new Growing Together Better Choice Budget coalition in Dutchess for progressive tax solutions-- help make it happen!...

Hi all...

By now no doubt you've become aware of how-- aside from the continued, cruel GOP drive to make drastic cuts all all levels of government down past any recognition-- even Obama has unnecessarily put crucial senior programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on the chopping block-- and how even Cuomo (in his first year in office no less) and GOP like Molinaro, Saland, Ball, and Skelos pushed through over a billion dollars in cuts in state aid to schools (and hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts besides to our hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies)...

And let's not forget what Dutchess Republicans did right here in our county with their supermajority in our County Legislature-- they completely decimated funding for our county's Human Rights Commission (tho 900+ complaints made annually to it), eliminated our county's Office of Consumer Affairs our county Health Department's senior home care program, and our county Office for the Aging's Senior Friendship Centers in Millerton, Pawling, and Fishkill, slashed all county funding for the BOCES GED program in our Jail (though endorsed by jail leadership), eliminated our county Youth Bureau's Project Return program, and ended all county funding for the Mediation Center of Dutchess County's juvenile delinquency prevention for troubled teens...(wake up-- what's next on chopping block?)...

[...this is the biggest reason I'm working OT to help http://www.DanFrenchExec.com -- not Molinaro!...]

[hoping sooner than later: embrace progressive tax ( http://www.petitiononline.com/cobudget ) solution]

So....(you might be asking yourselves now)....what's my point?...

...this-- that now more than ever we really do need to pull together-- to organize-- to lift our voices...

[great gathering ten days ago in Hyde Park http://www.CitizenActionNY.org/AmericanPromise -- can't end!]

Don't forget, folks...in spite of media often ignoring it, the truth is that we progressives ARE the majority:

[recall-- toll-free number for Congress-- (866) 338-1015; toll-free # for Cuomo/NY Leg.: 877-255-9417!]

Fact: "Overwhelmingly, multiple polls show that voters oppose deep cuts in or radical transformation of Medicare (78 percent opposed in a Washington Post poll); by large margins, voters support a surcharge income tax on millionaires and billionaires, which is similar to the higher rates Rep. Schakowsky proposes (81 percent in a March NBC/Wall Street Journal poll)-- and a majority favors military spending cuts as a first step in deficit reduction (56 percent in the Post poll)."
(from David Moberg's May 23rd piece: "What Americans Want: The People's Budget"/In These Times):
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/7333/what_americans_want_the_peoples_budget ]

Fact: Marist, Siena, Quinnipiac, & Hart polls all prove vast majority of New Yorkers for millionaires tax.
[see: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/groups-band-together-to-push-millionaires-tax/ ;
http://www.hungeractionnys.org/Poeple%20SOS%20release%202011.pdf ;
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=940073&category=state ]

Fact: Even Quinnipiac poll last summer found rank-and-file GOP registered voters for millionaire tax too!
[ http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/08/16/100816ta_talk_surowiecki -- must-read here; fwd]

[I didn't walk 140 miles in 12 days last summer from NY Stock Exchange on Wall Street in NYC to Albany for my health (lol)...I did that to try to wake y'all up(!); see http://www.petitiononline.com/stocktax ;
http://readme.readmedia.com/Tyner-Walking-for-Governor-Reaches-Albany-Today/1581621
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/07/thanx-tons-to-all-of-you-who-stood-with.html
(thx tons to folks like Jim Doxsey, Alyssa Kogon, and Michele Riddell for pickin' up ball re: stock tax!)]

But let's get to the heart/crux of the matter here, shall we?...

Here's the real point of this email-- my biggest suggestion here...

What I'm asking you all to help me pull together-- is a new countywide coalition for progressive taxation:

[a countywide coalition to meet monthly, at least-- with representation from all of these groups below]

...A new Growing Together Better Choice Coalition for Dutchess!...(we can't afford to wait, folks)...

Again-- check out http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org -- fact is that all of these groups are members:

Community Voices Heard, CSEA, NYSUT, Public Employees Federation, NYS AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org, New York Library Association, Environmental Advocates of NY, Interfaith Alliance of NYS, Interfaith Impact of NYS, NYS Episcopal Public Policy Network, NYS Community Action Association (including Dutchess County Community Action Partnership), Children's Defense Fund, Hunger Action Network of NYS (including Dutchess Outreach), Statewide Senior Action Council of NYS, NYS Alliance for Retired Americans, NYS Coalition for the Aging, New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, Alliance for Quality Education, Coalition for the Homeless, Fiscal Policy Institute, VOCAL-NY, Empire Justice Center, Citizen Action...

...(and literally a hundred other organizations all across NYS!).

Yes-- all those groups listed above are part of the statewide Growing Together Better Choice Coalition!

[see http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org ; it's all about need for PROGRESSIVE tax solutions (not cuts)!]

Now-- it's up to YOU all to help me pull together representatives from those groups for monthly mtg.'s!...

[biweekly/weekly mtg.'s fine with me, natch....but must crawl before walking; monthly mtg.'s fine to start]

So....we have to start somewhere...so....we'll try to launch this by inviting you all to help start a new Growing Together Better Choice Coalition for Dutchess-- to work together and organize strong local coalition in Dutchess against federal, state, county, and local budget cuts-- and push effectively for progressive tax solutions polls show we want!...(need y'all to help us on this-- even if you're not one of the groups listed here; don't forget-- we are the real majority)...

[also: join 220+ at Dutchess Progressive:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151387038233489 !]

Pass it on...

Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net

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From http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org ...

GrowingTogetherNY: Better Choice For A New NY
Growing Together NY: A Better Choice for a New NY - Statement of Support 2011
New York is at a crossroads. Like most states, New York has seen a collapse in revenues from a national crisis spurred by the financial industries' risky business practices. In the greatest recession of the last 70 years and its aftermath, families' needs are rising and the resources to meet them have fallen. Will we respond in ways that grow the economy by creating jobs and investing in families and communities across the state? Or will we choose a cuts-only approach that threatens New York's future.

Quality education, affordable healthcare and housing, a healthy environment, a strong safety net and a sound transportation infrastructure are things all New Yorkers value and rely on. They are essential to job growth and for a strong state economy for all of us, today and in the future.

Unfortunately, though, ours is a tale of two New Yorks. One New York where the wealthiest 1% of residents receive 35% of all income and have seen significant income gains over the last two decades Š and another New York where families live paycheck to paycheck (if they are lucky enough to have a job) and have seen their wages remain virtually stagnant and their services reduced. New York State now has the dubious distinction of having the greatest income inequality of any state in the nation. The economic reality is this: Either we take steps to grow together or we continue to pull apart.

New Yorkers don't want to see the Governor and Legislature cut education, health care, transit, human services and the other quality-of-life services we depend on and value. New Yorkers want the Governor and Legislature to balance the state budget in a way that uses existing resources efficiently and raises additional revenues in ways that will not harm our already fragile economy and will create jobs. Our state must not respond with actions that will further hinder the growth of New York's economy or hurt the children and families hit hardest by the recession.

The Governor and Legislature should follow two simple principles:

* Put Families First: With 800,000 New Yorkers unemployed, families facing record foreclosures, hunger and homelessness, we must ensure a strong social safety net. Don't let our most vulnerable citizens bear the brunt of this recession. They didn't cause this economic meltdown and they continue to suffer its consequences most acutely.
* Preserve and Create Jobs: We need to do everything possible to put struggling New Yorkers back to work.
To Balance the budget in a way that promotes jobs and a sound economic future, we support:

No More Tax Cuts to the Wealthiest New Yorkers

Over the past 30 years, the top NYS income tax rate has been cut in half. With the wealthiest New Yorkers still getting their continued federal Bush tax cuts, and the state's needs growing, this is no time to provide additional breaks to the highest income households. With most New Yorkers suffering from the effects of the financial industries collapse, it is unconscionable to provide a $5 billion a year tax break to the wealthiest few. We must continue the temporary income tax surcharges that were put in place in 2009.

Close Corporate Tax Loopholes and Retool Economic Development Programs

New York continues to give tax credits, abatements, grants and tax avoidance loopholes to very large corporations at the expense of small businesses and workers. This hasn't created the promised jobs; it doesn't work. Instead, let's make sure corporate tax breaks and state economic development grants are tied to the creation and retention of real jobs that pay good wages and include health coverage.

Ask Wall Street Help Main Street: The financial industry is making record profits and has rebounded faster than any other sector of our economy. The federal bailout that taxpayers provided has gone to ensure extravagant bonuses. It's time for the financial industry to do its part to help the rest of our state.

Organizations Supporting the Better Choice Budget Campaign

Steering Committee Members/Organizations:

New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, Alliance for Quality Education, Environmental Advocates of NY, Coalition for the Homeless, Community Voices Heard, Fiscal Policy Institute, PEF, VOCAL-NY, NYS Episcopal Public Policy Network, NYSUT, Empire Justice Center, AFSCME NY, Citizen Action of NY, NYS AFL-CIO, NYS Community Action Association, Hunger Action Network, Statewide Senior Action Council of NYS

Groups Signed on to Campaign:

ACCORD Corporation
AFSCME Council 35
AFSCME Council 82
AFSCME DC 37
AFSCME DC 1707
AFSCME NY
Albany Presbytery
Altamont Prog. Inc
American Baptist Churches, Rochester/Genesee Region
American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1151
Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger
Bensonhurst COJO
BENTE/AFSCME Local 2419
Broadway Community Inc.
Center for Children's Initiatives
Center for Independence of the Disabled of New York
Chemung County Housing Coalition
Chemung County Labor-Religion Coalition
Children's Defense Fund-NY
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Coalition- Chemung County
Civil Service Bar Association
Citizen Action of NY
Class Size Matters
Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect
Coalition for Economic Justice
Coalition for the Homeless
Commission on the Public Health System in NYC
Communication Workers of America, District 1
Community Action of Greene County
Community Advocates, Inc.
Community Voices Heard (CVH)
Crossover Baptist Church
CSEA
Downtown East
Economic Justice and Social Welfare Network (NYC)
Elmira Community Kitchen
EMPOWER
Empire Justice Center
Empire State Economic Security (ES2) Coalition
Environmental Advocates of NY
Faith and Hunger Network
Fiscal Policy Institute
FOCUS Churches of Albany
Food Bank of WNY
Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Green Education and Legal Fund, Inc.
Greenpoint Reformed Church Food Pantry
Health and Welfare Council of Long Island
Housing Works
Hunger Action Network
Institute for the P.R.-Hispanic Elderly
Interfaith Impact of NYS
Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America
Jubilee Center
Justice for Farmworkers Campaign
Let Justice Roll-Rochester
Leviticus 25:23 Alternative Fund, Inc
LIFT-The Bronx
Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Services
Loaves and Fishes
Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
Medicaid Matters New York
Metro Justice of Rochester
Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign
MORE THAN FOOD INC
MoveOn.org(Capital Region)
MoveOn.org (Saratoga)
Mt Vernon United Tenants, Inc.
Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence
National Committee of Grandparents for Children's Rights
Neighbors Together
New York City Coalition Against Hunger
New York Library Association
New York State Alliance for Retired Americans
NYS AFL-CIO
New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services
New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness
NYS Assemblyman Peter Rivera
NYS Assemblyman Richard N Gottfried
NYS Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton
NYS Assemblyman James Brennan
NYS Coalition for the Aging, Inc
NYS Community Action Association
NYS Episcopal Public Policy Network
NYSUT
OSA
PEF
Prevent Child Abuse New York
Professional Staff Congress/CUNY
Public Employee Press
Rochester Episcopal Public Policy Committee
Schenectady Community Action Program, Inc.
SEIU 32BJ
Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
Social Justice Council First Unitarian Church of Rochester
SR Barbara Lenniger, Dominican Sisters
St. Mary's Food Pantry
Statewide Senior Action Council of NYS
Supportive Housing Network of NY
The Bridge Foundation of Westchester
The Interfaith Alliance of NYS, Inc
The Interfaith Alliance of Rochester
The Rt. Rev. Michael Garrison, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Western New York
Troy Area Labor Council
Ulster County Community MoveOn Council
VIBS Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center
VOCAL-NY
WALKS THE TALK ENT.
Welfare Rights Initiative
WESPAC Foundation
Westchester Community Opportunity Program
Westchester for Change
Westhab, Inc
Westminster Presbyterian Church
WNY Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO

Molinaro awash in pay-to-play corruption (proof here from NYSBOE)..

Hi all...

Tune in to our show today 5-6 pm on WVKR 91.3 FM http://www.wvkr.org -- call 437-7178 to be on air!...joining us in studio-- Rich Carlson, Jillian Egan of Planned Parenthood Activist Council, Jim Krivo-- and our very special guest-- Dan French, Dem candidate for Dutchess County Executive this year!...

[check out http://www.DanFrenchExec.com -- for latest re: Molinaro/Conservative Party shenanigans; Marcus and GOP Elections Commissioner are wasting taxpayer dollars-- unable to admit their mistakes]

And-- be part of mix tomorrow (Sat.) 8-10 am on our show on WHVW 950 AM-- call in at 483-9489!...

Dan's campaign is about us: people power; Dan's focused on making a difference (not making a buck)...

Molinaro's campaign, sadly, as public records at our state's Board of Elections and Dutchess County Comptroller's offices reveal, is more same old, same old-- more tired pay-to-play legalized bribery...

Don't believe me?...see for yourself-- click on the NYS Board of Elections link-- and you'll see Molinaro has been assiduously raking in thousands upon thousands of dollars from the very same wealthy special interests who have been pulling the puppet strings in our county government for the last few decades (thanks to the current bagman, Mr. Steinhaus)...

[I've been researching and reporting on this stuff annually since '97-- it's the same names giving $$$!]

It's all right here-- see for yourselves, folks-- (now-- just need letters to editor from y'all on this!)...see:
http://www.elections.state.ny.us:8080/plsql_browser/getreports?filer_in=C84209&fyear_in=2011&rep_in=K ; French's here-- http://www.elections.state.ny.us:8080/plsql_browser/getfiler2?filerid_in=C21587 ...

The fact is that Molinaro's July 2011 campaign filing with the NYS Board of Elections really does read like a who's who list of the same companies who have been repeatedly getting large county contracts (worth literally millions of our county tax dollars in legalized kickbacks) for the last two decades under Steinhaus' wasteful reign of error-- while "coincidentally" repeatedly giving the County Executive thousands upon thousands of dollars in donations-- awash in veritable orgy (or is it cesspool)...

Three for starters...(can you say "maintaining status quo-- incineration über alles"?...knew you could):

1. On Apr. 4th Royal Carting owner Emil Panichi gave Molinaro $2500.

2. On Apr. 11th Royal Carting attorney James Constantino gave Molinaro $1000.

3. On May 15th DC Resource Recovery Agency Board President Ed Mills gave Molinaro $100.

[recall these two gems from the Poughkeepsie Journal's Mary Beth Pfeiffer on why we need to be concerned about Royal Carting once again buying so much influence in our county government-- from Oct. 18th and Oct. 19th-- "Trash-Pickup Competition Is Rare in Dutchess County: Royal Carting Dominates: Other Companies Cry Foul"-- and "No License? No Problem for Trash Haulers"; see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/10/clean-up-dutchess-limit-donations-from.html ]

A bit more here re: Molinaro engaging in pay-to-play (and not even in office yet; we need to stop him!)...

[see below; most of these entities here have been involved in pay-to-play in our county gov. since 90's!]

Apr. 11th: Meyer Contracting gave Molinaro $1000; Meyer got $2.1 million in county contracts last year.

Apr. 5th: Herb Redl gave Molinaro a $2500 donation; Redl got $250,000 in county contracts last year.

Mar. 21st: Jean W. Patrick gave Molinaro a $1000 donation (Patrick is long-time county vendor).

Apr. 4th: C.B. Strain and Sons gave Molinaro a $1000 donation (Strain helped build last jail expansion).

