NY Gov: Spitzer issues first Executive Orders
Ethics is Job One.
Spitzer issued his first Executive Orders yesterday. Courtesy of the Democrat and Chronicle (Clara Matthews)
Establish ethical guidelines for state employees by restricting the receipt of gifts, barring them from using state supplies for personal purposes and setting up an anti-nepotism policy for hiring employees and contractors. State employees will not be able to lobby their former agency for two years after leaving.
Bar the governor and lieutenant governor from accepting speaking fees or appearing in any taxpayer-funded commercials, something former Gov. George Pataki did frequently.
Limit the influence of politics on government by prohibiting the questioning of prospective employees and contractors about their political affiliation; requiring employees who run for state or federal office to resign from their state positions or take leaves of absence; and barring nonunion employees from making campaign contributions to the governor and lieutenant governor.
Require all state agencies and public authorities to broadcast all open meetings on the Internet.
Keep various existing executive orders from the administrations of Pataki and former Gov. Mario Cuomo in effect. Those orders include establishing the office of state ombudsman and the Human Rights Advisory Council and promoting a policy against age discrimination in the workplace.
Of particular interest was the one requiring state and public authorities to broadcast open meeting via the internet. I wonder what the time frame will be? Water Authority anyone?
Nevertheless, Open Government is really what it is all about.
Want interesting reading see the COMIDA meeting minutes. Visit a Brighton town board and watch the citizens directly address the elected officials. Perhaps most importantly, elected officials addressing the concerned citizens. That is one of the many reasons the Brighton Town Board continues to be reelected. Open Government.
One final comment.
How important was it for Alan Hevesi not be be on the stage yesterday with Eliot Spitzer. Very important. Now, Hevesi really had nothing to lose, he was reelected by a wide margin and the rules for his removal are confusing at best. Yet he is gone by inaugaration day. This is becomes a different post with Hevesi on stage.
I’m not so sure that the Open Government in Brighton is working.The recent topic of snowplowing changes has lead a group of citizens to question the Town’s approval of such a program. Documents relative to the topic were offered to the residents by Board members and then the offer was retracted. The Town then required a FOIL request to be filed to view the previously offered information. To date, one FOIL request has not been addressed at all and an appeal has been filed to obtain these documents.
That is not Open Government and not the reason I voted for this Board.
In my role as Attorney for the Town of Brighton, I wanted to respond with some additional background on the one person snow plowing issue and on questions about open government in Brighton.
Following discussions with various state and local highway departments, Tom Low, the Town of Brighton Highway Superintendent and Commissioner of Public Works proposed a pilot test of one person snowplowing. Currently, plows are sent out with a driver and a “winger” who operates the side wing plow. Many jurisdictions, including Greece, Webster and several other Towns in Monroe County, the State of New York, and the Province of Ontario, among others, have one person plow operations. The Town of Greece has done so for over 20 years. Tom Low was the Highway Commissioner in Greece, and then worked for Monroe County before coming to Brighton. He successfully supervised the one person plowing program in Greece for several years, and that program continues to this day. Many neighborhoods in Greece are similar to those in Brighton, with many pre WWII neighborhoods particularly in the northeast part of Greece that have relatively narrow streets and dense residential development. The supervisor of Greece has indicated to Brighton Supervisor Sandy Frankel that as far as he is concerned, one person plowing has worked well in Greece and has not posed a safety risk. Of course, it has saved money for the taxpayers in Greece as well.
Despite the body of evidence that shows that one person plowing works safely, Commissioner Low and Supervisor Frankel wanted to conduct a test of one person plowing in Brighton before taking it townwide. Accordingly, Mr. Low directed that two of the 16 plow routes in Town would be conducted by one person plows this winter, using trucks that had wing mechanisms designed to allow them to be operated by the driver. In addition, the Town and CSEA signed an agreement under which a review committee was set up to monitor the test, helpers will ride along with the drivers during their first two plow runs, the drivers in question received safety training from New York State, and those drivers will receive an extra $1 per hour during one person operations. In addition, the drivers had an opportunity to reconfigure mirrors in their trucks to suit their line of sight. The results of the pilot program will be evaluated by the Town and the review committee after completion.
