Hi all...
Please join us if you can for any/all of these three press conferences tomorrow (Tues.) for these four initiatives from yours truly that will be voted on at Thursday's Committee Day for our County Legislature:
Noon-- for jobs summit and youth leadership summit in front of County Office Bldg. at 22 Market St./Pok.
[see: http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/03/re-jobs-summit-what-is-county-executive.html ;
also see: http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2010/March/31/Steinhaus_vs_Dems-31Mar10.html ;
http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/ResolutionsPDF/2010082.pdf ; for Youth Bureau to work with high school student governments across county to create annual Youth Leadership Summit to hold non-binding votes on Co. Leg. issues, develop innovative ideas for county]
12:30 pm-- for lawsuit w/Nassau to keep lever machines in front of Board of Elections/47 CannonSt./Pok
[recall-- http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/04/04/news/doc4bb818ea20801684554142.txt ;
see: http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/ResolutionsPDF/2010112.pdf ;
http://www.ETCNYS.org ; http://www.ElectionTransparencyCoalition.org ; http://www.Re-Mediaetc.org ]
1 pm-- for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids recommendations in front of County Jail at 150 N. Hamilton St./Pok
[see: http://www.fightcrime.org/state/new-york -- even Butch Anderson & Bill Grady part of this coalition;
amazingly cost-saving, pro-active, preventive measures that more than pay for themselves in savings;
see: http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/ResolutionsPDF/2010104.pdf ]
[let us know asap if you might actually be able to come out to any/all of these-- numbers count, folks!]
Can't make it to these tomorrow?...email 25 of us on these at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us!...
[re: jobs summit resolution-- thx to Jeter-Jackson, MacAvery, White for co-sponsorin' this one I drafted]
[re: youth leadership summit resol.: thx-- Jeter-Jackson, MacAvery, White, Rolison, Traudt: co-sponsors]
[re: lever machines lawsuit resol. thx:Goldberg, Jeter-Jackson, MacAvery, Kelsey co-sponsorin' this one]
[re: Fight Crime: Invest in Kids resolution: thx to Jeter-Jackson, MacAvery, White co-sponsoring this one]
Again-- would be great to have letters to editor printed in our local papers in support of these too:
-- Poughkeepsie Journal (letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com)
-- Daily Freeman (letters@freemanonline.com)
-- The Hudson Valley News (editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com)
-- Northern/Southern Dutchess News (newsplace@aol.com)
[scroll down a bit to see full text of all 4 resolutions to be voted on Thurs. we'll be talkin' 'bout tomorrow]
Pass it on!...
Joel
242-3571/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
p.s. Come out Thurs. afternoon to speak up for these four-- 6th floor of our COB-- 22 Market St. Pok.!...
[full agenda here: http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/CLagenda.htm ; click on green resolution numbers to download texts of resolutions and for times of committee meetings]
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[here below-- text of these four resolutions to be voted on Thurs. that we'll be speaking on tomorrow]
WHEREAS, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported March 5th that "Dutchess County's unemployment rate hit 8.4 percent in January according to the New York State Department of Labor
WHEREAS, Dutchess County's unemployment rat was 7.7 percent in December; 8.4 percent is the highest rate for our county since 1994, and
WHEREAS, there are now well over 10,000 Dutchess County residents officially on unemployment, and
WHEREAS, people without jobs can't pay taxes, and
WHEREAS, people without jobs can't purchase products and services to turn our local economy around, and
WHEREAS, many good ideas on how to turn our local economy around have been suggested by various members of the private sector, unions, local colleges, and local taxpayers, and therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature will hold a public Jobs Summit in the next sixty days, to hear input from Dutchess County taxpayers as well as expert advice from business leaders in the private sector, labor representatives, local academia, et. al., with the County Executive invited as well to participate in this, and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Dutchess County Executive, Dutchess County Economic Development Corporation, Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency, Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce, Rhinebeck, Hyde Park, and Red Hook Chambers of Commerce, Dutchess County Central Labor Council, Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, Bard College, Dutchess Community College, Marist College, and Vassar College.
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WHEREAS, it's important to make sure the young people of Dutchess County learn how our county government works, and
WHEREAS, it's also important to develop leadership and public speaking skills, self-confidence, and knowledge of issues, and
WHEREAS, there are many challenges facing the Dutchess County Legislature on many different levels and on many different issues, and
WHEREAS, it would be helpful to have new ideas and suggestions from Dutchess County's student leaders on how to make our county a better place, and
RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature requests that our county's Youth Bureau work with high school student governments across our county to create a Youth Leadership Summit to hold non-binding votes on County Legislature issues and develop innovative ways to make Dutchess County better, and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to our County Executive, our county's Youth Bureau, and the student governments at Dutchess County's high schools.