Apr. 11th: Vandewater & Vandewater gave Molinaro a $2000 donation (Vandewater: long-time vendor).

Apr. 5th: Corbally, Gartland & Rapplyea LLP gave Molinaro a $1000 donation (firm is long-time vendor).

July 11th: Liscum McCormack VanVoorhis Architects gave Molinaro a $1000 donation (ditto above).

[again-- see below all seven entities listed just above have been involved in pay-to-play since the 90's!]

But let's also not forget about these four other campaign contributions of questionable origin either...

Apr. 11th: Montfort Brothers (bent on destroying Fishkill's aquifer) gave Molinaro a $1000 donation.

June 14th: Dover Knolls Development Corporation gave Molinaro a $1600 donation.

Mar. 21st: HGP Realty Corp. gave Molinaro a $5000 donation.

May 14th: Lucy Waletzky of Pleasantville gave Molinaro a $8300 donation.

Again-- all this is why we need campaign finance reform here in Dutchess County similar to what Rockland County has had in place since 1998 without legal challenge-- a $100 limit on campaign donations to county officials and candidates from companies who have contracts with the county (Duane Smith picked up ball on this a decade ago after I pulled together big forum on this in 90's)...
[recall-- even the Poughkeepsie Journal editorialized twice for this; strong polling support locally too]

Join 60+ county folks signed on to my http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov effort pushing for this!...

[email all 25 of us on this at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us too-- for Dem caucus to stay strong]

Of course, pay-to-play corruption is not limited to us in Dutchess courtesy of Molinaro and Steinhaus...

Recall-- recent gubernatorial candidate and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy was just forced out of office because of a pay-to-play scandal; for that reason Suffolk County Legislators Jay Schneiderman and Jon Cooper just re-introduced legislation they originally introduced five years ago to ban pay-to-play in their county government there...(how much longer should we have to wait here?)...see:
http://riverheadlocal.com/local-news/2048-in-the-wake-of-levy-scandal-a-chorus-of-calls-for-county-campaign-finance-reform

Check out Citizen Action's report on pay-to-play in Nassau County government here:
http://citizenactionny.org/2006/07/pay-to-play-in-nassau-county/394

Six years ago New Jersey banned pay-to-play; see:
http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/governor/njnewsline/view_article.pl?id=2427 .

Even Cuomo has made this an issue in our state's pension system, banning pay-to-play there; see:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-26/cuomo-makes-pay-to-play-ban-permanent-for-new-york-pension-fund-business.html ; http://www.pionline.com/article/20110427/DAILYREG/110429931 .

[read, weep, then stop mourning and organize!...(call Congress: 866-338-1015-- if you care, folks)...

Pass it on...

Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net

p.s. Again-- your letters to editor to all these eleven publications below can make difference on this(!):


Poughkeepsie Journal-- letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com
Daily Freeman-- letters@freemanonline.com
Southern Dutchess News-- newsplace@aol.com
Northern Dutchess News-- northerndutchess@sdutchessnews.com
The Hudson Valley News-- editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com
Times Herald-Record-- letters@th-record.com
The Register Star [northern Dutchess newspaper]-- [web form] http://www.registerstar.com/forms/letters/
New York Times-- letters@nytimes.com
Daily News-- voicers@edit.nydailynews.com
Albany Times-Union-- [web form] http://web.timesunion.com/forms/emaileditor.asp
The New York Progressive-- whvw@whvw.net and jillian.egan1@gmail.com


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[recall below sent out on all this originally to this list back on July 1st...(nothin's changed, folks)]


[meet the new boss (Molinaro)..same as the old boss (Steinhaus)..unless we pull together to help Dan!]


New info from Comptroller Coughlan reveals pay-to-play still locally; press conf. today!....


Dutchess County Comptroller Jim Coughlan just shared the following 11 new pieces of info with us:


[more reason to come to our press conf. today 12:30 pm in front of COB-- 22 Market St. Poughkeepsie!]


[have filed FOIA requests yearly since '97 to get info like this; below info is gleaned from Coughlan info]


1. Long-time GOP donor A. Colarusso & Son (of Hudson) got $4.5 million in county contracts last year.


2. Long-time GOP donor Meyer Contracting received $2.1 million in county contracts last year.

3. Long-time GOP donor Marshall & Sterling received $1.3 million in county contracts last year.


4. Long-time GOP donor Dutchess Quarry received $850,000 in county contracts last year.


5. Long-time GOP donor C & S Engineers/World Wide Holdings got $630,000 in co. contracts in 2010.


6. Long-time GOP donor NYCOMCO received $425,000 in county contracts last year.

7. Long-time GOP donor Herb Redl (implicated in scandal) got $250,000 in county contracts last year.


8. Long-time GOP donor Bottini Fuel/Morgan Fuel received $225,000 in county contracts last year.


9. Long-time GOP donor Chazen Environmental Services got $150,000 in county contracts last year.

10. Long-time GOP donor Vosburgh J. Paul Architect PC got $110,000 in county contracts last year.


11. Long-time GOP donor Charles H. Sells Inc. received $47,000 in county contracts last year.


[email all 25 of us at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us-- for Dutchess to finally get off dime to eliminate such massive conflicts of interest-- with county-level campaign finance reform the way the Poughkeepsie Journal has suggested twice now in editorials-- a $100 limit on donations from companies doing business with the county as far as what they can give to county officials and candidates-- and come out to speak up on this issue next Thurs. July 7th 4 pm at our County Legislature's Government Services and Administration Committee mtg.-- on 6th floor of our County Office Building at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie-- click here for full agenda next Thurs., bill text too(!):
http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/CLagenda.htm ;
http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/ResolutionsPDF/2011159.pdf ]




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[recall below sent out on this yesterday-- come out to join us today if you care about clean government!]


Help Goldberg, Kuffner, Jeter-Jackson, MacAvery, Doxsey clean Dutchess; press conf.!...


Please let us know as soon as possible if you can join us for our annual pre-Fourth of July Declaration of Independence from Special Interests-- today (Friday, July 1st) at 12:30 pm in front of our County Office Building at 22 Market Street in Poughkeepsie!...(more folks committed to come = more media)...


[again-- if you haven't yet, join 58 Dutchess folks signed on http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov ]


The Poughkeepsie Journal has twice strongly editorialized over the past decade for county-level campaign finance reform to achieve this end-- a $100 limit on campaign donations from companies doing business with the county, as Rockland County has had in place since 1998 (Walt Jablonski confirmed, too-- strong poll support for this in Dutchess)...


Recall-- great news-- our County Legislature's Minority Leader Sandy Goldberg, along with Co. Leg.'s Dan Kuffner, Barbara Jeter-Jackson, Alison MacAvery, and Jim Doxsey, have all stepped up to the plate recently and agreed to co-sponsor the legislation below from yours truly for county-level campaign finance reform here for Dutchess (scroll all the way down to bottom to see text of our proposal)...
[Co. Leg. Steve White definitely interested in pursuing this issue with us too!]


[effort for this started back in '98 when I gathered former County Exec Lucille Pattison, Roger Higgins, Fran Knapp, Kristen Jemiolo, Dick Murphy, (four county legislators then)-- along with late great Duane Smith and 40 other folks representing the best and brightest activists from all over our county (good chance John Ballo was there too)...and Duane Smith picked up the ball and helped convince our Co. Leg.'s Dem caucus to really push for this and make it a core part of Dutchess Dem party platform (let's not let all that work & history for over a decade now go down drain; come on folks!!!)]


Need y'all to start flooding 250-word letters to editor to local newspapers on this asap, folks-- to letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com, letters@freemanonline.com, newsplace@aol.com, editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com...


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From http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/08/re-pay-to-play-in-dutchess-county-brand.html ...


[one of my last blog posts on this; recent info < Comptroller and DCBOE confirms pay-to-play continues]


Tursday, August 6, 2009


Re: pay-to-play in Dutchess County-- brand-new updated report...

Hi all...

Twice now in the last decade the Poughkeepsie Journal has strongly editorialized for what I've been suggesting since 1999-- when I brought together former County Executive Lucille Pattison, various county legislators, and dozens of county residents at a forum at the Family Partnership Center on the need for campaign finance reform here in Dutchess County similar to what Rockland County has had in place since 1998 without legal challenge-- a $100 limit on campaign donations to county officials and candidates from companies who have contracts with the county (Duane Smith picked up ball on this)...

Legislation from yours truly to make this happen (co-sponsored by Red Hook Co. Leg. Tom Mansfield)
will be discussed today 4:45 pm on the sixth floor of our County Office Building at 22 Market St. in Pok...

Come out and speak up-- join 50 other county folks signed to http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov !...

County government of, for, and by the people of Dutchess-- not special interests-- too much to ask for?...


[scroll down to see documentation on how this law is perfectly legal, contrary to G.O.P. statement]

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County campaign-giving limit proposed
Law would affect people, companies that do business with Dutchess
BY JENNY LEE-ADRIAN * POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL * AUGUST 6, 2009

A proposed Dutchess County law would limit political contributions of individuals and corporations that do business with the county, if they donate to candidates running for county offices.

Individuals and corporations that have contracts with the county could only contribute up to $100 to candidates running for county executive, county clerk, county district attorney, county sheriff, county comptroller and the county Legislature during any primary, special or general election campaign, according to legislator and law co-sponsor Joel Tyner, D-Clinton.

"It prevents undue influence on elected officials based on campaign contributions," said legislator and law co-sponsor Tom Mansfield, D-Red Hook.

The law would be enforced through a civil procedure by the County Attorney's Office. For the first offense, violation of the law could lead to a $250 fine or three times the contribution, whichever is greater. Any subsequent violation could lead to a $500 fine or four times the illegal contribution, whichever is greater.

A legislative committee will discuss the law at 4:45 p.m. today [in our County Legislature's chambers on the sixth floor of our County Office Building], but not vote on it.

State Board of Elections Communications Director John Conklin did not see a constitutional issue here.

"They can limit contributions to candidates in their own county for their own level of government," Conklin said. A county law that would limit contributions to candidates other than those at the county level would be challenged and struck down as unconstitutional, he said.

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NEW UPDATED report below re: de-facto pay-to-play right here in Dutchess County government here!...

[again-- thanx to Co. Leg. Tom Mansfield for co-sponsoring law I drafted and some of research below;
donations info < http://www.elections.state.ny.us/ContributionSearchB.html ; other info < Comptroller]

Do you think it's pure coincidence these county vendors from outside Dutchess are giving big money?...

-- A. Colarusso & Son of Hudson got $2.6 million of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. 2008-- and gave $7500 to County Exec since 5/15/06; county G.O.P. committee got $750 donation 12/13/06.
A. Colarusso & Son, Inc. also gave our County Executive $1000 on 12/14/02 and $2500 on 11/4/03, and got more than $700,000 in county contracts in 2003, and $346,000 in county contracts in 2004.

-- Charles H. Sells Inc. of Briarcliff Manor got $181,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. '08-- and gave $2000 to the County Executive since Feb. 3, 2006. Charles H. Sells, Inc. gave $3000 to our County Executive in 1999/2000 and $1000 4/30/03, and got $140,000 in county contracts in 1999.

-- C & S Engineers/World Wide Holdings of Syracuse got $366,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. '08-- and gave $1000 to the County Executive since May 12, 2006.

-- Cosentino Architecture, PLLC of Newburgh/New Windsor got $116,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. '08-- and gave $200 to the County Executive since May 18, 2007.

-- Peckham Industries of White Plains got $181,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. 2008 and gave $2000 to our County Executive in 1996 and 1997-- getting $224,000 in county contracts in 1997, 1998, and 2000, and $214,000 in county contracts in 2004. They also gave $1500 in 1999, $1500 in 2001, and $1100 in 2003 to the Dutchess County Republican Committee, and $550 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund [long-time top G.O.P. Co. Leg. Gary Cooper has long worked for Peckham too].

And we're supposed to believe these millions in legalized kickbacks annually are coincidence too?...

-- Meyer Contracting got $1.6 million of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. 2008-- and has given over $10,000 to the County Exec since Feb. 12 2006 (and publicly fought for his political agenda).
Meyer Contracting also gave our County Executive $1350 in 2000 and $2500 in 2003, and got $3.5 million in county contracts in 1998, 1999, and 2000-- and $1.1 million in county contracts in 2004.

-- Marshall & Sterling got $1.6 million of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. 2008-- and gave
$750 to the Dutchess County G.O.P. Committee on Dec. 13, 2006. Marshall & Sterling also gave the Dutchess County Republican Committee $3000 in 1999, $800 in 2001, and $500 in 2003, and got $2.6 million in county contracts in 1998, 1999, and 2000-- and $1.5 million in county contracts in 2004.

-- Vosburgh J. Paul Architect PC got $483,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. 2008-- and gave $2500 to the County Executive 10/14/06-- and $1000 to the County Executive 11/4/07. Paul Vosburgh gave our County Executive $4000 in 1995 and 1999, $2500 on 6/17/03, and got $497,000 in county contracts in 2000, and $56,000 in county contracts in 2004.

-- Bottini Fuel/Morgan Fuel & Heating Co. DBA got $440,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. '08-- and gave $2000 to County Exec since 7/21/07; $1000 6/10/08 to Dutchess G.O.P. Comm.
Bottini Fuel gave our County Executive $2000 in 1998 and 1999, and got $241,000 in county contracts in 1997, 1998, and 2000.

-- H.B. Wiltse Excavating got $754,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. '08-- and gave $1000 to the County Executive May 10, 2006.

-- NYCOMCO got $550,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. '08-- and gave $1000 to the County Executive June 5, 2007. NYCOMCO also gave $2500 to our County Executive on 4/18/03, and got $382,000 in county contracts in 2004.

-- Dutchess Quarry & Supply Inc. got $1.1 million of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. 2008-- $100 to BS Apr. 6, 2007. Dutchess Quarry also gave our County Executive $200 in 1995,$2500 on 12/20/04, and got $458,000 in county contracts in 2000, and $647,000 in contracts in 2004.

-- Herb Redl got $230,000 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. 2008 and gave our County Executive $3000 in 1995 and 1997-- also getting $277,000 in county contracts in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000, and got $11,000 in contracts in 2004.

-- Chazen Environmental Services got $45,701.69 of our tax dollars in county contracts since Jan. '08--
and gave $3000 to the County Executive since Feb. 26, 2006. Chazen Engineering gave our County Executive $2500 on 5/7/03 and $2500 on 12/19/04, and got $3200 in county contracts in 2004 alone.

-- Smith Environmental Laboratory, Inc. got $156,000 of our county tax dollars in contracts since Jan. '08-- and gave $800 to the County Executive since Aug. 16, 2006.

And that's not all folks...(again-- all of this from public records @ NYSBOE/DCBOE/Comptroller's office)...

Reclamation, Inc. (of Kingston) gave our County Executive $1000 in 1997 and got $1.3 million in county contracts in 1998, 1999, and 2000, and $157,000 in county contracts in 2004.

Highway Rehab Corporation (of Patterson) gave our County Executive $3000 in 1995,1999, and 2002, $1000 on 6/14/03, and got $429,000 in county contracts in 1996, and $218,000 in contracts in 2004.

York Hunter (of Kingston/NYC) gave $4000 to our County Executive in 1998 and
1999, and received over $2 million in county contracts in 1997, 1999, and 2000 (largely for work on Dutchess Community College classrooms and renovations on the county's fire training building).

Progressive Transportation Services, Inc. (of Horseheads) gave
our County Executive $1000 in 1999 (besides $1000 given previously), and got
$7.3 million in county contracts in 1998, 1999, and 2000.

Bank of New York (of New York City) gave our County Executive $1000 in 1995, and got $47,000 in contracts in 1996 and 1997.

Willkie, Farr, and Gallagher (of New York City) gave our County Executive $1000 on 12/20/04, and got $8960 in county contracts in 2004.

