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With Little Discussion and Few Details Provided,
Legislative Committee Moves Private Security Proposal for Trails to Full
Board Vote
Published: June 06, 2022 at
11:00 a.m.
By: Nick
Altmire
Lowville, NY- During the May 17
meeting of the General Services Committee of the Lewis County Board of
Legislators, committee members moved forward a docket that simply read, “Authorizing
an agreement between the County of Lewis and “TBD” for recreational trail
security, safety, and surveillance services at a cost not to exceed “TBD”.”
We expected to
learn more about the proposal when the docket came up for a vote, as the
topic had no previous conversation or discussion by the committee in a
public setting. The one line referenced above is the only information that
was provided on the subject prior to the committee’s meeting.
Committee members
were provided with a draft resolution in their packet to review prior to
the meeting, which wasn’t available to the media or public to review, with
officials saying that due to the resolution being in draft form changes may
be made before a final version is voted on by the full board. Apparently, according
to conversations with committee members after the meeting, members of the
committee proposed questions and received answers about the draft
resolution from committee chairman Ian Gilbert via email prior to the
meeting, instead of in the open public meeting setting, leaving little
discussion and few details provided during the committee’s meeting. The
only discussion on the matter was initiated by Sheriff Mike Carpinelli, voicing his opposition to the proposal and asking the committee how the plan would be
implemented. That portion of the meeting can be viewed from the committee
meeting video here.
Generally, members
of the media receive the meeting notice and proposed resolutions for the
full board meetings on the Friday prior to the first Tuesday of the month
meeting. We held off writing this article after the committee meeting with
the intention of being able to provide a clearer picture for the public on
the proposal once we were able to see the final resolution being proposed
for action by the board.
When we received
the packet of resolutions on Friday, there was no resolution contained in
the packet that pertained to private security for trails. We spoke with
Larry Dolhof, Chairman of the Lewis County Board
of Legislators, on Saturday, and asked if the resolution would still be
included in the board’s agenda for the June 7 meeting. Mr. Dolhof said that the resolution still wasn’t finalized,
as “bids were still being processed”, and would likely be presented as a
“late resolution”, meaning it would not be available to review prior to the
meeting and the board’s vote on the proposal.
Late resolutions
are generally reserved for issues that come up between the committee
meetings and the full board meeting that require immediate action and
therefore do not have time to go through the normal legislative process. To
entertain a late resolution, the board must first waive their standing
rules to act on said resolution. According to the standing rules of the board, RULE VI SECTION 1 states:
“Each proposed local law or resolution
shall be reduced to writing, be in the name of the member or members of the
Board introducing the same and filed with the Clerk not later than noon
of the fifth day preceding the meeting at which it is to be presented; for
example, a measure to be presented at a Tuesday meeting shall be filed with
the Clerk by noon of the preceding Thursday. Copies of all proposed
local laws and resolutions shall be forwarded to the members on or before
midnight of the final day for filing as herein set forth.”
With no
resolution available for review prior to the meeting we are unable to
accurately report on the details of what the board will be voting on or the
associated costs to county taxpayers, but regardless we still wanted to be
able to notify the public that a resolution will likely be presented for
action during the June 7 meeting of the full board. Anyone with questions
on the issue can attend the June 7 meeting of the Lewis County Board of
Legislators, which will take place at 5 p.m. at the courthouse in Lowville.
The meeting notice and proposed resolutions for action can be viewed below.
LEWIS COUNTY BOARD OF LEGISLATORS: JUNE 07, 2022 MEETING NOTICE & RESOLUTIONS PROPOSED FOR
ACTION
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