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WHEREAS, the Dutchess County Legislature voted unanimously in December 2008 to send a strong message to our state's Board of Elections that voters here and across New York be allowed to continue to vote on lever machines; since then twenty other county legislatures across the state have passed similar resolutions, and
WHEREAS, the Columbia County Board of Elections has recently decided to join in a lawsuit with Nassau County and other New York counties, to declare ERMA, the state Election Reform and Modernization Act of 2005, unconstitutional; the Columbia County Attorney's Office has reviewed the lawsuit and is supportive of this effort, as there are no financial or legal implications from joining the suit, and
WHEREAS, last February the New York State Association of Towns passed a resolution stating that “the continued use of lever voting machines is in the best interest of the public and should be permitted to be used in future general elections ... the elimination of lever voting machines is costly to taxpayers, will result in another burden upon the local taxpayers, and will be confusing to the voting public without adequate time and education,” and
WHEREAS, under the state's Election Reform and Modernization Act (ERMA), traditional lever voting machines would be prohibited from use, and municipalities would have to replace them with computerized voting machines, either touch-screen or optical scanners, but ERMA doesn't fund the replacement, meaning Dutchess and other New York counties need to foot the bill for this transition as a de facto unfunded mandate from the state, and
WHEREAS, the Federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, which inspired ERMA and requires municipalities to make voting accessible to everyone regardless of disability, does not require that lever machines be fully replaced, and
WHEREAS, New York's system of lever voting machines is still working, secure, affordable, and transparent, and when coupled with a ballot marking device in each polling place, complies with the Help America Vote Act; New York's lever voting machines provide reliable, observable evidence of the count at the election; software voting machines do not, and
RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature requests that the Dutchess County Board of Elections join in the lawsuit with Columbia, Nassau, and other counties to declare the state's Election Reform and Modernization Act of 2005 unconstitutional, as long as this can be done at no cost whatsoever to Dutchess County taxpayers, and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Dutchess County Board of Elections, New York State Board of Elections, Governor David Paterson, State Senators Vincent Leibell and Stephen Saland, and Assemblymembers Greg Ball, Kevin Cahill, Joel Miller, Marcus Molinaro, and Frank Skartados.
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WHEREAS, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids NY is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization led by more than 250 New York sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors and crime survivors including Dutchess County Sheriff Adrian "Butch" Anderson and Dutchess County District Attorney William Grady, and
WHEREAS, nationally there are more than 4,000 members of the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids coalition: The International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs' Association, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Attorneys General, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Organization for Victim Assistance, along with the National Academy of Science, and
WHEREAS, the average value of preventing a baby from growing up to become a youth who drops out of school, uses drugs and goes on to become a criminal is at least $2.5 million per individual, and
WHEREAS, at-risk children left out of quality pre-kindergarten are five times more likely to grow up to become criminals by age 27 than children in pre-kindergarten; quality pre-kindergarten also saves $17 for every $1 invested, and
WHEREAS, long term studies show that high quality pre-kindergarten increases graduation rates by as much as 44 percent and in turn dramatically cuts crime; just increasing graduation rates by 10 percentage points, 180 murders and 9,100 aggravated assaults would be prevented across our state annually, and
WHEREAS, nearly 70% of all inmates in our nation's prisons failed to earn a high school diploma; research shows that high school dropouts are three-and-a-half times more likely than graduates to be arrested and eight times more likely to be incarcerated, and
WHEREAS, the RAND Corporation concluded that the Nurse Family Partnership program saves more than it costs especially for the highest risk population where it saved the government $5.70 for every dollar invested, and
WHEREAS, nearly seven school-age New York children in every ten live in a household with a single parent who is working or two parents who are both working; on a regular basis, more than 800,000 New York children and teens are left unsupervised by adults, and
WHEREAS, analysis shows that research-based approaches for cutting juvenile aggression and substance abuse problems Functional Family Therapy, Multisystemic Therapy and Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care reduce current custody costs and future crime so much they can save an average of $15,000 to $75,000 per delinquent, and therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature calls on our federal and state government to help implement the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids four-part plan to cut crime and violence-- to increase access to high-quality early care and education for kids from birth to age five; to offer voluntary parent coaching to at-risk parents of young children through home visiting or other options proven to prevent child abuse and neglect; to increase access to afterschool programs; to identify troubled and delinquent kids and provide them and their parents effective interventions so these children will avoid a life of crime, and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to Governor David Paterson, State Senators Vincent Leibell and Stephen Saland, and Assemblymembers Greg Ball, Kevin Cahill, Joel Miller, Marcus Molinaro, and Frank Skartados, and President Barack Obama, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, and Representatives John Hall, Maurice Hinchey, and Scott Murphy.
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