Bennett, Kielson, Storch, Yabhon, and DeSantis gave $1350 on 6/24/99 to the Dutchess County Republican Committee $920 on 10/25/99 and $300 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund. They also gave the G.O.P. Legislative Fund $580 over the past three years ($190 on 10/23/02, $100 on 3/21/03, $100 on 9/15/03, $90 on 3/18/04, and $100 on 11/19/04); interestingly, each time no address was recorded on those finance disclosure statements- while all the addresses for other contributors were recorded. They got $55,000 in county contracts in 2000, and $74,000 in county contracts in 2004.

VanDeWater & VanDeWater gave $2500 on 5/24/99 and $1000 on 6/16/03 to our County Executive, $1000 on 10/12/00 and $500 on 8/14/99 to the Du. Co. Rep. Comm. They also gave $1025 to the Du. Co. Rep. Comm. in 2001, $1175 to them in 2002, $1100 in 2003, and $950 to them in 2004. They gave $515 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund (on 9/9/03, 3/18/04, and 9/29/04 in total). They received $21,000 from the county in contracts in 1999 and 2000.

Hollowbrook Associates gave our County Executive $1000 in 1995, $2500 in 2002, and $1000 in 2003, and has gotten at least $55,000 a year in county contracts for many years, getting $63,000 in contracts in 2000 and a pledge from our County Executive for $55,000 a year for the following four years-- this is $15,000 more each year than what the Fishkill building would have cost the DMV; former County Clerk Dick Anderson wanted to make this move to save tax dollars and have after-hours drive-through service, but our County Executive and his Republican allies blocked it.

Montfort Brothers Quarry gave $1000 to our County Executive in 1995; they have been noticeably silent about their plans to destroy beautiful and historic Fishkill Ridge by turning it into a mine. They also gave $1750 in 2000 to the Dutchess County Republican Committee and $690 in 1999 and $550 in 2001 and $190 in 2003 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund. Montfort Brothers also got $3571 in county contracts from the county in 1999 for highway and construction materials. Southern Dutchess Sand and Gravel gave the G.O.P. Legislative Fund $400 on 8/29/01.

Clove Excavators gave $2700 to our County Executive in 1995, 1997, and 1999, and got $2.6 million in county contracts in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2000, and got $791,000 in county contracts in 2004.

Perreca Electric gave our County Executive $5000 in 1995, 1999, and 2002, $2500 on 4/23/03, $2500 on 12/13/04, and got $104,000 in county contracts in 1996 alone.

C.B. (Don/Richard) Strain gave $2000 to our County Executive in 1995 and 1999, $1000 in 2003, and received $4.2 million in county contracts in 1996, 1999, and 2000, largely for work on Dutchess Community College classrooms. They also got $331,000 in county contracts in 2004.

C.J./Jean W. Patrick Real Estate gave $3000 to our County Executive in 1995,
1997, and 1999, $1000 on 4/26/03, $1000 on 12/12/04, and got $287,000 in contracts in 1996, 1999, and 2000, and $164,000 in country contracts in 2004.

Star Gas gave $250 in 1999 to our County Executive and got $55,000 in contracts In 1999 and 2000, and $10,000 in contracts in 2004.

Morris Associates gave $2000 in 1999 and $2500 in 2004 to our County Executive. They received $6000 in contracts in 1999, and $15,000 in county contracts in 2004. They gave $500 to the Du. Co. Rep. Comm. in 1999, $900 to them in 2001, $1100 to them in 2003, and $155 in 2000, and $225 in 2004 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund.

Freedom Ford gave our County Executive $1000 in 1995 and got $40,000 in county contracts in 1998, and $24,000 in county contracts in 2004.

Arthur Fried gave our County Executive $1000 in 1995 and got $132,000 in county contracts in 1998.

McCabe & Mack gave our County Executive $3500 in 1995 and 1999 and got $71,000 in county contracts in 1998 and 2000, and $92,000 in contracts in 2004.

James Sedore and/or his accounting firm gave our County Executive $6000 in 1995, 1997, and 1999, another $1000 on 6/12/03, and got $20,000 in county contracts in 1997 and 1998, and $10,000 in county contracts in 2004; they also gave the County Republican Committee $1350 in 1999, $400 in 2001, $950 in 2003, and $50 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund in 2003.

Sucato Builders gave our County Executive $200 in 1999 and got $11,000 in county contracts in 2000.

Package Pavement gave our County Executive $500 in 1999 and got $7000 in county
contracts in 1998.

Cerniglia & Swartz gave our County Executive $500 in 1999 and $2500 in 2003 (and $3500 that election cycle, besides), and got $70,000 in county contracts in 2000, and $2800 in contracts in 2004.

Royal Carting gave $400 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund in 2001, $100 in 2003, $1000 to the Dutchess County Republican Committee in 2000, and received $97,000 in county contracts in 1999, and $102,000 in county contracts in 2004.

H. G. Page gave $150 in 1999 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund and got $22,000 in county contracts in 1999, and $7000 in county contracts in 2004.

Blacktop Maintenance Corporation gave the G.O.P. Legislative Fund $90 on 3/11/04 and got $366,000 in county contracts in 2004.

Liscum, McCormack, and VanVoorhis gave our County Executive $1000 on 6/18/03, $490 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund in 2004, and got $16,000 in county contracts in 2004.

Prudential Serls gave our County Executive $2500 on 5/3/03 and $2500 on 12/20/04, and got more than $12,000 in county contracts in 2004.

Red Wing Properties gave $1000 to our County Executive on 6/19/03, and $45 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund on 3/11/04, and got $27,000 in county contracts in 2004.

Corbally, Gartland, and Rappleyea LLP gave $50 to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund on 9/29/04; they got $4300 in county contracts in 2004.

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[scroll down for text of law proposed; Rockland law here: http://www.ecode360.com/?custId=RO1021 ]

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"Keep Improving Dutchess Ethics Law"

[Poughkeepsie Journal editorial 5/29/04-- over five years ago-- how much longer should we wait?!?]

"Accountability in Dutchess County government has taken a big stride forward recently-- though there's still room for improvement...more could be done to foster accountability. The Legislature could look to other counties, such as Rockland, for examples of strong laws. Dutchess could: * Limit campaign contributions to $100 if they come from individuals or organizations that do business with the county. This would minimize any appearance that they're buying political influence. * Put a $100 cap on ''soft money,'' or even eliminate it altogether. The term refers to gifts funneled through political parties or other means to get around direct contribution limits. Laws like these can help ensure that public servants remain honest in their official dealings. Dutchess County should continue to strive for integrity in government."

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"Ethics Law Must Cover Gift Limits"
[Poughkeepsie Journal editorial 9/16/00-- literally almost a decade ago-- how much longer do we wait?]

"Dutchess legislators recently took the high road and stepped up the ethics code for elected county officials, but there's more to be done on this road before they make an exit. In other words, they should approve important campaign finance reform proposals still pending to the revised county ethics law passed last week. These additions, proposed by Legislator Duane Smith, D-Beekman, would demonstrate across-the-board devotion to the highest ethical standards.


To start off, Smith urges a $100 limit on all gifts to all candidates for county office from any person or company that does business with Dutchess County. That would eliminate any question of politicians returning favors for big campaign donations. Smith's additions also would strengthen bans on nepotism, cronyism and lobbying when it comes to appointed, paying positions in county government. His amendments would make it impossible for county officials to have close relatives in high-paying jobs, if other applicants are equally or better qualified. Besides, the lawmaker urges closing loopholes so campaign contributors doing business with the county don't appear to be buying political influence.


Besides the ban on gifts worth more than $100, he advocates the elimination of ``soft money,'' gifts funneled through political parties or other means to get around direct contribution limits. Smith's proposals would provide just that. The Beekman lawmaker based his proposals on Rockland County's ethics law, which is superior to Dutchess' recently revised measure in several ways: It clearly defines conflicts of interest, simplifies the financial disclosure process and makes it enforceable, and ensures membership on the ethics board can't be controlled by a political majority. Anthony Quartararo, counsel to the Dutchess Legislature, and County Attorney Ian MacDonald say the county can't pass a campaign finance law because New York state law supersedes any county law.


Not so, according to Rockland County's own legislative counsel, Bruce Levine, a Democrat. He and his GOP predecessor both determined that the Rockland measure is completely within the county's power and isn't in conflict with state law. According to the state attorney general's office, Rockland's law has never been challenged.


If Rockland County has been able to pass and enforce these campaign finance reforms without legal problems, shouldn't Dutchess be able to do the same by using the same model? Dutchess lawmakers should investigate that question. They have already straightened out the mess that was the old ethics law, giving county residents clearer, stronger standards to use in judging elected officials. Making Legislator Smith's proposals part of that law would complete the job."

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Comments here from 58 local folks signed on to http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov -- join us!...


58.
Carole Tang
This is another no-brainer. Until we have serious campaign finance reform at all levels of government, we can hardly call ourselves a democracy, can we?
PO Box 267, Poughquag 12570
57.
Diane Sommer
government by the people for the people
LaGrange NY 12540
56.
Judy Krumenacker
Truth!
212 Market Lane, Clinton Corner, NY 12514
55.
Cary Kittner
govenment has to have transparency and fairness especially when it is time to decide who we want to govern.
12507
54.
mike purcell
contributors and contract awards should be looked at
19 san souci drive pawling ny 12564
53.
Jose Reissig
essential
141 Lamoree Rd, Rhinebeck, NY 12572
52.
Alicia Civiok
I think we need to restore some integrity to our government procedures.
12601
51.
Kristin Lawlor
A step in the right direction.
9 Carnelli Court, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
50.
Chris Hackenbrock
Stop the corruption NOW!
12572
49.
stewart Kahn
pay to play must end. corrupts the process.
2434 rt. 9 g staatsburg, ny 12580
48.
Virginia Stern
Campaign finance reform guuidelines are the only way to curb the influence of money in government.
12514
47.
richard mchugh
go joel go!like davy crockett said,"if you are right,go ahead."
154 chelsea rd.,wappingers falls;ny12590
46.
Baccus Poxer
Democracy requires a level playing field, not one dominated by wealthy special interest groups
12545
45.
Dana Tompkins
There is and has always been only one way to combat this type of abuse, and that is to find a way to bring this to the attention of the voters, so they can take care of it in the next election cycle. Find what would be newsworthy to the national media, and put Dutchess County on the map for all to see.
73 College Lane Millbrook , NY 12545
44.
Joan Grishman
We are living in the results of bought govt..
Hyde Park, NY. 12538
43.
Edward Shaughnessy
I support the Clean Government Petition
P.O. Box 21, Millbrook, New York, 12545.
42.
Mark
I agree with petition
206 Spackenkill Road Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
41.
ilana nilsen
Do something that would make children proud
329 Camby Road, Verbank 12585
40.
julia widdowson
let's clean up our county now!
339 North Mabbettsville Road, Millbrook, NY 12545
39.
Cheryl K. Morse
We need to clean up county AND local government
P.O. Box 645, Amenia, NY 12501
38.
Vincent Martinez
-
12522
37.
Jessica
Will this ever be rectified
118 sodom rd staatsburg
36.
Natalie Embree
Let's clean it up!
8 Vista Drive, Poughkeepsie, 12601
35.
Joseph Rouleau
Voters demand clean elections and instant runoff voting.
200 Oakwood Ave, Troy, NY 12180
34.
Sean J. McDermott
I am a former Rockland County resident (now living in Dutchess) and Clean Government Works
12570

33.
Marian G Thompson
The practice of awarding contracts to corporations based on their campaign contributions to incumbents invites corruption, should be illegal and costs taxpayers more money if bids submitted are irrelevant in choosing the winners of contracts. The practice can also affect the quality of work completed.
1413 Hollow Rd, Clinton Corners, NY 12514
32.
Joni Handley
It's time to put democracy ahead of moneyed interests. Let's clean up our elections so we can clean up all levels of our government.
47 Partridge Hill Rd., Hyde Park, NY 12538
31.
Joseph Cosentino
Let's end the corrupt dictatorship and get back to a democratic society.
12590
30.
Doreen Tignanelli
A limit seems reasonable.
12603
29.
Richard Anderson
Run on your qualifications, not on how much influence you can peddle.
18 West Marshall Dr, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
28.
Thomas Baldino
We don't want monied interests out side our government influencing governmental decisions.
19 North St., Beacon, NY 12508
27.
Richard Anderson
It's Time to Clean Up County Government
18 West Marshall Dr, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
26.
David Sloman
I support this petition!!
12603
25.
Ted Ferris
Do the right thing
12585
24.
Chelsea Warburton
Government by the People and for the People
98 Lattintown Road, Newburgh, NY 12550
23.
Charles Warburton
Government by the People and for the People
98 Lattintown Road, Newburgh, NY 12550
22.
Jennifer Warburton
Power to the People!
98 Lattintown Road, Newburgh, NY 12550
21.
Anne Gayler
Please do the right thing.
148 Prospect Road, Monroe, NY 10950
20.
Jonnie Leinweber
Changes in current policy regarding political contributions is desparately needed! I agree wholeheartedly. But mostly, everyone needs to voice their opinions about this, it is our consitiutional right!!! Did I hear that England gives free airtime to all political candidates? This seems to suggest to me that ALL candidates have a fair chance of being heard, not just those with the most money.
12550
19.
Patrick Speno
I am in favor of the DCCGP
10 Ladue Rd Hopewell NY 12533
18.
Ken Thomas
Government BY the people ! This means all people not just the greedy wealthy!
12550
17.
Michael Cashdollar
reform Dutchess county govenment!
Saugerties, NY
16.
Frank Carbone Jr.
If it's happening in Dutchess co. -- it's happening elsewhere. Contributions should be strictly limited to individual voters. Businesses/owners should be completely restricted.
Newburgh, NY 12550
15.
Mark Wetzel
Family court & county wide corruption reform needed now! I love you, Gregory & Ashlan!
Pitman, NJ
14.
Adrienne Bradford
Reform family court now! I lost my children in Dutchess County Court because the system is totally whacked out.
Saugerties NY
13.
Victoria Fleming
With the corruption in the government, we have criminals & con artists from other states moving here. It makes me fearful for my children's future.
Poughkeepsie 12601
12.
Catherine Watters
County funds are not meant to be private slush funds for campaign contributors from outside the county. Let's get honest and keep the sunshine on this issue!
Rhinebeck 12572-1325
11.
William A. Sepe
An idea whose time has come
65 Gifford Avenue Apt #1, Poughkeepsie 12601
10.
Margaret Von Vogt
enough already
12603
9.
Richard R Carlson
Elected officals should not be rented out.
12590
8.
Dr. Duane W. Smith
It's an outrage that Dutchess County government is for sale.
12601
7.
bill costine
quid pro quo, government for sale in dutchess!! and cheap too!!!
108 rombout ave, beacon NY, 12508
6.
Douglas C. Smyth
Dutchess County needs a Rockland County-style ethics and campaign finance law. Incumbents should not have their campaigns subsidized by the contractors they approve for work in the county.
12580
5.
Douglas McComb
Government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations, equals extortion.
37 Hornbeck Ridge, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
4.
Guy Hathaway
Public financing of all candidates for election is an idea whose time came long ago. For truly "representative government", it is the taxpaying voters who should be represented, not special interests.
12572
3.
Vicky Perry
Contributions to political campaigns are a legitimate form of citizen participation, but the financial strength of contributors should not permit them to be a controlling influence on elections.
62 Old Post Rd. , Red Hook NY 12571
2.
Richard M. Anderson
Good government depends on not accepting political contributions from those who do business with the county.
18 West Marshall Drive, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
1.
Richard Dennison
The American Republic cannot continue to exist without clean elections.
12533

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From http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov ...(again-- join 50 others on board-- sign on to help, folks!)

