/CAC%20Guide.pdf

      Cheryl Roberts dragged her feet writing this thing for more than two years. The very concept of a community advisory body was totally against her grain.

      I see now that it is impossible for Hudson to form a CAC. It is out of the question. Was this Roberts' parting F.U. to Hudson?

      We're parsing ships in the night. -- T

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  3. I agree completely, Unheimlich should be a member.

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  4. a fishing license is a relevant credential. do any of the suggested members have one of those? or even know where to get one?

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