There have been a lot of detailed letters going out to the NYPSC from the town of Cape Vincent on CV policies and decisions concerning BP and the Art X siting process. So who drafts or writes those letters? How are the subject matter and positions and details decided? Is it one person, say like CV Councilman Clif Schneider who drafts them and then everyone just signs on? There are after all a lot of town officers signing these letters in agreement. If somebody doesn't agree with a letter, or wants input, how is that accomplished? By private phone or conference call? Are they meeting somewhere as a group to discuss and have input to these letters before they sign them? If so that is a lot of town officers out of public view!
You mean to tell me there are 14 officers, the majority of our town govt, and they are all thinking exactly alike and in lock step on everything. That seems to defy the odds of typical human behavior.
I see no mention of meetings like that or minutes, or a listing on the town website calendar. I did see that on recent letters a little loyalty statement is attached that I thought was strange that says all the undersigned town appointed officers agree with the letters. That is kinda interesting. I also noted that Rockne Burns of the CV planning board who has a wind lease does not sign, and neither does Joe Martin of the CV ZBA. Does Mr. Martin not agree with the letters?
So where and how are all these Art X decisions being made? Are they at town board work sessions? I don't see any minutes on the town website or videos of TB work sessions. I don't see any real detailed discussion of these letters at planning board or TB meetings. So where are all these decisions and policies in these letters being made?
In early January Mr. Hirschey the town supervisor announced a hand picked Cape Vincent Art X advisory committee to guide the town's decisions and reactions to the Art X process with BP. It has two officers each from the CV ZBA, planning board, and town board. That is six town officers. Are they making the Art X decisions and drafting policy and decisions seen in these letters? If so where and when do they meet? Are the meetings public? I see nothing on the town board website calendar, or any minutes from these meetings. So when, where, and how do they meet and make decisions ? Have they meet already, once twice, more times?
So how exactly are all these Art X decision being made, where, when, who, and where is the record?
If you can't answer these questions definitively, then we may have an open and transparent govt problem!!!
If someone can enlighten us to the above questions PLEAE feel free to comment!
UPDATE:
Since I posted this post a few hours ago I did note on the CV blog JLL that the CV Art X Committee is meeting every Thur. at 1-3pm. However, that does not constitue a public notice. But the WDT paper is annoncing the same information and it is also dated march 12th. This committee was named in Jan. more than 2 months ago. So is this their first meeting or have they been meeting before?
Again...when I click on the town website calendar of meetings going back to Jan. 2013, all the meetings seem to be at other times like 7, 4, or 6 pm and there is no mention of any Art X Committee meetings.
Now there seems to be a lot of decisions and letters being made about the town's role in the Art X process. Did this Committee of 6 town officers meet before on these issues? If so where, when, and are there any minutes?
STOP, The regional wind energy industrialization of one of New York State's most beautiful and environmentally sensitive areas, the 1000 Islands of the St. Lawrence River and the Golden Crescent of Eastern Lake Ontario. If you don't think you are seeing the most recent posts click on the current month in the archives to the right.
What are you insinuating? Are there any town or state laws that regulate committee meetings? Is it improper for committees to meet without public notice such as is required for official town, planning, and zoning board meetings.
ReplyDeleteIf no quorum of any official board is present, why can't, say, two officials meet and discuss issues or draft potential letters?
Are you accusing the present board and its ART. X committee of secrecy, impropriety, or lack of transparency?
Should we expect the kind of committee work you describe to be undertaken fully in public?
Do these letters need to be approved publicly before they are submitted? Is it necessary for any official who adds his name to one of these letters, to approve it first publicly? Do we actually require that level of public dislcosure?
The ART. X issue is indeed of great interest to the public,but what exactly are the required ground rules for this sort of ad hoc committee?
Certainly you are not accusing the town officials of operating behind the citizens backs intentionally?
Perhaps in the spirit of ART. X, which gives the PSC siting board the authority to disregard our local laws, our own local officials have decided to likewise deny the citizens their right to know what is being expressed or proposed in their names.
Responding to anon: 8:06
ReplyDeletethe following is an advisory opinion from Robert Freeman,regarding defintions for Open Meetings Law
A Public body is -
"...any entity for which a quorum is required in order to conduct public business and which consists of two or more members, performing a governmental function for the state or for an agency or department thereof, or for a public corporation as defined in section sixty-six of the general construction law, or committee or subcommittee or other similar body of such public body."
Although the original definition made reference to entities that "transact" public business, the current definition makes reference to entities that "conduct" public business. Moreover, the definition makes specific reference to "committees, subcommittees and similar bodies" of a public body"
The implication here is that all committees and subcommittees formed by a Town supervisor for the purpose of advising the town board, fall uner all the same requirements of public transparency,and notification, as does the board itself.
This seems especially relevant in this case since this ad hoc ART.X committee is actually taking actions- ie. composing letters to the PSC which,in effect, is conducting business for the town..
Tch, tch, boys,(and girl) better straighten up your act before your voters catch wind of your shenanigans.
You guys are all wet! Political function and government is all about control. If you have it, the rules are secondary and, for those not in control to complain about.
ReplyDeleteOpen meetings, transparency, blah, blah blah. Thats all great for election time, and campaigning, but When it gets down to conducting business ,as Marty and Donny used to say- "those rules may have some merit, but not for this town" Actually a fairly universal operating standard, just not one usually admitted to with such flagrance as the Mason boys displayed.
old adage- if you want something done right, do it yourself.
Committees are for appearance sake only. the most efficient committee is a committee of one- no disagreements.