[below was originally put together in '05-- but now obviously as pertinent as ever; Steinhaus, running for re-election against Ruggiero in '07, used pay-to-play to his advantage re: donations-- fact; see above]

"Now, more than ever, it's time for us to pull together to break the stranglehold grip that special interests have over our government at federal, state, and most importantly, the county level.

Public records at our county's Board of Elections and Comptroller's offices show that 43 different companies (including ten from outside our county) have given donations to top public officials and/or the Republican party-- and "coincidentally", it seems, have received literally millions of our county tax dollars in contracts.

In fact, over the last ten years ten companies from outside our county have given $30,000 to the Dutchess County Republican Committee, G.O.P. Legislative Fund, and our County Executive-- and received more than $13 million in county contracts.

The Poughkeepsie Journal has editorialized strongly twice over the last five years that our county should follow the example of Rockland County and pass a campaign finance reform law on the local level-- a $100 limit on campaign contributions to county officials or candidates from companies who do business with the county. Our County Legislature should delay no longer on this.

Incredibly, over and over again over the last five years Dutchess County Republicans have stated that it is "illegal" for our county to have a similar law-- even though Rockland County's law has been on the books now for well over five years, and no one has legally challenged it.

We need reform badly-- in 2003 our County Executive outspent his only challenger (the intrepid Fred Bunnell) by more than $260,000. Bunnell had less than $20,000 at his disposal, yet won over 40% of the vote-- one wonders at knows what the result might have been if our county had enacted campaign finance reform earlier. We can afford to wait no longer on this.

Look at the 1999 race for Dutchess County Executive. Steinhaus outspent hard-working citizen activist Irv Miller by about 8 to 1 then; Miller raised $14,000 (exactly the amount Steinhaus "just happened" to take in over 6 years from 7 county vendors who "just happened" to get $11 million in county contracts over that same period (from 1995 to 2001).

The Poughkeepsie Journal ran a detailed front-page story on some of this by Mary Beth Pfeiffer Oct. 31, 2003: "Corporate Donors Boost Steinhaus"-- "Twenty-three donors who gave $1000 or more to County Executive William Steinhaus's reelection campaign were paid more than $3.1 million last year for everything from road construction to plumbing supplies, a review of campaign reports and county spending shows."

Note-- the resolution I submitted last year on this was the exact same one, verbatim, as the one Duane Smith submitted four years ago-- with one important addition. Given the fact that we've been made aware last year of how public records show that the CEO of Castagna Realty (John Gutleber of Setauket) gave our County Executive a $2000 campaign donation on 11/12/03, and Castagna Realty itself (based in Manhasset) gave him $1000 the year before (11/29/02)-- and Castagna Realty is handling the real estate transactions for the so-called "Castagna Commerce Park" to be constructed in Pawling...and the fact that the "footprint" for those three buildings was the only property in Pawling added to our county's Empire Zone this year-- not one of Pawling's struggling small businesses was (perhaps they weren't able to cut Mr. Steinhaus $3000 checks)-- we've added language in the resolution addressing this as well.

One may wonder why our county's Board of Ethics doesn't seem to think any of this is a conflict of interest. Perhaps this is because one of the members of our county's Board of Ethics, Allan Rappleyea, is actually a member of a law firm that contributed to the G.O.P. Legislative Fund last year (Corbally, Gartland, and Rappleyea LLP), and got thousands of dollars in county contracts last year as well (see below for much more on this).

Thanks to County Legislature candidates Fred Bunnell, Richard Dennison, Vicky Perry, and Ron Ray for coming out to our July 1st press conference for Rockland-style campaign reform, along with Richard Carlson and Kathy Stewart. Note as well-- Kerry Mitras, Democratic Candidate for Dover County Legislator also indicated that he supported the press conference, but wasn't able to attend, and the Democratic Caucus of our County Legislature has been pushing since 2000 for our county to have campaign finance reform since Tyner helped bring together the Dutchess County Task Force for Campaign Finance Reform with former County Executive Lucille Pattison in 1998.

Two hundred years ago Thomas Jefferson warned his contemporaries of the "excesses of monied interests" deterring elected officials from truly serving the public. Unfortunately, it seems two centuries have passed without much progress on this issue.

Enough is enough. We deserve county government of, for, and by the people-- one person, one vote-- not one dollar, one vote. Period."

*************************************************

Ricardo McKay, the Rockland County Legislature Attorney, sent this to us:

"I have checked with our County Attorney and there have been no lawsuits against Rockland County challenging the legality of the Rockland Campaign Finance Law.

Secondly, the City of New York has passed a Campaign Finance Law. That law has a detailed analysis of the power of a County to adopt it's own finance law. Please review that law for the authority you have asked about.

Next I would note that the opinion of the Controller's and the Attorney General's offices are not law. They are their opinions only.

Lastly I would point out that Rockland's law is addressed to the issue if whether a party can be a contractor with the County. It has now restriction as to ones ability to support financially any candidate of their choosing. If one wants to contract with the County, the County has the desire to avoid conflict of interest and the appearance of inappropriate conduct. The desire of the State to set contribution limits is not so great that it can prevent the County from controlling who can contract with it."

McKay cites five different lawsuits over the years that support the right of New York City, Rockland County, Suffolk County-- and yes, Dutchess County-- to pass local campaign finance laws...

Specifically, these: Resnick v. County of Ulster, La Cagnina v. City of Schenectady, Baldwin v. City of Buffalo, Adler v. Deegan, and Procaccino v. Board of Elections (see below)...

They're in this piece McKay sent us-- "A Symposium on Ethics in Government: The New York City Campaign Finance Act" by Jeffrey Friedlander, Stephen Louis, and Laurence Laufer (from the Winter 1988 issue of The Hofstra Law Review)...

"Section III. Local Legislative Authority and the Interaction with State Law

The New York City Corporation Counsel...concluded that the City has the authority to adopt a system of public campaign financing. Article IX of the New York State Constitution establishes in state law the principle of local home rule. That article sets forth several bases of local legislative authority which support enactment of the New York City Campaign Finance Act. Specifically, article IX provides, "In addition to powers granted in the statute of local governments or in any other law,...every local government shall have the power to adopt and amend local laws not inconsistent with the provisions of this constitution or any general law relating to its property, affairs, or government..." Not only is this broad authority granted to localities by the people and the legislature, but the Constitution also provides in article IX that the "rights, powers, privileges and immunities granted to local governments by this article shall be liberally construed."

The New York City Campaign Finance Act falls within the scope of the city's "property, affairs, or government." This is clear from the purposes of the law: (a) to help ensure the ethical conduct of city officials by reducing the political influence of large contributors; (b) to give candidates a fair chance to express their views to the electorate; (c) to keep voters informed of local campaign issues; and (d) to increase public confidence in the electoral process.

The courts of the state have held that a local law may relate to the "property, affairs or government" of the locality, notwithstanding the fact that it pertains to the electoral process.

* In Resnick v. County of Ulster, the New York Court of Appeals, relying in part on the "property, affairs or government" provision, rejected a challenge to a county law requiring that vacancies in the board of supervisors be filled by vote of that body's remaining members.

* In La Cagnina v. City of Schenectady, the Supreme Court, Special Term, for Schenectady County upheld a local law prescribing how a proposal being voted on in a referendum was to be stated on the ballot.

* Baldwin v. City of Buffalo is especially significant. There the Court of Appeals upheld against constitutional challenge a local law altering the boundaries of local election districts within the city of Buffalo. The court held that "the State has no paramount interest" in a change in the law pertaining to local elections and the locality may therefore change ward boundaries pursuant to its authority over its "property, affairs or government." This reasoning applies to the public financing of local campaigns as surely as to the alteration of ward boundaries.

The fact that the state legislature has regulated some aspects of the financing of local elections does not necessarily imply that city authority to act in this area is preempted. In interpreting the home rule provisions of the state constitution, the Court of Appeals has long recognized that many matters of public concern may affect state interests while also relating to the "property, affairs or government" of a locality. In such areas of overlapping interests, state and local laws may coexist.

* In Adler v. Deegan, for example, Chief Judge Cardozo noted that the enactment of the Multiple Dwelling Law, a special state law establishing minimum structural standards for apartment houses in New York City, did not exclude construction activities from the City's "property, affairs or government." The state's interest in safeguarding public health, embodied in the Multiple Dwelling Law, did not, in Judge Cardozo's view, diminish the city's interest in regulating the density and structure of buildings, embodied in the City's Zoning Resolution. The two enactments could thus exist side by side in an area of "concurrent jurisdiction."

* Regulation of the electoral process as it affects local elections is similarly an area of joint state/local interest and jurisdiction. In Procaccino v. Board of Elections, the court recognized this concurrent concern in considering a state law pertaining to the conduct of primary elections for certain local offices in New York City, stating that "the elective process delineated in [the statute] is of concern both to New York City insofar as it affects the City, and to the State, insofar as control over the elective process and its conduct resides in the legislative power...The court's statement in Procaccino applies equally as well to campaign financing in local contests, which implicates both the city's interest in good government and the state's interest in ensuring fair elections as the basis of a democratic policy. The Election Law and the new City law may thus coexist in the same regulatory area...

Current state law restricting campaign contributions does not contain, and the relevant legislative history does not provide, an express statement that the state legislature intended to preempt local laws providing optional public financing of local election campaigns...

An examination of the history, scope and purposes of state laws pertaining to campaign contributions and expenditures demonstrates that existing state law does not preempt the local campaign finance law. The state campaign contribution and receipt rules set forth in article 14 of the Election Law do not constitute a comprehensive and detailed regulatory scheme which is indicative of legislative intent to occupy the entire field of campaign financing. To the contrary, the scope of article 14 is relatively narrow, focusing on only one aspect of campaign financing-- campaign contributions by private persons and entities..."

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[text here of Dutchess law-- based on Rockland law-- http://www.ecode360.com/?custId=RO1021 ]

Title. This chapter shall be known as the "Dutchess County Campaign Reform Act of 2011."

Definitions.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:

CANDIDATE
Any person seeking election to any County position, as defined by the New York State Election Law, within the County of Dutchess, including any political committee formed for the sole purpose of electing one or more candidates, as defined herein.

DONATION
The transfer, to a candidate, of any tangible or intangible property, including but not limited to cash, check, money order, ticket or admission to social, artistic or sporting event, use of office space, equipment or postage, whether temporary or permanent, and any other real or personal property for the purpose of obtaining election to any position as defined in § 223-2 of this chapter.

ELECTION
The calendar year in which any primary, general or special election takes place.

ELIGIBLE VOTERS
Those persons eligible to vote in a specific election, as defined by the Dutchess County Board of Elections.

INDIVIDUAL, CORPORATION, LOBBYIST OR OTHER ENTITY DOING BUSINESS WITH THE COUNTY
Includes those individuals or organizations appearing on the County's vendor's list or contract agencies list; or those who are acting as contractor or supplier for which role they are paid County funds. However, this definition shall specifically exclude individual employees and their immediate family who are not beneficial owners of more than 10% of a corporation or other entity doing business with the County, unions, employees of local governments and individual members of any union, if employment or membership is their only business relationship with the County.

LOBBYIST
Any individual who, for remuneration of any kind, influences or attempts to influence any County official. Any such lobbyist shall register, on a form provided by the Clerk to the Legislature, as such lobbyist for any calendar year in which said lobbyist performs such lobbying service for remuneration of any kind.

SPEND
Transfer any tangible or intangible property, including but not limited to cash, check, money order, ticket or admission to social, artistic or sporting event, use of office space, equipment or postage, whether temporary or permanent, or any other real or personal property for the purpose of obtaining election to any position, as defined in this chapter.

Prohibited acts.

A. Donations.

(1) No individual, corporation, lobbyist or other entity doing business with the County of Dutchess shall make a donation, in the aggregate, of more than $100 to any candidate during any primary, special or general election campaign.

(2) No candidate shall knowingly accept any such donation in excess of $100.

B. Expenditures. No candidate shall spend, in any general, special or primary election, a sum in excess of the amount calculated by multiplying the sum of $2 by the number of persons eligible to vote in such election.

Vendor's list and contract agencies list.

A. The County Executive shall, on a quarterly basis, direct the Dutchess County Director of Purchasing to compile a list of names, based on the County's records, listing those individuals, corporations or other entities doing business with the County of Dutchess, as defined in § 223-2 of this chapter. This list shall be available for public viewing in the office of the Dutchess County Board of Elections.

B. The County Executive shall, on a quarterly basis, also direct the Dutchess County Director of Budget and Finance to compile a list of those contract agencies that receive funding from the County of Dutchess. This list shall be available for public viewing in the office of the Dutchess County Board of Elections.

Penalties for offenses.

Violation of this chapter shall be punishable, for the first offense, by a fine of not less than $250 or three times the amount illegally contributed, whichever is greater, and each subsequent violation shall be punishable by a fine not less than $500 or four times the amount illegally contributed, whichever is greater, to be enforced through a civil procedure by the County Attorney.

Complaints.

Any complaints of alleged violations of this chapter may be made to the Dutchess County Board of Elections, which shall notify the County Executive and the Chairman of the County Legislature when it has received a complaint of alleged violation of this chapter. The Board of Elections shall then proceed to investigate whether in fact this chapter has been violated and shall make a determination. If the Board of Elections determines that this chapter has been violated, the person or committee who allegedly violated this chapter shall be given 15 days, after notice by the Board of Elections, to return the money or correct the violation. If said party fails to do so within 15 days, after notice by the Board of Elections, the matter shall be referred to the County Attorney's office for enforcement of a civil proceeding to collect an appropriate civil penalty, which will be payable to the County of Dutchess.

fracking activists-- wake up(!)...(re: "natural gas" plant for Dover)...

[thx to Hudson Valley Environment listserv's Dr. Peter Rostenberg for sharing his concerns on this too; email all 25 of us at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us-- for SUSTAINABLE development; not this!]

[see info just below from GrowSmartDover.org folks-- this coming Mon. (Aug. 1st) is deadline for us all to weigh in re: proposed 1,000 Megawatt natural gas plant proposed nearby in Dover(!)...(wake up folks-- has anyone from DEC, Cricket Valley, or Dover promised us that none of the natural gas to be burned at the power plant will come from fracking?...(no!)...(and don't forget-- fact is that frackable Utica shale is right here in Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Hyde Park, and Poughkeepsie:
http://www.chemungcounty.com/usr/ACNE/Utica%20Shale%20Fairway%20in%20NYS.jpg !]

[email DEC Project Manager Stephen M. Tomasik on this depprmt@gw.dec.state.ny.us by Mon., folks!]

[our county's and our country's future in green jobs is not in fossil fuels like natural gas-- but solar farms;
am I only one who heard great report on WAMC just now re: green jobs from new solar farm in VT?...
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1833568/WAMC.New.England.News/Vermont's.Largest.Solar.Farm.Commissioned.With.I-Phone. (and don't forget Greene Co. solar farm:
http://greeneida.com/2010/04/greene-ida-and-cornerstone-partner-on-solar-farm/ -- none in Du. Co.?]

[recall May Duke Univ. study-- groundwater in areas near active fracking wells contained, on average, methane concentrations 17 times higher than wells located where fracking was not taking place--
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=381 -- and recent NYTimes Sun. fracking Wall Street "Ponzi scheme"-- "Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush"-- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26gas.html -- and-- more NY'ers against fracking than for it(!):
http://www.whcu870.com/content_page.php?contentType=4&contentId=8182728&fGId=38413&fGCTId=47&tempId=36927&tId=1&gId=554 (Marist/YNN and Siena polls show more of us against than for it):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/15/new-york-gas-drilling-rul_n_900011.html -- fwd widely!]

[Fact: Dr. Richard Perez of SUNY-Albany has conclusively proven that ALL of NYS's energy needs could be met completely by solar energy alone-- by covering 0.75% of NY's surface with photovoltaics.
http://www.asrc.cestm.albany.edu/perez/publications/Other%20Papers%20and%20Applications/Is%20there%20really%20enough%20sun-07.pdf .]

