"Dishonorable Mention" for East Greenbush

From the Albany Times Union:

Too many gaps exist in ethics, lobbying and open meetings laws for local governments.
THE STAKES:

How can taxpayers have confidence in their leaders' decisions without closing such gaps?
On the eve of a new legislative session, the New York Public Interest Research Group released a report validating what news media and community activists have been saying for decades: State laws to help foster honest, open local government are lacking.
NYPIRG started looking into the operations of local governments that would most likely be affected by hydrofracking, investigating whether citizens could have confidence that those governments would make decisions publicly and with their residents' desires at heart.
While the hydrofracking issue was rendered moot with the Dec. 17 announcement that the drilling process won't be allowed in the state, the message of "Drilling Down: Local fracking decisions highlight failures in New York's municipal ethics laws" remains relevant.
NYPIRG reported it found:
The state's ethics laws fail to ensure decisions by local municipalities are free of conflicts of interest.
The state's lobbying law contains a gaping secrecy loophole: Exempting reporting for municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents.
The state's open meetings law contains gaps that can be used to deprive the public of timely notice of agenda items and access to pertinent documents.
Some small local governments lack the financial resources, infrastructure, expertise and personnel to substantially comply with the state's open government laws.
Capital Region residents don't need the nearly 50 pages of examples from NYPIRG's report to appreciate the findings. They have ample arguments right here for greater openness and accountability, from the questionable relationship between developer Bruce Tanski in Halfmoon and that community's power brokers to the East Greenbush Town Board's secretive deliberations on a proposed casino.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli surely appreciate the need, too. The Joint Task Force on Public Integrity they formed in 2011 has prosecuted about 50 people in a range of public positions.

NYPIRG recommends:
Overhauling the state's ethics law for municipalities to include strong conflict of interest provisions and more training.
Applying the same reporting standards on lobbying in municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents as required in larger ones.
Strengthening the open meetings law to improve public participation and confidence in local government decisions.
Using measures like videotaping, archiving and webcasting meetings to bring local government transparency into the 21st century.
As the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo set the agenda for the 2015 session, these are surely worthwhile improvements to consider. While lawmakers and the governor have the state's own ethical loopholes to close as well, that hardly disqualifies them from making sure that local governments get it right.

Victory Vignettes – Jack Conway

Feeling stunned that the word ‘casino’ appeared on the April 16^th Town Board agenda and realizing that only the laser focused Dwight Jenkins had kept his bearings and opposed the resolution.  The entire resistance began that night with Dwight’s objection.

Watching Silvy Lang and Mary Beth Earley walk into the auditorium at Columbia High School with Silvy wearing a sandwich board and Mary Beth carrying signs.  When the crowd broke into applause I had a feeling we were on to something. 

The May 31^st meeting at Elizabeth Wade’s empty house where twenty or more of us sat on the floor and fomented a revolution.  That was the day we met Michelle Salisbury.

The June 4^th public hearing at Genet where despite the efforts of paid ringers from Saratoga an entire town turned out to rain down its fury on five terrified-looking members of our Town Board.  There were so many eloquent speakers that night but the ones I remember best were Maria Barrington, David Stone and Eric Breimer.  Eric’s Star Wars reference was especially memorable.

Realizing that Tina Tierney had turned into a one woman research cyclone.  They had millions of dollars, an entire industry complex built to sell casinos to unsuspecting towns and Spectrum Gaming.  We had only Tina.  They were badly outnumbered..

The June 12^th farce when our town was wrapped up, put on a boat and sold down the river.  As we were leaving, Feathers turned and tried to stare me down but right at that moment my friend Janet turned to me and said “I hope we get a casino, I always wanted to be a hooker.”  The look on Feathers face was priceless.

Scenes from the first submission to the Gaming Commission:  receiving edits from Cara Benson and Michelle Salisbury at the last minute and trying with all my might to ignore them.  Although it cost me some sleep that night both sets of comments were stunningly good.  Going over to Mary Beth’s house to get the final tally and copies of the petition and fearing that I would have to pry them from her.  Instead she laughed, handed them over and we spent a half an hour in her driveway wishing this casino away.  Meeting Maura Ryan in my driveway at 12:45 a.m. on the night before the submission was due to exchange pieces we were working on.

Reading Mary Ann Matters’ conversion in the Advertiser.

The enraged look on Jo Ann’s face when someone stole our lawn sign and replaced it with a pro-casino sign.  I’ve known her since she was 16 so all I can say is whoever did that is very lucky she didn’t catch them.

Scene from the second submission to the Gaming Commission:  sitting at Maura Ryan’s dining room table.  Maura, Tina and Jo Ann were assembling the packages.  They did the work, I was talking.  We were playing to our strengths.

I think our greatest triumph was the public hearing before the Facilities Location Board.  Twelve hours, 47 eloquent speakers and a gift wrapped tribute to Save East Greenbush from the Deputy Supervisor.  The only thing better than Ed’s ‘tribute’ was watching Joanne Rector rip him a new one in her rejoinder.  Joanne waged a one woman guerilla war on Saratoga Casino & Raceway.  Guess who’s still standing.

Jeff Meyers out-lawyering Tom West by a country mile at the ZBA hearing.

Suzanne Aairdo telling Keith Langley in no uncertain terms that the casino is his legacy as she walked out of the room.

The day of triumph.  I could only think of six times in my life when I was more nervous than waiting to hear the verdict: my wedding day, the mornings my two sons were born, the mornings my two granddaughters were born and when I had to give the Skidmore commencement address before 5,000 people at SPAC.  Waiting on line in the Concourse, a casino developer pushed in front of us in line and when I told him to get to the back of the line, he said “I don’t have to, I’m a developer.”  I told him “Predators have to get in line just like prey.”  Very satisfying moment.

And then “For the Capital Region, Rivers …”  I didn’t hear the rest. Sharing that joy with so many special people will be something I will always treasure.  The tears streaming down Jennifer Jenkins face made me cry.  She was the heart of the whole thing and I was so happy for her.

SAVED!!!! by Jack Conway

When our Town Board passed the generic resolution of support in April it was pretty clear that we were getting a casino.  Eight months and the dedicated work of hundreds of people later we defeated the combined interests of corporate predators, land speculators and irresponsible elected officials.  East Greenbush has in fact been saved.  There were so many heroes in this fight but my vote for the most important goes to each and every one of the 3,058 people who signed the petition to oppose the Capital View Casino.  This was a community wide effort that was so well organized and creative beyond the abilities of any one or two of us.  We showed up again and again and made our voices heard.  I hope everyone else is feeling the sense of pride and accomplishment that I'm feeling tonight.  I'm happy for all of my friends, old and new, and am so proud to be part of this community.  In fact, my only concern tonight is for the Boys and Girls Club of Albany who were made a pawn in a cynical game.  It's been a great day.