On Thursday, Gossips published a press release from Columbia County Forward, the group behind the initiative to create a full-time, elected County Executive. On that same day, July 3, Matt Murell, chair of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, published his own press release, which Gossips found on his Facebook page. That press release is reproduced here.
COUNTY EXECUTIVE PETITION DENIED
On June 16. a Petition for Alternative Form of Columbia County Government containing three-thousand eight-hundred forty-seven (3,847) signatures was filed with Clerk of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors Kelly S. Baccaro. This petition sought a referendum calling for Columbia County to institute a county president form of government.
On Thursday, July 3, upon examination of the petition, Clerk Bacarro issued her finding that the petition is invalid based on several factors.
Among these were the failure to adhere to Election Law by stating the date of the election for the referendum, and the failure to include the statutorily required language of the "statement of witness" in its entirety.
Additionally, it was found that two-thousand three hundred forty-one (2,341) number of signatures valid on a line-by-line review. Based on voter registration numbers, two-thousand nine-hundred sixty-eight (2,968) signatures were required for the petition sought.
Therefore. the petition is declared invalid as it does not contain the requisite number of signatures required.
For these reasons, the petition is invalid in its entirety.
The day before Murell and Columbia County Forward issued their press releases, a lawsuit was filed by Sam Hodge, naming the Columbia County Board of Supervisors; Kelly Baccaro, the clerk of the Board of Supervisors; and the Columbia County Board of Elections as respondents. The legal action seeks to have the petition declared valid and to compel the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors to transmit a certified copy of the text of the referendum to the Board of Elections. The document filed can be found here.
I feel like this is the same legal chicanery that would have befallen on Hudson’s charter change proposal—if our incumbents weren’t as lazy, and now more worried about being replaced the old fashioned way via elections
ReplyDeleteAccording to NPR, signatures were considered invalid if Street was abbreviated as St.when listing addresses…this seems quite petty and unreasonable……is that how things work here? Let the citizens speak..
ReplyDeleteThe "here" you reference is NYS: there is no local election law as the state fully occupies the legal space. And, no, it's not how things work here -- unless you are as solipsistic, unethical and amoral as Mr. Murrell and his henchmen and henchwomen seem to be based on their actions in this regard. What it does is what it did: pushes the ball back to the supporters' court where they now must very quickly (election law statutes of limitations are very short, effectively days in many instances) do what they're doing: brief and argue their case.
DeleteMr. Murrell seems hellbent on proving that his Wolfeian appetites extend to power at any cost.
Multiple things can be true at the same time:
ReplyDeleteA) The Dems are using the County Charter reform push to gain political power over the GOP. (Sam Hodge and Co.) Externality: scrutiny and efficiency?
B) The City Dems in Hudson oppose the City Charter reform push to keep political power over efficiency minded NOP/GOP/Dems. (DePietro and Kamal?) Externality: scrutiny and efficiency? Or at least more mayoral candidates and Kamal needing to find new housing. Kamal, you should thank Tom for that....
C) The status quo defenders at the County and City level are using incumbency powers to hold on. (Happens everywhere, lawyers love to see it, not a good luck, much easier to organize a Lance Wheeler recorded debate at Hudson Hall moderated by a local NPR reporter and not the ideologically captured Register-Moon)
D) New York has the highest-in-the-nation taxes* and it is high-time residents in the city and the county take note and demand efficiency and accountability.
Hudson and Columbia County should stand for limited government and local responsibility, not mirror the waste and overreach, however well intentioned, we see at higher levels of government by both parties. Bill Clinton was the last to balance the national budget.
There are dozens of people in the County and certainly in Hudson, who are paid to increase the size and responsibility of local government. We give them awards and they organize 40 under 40 galas for themselves.
It is coercion of the middle class dressed up as virtue.
Manhattan has limousine liberals, we have Subaru socialists.
**
Bi-partisan NYS Data on tax burden from a 1925 founded New York County Association:
*https://www.nysac.org/news/posts/latest-research-on-ny-s-highest-in-the-nation-taxes/
In other words . . . career- and would-be-career politicians tend to the venal and self-dealing. We need a return to Cincinnatus/Jeffersonian ideals of public service: term limits, small stipends/honoraria for service, and professional managers effecting policy on a day-to-day basis, all subject to checks and balances established by thoughtful and reasonable charter, statute and contractual limitations.
Delete