[Fact: 22,000 jobs across NYS could be created with the bipartisan Bonacic/Cahill Solar Jobs Act of 2011 (for solar renewable energy credits, as in NJ, PA, MA-- all much more heavily incentivizing the purchase of solar for their state residents than New York does here); Germany has less sunlight than NYS but has solar panels all over-- http://votesolar.org/new-york-solar-jobs-act-of-2011/ .]

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From GrowSmartDover.org...

[also see: http://growsmartdover.org/citizen-drops-bomb-on-cricket-valley-deis/#more-1441 ]

CVE DEIS Public Comments, accepted thru August 1, 2011

- Cricket Valley Energy DEIS Public Comments from DuHamel, Constance, July 9, 2010
[ http://growsmartdover.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011_6_28_CVE_DEIS_com_duhamel.pdf ]

- Cricket Valley Energy DEIS Public Comments from Herzog, Robert, July 9, 2010
[ http://growsmartdover.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011_6_28_CVE_DEIS_com_herzog1.pdf ]

- Cricket Valley Energy DEIS Public Comments from Housatonic Valley Association, June 28, 2010
[ http://growsmartdover.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011_6_28_CVE_DEIS_com_HVA.pdf ]

- Cricket Valley Energy DEIS Public Comments from Oblong Land Conservancy, July 9, 2010
[ http://growsmartdover.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011_7_6_oblong_CV_com.pdf ]

- Cricket Valley Energy DEIS Public Comments from Purcell, Michael, July 9, 2010
[ http://growsmartdover.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011_7_01_CVE_DEIS_com_purcell.pdf%22 ]

Please submit your comments to:

Stephen M. Tomasik, Project Manager
NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Division of Environmental Permits
625 Broadway - 4th Fl.
Albany, NY 12233-1750
Fax: 518.402.9168

Email: depprmt@gw.dec.state.ny.us

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[DuHamel and others justifiably share their concerns re: more air pollution from plant here in Dutchess!]

Fact: This April Dutchess County earned an "F" for ozone pollution for literally the third year in a row, with 15 orange days for ozone pollution, one more day than in 2010, according to the American Lung Association of New York State.
[ http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2011/April/27/HV_air_ALA-27Apr11.html ]

Fact: Dutchess County was one of only two counties in the state whose number of high ozone days increased when compared to last year, according to the American Lung Association of New York State, and there are over 35,000 Dutchess residents with asthma, bronchitis, or emphysema, according to the American Lung Association of New York State.
[ http://www.ALANY.org ]

Fact: Dutchess County's average hourly concentration of ozone is actually quite a bit higher than even that of New York City's, according to a recent study conducted at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies by Dr. Clive Jones, Jillian Gregg, and Todd Dawson that was reported July 10, 2003 in the New York Times and in the Poughkeepsie Journal as well.
[ http://www.CaryInstitute.org ]

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More from http://www.GrowSmartDover.org ...

Is Cricket Valley Energy needed, even if Indian Point shuts down?
[Robert Herzog's comments answer this question:
http://growsmartdover.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011_6_28_CVE_DEIS_com_herzog1.pdf .]

Their answer isŠ no. Based on their expert analysis, NYISO stated in its 2009 Power Trends Evaluation, "Based on current NYISO projections, the state's wholesale electric power system will continue to meet accepted reliability standards through 2018." The NYISO 2010 report extends the period of reliability even further, to 2020. It might be more, but that is as far as their forecast period extends. The New York Control Area baseline summer peak demand forecast developed for the 2010 report shows a baseline energy forecast growth rate of 0.41% for the years 2011 through 2021. The 2009 report forecasted growth rate for annual energy in that period was 0.78%. That represents a 47% decrease in one year! The energy growth rate in the 2011 forecast is lower than in 2010 due to a lower econometric forecast and an increase in the projected amount of energy efficiency impacts.

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More from http://www.GrowSmartDover.org ...

American Lung Association New York's position on building new power plants

July 10, 2011

In a letter addressed to Constance DuHamel on July 12, 2011, Michael Seilback, Communications Director of the American Lung Association in New York, states, "[O]ur public policy agenda declares that we believe that we need to see more conservation, efficiency and the use of renewable resources before building new power plants."

For questions about how ALANY "supports an aggressive advocacy program which influences government, corporate and community policies, regulations and statutes, and advances lung health across New York State," please contact:

Michael Seilback
American Lung Association in New York
631-265-3848?16
mseilback@alany.org
www.alany.org

ALANY's Hudson Valley Asthma Coalition (HVAC) is a program of the American Lung Association in New York is funded by the NYS Department of Health and the national American Lung Association. For information, please contact:

Jacqueline Rubino
914-347-2094, ext 20
jrubino@alany.org
www.hudsonvalleyasthma.org
237 Mamaroneck Ave, Suite 205
White Plains, NY 10605

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More from http://www.GrowSmartDover.org ...

Citizen drops bomb on Cricket Valley DEIS

July 14, 2011
Millbrook Independent
By Stephen Kaye

A Dover resident raised new issues that cast doubt on several assumptions critical to the proposed Cricket Valley Energy plant last Saturday at the final public session on the DEIS. Written comments were read into the record by Constance du Hamel of behalf of Robert M. Herzog who could not be present. Those comments went to the heart of the economics of the plant and raised a serious question about noise levels.

Herzog, who has a house around 1.5 miles from the site, was Director of the Energy Office of New York City and was involved in power plant sitings and energy distribution. He questioned whether the 1000 megawatts of the Cricket Valley Energy plant would be needed. He cited published reports of the New York Independent Service Operator, known as NYISO, that says energy consumption in the NY metropolitan area is not expected to exceed the modest increase in supply that is already expected.

He also challenged the assumption expressed in the DEIS that newer and less polluting plants are preferred when distribution decisions are made. He said the distribution decisions are made by NYISO on the basis of costs. A coal fired plant using low cost fuel that is older and therefore has a depreciated basis for establishing costs will generate energy that costs less than a plant using cleaner but more expensive fuel but with a higher amortization schedule. Cricket Valley's DEIS assumed that its power would be preferred over power generated by old coal fired plants.

Herzog said NYISO will take power from hydro, nuclear and coal first because that energy is cheaper than gas.

Herzog also addressed the possibility of both Indian Point plants closing as is being urged by Governor Cuomo and an active citizens lobby. Even then, there are alternatives available that might be cheaper than using a gas fired plant in Dover. He said there are two new plants that are on cue ahead of Cricket Valley, one in Queens and another in Bayonne, N.J. Both have location advantages since the power grid from the Harlem Valley would run through Westchester where the grid "is congested" while the other two are within the area of heavy use. There is also hydro and wind power coming on line in Quebec and a proposal for bringing that power to NYC via an underwater cable to run down Lake Champlain and the Hudson.

Before Cricket Valley could be built it would need a green light from NYISO. Investors and lenders would need that green light.

Herzog questions the DEIS statement that the new plant would improve air quality because the more polluting plants would shut down. If the more polluting plants produced cheaper energy, they would not be shut down, so there would be no net gain. Absent the shutdown of older plants, the CO2 in the NY power pool would increase 2 % if Cricket Valley is built.

"DEC as lead agency with the mandate to protect our environment has the legal responsibility to consider the NYISO's findings and the likelihood of far better alternatives available during the time frame when they will actually be needed. Circumventing or ignoring such findings would be a violation of DEC's mission," says Herzog in his written statement.

After making a strong argument that the Cricket Valley DEIS errs in its claims as to economic need and its air pollution claims, Herzog then raised the noise issue that he says is significant. The DEIS says the average noise level will be no louder than 50db meaning that sometimes it will be more and sometimes less. He cites the World Health organization that says "environmental noise above 40-50db Leq is likely to lead to significant annoyance; outdoor levels of 40-60db may disturb sleep."

The plant is within 1000 feet of the Dover Plains High School. Herzog says the ambient noise levels will penetrate into the classroom and interfere with the learning of students.

He also says that the plant's noise level will exceed that permitted by the town of Dover's zoning law and that a waiver will be necessary for the plant to operate. Herzog asks that the waiver not be granted.
Herzog questioned the bias of those who conducted Cricket Valley's DEIS studies.

"The energy cost and environmental impact studies were prepared by General Electric. GE will also be selling to CVE major pieces of equipment for the facility, for hundreds of millions of dollars. Their findings in support of the plant are hardly a surprise, and an alternate study performed by a truly independent and unbiased organization, selected by the community, should be conducted for this and all other major findings of the DEIS that were derived from interested parties. As the DEC's mission includes supporting environmental justice, it should mandate that CVE provides funds for such studies, since the community is hard pressed to do so."

Neither the DEC nor Cricket Valley commented on Herzog's statement at the hearing on Saturday. Because Herzog's comments are now part of the record, the DEC as lead agency is obligated to consider them. Herzog recognized that one approach might be to require new studies on the points he raised. He asked that Cricket Valley pay for those studies, but the choice of who would write them should be the town's. This comment was repeated by other speakers at the public comment session.

Herzog's comments were "like dropping a bomb" said Stancy duHammel who has been following the process as resident of Wingdale and member of FROGs and other local groups. "These points go to the heart of the matter. If there's no market, this plant won't happen. With its 282 foot stacks, this plant no longer looks so good." DuHamel also noted that no comments were submitted on behalf of the town on the scoping session and that the town had not engaged specialists to assist them in assessing or commenting on the Cricket Valley DEIS.

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More from http://www.GrowSmartDover.org ...

Economic Development

July 15, 2011
Pawling Press
From the Editor's desk

It all seems to be happening in Dover. But all is not gold that glitters.

There are a couple of mammoth projects underway in Dover. The first is Dover Knolls (DK) and this involves the redevelopment of the now unoccupied Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center. The second involves the construction of a 1,000 megawatt power plant just south of the Dover Middle and High School campus at the Mid-Hudson Recycling Center, an old industrial site. DK is largely through the permitting process but the power plant is not.

The two developments are of fundamentally different characters but both are adjacent to Route 22 and the Swamp River, the slow-moving central artery of the northern reaches of the Great Swamp, an important wetland. They also both sit atop the single source aquifer that the communities in the Harlem Valley rely upon for their water supply. Demolition of the first buildings at DK has taken place and we await further developments. The power plant, known as Cricket Valley Energy (CVE), is still in the SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review) process but construction could start in 2012 assuming all the regulatory matters are put to bed in a timely way.

The CVE project first saw the light of day in or around May 2009 when a presentation was made by Advanced Power to the Town of Dover at the High School. The proposal was to option some 130 acres of land approximately 50 of which would be devoted to the development of the plant and the remainder would be placed into permanent conservation. The price tag was to be some $1 billions and several hundred jobs would be created during the 3-year construction period with some 25 to 30 permanent jobs created once the plant was operational.

The permitting process for a project of this type is complex with lots of agencies involved at Federal, state and local levels. It took CVE about a year to get to the point where a Scoping Document was finalized in June 2010 and another year to produce what is known as the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The idea is that the public gets to participate in the process leading up to the Scoping Document which establishes the framework for the DEIS. And there was plenty of public participation given the nature of the project.

The DEIS, a monster document, was published in early June this year and the public hearings on it duly took place on June 28th last. Since this was a Tuesday there was a bit of an outcry from those who could not attend due to work schedules and eventually the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) yielded to public pressure for a further Saturday session. That session was held on Saturday last at a packed Dover Town Hall; our page 1 article refers. Without getting bogged down in all the detail the DEC are the Lead Agency and are responsible for orchestrating the SEQRA process.

The DEC are also one of the 13 permitting agencies who will control the grant of some 30 different permits.

There were a number of people at that meeting that said they were unaware of the project until two weeks prior to the July 9th meeting. Without doubting the veracity of their claims one wonders where there have been. Over the last two years CVE have retained communication consultants to help them reach out into the community and there have been workshops, newsletters, media coverage and goodness knows what else to help draw the public into this process. We can find no fault with their outreach. However, with the best will in the world there will be the odd few folks whose address the Post Office clearly may not have.

The long and the short of it is that there are four major areas of concern that were expressed by members of the public who attended the last meeting. First, whether there is, in fact, a need for this plant. Additionally, and in no order of importance, the environmental impacts of the plant upon air quality, water resources and noise.

The need for this plant is not something that we ordinary mortals can deliberate upon. In fact the power grid demands are something that is handled by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). Apparently, there may be some question as to whether NYISO agrees that there is a short-term need for the power to be generated by CVE. How that gets resolved we do not know. Further, given that the power to be generated will benefit the state rather than the locals there is the question of the level of benefits that should accrue to the host community for accepting this facility.

Leaving those issues on one side, and assuming the plant proceeds, we are left with the potential environmental impacts. The plant is state-of-the-art and CVE have been responsive in designing it down to mitigate its impact on the surrounding areas. Since there is no way to tell now exactly how the plant will impact us in the areas of air, water and noise extensive modeling and testing has been done. With the best will in the world these models are necessarily complex and beyond the grasp of most of us. They are also based upon certain assumptions that may or may not bear out in practice. The problem is that once one has invested $1 billions and the plant is up and running one's options to change things are limited.

The DEIS is prepared by CVE and it contains a wealth of detail furnished by about a dozen expert consultants in each specialized field. It is, of course, CVE's document and whilst is intended to address all matters raised in the Scoping Document one could not expect it to take the opposite side of any particular issue. This is not to infer that the document is biased but what it does call for is an independent review by experts retained by the Town of Dover on behalf of its residents. Now, the Town has retained the firm, AKRF, to advise them but it is an open question as to whether additional expert help would be useful in evaluating the impacts upon air, water and noise.

We might take the view that a plant some 4.5 miles north of us is too far away to be of interest. However, that is a flawed view; we draw water from the same aquifer and breathe the same air. Noise will probably not be an issue given that we are not within earshot of the plant.

The DEC is open to receiving written comments on the DEIS through August 1st and there have been requests for additional extensions of this time limit. We should interest ourselves in what is happening north of the town line.

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[recall Pok. Journal editorial on all this July 8th]

Concern Swirls Over Power Plant Bid
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110708/OPINION01/107080324/Concern-swirls-over-power-plant-bid

Constance I. DuHamel, cofounder of the Coalition for the Responsible Growth of Dover, is focusing, in part, on how much more polluted the air will be in the area with a new power plant on line, "taking into consideration the relatively poor air quality we are reported to have already."

She rightly calls on environmental officials to be continually mindful of the cumulative impact of the site's presence, not just governmental thresholds for the harmful chemicals coming from the emissions of this particular plant.

She also proposes Cricket Valley Energy pay for an air-quality monitoring station, to be located nearby on the grounds of the Dover middle and high schools, with the data collected independently and submitted to the EPA. The plant is about a mile from the school, and DuHamel notes there are times of year when children play outside using school facilities.

help Maria DiBari and Alyssa Kogon launch the Tri-County Crisis Center!..

[also attending tomorrow: Mara Farrell, Terry Gipson, Steve Meddaugh, Elizabeth Cooke, me; join us!]

[ http://www.TriCountyCrisisCenter.org ; http://MariaDiBari.com ; http://www.4Survivors.blogspot.com ;
also-- http://www.StopFamilyViolence.org http://www.DVNN.org Domestic Violence National Network]

[and-- check out http://www.SecureAlert.com -- GPS tracking model for high-risk domestic violence offenders that Dutchess County SHOULD be using (as opposed to model embraced by Rolison/Saland/GOP-- where domestic violence victims are unfairly tracked as well; wake up, folks!]

[my work-- http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-pojogop-lies-fact-is-18-states.html ]

[also-- let's not forget-- one of the best ways to make sure that other valuable DV nonprofits like http://www.GraceSmithHouse.org are fully funded is to make sure that common-sense, progressive tax reform is delayed no longer on state, federal, county levels!...(see http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org ; http://www.CTJ.org ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ILikeIke -- both TCCC and GSH are very needed!]