With respect to questions open government and freedom of information, Town Clerk Susan Kramarsky is the Town’s records access officer. She received the request for documents, which was circulated to department heads for any responsive documents they might have in their files. She communicated orally with the resident who requested the information, to let her know that it would take some time to gather and review the files, particularly during the holiday season, but inadvertently failed to confirm that with a written response, as required under the State Freedom of Information Law. The resident appealed what was correctly deemed to be a technical failure to respond, and those documents have now been made available to her. In addition, the Town Board holds an open forum session at the start of every Town Board meeting and has listened to comments about the pilot program during several of these meetings, and at its semi-annual east and west Brighton neighborhood meetings. Although no organization is ever perfect, nor can a government satisfy every resident on every issue, I believe that the record of the current administration in the Town of Brighton is second to none in Monroe County when it comes to open and responsive government.
Bill Moehle
It’s kind of like when the kitchen is taking a long time for your order but your server fails to let you know– you could be really forgiving about it unless you get the (mistaken) impression that they don’t care.
Between the town board meetings and the neighborhood meetings and the open forums, I’d have to agree.
We wouldn’t want to base changes in Public Services and Policy on heresay, would we? So far Public policy changes in this regard are undocumented. What about the other townships who maintain a higher standard such as Irondequoit, Pittsford, Penfield, East Rochester, Fairport, Hilton ( where Mr. Low resides), Webster Village, Perinton? Why didn’t Mr Low include these townships in his decision making process?
As for open government, lip service does not substitute for documentation when changes in public policy are under consideration.
This new plan amounts to journal transfers on the general ledger that would imply “cost savings” yet are nothing more than a degredation of safety. Would you volunteer to give up your eyes for $2.54 tax savings? We think not
Heresay?
The origins of the this post was in the fact that the Brighton Town board listens to its citizens in the form of the open forum at the town hall meetings.
Having watched or participated in various contentious meetings dealing with such subjects as the Faith Temple issue, Budget discussions, the housing tear down (McMansion) discussions, Walgreen construction.
I’ve watched citizens on both sides discuss, argue and make their points. I’ve watched the Brighton town board listen to contentious view points with patience.
So - regarding the snowplowing. No one wants safety comprised. Certainly not myself, however, if there are ways to hold the line on cost while not compromising safety by adjusting a process Is that really bad? I think not.
In regards to heresay, we are reffering to the lack of a written proposal, pilot plan or other safety documentation. Mr. Lows proposal and plan were delivered to the public works committe and Town Board meetings verbally and with biased and incomplete information. The Foil requests, produced documentation that only covered the journal transfers to the general ledger.
While our Town Council are not engineers, they could not be expected to be able to ask probing and meaningful questions. Since the “plan” was not written, they were relying on the experience of Mr. Low. We do not dispute the fact that Mr. Low worked in Greece. We do however dispute his level of inquiry (biased, incomplete research) and the manner of delivery (undocumented/verbal).
The Brighton Citizens Research Council has provided the board with a survey of 23 municipalities, truck counfigurations, safety equipment and training requirements.
The documentation will show you that our truck configurations do not have additional safety equipment that Greece and Webster have built into their fleets. Charts will be coming online this week http://www.2plowcrew.com. Mr.Low was “unaware” of additional safety equipment.
The documentation presented to the Board (by BCRC) also shows that Greece has a 20 week in house training for “new to” OPP drivers in addition to the NYSDOT training. Mr. Low was “unaware” that Greece had additional training for their Drivers TB meeting 1/10/07.
Neither of these safety features was accounted for in Mr. Lows presentation to The Town Board. It was an undocumented plan. Both issues, would in fact nullify any “cost savings” projections. If we are to do a comparison to Greece, then we should take all safety factors into consideration, don’t you agree?
I understand that our Current Town Board wants produce cost savings, that is generally commendable.
I would suggest to the Board that it would be wise when making comparisons to other Towns successful operations, that they look at the complete picture. Including documented blind spots.
Relying on Mr. Lows verbal reports does not give a clear unbiased look at the issue.
To this end while we would like to support “cost savings” and efficiencies this calculation is deeply flawed and needs to be reconsidered.
Holding the line on costs, would be better placed in the Towns private use fleet, as opposed to the Public Works fleet. This indeed would be a Win-Win for the Taxpayers Services and Cost Savingsto the general ledger.
[...] I suppose dysfunctional is a matter of perspective. Spitzer issued executive orders and, with his first official action, curtailed the ethical lapses that persisted under previous administrations. But check out this [...]