Lets try to analyze this issue. If the ART. X committee is responsible for all of the letters written to the PSC to date, why would they act in secrecy?
ReplyDeleteSome possible reasons
1. The overall attitude revealed in these letters is that the town has agreed to have our local laws be scrutinized and possibly disregarded by the PSC siting review board, but they demand that BP follow all the procedural rules to a tee. This is an embarrassment, and the board cannot bring itself to discuss it publicly.
2.The letters represent a cover for behind the scenes negotiations with BP and the involved townships (Cape, Lyme,Clayton). It would be disastrous if this were to be exposed, ergo. the necessity for "executive sessions" and secret (out of the public eye) committee meetings.
3.Both the town of Lyme and town of Cape Vincent officials made multiple public declarations that they would not negotiate our local zoning restrictions. They have realized that this is a ridiculous and unreal stance to take while at the same time willingly relinguishing control of the permitting process to a bureaucratic,siting board selected by a Governor determined to place industrial turbines in New York. A solution would be to continue sending letters to the PSC that, seem on the face to be genuine and demanding, but in reality are figurative at best. A public front to show a continued resolve,when the truth is too embarrassing to reveal. Easier to manage this without public scrutiny.
4. The town plans to sue the State if the siting board refuses to honor our local laws. Demanding that BP adhere to all the rules gives the impression we condone the process and are willing to abide by the outcome- a good camouflage. Again -easier to accomplish without public participation.
Oh oh. Lets give the Art X goons a reason for their existence. "See, these locals are unable to be trusted to do things properly". I hope Atty Gebo is rendering the proper advice to this crew about ethics and the law. Lets hope perception does not become reality.
ReplyDeleteGebo gave advice to the previous CV govt about ethics. Problem is they didn't follow any of it, even after the Jeff. Cty Board of ethics also said certain members should recuse from discussions and voting on wind issues.
ReplyDeleteIt must be the actions being described here are unanimoulsy condoned,since the letters have all been endorsed by the full contingent of officers on the boards, I guess with the exception of the few, who are pro-wind and declined their approval. One would think if they objected to the committee's functioning they would voice their dissapproval, in either case.
ReplyDeleteRochne Burns who is an active planning board member who has a BP lease has not signing the letters.
ReplyDeleteI thought Burns was an odd choice with his obvious conflict to be appointted to the planning board by our current town board after all their talk about ethics and avoiding conflicts of interest. Burns has recused on wind matters and hasn't done anything wrong as far as I can tell, although he was on the comp plan committee and wind economic committee which also seemed odd.
However, it seems in the end if there was something irregular about these Art X committee meetings, like when or where they were held and who participated, that some of our regular town board members would speak up and object.
After all they all ran on open transparent and ethical govt. Like I said in my post there are one heck of a lot of decisions being made by somebody somewhere that dosen't seem to be in the public eye or in meeting minutes, and the claim is the 1st Art X committee meeting were just starting and the 1st one supposed to be on 3/14.
There is a rumor about these meetings that if true is a bit unsettling but until I can confirm it I won't get into it now.
If you can't confirm it, why tease us with the possibility.
ReplyDeleteTitillating-like a movie trailer.
I love rumors, they are usually more informative than press releases, or statements by politicians. Plus one can elaborate on them without any threat of reprisal.
ReplyDeleteAlthough rumors, as a news source, traditionally get unfavorable reviews , the old adage- where there is smoke ,there is fire, seems to apply in most cases.
Let me take a stab at it-these secret meetings were held in somebody's garage ,or man-room, at night, and there was alcohol,cards,and an old manual typewriter involved. No women were allowed, except the pole dancer, who was sworn to secrecy,(and no, the pole dancer was not a former town clerk with sticky fingers). The whole affair was recorded on somebody's cell phone, and has been registered with the FBI,CIA,PSC and Home Security. The informant was tipped off by the inordinate number of cars reportedly parked at multiple times in a driveway ,somewhere on Stony Point road.(Hey it wasn't a weekend,and no-one had died recently,so why the crowd?)
The theory was they couldn't risk holding secret meetings in the Town offices, Edsall,Reinbeck and their crew already got caught doing that and ruined it for everyone. Also, the open meetings law criteria doesn't apply to social gatherings-thus the pole dancer,alcohol, cards, cigars etc.
Am I warm?
You are warm...who was the pole dancer?
ReplyDeleteYou're missing the main focus of the rumor, it doesn't matter who the pole dancer was, the key point is the manual typewriter eliminates any threat of electronic tracing. Nobody knows who really writes the letters. For all we know it could be Maureen Harris,or her husband John.
ReplyDeleteAs an update, I have heard innuendos that the site of the "social gatherings" may not have been the Stony Point Road area, but perhaps closer to Lisa Drive, and the very latest embellishment adds females to the mix! That's the beauty of rumors, they rarely stay static.
Hey but out 2:44, I'd like to know who the pole dancer was!
ReplyDeleteFor sure the buck stops at Stony Point Road!!! And no "does" were involved -except the pole dancer.
ReplyDeleteI heard the pole dancer was "Lady Grace"!!! Whoa... sorry I missed that meeting!!!!
ReplyDeleteHere is a quote from Wiley's JLL blog about the Art. X Committee Meetings. The same was in the WDT.
ReplyDelete"The Town of Cape Vincent Article 10 advisory committee will begin holding weekly meetings at the Town Building Boardroom every Thursday at 1:00."
I don't see these meetings listed on the town website calendar yet.
Maybe they couldn't get a pole dancer for the upcoming meetings? An dis that 1 AM or 1 PM???????