[email countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us; call Albany: 877-255-9417; Congress: 866-338-1015 too]

[see below-- this issue is one more reason to help Marco Caviglia-- http://CavigliaLaw.com/7.html ; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marco-Caviglia-for-Dutchess-County-Family-Court-Judge/233052170043610 !]

[finally-- don't forget-- over half of all battered women can't afford to leave the men who hit them-- according to a study by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (as reported in a Hunger Action Network of NYS newsletter distributed here in our county by Dutchess Outreach)-- one more reason we need to push for living wage for ALL of us-- women & men-- see http://www.petitiononline.com/livwage !]

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From http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=236767289679323 ...

Tri-County Crisis Center Press Event

You are Attending

Time: Friday, July 29 · 10:00am - 10:30am

Location: Dutchess County Court House Steps
10 Market Street
Poughkeepsie, NY

Created By: Alyssa Manner Kogon
More Info: Please join Tri-County Crisis Center as they sponsor a press event to discuss domestic violence issues and what can be done to improve services to victims. Jackie Axt, sister of Hyde Park DV victim Linda Riccardulli, will also give a statement in honor of the one year anniversary of her sister's death.

Please join us and support two local family members of DV homicide victims in the Hudson Valley speak out against this crime. Let's all be there to support them! Thank you to Jackie Axt speaking in memory of Linda and Kristina Cotto, speaking out in memory of her mother Isol!

Also, TCCC will be distributing FREE 911 cell phones to anyone who is in crisis. You do not have to be a DV victim to receive a free phone.

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From http://www.TriCountyCrisisCenter.org ...

Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc. is a non-profit organization in NYS that supports victims and the families of victims of domestic violence. We assist female and male victims of violence and our organization does not discriminate against gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Other organizations typically assist victims at specific points in their victimization cycle, leaving gaps in the system that leave victims at a disadvantage. Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc. is a "one-stop" center for all victims of domestic abuse and will assist a victim with his/her needs from the beginning of the victimization process to the end.

Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc. will expand upon and enhance the existing services offered to victims in NY, and will be mainly focusing on Dutchess, Orange and Putnam Counties. As a team of volunteer survivors, educators and experts, our mission is to fill the gaps in the current support system so that every victim is assisted, empowered, and protected.

The Crisis Center will be focused on assisting both female and male victims of domestic violence.

Our services include:
* Crime Victims Compensation assistance
* Assistance with restraining orders
* Assistance with preparing victims for meetings with law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, attorneys, and public officials
* Assistance with job training and employment
* Will provide consultation with victims and victims' family members
* Assistance with finding victims pro bono reconstructive surgery after abuse
* Safety planning
* Relocation for victims of violence
* Assistance with Identity change and Social Security number change
* Assistance for victims of stalking and cyber stalking
* Assistance with locating free counseling
* Assistance with finding pro bono lawyers for domestic violence
* Victim referrals and follow-up
* Identifying needs and assistance with preparing documentation
* Educational scholarship assistance for survivors of domestic violence

Tri-County Crisis center, Inc. is not a shelter and does not have a hotline for victims of violence.

BOARD MEMBERS

Board of Directors:

Maria DiBari: Founder and Executive Director of Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc.
Ms. DiBari is an independent consultant for domestic violence policy reform. She has been a volunteer advocate for domestic violence victims and family members of domestic homicide victims across the US since 2008, following her own battle with domestic violence and struggle navigating through the support system in NY.
Ms. DiBari has worked with numerous national, state, and local legislators on the development of domestic violence policy reform. She is responsible for proposing several bills that have been introduced in NY State, such as the Domestic Violence Reform Act. She is also a volunteer advocate for Survivors in Action, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting all victims of crime and ensuring "no victim is left behind". Her writing has been published online and in local newspapers around the Hudson Valley and used in graduate college courses on domestic violence prevention. She authors A Movement Against Domestic Violence
www.4survivors.blogspot.com)
Ms. DiBari has a Master's Degree in Molecular Biology and has been working in the science field for ten years. She has experience in teaching at the college level, leading teams, and as working an Analytical Chemist for large corporations. Currently, she holds an Engineering position in Research and Development for a major medical device company.

Alyssa Kogon: Co-Founder and Administrative Director of Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc.
Community activist Alyssa Kogon is a 26 year resident of Dutchess County. She has served on the Clinton Community Library Board of Directors, as well as the Board of Directors of local, non-profit E4. Alyssa is a music and art therapy provider for the developmentally challenged community, as well as an educator in the Rhinebeck Central School District. Ms. Kogon holds a BA in Broadcast Communications and is Chairwoman of the Town of Clinton Democratic Committee.

Alexis A. Moore: Director of Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator
Ms. Moore is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of cyber stalking, traditional stalking, identity theft, id theft as abuse, credit, collections, risk management, high-tech investigations, violence against women and privacy protection. She is the founder of Crime Victim Organization and Advocate Network and President of Survivors In Action, a non-profit crime victim organization that provides direct support and assistance to crime victims from across the nation.

Courtney Creedon: Director of Development at Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc.
Courtney Creedon specializes in domestic violence research, grant writing, and organizational development. She is pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, with a concentration in Forensic Psychology. She intends to go to graduate school to study criminal justice and to eventually have a career in victim services. In addition to the TCCC, she is also an intern with the New Jersey State Police.

Benjamin Giardullo
Mr. Giardullo is an experienced business leader, consultant, and community organizer. He has played key roles in successful organizations throughout his career, recently holding a pivotal leadership position in the expansion and management of a global clothing retail company. His prior work includes leading a group of volunteer students in the development of a campus-community farm, assisting in the development of international engineering projects, and tutoring at-risk students in math and science. He holds a BA in Mathematics from the University of New Hampshire. He is a Hudson Valley native and currently resides in Dutchess County.

Louis Kogon
Lou Kogon is a life long Hudson Valley resident and business owner. He owns and operates both Kogon's Paving and Kogon's Realty of the Hudson Valley. He has a degree in Psychiatric Social Work from SUNY, and has mentored local at-risk youths for 20 years.

Advisory Board :

Jacqueline Axt: Victims advocate, Project Manager and sister of domestic violence homicide victim in NYS
Jacqueline Axt is the sister of Linda Riccardulli, who lost her life to domestic violence in Dutchess County. In addition to her efforts advocating for domestic violence reform, she is a member of the Human Rights Campaign and advocate for Marriage Equality for GLBT. She is a project manager for Sprint and has attended Dominican College majoring in philosophy and business. She resides in Rockland County, NY.

Gregory J.M. Parry, Esq.: Director of Eagle Risk Management Law Firm, PLLC and Crime Victims Law Firm, PLLC
Gregory J.M. Parry is a veteran attorney who has been representing victims of violent crime since 1993. Greg's first "client" was his 4-month-old son, severely abused by the family's caretaker, inflicting permanent severe brain damage. From the victim side, Greg developed a passion for helping crime victims secure civil justice, and has a strong interest in representing victims of domestic violence involved in divorce proceedings. Greg is peer review AV® Rated by Martindale Hubbell, the highest levels for legal competence and ethics. After 20 years of large firm experience, in 2010 Greg opened his own firm, including Crime Victim Rights Law Firm, PLLC devoted to advocacy and civil justice for victims of violent crime. Greg was past President of the National Crime Victim Bar Association Advisory Board; has served on multiple nonprofit boards over the years, has lectured and written nationally and locally on the topic of crime victim rights, and in 2011 received his State's prestigious "Leader in the Law" award. Greg graduated from Western Michigan University; Michigan State College of Law Magna Cum Laude, and received his Masters Degree in Homeland Security Leadership from University of Connecticut.

Susan Tooker: RN, NPWH
Susan has worked as a Registered Professional Nurse for 18 years. She has also worked a Nurse Practitioner Women's Health for 8 years and has experience as a Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner for Dutchess County. Her nursing experience includes: Critical Care, ER, Surgical Services, Med/Surg, and Home Care. Susan holds an AAS in Nursing from Dutchess Community College, a BS Organizational Leadership & Communication with a Minor in Paralegal Studies, and a Masters Degree in Prepared Nurse Practitioner from Drexel University.


Pamela Brown: Gail Aska Policy and Research Fellow at Community Voices Heard
Pamela is a Gail Aska Policy and Research Fellow at Community Voices Heard, a 15 year-old membership organization of low-income people, working to build power in New York State to improve the lives of low-income families and communities. CVH uses a combination of strategies including base building & mobilization, leadership development, direct-action, legislation promotion & advocacy, grassroots-driven research, media & public education, voter education & engagement, and coalition building to lead campaigns to win benefits for our membership of low-income families. Pamela's fellowship is in memoriam of the founder of Community Voices Heard with the sole purpose of collecting research to eradicate workfare, not only in New York State, but also throughout the nation. Pamela also analyzes the impacts of TANF policy on women and children receiving block grants.

SURVIVORS

Ilianexy Morales : NYC/survivor of severe domestic abuse
"After years of not getting the help that I needed from several domestic violence organizations after a life threatening domestic violence incident, I turned to Maria for help after reading her blog, A Movement Against Domestic Violence. She led me to the right resources and made sure I got the help and assistance I needed as a victim. Maria directed me to Discovery Health where I was offered reconstructive surgery and to Give Back A Smile where they fixed my entire smile. "

Yukari : Immigrant domestic violence survivor in NYS
"When I was turned away from my domestic violence lawyer from Regal Service of Hudson Valley, Maria helped me speak out about what they were doing to me. They were supposed to help me but what they were actually doing was putting me into a more difficult situation. It was hard for me to speak out because of my poor English, but she always encouraged me to be strong.
It was very hard to receive proper help from the DV organizations in NYC. I had to call many times and when I got to talk, they gave me other phone numbers or transferred me to somebody else. Chances were very slim to talk to them. I felt I was alone but I was able to reach Maria all the time. She didn't ignore me. Maria gave me phone numbers that I should call and email addresses that I should contact. She was one of the most helpful people."

Jackie Axt : Family member of a domestic homicide victim
"Linda Riccardulli was my sister and a mother. Losing her to domestic violence was and still is a painful and bewildering experience. Once the rush of immediate arrangements were taken care of, we felt lost. I came across Maria DiBari's blog and was struck by the frank and practical information. When I reached out she responded immediately offering guidance and help. She and Alyssa Kogon have been untiringly supportive. Unlike established DV organizations, they have been respectful of my family and of Linda's memory. Although the pain of our loss is as sharp as ever, I no longer feel helpless. I am so grateful."

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From http://www.MariaDiBari.com ...

False allegations and extreme punishment for a Dutchess County resident
by MARIA DIBARI | LIKE TCCC ON FACEBOOK

I met Michele Hare in person last night in Beacon NY. I looked through her Blotter Reports from the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department. Michele has no rights to the actual police reports filed against her. My jaw dropped as I read through what I considered family disputes, unfairly reported and antagonistically initiated by disgruntled, adult step-children.

Michele never had the chance to report her statement to the police in Dutchess County. Instead, she was thrown our of her own home, jailed, bailed herself out of jail with $10,000 cash and lost everything she owned in the process. In my opinion, this woman was extremely punished for defending herself against a household- gone- wild, two belligerent, adult step-children disrespecting her home, refusing to leave the home, and making physical threats against her while her husband that stood by to watch.

Eventually, her step-children would call the police on Michele for the slightest family argument and victimize her by alleging verbal abuse. The Town of Poughkeepsie Police and the Dutchess Family Court system used extreme punishment in this case and this woman was served with a two year Order of Protection and forced out of her own home. Note, Michele's bail was set at $10,000 cash bail in Dutchess County. While reviewing her police reports, which were flawed and poorly written, I noticed that Dutchess County PD called DART in on this case.

Note: (Domestic Abuse Response Team is a collaborative model project with Family Services and theDutchess County District Attorneys office to provide direct advocacy and services to victims of domestic violence within the criminal justice system. (For More Information About What is Domestic Violence click here) There are three Domestic Abuse Response Teams in Dutchess County; City of Poughkeepsie, Town of Poughkeepsie and the City of Beacon. Each team works together to increase victim's safety and batterer's accountability. The teams are dedicated to providing comprehensive direct services to victims of domestic violence throughout Dutchess County. Members of the team include, law enforcement agencies, outreach workers, probation officers, advocates, district attorney's, and other service providers based upon need. This project is comprehensive and involves a diverse group of talented individuals, the program includes; a Coordinated Community Response Component; extensive outreach and training and addressing gaps in current systems. The goal of the program is to increase victim safety, and accountability for those who commit domestic violence crimes.)

In the case of the late Linda Riccardulli, a case involving extreme violence, Dutchess County failed to alert the DART team or domestic violence services to protect this woman. In fact, Linda was not properly protected against a repeat offender, who eventually murdered her after being released on low bail. In my professional opinion, this woman was failed by our county and not protected by the individuals that were in positions to protect. Also note, her batterer, despite the guns and ammunition taken out of the home, death threats and OP violations, was released on low bail, not cash bail, and allowed to go back to the family home to kill Linda. The DART team was not involved.
In the most recent case involving a Beacon NY male engaged in a domestic dispute with his female partner on the Hudson River, the perpetrator was released from jail on $500 bail after threatening to throw his partner off a boat into the river with an ore. Was the DART team involved in this case? I am assuming that they weren't.

As a victim I was denied a restraining order against a man that paralyzed me physically and was unable to get the basic services to survive. I, too, was not protected by the law in the Hudson Valley and my abuser never went to jail. Getting protection against a man that physically disabled me was nearly impossible and many victims of crime have a difficult time obtaining help and assistance.

There are many cases involving real, egregious violence that I can compare Michele's case to in Dutchess County and show enough evidence to suggest that law enforcement and the court system acted too harshly against this woman and could not make the appropriate decisions at the scene of the "crime". Many individuals falsely accuse another party of violence and it is not to be taken lightly. One of the major issues I observe when reviewing these cases is that law enforcement is in need of training. There is an overall lack of training on domestic violence in Dutchess County and in NY in general. Officers are flooded with DV calls and many times need to act and may not always be able to differentiate the signs of abuse from false allegations. This is an issue that our Victim Service Providers need to address, but do not. Training consists of updating officers about new legislation and that only happens once a year.

The use of Lethality assessment tools would also differentiate high risk cases from low risk cases and give officers the ability to predict death and order the proper punishments for crime. Currently, NYS does not use an effective lethality assessment tool for victims.
We have a long way to go as far as solving these crimes is concerned, and there are resolutions. We need our VSPs involved and working as a team to correct these issues and make sure appropriate LE training is given more than once a year and that LE have the proper tools to properly judge cases. Repeat offenders that are true risks to society and the victims they torture need to be dealt with harshly, and we need to differentiate between cases that are serious and cases that are not serious and use the justice system to abuse a family member.

Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc. and Survivors in Action, Inc. are here to help law enforcement and VSPs ensure that no victim is left behind. We are seeking to collaborate and network with any VSP, LE, Prosecutors, Victim Witness in the Hudson Valley area. Please reach out to info@tricountycrisiscenter.org.
Dutchess County Family Court Corruption
by MARIA DIBARI | LIKE TCCC ON FACEBOOK

It is no secret-there is a Family Court Crisis plaguing the US. As a Victim Service Provider in Dutchess County, I am already seeing my fair share of this issue in my home town. Victims of domestic violence reach out to Social Services and Child Protective Services to protect their children from violence and abuse, and their children are taken out of their homes and put into the care of the batterer. Victims throughout the Hudson Valley have been reaching out to Tri-County Crisis Center, Inc. in need of assistance and are looking for answers, however, I have not figured this issue out yet and there are many questions that I need answered regarding this issue. Many of these victims are poor and are in need of good lawyers, but are only offered Legal Aid rather than Legal Services of the Hudson Valley specializing attorneys.

