The JLL Blog Spin Machine!!! - Please Rick, Too Much Is At Stake!

Hey...OK I can't blame Rick if he wants to fully support our town board.  That is his right as a blogger and citizen.  More power to him.  And Rick despite my disagreements with him, in many ways with his reporting on the negatives of the industrial wind disaster on his blog has done this community a great service.  I freely admit I read his blog on a regular basis and have found enlightening information.

But I do get disturbed at the spin he uses to support the town govt.   As another of his readers pointed out...some critical things that are happening on the important wind issue in our  community are critically important to understand and NOT spin so people get an accurate picture of what is going on.

The other day for example after the intervenor fund meeting with Judge Agresta, Rick implied to the community that Agresta had told BP they must comply to our zoning law.  That was not the case. Actually far from it. 

Now to his credit Mr. Wiley adjusted that post after several readers pointed out it was not accurate.

Now Rick has a post up that has this statement in it which again I believe is more spin than accurate. Here are his comments.

"Thus far, two major New York State agencies, a bipartisan group of three New York York State Representatives and our local Congressman have agreed with Mr. Hirschey and his town board by defending our right to draft and enforce our local land use laws."

Well once again not really Rick!

Here is what the NYPSC said to BP about our local laws when responding to BP's PSS.

8. The applicant should provide rationales for any argument it asserts that a provision of local law seemingly applicable to the project does not apply.

The NYDEC essentially said the same thing.

Now as I see it, this is A LONG WAY from Mr. Wiley's claim that two NYS agencies are defending our right to draft and enforce our local zoning laws.  All the NYPSC is saying to BP is... make a case for us as to why you want us to preempt  Cape Vincent's local laws.

In fact if the NYDEC and the NYPSC were really defending our home rule rights to our local  laws, there should not even be system that provides an opportunity for BP to provide any rational to a higher authority to remove our laws and make it impossible to enforce them. And keep in mind that in the final decision these agencies could agree with BP to preempt all or part of our laws.  Again that is a long long way from claiming the two agencies are defending our right to our local laws. 

Which also means they are NOT neccessarily agreeing with our board or Mr. Hirschey!

Now to those NNY leaders. that Mr. Wiley claims agree with Mr. Hirschy and the CV board..and Rick should have included the entire Jefferson County Legislature who passed a resolution opposing Art. 10. He  claims they all agree with Mr. Hirschey and our board.

Once again... not really Rick. 

Here are Rick's words from one of his past posts.

"Owens has joined our local State representatives in their opposition to Article 10′s threat to home municipal law. When Article 10 came to a vote in Albany, Assemblywomen Addie Russell, a Democrat, voted NAY. Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush, a Republican voted NAY. They were then joined by State Senator Pattie Ritchie, a Republican who also voted NAY."
First  of all these leaders have stood and made strong public statements, or took public votes, or passed resolutions in direct OPPOSITION to Art. X and how it removed local land use rights and decisions. Hirschey has not!

In order to make the claim they all agree with Mr. Hirschey, then Hirschey would have to join that group with strong public opposition to Art. 10 or he and his board would have to voted a resolution to oppose Art. 10 or demonstated some strong public opposition to it.  Again...not the case!

In fact I asked Mr. Hirschey and our board twice to passs a resolution to oppose Art. X to support  and join these leaders and the County, and they outright refused.

What we have instead is a public declaration from Mr. Hirschey and his board that the Art. 10 rules are FAIR AND IMPARIAL!!!

Once again that is a long, long way from agreeing with the other prominent NNY leaders that have expressed strong and direct public opposition to Art. X one way or the other!!!

In fact I went back to look at the comments submitted to the Art.10 regulations.  CV's comments from Mr. Hirschey and the board say virtually nothing about Art.10's removal of home rule, or show any opposition to that power to override local laws.  Below is one comment from that letter of May 17, 2012.

"In practical terms we understand Article 10 is now State Law and we can see from the draft regulations that the PSC appears to be trying for a balanced, even-handed approach in dealing with local communities. We are thankful for that approach and hope it remains a part of the rules."

Even handed approach????   Since when is the removal of our rights to pass an enforce our own local laws a even handed approach!!!

In contrast here is what the Jefferson County Legislature wrote to the NYPSC about Art. 10.  They didn't waste time nit picking  the regulations to appease the system but passed a resolution strongly opposing the entire Art. 10 process...  and THAT was their comment.

Here is part of their letter and resolution.

"Dear Mr. Cohen:

Enclosed you will find a certified copy of Resolution No. 166 of2011 "Opposing the Power of NY Act of 2011" that was adopted by the Jefferson County Board of  Legislators on September 6, 2011.

Thank you for your attention in this important matter.

Sincerely,
Carolyn Fitzpatrick Chairwoman of the Board"


Here is the  end statement of their resolution:

"Now, Therefore Be It Resolved, That this Board of Legislators opposes, protests, and expresses its deep disappointment and concern over the establishment of said siting Board and ofthe enactment of the Power NY Act of 20 11..."

Now the County's opposition seems to be in pretty good sync with our other NNY leaders opposing Art. 10.

As as you can see from Mr. Hirschey's and the CV boards comments in their letter, it is a long long way from agreeing with these other leaders on Art. X and defending local home rule rights and laws as Mr. Wiley claims. 

 In fact Art. X and the Power NY Act of 2011 has been in effect for almost 2 years, and I can't remember any time that Mr. Hirschey or our town board has expresssed any strong public opposition to it such as these other NNY leaders have.

What Mr. Wiley claims is mostly spin, and not really accurate.

It seems to me on the critical issue we are facing with the removal of our home rule rights, and the potential destruction of our community by wind industrialization as a result,  we should be expecting more  accurate reliable information...not spinning of the facts!

Please Rick...there is far too much at stake here!