For more information on the Family Court Crisis, visit Stop Family Violence.

This website highlights one clear point-our National Coalitions and agencies all agree that the Family Court system is corrupt and perpetrators are being rewarded with children they have no right raise. If everyone agrees, the NYS Coalition, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the National Center on Sexual and Domestic Violence, Family Violence Prevention Fund, the National Organization for Women to name a few, then why are we still in the same predicament? What have these individual agencies done to change our broken system? I don't have these answers. Given the state of things, I don't think our state agencies have done anything besides point out the issue, agree with the victims involved, and stand by and watch as their victims get eaten alive in Family Court.

Very recently I reached out to Marco Caviglia, running for Family Court Judge in Dutchess County NY, with questions I had regarding the Family Court Crisis in Dutchess County. Marco was kind enough to respond to my questions and concerns immediately and welcomed an honest dialogue with me regarding the many victims in Dutchess affected by this corruption in the Family Court system. He recognizes the issues and had very honest answers to my questions.

As Executive Director of TCCC, Inc. and a survivor of violence, I believe that the first step to reforming the Family Courts is to have a fair, well-trained Judge that understands domestic violence issues and does not defer too much to the opinion of Child Protective Services, who may recommend a course of action based upon mere suspicion and insufficient evidence. This is key, and we need to start by knowing our Judges and voting for those that want to serve us and make the right decisions for children and victims.

If you have been re-victimized by the Family Court system, visit DVNN.ORG and post a public review here.

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[recall blog post here below on all this originally sent out May 13th]

From http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-pojogop-lies-fact-is-18-states.html ...

More PoJo/GOP lies-- fact is 18 states have GPS tracking devices for high-risk domestic violence offenders...

Hi all...

Of course it's a good thing that Dutchess is moving towards GPS tracking for high-risk domestic violence offenders here in our county-- no one can deny that; see:

"Dutchess Will Test GPS for Domestic-Violence Offenders" http://m.poughkeepsiejournal.com/news/article?a=2011105130342&f=982

"Pilot Program Puts Domestic Violence Offenders on GPS"http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2011/05/13/news/doc4dcd2638b6fee323174827.txt

However-- why are Dutchess GOP officials lying to local media (and why are local media repeating their lies)-- about how supposedly nowhere else in U.S. has this?

The fact is (as I've been repeatedly stating during Co. Leg. meetings this year, and repeatedly emailing to local media), there are now at least eighteen states (including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Indiana, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Utah) that have all passed legislation for GPS monitoring of high-risk domestic violence offenders.

Recall these two articles I've been referring to in my blog, on my radio shows, and in my press releases for months now:

"GPS Adds Security to Protective Orders" by Diane Rosenfeld [July 18, 2010 Hartford Courant] http://articles.courant.com/2010-07-18/news/hc-op-rosenfeld-battered-lives-0718-20100718_1_protective-gps-monitoring-tiana-notice

"More States Use GPS to Track Abusers" by Ariana Green (May 9, 2009 New York Times)-- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/us/09gps.html

But that's not all-- why are local media making this initiative look like a Republican idea-- when back in March we Dems submitted a resolution for movement on this-- and it wasn't even allowed to be on the April County Legislature Committee Day agenda? [see just below-- Tyner blog post on this]

Finally-- the fact is that just 10 GPS devices is but a drop in the bucket compared to the true level of need for Dutchess County; as I've repeatedly pointed out, progressive taxation on state and/or county level could easily, fully fund a real GPS program locally for high-risk domestic violence offenders (see my blog post below; also http://www.petitiononline.com/cobudget ; http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org )."

Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net

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Recall this Mar. 16th blog post from yours truly on all this--

http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/03/gop-not-allowing-resolution-to-protect.html ...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

GOP not allowing resolution to protect domestic violence victims with GPS on agenda-- why?...

Hi all...

Yesterday afternoon (before the monthly resolution deadline) I sent in notice to our County Legislature's offices that fellow county legislators Sandy Goldberg, Alison MacAvery, and Steve White had all agreed to co-sponsor a resolution to be discussed and voted on in April-- for our County Legislature's Citizens Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence recommendation last October to finally be made real-- "strongly urges the Legislature to direct implementation of a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Monitoring and Alert system for high-risk domestic violence offenders"...

Curiously, I was just informed that, in spite of the GOP majority's routinely presenting to the rest of us resolutions to be voted on with only a day's (often less) advance notice, that our resolution on this wouldn't even be discussed or voted on at the next Committee Day (Apr. 7th-- three weeks away)!...

Ask 'em why they continue to play games and turn into a political football the issue of ensuring the safety of Dutchess County women-- email all 25 of us on this at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us...(bad enough that this recommendation was made last Oct. and Dutchess GOP haven't followed through already; now they won't even allow Dem solution to be discussed!)...

As the worm turns...

[pass it on!]

Joel
444-0599/876-2488
http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com

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[email countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us and ask why GOP won't allow us to even TALK about this at Apr. 7th Committee Day!]

WHEREAS, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported March 14th that in the past two years, more than 2,800 orders of protection have been issued by Family Court judges in Dutchess County, an increase of more than 30 percent over the previous two years; last year there were more than 1,000 orders of protection in force against City of Poughkeepsie residents alone, and police arrested more than 100 people for violating them, and

WHEREAS, the Dutchess County Legislature's Citizens Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence last October in its System-wide Review and Recommendations made a statement that it "strongly urges the Legislature to direct implementation of a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Monitoring and Alert system for high-risk domestic violence offenders, and

WHEREAS, the Dutchess County Legislature's Citizens Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence also made it clear in its report last October that "in contrast to electronic monitoring, GPS monitoring has strengths that can address actual safety concerns for victims in real time," and

WHEREAS, the Dutchess County Legislature's Citizen Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence also stated that "the Committee has reviewed a number of GPS Monitoring Systems that, if implemented in appropriate cases, could provide for timely and meaningful reactions to identifiable risks," and

WHEREAS, Dutchess County Legislature's Citizen Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence also stated that it "notes with significant interest that such a [GPS] system has been operational in Madrid, Spain since 2006; literature reports that there has not been a single attack on a user of the system since that system's inception there," and

WHEREAS, Dutchess County Legislature's Citizen Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence also stated that "when utilized in conjunction with lethality assessment, and as a judicial supplement to the posting of bail for an offender, GPS can provide meaningful assistance to victims...it is the Committee's belief that had such a system been in place and Anthony Riccardulli subject to its monitoring and alerting capabilities, Linda Riccardulli could have been warned of his impending arrival and officers dispatched to the location; this recommendation could have changed the outcome," and

WHEREAS, such GPS monitoring systems have been set up in various jurisdictions across the country at hardly any cost to taxpayers, as high-risk domestic violence offenders often have funded the cost of these systems themselves; GPS monitoring systems can also often end up protecting domestic violence offenders as well from being falsely accused of being places they aren't, and

WHEREAS, there are now at least eighteen states (including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Indiana, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Utah) that have all passed legislation for GPS monitoring of high-risk domestic violence offenders, with at least 5,000 domestic abusers being tracked nationwide; in Massachusetts, at least 100 people accused of domestic abuse are monitored by GPSl; they are charged $8 a day for a cellphone-like device that clips to a belt, an ankle bracelet and a home charger; their movements are monitored by three control centers, and if they break an "exclusion zone" around the victim or her children, the police are notified, and

WHEREAS, according to The New York Times quoting Harvard Law School lecturer Diane Rosenfeld in May 2009, "using GPS monitoring to enforce an order of protection makes the order more than just a piece of paper; it's a way of making the criminal justice system treat domestic violence as potentially serious; by detecting any escalation in the behavior of a batterer, GPS can prevent these unnecessary tragedies; Ms. Rosenfeld's research found that about one quarter of women who were killed by their domestic abusers already had restraining orders," and

WHEREAS, Diane Rosenfeld wrote last year in the Hartford Courant that "approximately 75 percent of intimate partner homicides involve a male partner who will not accept a woman's decision to end their relationship and to be free from his violence; strict monitoring of protective orders is crucial as about a quarter of them are violated; approximately one quarter of women killed by their intimate partners had a protective order at the time of their murder," and therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature strongly urges our county's District Attorney and criminal and family court judges to work together to implement a GPS monitoring system for high-risk domestic violence offenders as quickly as possible, and be it further

RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to our county's County Executive, District Attorney, criminal and family court judges, and Universal Response to Domestic Violence Coordinator.

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[recall below sent out on all this to my email list yesterday]

Help Alison MacAvery get life-saving GPS protection for domestic violence survivors!...

[scroll all the way down for Monday's Pok. Journal: "Offers of Protection Offer Victims No Guarantees"!]

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"'Using GPS monitoring to enforce an order of protection makes the order more than just a piece of paper,' said Diane Rosenfeld, a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a longtime advocate of using GPS in domestic abuse cases.

'It's a way of making the criminal justice system treat domestic violence as potentially serious. By detecting any escalation in the behavior of a batterer, GPS can prevent these unnecessary tragedies.'

Ms. Rosenfeld's research found that about one quarter of women who were killed by their domestic abusers already had restraining orders."
[from "More States Use GPS to Track Abusers" by Ariana Green (NY Times 5/8/09)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/us/09gps.html ]

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Hi all...
Remember how last fall Beacon's Maria DiBari of http://www.4Survivors.blogspot.com and I were able to generate a ton of letters being emailed to our County Legislature after Linda Riccardulli's death?...

Well finally, after much dilly-dallying, Rolison and GOP county legislators eventually agreed to ask our county's Citizens Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence to look into Maria's good suggestions...

And then their report was released-- and one of their top recommendations (from Citizens Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence) was for life-saving GPS protection for domestic violence survivors-- to make sure their abusers wouldn't be able to come anywhere near them...

[recall-- http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110204/NEWS01/110203042 ; also see http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/domestic ]

Update-- Co. Leg. Alison MacAvery has just agreed to co-sponsor the resolution drafted by yours truly calling for life-saving GPS protection for Dutchess women from their batterers!...

[kudos to Alison for forging ahead to co-sponsor this after losing late great former Co. Leg. John Ballo]

[...and again-- update here-- it's not just Alison and myself on board for this-- but also Sandy Goldberg and Steve White as well!...]

Note-- make sure this actually gets on agenda, passed-- email countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us!...

Now-- in their presentation to us Asst. DA Marjorie Smith and Leah Feldman told us all that Madrid has very successfully and effectively been using a GPS system to very closely monitor domestic abusers...

But fact is it's not just Madrid, not just Massachusetts-- but also literally also a dozen other states across the U.S. that since May 2009 have been monitoring over 5000domestic abusers with GPS systems!...

['tis true; again-- see "More States Use GPS to Track Abusers" by Ariana Green (NY Times 5/8/09):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/us/09gps.html ]

Harvard's Diane Rosenfeld and many others have written on importance of GPS tracking this way; see:

"GPS Adds Security To Protective Orders" by Diane Rosenfeld [Hartford Courant 7/18/11]
http://www.Articles.Courant.com

"GPS Seen As a Way To Aid Abuse Victims" [Chicago Tribune 4/18/08]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-domestic-violence-080418,0,3577042.story

Facebook: GPS Life-Saving Protection for Victims of Domestic Violence http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=90741564902&topic=7818

Spain Issues GPS Bracelets to Protect Victims of Domestic Violence [by M.P. 7/8/09]
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_22226.shtml

"Spain Uses GPS Trackers to Protect Women from Domestic Violence" [Guardian 12/12/10]
http://www.Guardian.co.uk

Almost 500 Spanish Women Protected from Domestic Violence by GPS by Sara Naerum [12/15/10]
http://www.WomensViewonNews.org

And-- for those of you brainwashed by likes of Cuomo and Scott Walker that NYS is "bankrupt"...5 facts:

[point-- there's NO excuse for Dutchess/NYS to not implement life-saving GPS protection for women-- especially as Maria DiBari has educated us on the fact that more often than not, high-risk offenders end up paying themselves for GPS!]

Fact #1: Letting current tiny state income tax surcharge on millionaires sunset at the end of this year, as Cuomo and GOP are bent on doing, would literally give five billion dollars a year to the richest 3% [source: Ron Deutsch/New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness: http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org ].

Fact #2: "Top earners have seen a four percentage point decrease in their federal income taxes, thanks to the Bush Administration tax cuts extended for two years by the Obama Administration."
[see http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/FPI_NewYorkShouldContinueTheIncomeTax.pdf ]
Fact #3: The richest 1% of NYS households increased their share of all income statewide from 10% in 1980 to 35% in 2007; we in the middle-class here in NYS now pay over 11% of our income in state and local taxes-- while millionaires pay only 8% of their income in state and local taxes.
[ http://www.FiscalPolicy.org ; http://www.ITEPnet.org/wp2009/ny_whopays_factsheet.pdf ]

Fact #4: Millionaires used to pay a 15 1/2% state income tax rate in the 1970's under Rockefeller-- but now pay only 8.97% (see: http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/taxhistory2.htm ).
[Pataki-- and before him Andy C.'s daddy Mario-- pushed massive budget cuts-- after tax cuts for rich!]

Fact #5: Recent Marist, Siena, Quinnipiac, Hart polls all show 70% of NY'ers SUPPORT millionaires tax.
[see: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/groups-band-together-to-push-millionaires-tax/ ;
http://www.hungeractionnys.org/Poeple%20SOS%20release%202011.pdf ;
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=940073&category=state ;
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/08/16/100816ta_talk_surowiecki
(Quinnipiac poll last summer found even rank-and-file GOP registered voters for millionaire tax!)]
And don't forget-- it's not just me-- but these folks who have endorsed a county income tax to eliminate county property taxes and hold sales taxes down-- join us at http://www.petitiononline.com/cobudget :

Dutchess CSEA's Shaun Chesley, Hyde Park's Doris Kelly, Rhinebeck's Marcia Slatkin, Ruth Boyer, Fred Nagel, Sandra Oldenburg, and Edmond Roberts, Clinton's Pat Zolnik, Carmen Region, Milan's Sheila Buff, Fishkill's Josh and Mara Farrell, Wappinger's Philip Banco, Rich Carlson and Richard Vineski, Beacon's Susan Osberg, Erika Waldron, and Dan Rigney, Poughkeepsie's Barbara Lindsey, Scott Patrick Humphrey, East Fishkill's Joette Kane, Red Hook's Cary Kittner and Doris Soroko, Dover's Nora Edwards, Bangall's Alison Francis, Millerton's Dianne Engleke and Joan Daidone, and Pleasant Valley's Sue MacNish!...(besides 100+ other Dutchess folks at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Fairness )]
So-- email us all at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us; call Albany at (877) 255-9417 for no delay!...
[pass it on if you truly want to see ACTION on this issue here in Dutchess in April-- and not just rhetoric]
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
[and again-- re: Pok. Journal coverage of forum that took place in Co. Leg. chambers Feb. 3rd-- why has there been little to no coverage in the paper about one of the most interesting things that happened that afternoon-- that Marist's Rochelle Pyne (of NYS Troopers as well) publicly called out Saland for his idiotic comment early on during the proceedings on Feb. 3rd-- about how, supposedly according to him, all too often orders of protection are issued frivolously re: domestic violence for mere gamesmanship for Family Court divorce battles-- to her credit (recognized by a circle of women as the forum ended 2/3), Rochelle Pyne neatly, politely put Saland in his place, contradicting him on this; incredibly, Miller and Molinaro joined in the fracas with their own pathetic statements of support for Saland-- pitiful]

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From http://www.Articles.Courant.com ...

GPS Adds Security To Protective Orders
July 18, 2010|By DIANE L. ROSENFELD

Connecticut is at the forefront of a national movement to use global positioning system technology to track high-risk domestic violence offenders and to stop them before they strike. A new state law has established a pilot program to use GPS monitoring to help enforce protective orders.
It might have saved Tiana Notice's life. Tiana was brutally murdered on Valentine's Day in 2009 at her home in Plainville, allegedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, James Carter. He has been charged with her murder. She had a protective order against him that he violated several times - sending threatening messages, slashing her tires and leaving a letter under her door. Although her father had installed a security camera in her apartment, she did not know that her assailant was lying in wait the night she was killed. GPS monitoring could have alerted the police and Tiana that he was there.

GPS enables law enforcement to monitor the movements of an offender who must wear an electronic bracelet. Police are alerted if the batterer has entered an "exclusionary zone," such as the victim's home, workplace or a child's school, and can immediately notify and protect the victim. This early warning system has made the difference between life and death for many endangered women in states with similar laws.
Tiana's case, like so many others, showed signs of increasing danger presented by her ex-boyfriend. First, and significantly, she had broken up with him. Approximately 75 percent of intimate partner homicides involve a male partner who will not accept a woman's decision to end their relationship and to be free from his violence. Whenever a woman is abused and files for divorce or otherwise seeks protection from her partner's violence, we as a society, and especially in the criminal justice system, need to take very seriously any signs that he won't let go. One such sign is the violation of a protective order.

Protective orders commonly establish exclusionary zones from which the offender is prohibited. These orders are worthless, however, if not enforced. GPS can give women more confidence that a protective order will actually work. This will help eliminate situations in which abused women fail to seek protective orders because they see them as useless. Strict monitoring of protective orders is crucial as about a quarter of them are violated. Approximately one quarter of women killed by their intimate partners had a protective order at the time of their murder.
When a woman seeks help from the justice system, the people who are supposed to help her must treat her case as potentially lethal, evaluate the red flags indicating her partner's sexual possessiveness and wrap her in a safety net.
Connecticut's new legislation is a step in this direction. If we fail to protect a woman who is in danger, it puts her at greater risk than before she sought help. Batterers become emboldened when law enforcement fails to respond to protective order violations, and the violence predictably escalates into homicide in way too many cases. Three to four women a day in this country are killed at the hands of their intimate partners - people who professed to love them.

GPS monitoring focuses police attention on these danger signs, gives them proof of violations and an opportunity to save lives. It also allows them to be better prepared, with backup and information, when rushing to a potentially volatile situation.
In Massachusetts, where we have been using GPS in domestic violence cases, high-risk management teams evaluate all cases, identify the ones that are potentially lethal and use various methods to contain the batterer's behavior, providing increased safety for the victim. Our pilot program, the Greater Newburyport High-Risk Case Management Team, reports no domestic homicides, 100 percent success using GPS monitoring (meaning neither re-assaults nor violations of protection orders) and a conviction rate of offenders of more than 90 percent.

Connecticut has joined 18 states in what is becoming a national movement to better monitor high-risk domestic offenders. We no longer have to shake our heads in resignation, wondering what might have been done to save an endangered woman's life. Instead, we need to respond to the smoke and extinguish the fire before yet another precious life is lost.
[Diane L. Rosenfeld is a lecturer at Harvard Law School, where she teaches courses on domestic violence and women's advocacy.]
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From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/us/09gps.html ...

More States Use GPS to Track Abusers

By ARIANA GREEN
Published: May 8, 2009

NEWBURYPORT, Mass. - When Theresa, a 51-year-old mother of two living near this coastal town, filed for a restraining order against her husband, she thought it would help put an end to the beatings, death threats and stalking that had tormented her family for years.

She won the order, but her husband, Joel, a West Point graduate with a master's degree who police reports say hid 17 guns in their home, did not seem to care. He violated the restraining order three times, she said.

"He'd come to our child's school and beat both of us up in front of everyone," Theresa said.
In Massachusetts, where about one-quarter of restraining orders are violated each year, according to the state's probation office, a recent law has expanded the use of global positioning devices to include domestic abusers and stalkers who have violated orders of protection. A judge ordered Joel to wear a Global Positioning System monitor, alerting law enforcement officials if he went near his wife's house, her work or their children's school.

"It was the first time I could turn my house alarm off and feel O.K.," said Theresa, who has since been divorced and who insisted that only her first name be used, to protect her children's privacy.
Twelve other states have passed similar legislation - most recently, Indiana this week - and about 5,000 domestic abusers are being tracked nationwide, said George Drake, who oversees Colorado's Electronic Monitoring Resource Center, which gathers data from equipment vendors.

But the path to the system's widespread use has been bumpy. It is still hard to protect families who live in rural areas or where there are not enough police officers to respond quickly. With the economic downturn, states have cut money for training the police and judges in GPS use, and some places with legislation in place say they cannot afford it.

It is up to a judge, in cases of extreme violence, to decide whether to order its use before trial, as a condition of bail or as a sentence.

"Until they know how GPS can be used and how successful it can be, judges are reluctant to order it because it's unfamiliar," said Judge Peter Doyle of Newburyport District Court. "Without seminars and convincing presentations, I wouldn't have been comfortable ordering it."
The scope of stalking was revealed in a study released by the Justice Department in January, which found that 3.4 million people had been subjected to stalking over a one-year period. As this week's fatal shooting of a Wesleyan University student showed - the victim, Johanna Justin-Jinich, 21, told the authorities two years ago that the suspect, Stephen P. Morgan, had repeatedly sent harassing e-mail messages - stalking often includes sending threats online and lurking outside homes, offices and schools. Often the only way victims can prove that they are being stalked, experts say, is through new technologies like GPS.
Newburyport, a city of 17,000 about 35 miles north of Boston, has been a testing ground for some of the most effective training programs in preventing domestic abuse.

Kelly Dunne, associate director of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center here, has helped seven other cities follow the model of the Greater Newburyport High Risk Response Team, which brings together police officers, district attorneys, probation officers and others to decide which domestic violence cases should be recommended for GPS monitoring. Last year, her group trained over 1,000 advocates, prosecutors and officials from other states, alerting them to the danger signs in offenders' behavior.

Experts say the program can help save lives. Domestic-violence-related homicides increased 300 percent in Massachusetts from 2005 to 2007, according to Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, while in Newburyport, where a High Risk Team was in place, there were no such homicides in that period.
"Using GPS monitoring to enforce an order of protection makes the order more than just a piece of paper," said Diane Rosenfeld, a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a longtime advocate of using GPS in domestic abuse cases. "It's a way of making the criminal justice system treat domestic violence as potentially serious. By detecting any escalation in the behavior of a batterer, GPS can prevent these unnecessary tragedies."
Ms. Rosenfeld's research found that about one quarter of women who were killed by their domestic abusers already had restraining orders.

Alexis A. Moore, 34, founder of Survivors in Action, a nonprofit organization for crime victims, said that her former partner had violated a restraining order more than 30 times over four years, but that she had no way of proving it. She said he had slashed her tires, lurked outside her home and harassed her online. She said California lawmakers had told her there was no money to pay for GPS monitoring where she lives, although legislation allowed for it.
"My stalker continues to make a game of getting away with restraining order violations - because he can," Ms. Moore said.
In Massachusetts, about 100 people accused of domestic abuse are monitored by GPS. They are charged $8 a day for a cellphone-like device that clips to a belt, an ankle bracelet and a home charger. Their movements are monitored by three control centers, and if they break an "exclusion zone" around the victim or her children, the police are notified.
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From http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=90741564902&topic=7818 ...

GPS Life-Saving Protections for Victims of Domestic Violence

From Cherry Simpson:

In May 2006 my daughter was handcuffed, raped and beaten by her husband - he confessed and was still allowed to plea out of the sex crime status. He got 3 yrs 9 months and served 19 months. We knew he would do it again upon his release. He stalked my daughter from prison. We were told from day one you'll never get a GPS put on him. Well we did.

I personally credit the GPS monitor for keeping my daughter and grandchildren alive. I found out about it by looking on http://www.prisontalk.com. The convicts hate it because they have no legal recourse to have them removed once they're placed on them by DOC and in fact many speak about it providing evidence used against them. I had read about the death of Cindy Bischof and the law which was passed in IL but it wasn't going into effect until Jan 2009 and the court didn't have the funds or the man power to order them or to monitor them at the time. So I did what was logical and contacted IDOC, the PRB and parole. I sent them copies of Regan's abuser's arrests and criminal record as well as proof of his continued stalking.

I knew DOC had GPS for sex offenders, so I appealed to them on the basis that he was a sex offender. He had also continued to stalk my daughter from prison and we reported that to the prison and PRB and filed charges with the DA.

I had heard that Harvard Law Professor Diane Rosenfeld worked with the Cindy Bischof Foundation and I wrote them asking for their support. Professor Rosenfeld wrote the lethality assessment for my daughter and got her a pro-bono atty. to represent her victim rights in court. I thank God for women like Professor Rosenfeld and Atty Rachel Morse who work in the law, their presence in the justice system is helping to change the Law to reflect reality.

My daughter's case was written about in the Chgo Trib. In the story my daughters abuser talks about cutting it off and being able to get to her in 5 mins. But he didn't. (story links below)

The GPS has a 100% success rate in keeping women alive. We wanted an effective legal guarantee of personal-security for my daughter and her children. I think it's a wonderful tool and will not only help save lives but prevents crime and helps to prosecute crime. We all have GPS on our phones and now we've got a microchip being put on our USPS postage stamps because of anthrax and congress. They already use them on sex offenders DOC has them and have monitored them and used the data to prosecute perpetrators. I believe it is inevitable we will all see them utilized soon. Congress wants to live too.

I also think the GPS is important for women's human rights. Too many women are dying from domestic violence. I personally find it very disingenuous that any domestic violence coalition wouldn't want it. It saves lives. It shouldn't be about money, it should be about saving women's lives. The rate prisoners are being released early we all need this crime deterrent tool.

OP's or PFA's (protection orders) are not honest, they do little to nothing to protect nor is there much done to hold batters accountable. Women are being blamed for getting themselves beat and raped by men they know and then chastised for not liking them afterwards. We need the state to recognize that women are violated because we are women (a form of unequal treatment which needs legal teeth) the GPS helps do exactly that and more.

The problems I hear about have been about state lines but according to the VAWA and the Full Faith and Credit Laws it should not be a problem. I've attached the 2 pdf's on Full Faith and Credit below. We have asked PRB upon my daughter's abuser's new release that he be given a GPS monitor just like the last time (he was just put back into prison for the 3rd and 4th violation of OP). The Attorney General of Illinois has assured me he will have it put on him. We received a letter from IDOC told my daughter she would qualify for the GPS under the new Cindy Bischof Law.

I already have the proof it works to save lives...my daughter and grandchildren live with us now in AL.

Sincerely,
Cherry Simpson (Mother of spousal rape and abuse victim)

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From http://www.slate.com/id/2165568/ ...

Tracking Device
How about using GPS monitoring to stop batterers?
By Maura Kelly
Updated Friday, May 4, 2007, at 12:38 PM ET
Last month, 26-year-old Rebecca Griego was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend, Jonathan Rowan, as she sat in her administrative office at the University of Washington. Rowan had previously threatened to harm Griego, her sister, and their dogs, and she had gotten a restraining order. She'd also passed out pictures of him to her co-workers so they could serve Rowan the order if he showed up at the campus. And she'd moved to a new apartment and started working from home for two weeks before her death. None of this, of course, helped her.

What might have? In fact, Washington had a good tool in place: a state law that allows judges to impose electronic monitoring as a condition of a restraining order. When judges so order, the police can keep tabs on abusers with a technology best known to people who are bad with directions: the global positioning system.
Just as GPS can find a lost driver, it can also alert cops and targets whenever a domestic-violence offender enters a restricted zone, like the area surrounding a woman's home or office. Police put an electronic bracelet on the batterer that sends a signal to computer servers at headquarters if he goes anywhere he shouldn't. Then, if he violates a restraining order, they can call the woman to let her know that he is on his uninvited way. The idea is to buy women crucial time, even if it's only minutes, so they can get away. The notification loop also kicks in if the offender tries to remove or deactivate the bracelet.

In addition to their value in emergencies, GPS monitoring also may deter offenders from violating restraining orders in the first place. The Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center in Amesbury, Mass., which has been tracking the local success of GPS monitoring, has found that none of the batterers it is studying have committed any serious infractions (beyond "administrative" no-nos, like letting the batteries on their bracelets run low). Knowing the law is on to them may make batterers less likely to break it.

When you think about it from a battered woman's point of view, GPS surveillance seems like "a no-brainer," in the words of former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who helped to push through a monitoring law in her state. Along with Massachusetts and Washington, six other states-Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Utah-have laws that explicitly establish parameters for the electronic surveillance of batterers. Judges in other states may be able to use GPS monitoring too, under the theory that doing so would help to enforce the kind of protection that a restraining order is supposed to (but often doesn't) provide.

To be sure, GPS monitoring for batterers isn't a cure-all. It raises civil liberties concerns (though I didn't find anyone who was eager to press that argument). It's also possible that the occasional abuser might be so enraged by the cops keeping an electronic eyeball on him that he'd be more rather than less likely to get violent again. This issue comes up with restraining orders, too. The best solution, domestic-violence experts say, is for police to talk to victims, who can predict fairly accurately how batterers will respond to different punitive measures.
In addition, victim advocates point out that GPS monitoring can't protect women from the damage abusers can do long-distance-like leaving threatening voice messages or ruining their credit rating. But the evidence from the Geiger Center argues otherwise, because none of the guys in that study have tried to harass their victims in any way. The research is small-scale and preliminary but matches the thinking of advocates, who believe GPS monitoring will deter a range of transgressions by sending a stronger message than a restraining order that the justice system takes battering seriously.
The real barrier to GPS monitoring is paying for it. Though electronic surveillance has gotten cheaper in recent years, it still costs $10 a day-$300 a month per offender. (In addition to the bracelets themselves, the cost includes the GPS servers and software and the salaries for the people operating the computers.) Some states, like Massachusetts, plan to make offenders pay for the monitoring themselves. That approach could backfire, however, in the case of a guy who's also required to pay child support. While he goes to jail if he refuses to pay for GPS monitoring, all that happens if he doesn't write his child-support check is that his wages may be garnisheed. So, an abuser low on funds might logically skip child support instead of the GPS payments. And if he does go to jail, he can't earn the money to pay the child support.

Victim advocates would prefer that the government cover the cost of monitoring. They hope it will pay for itself with savings in other areas, like a reduced need for family shelters-where one-quarter of occupants are typically fleeing abuse-and fewer pricey murder trials. One potential source of funding is the federal Violence Against Women Act of 2005. VAWA is supposed to fund states to improve the investigation, prosecution, and prevention of violent crimes against women. The question is how much money Congress will put behind it. If fully funded, VAWA could mean $1 billion for the states, some of which could go toward GPS monitoring.
Still, even if well-funded, cool new technology has its limits. Before he murdered Rebecca Griego, Jonathan Rowan went into hiding. The police never found him, so they couldn't slap him with the restraining order Griego got, and they wouldn't haven't been able to track him using GPS, either. For monitoring to work, the police must first get the bracelet on the offender.
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From http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-domestic-violence-080418,0,3577042.story ...

GPS seen as way to aid abuse victims
Massachusetts model may be used in Illinois

By Liam Ford
Tribune reporter
April 18, 2008

The young mother's long nightmare began to subside soon after her abusive ex-husband was outfitted with a satellite monitoring device that would electronically warn authorities if he ever got too close to her.

The woman, who requested anonymity, can now drive her children to the store again without going 45 minutes out of her way to avoid him. She can leave her home in eastern Massachusetts without agonizing about whether it would be better to wear a wig, or whether she could reach a police station if she saw him following her.She says she has a life again, thanks to the small global-positioning device clipped to the belt of a man who she feared would kill her.

"Because he went on GPS, I got to go back to school," said the woman, who lives on the front line of an innovative Massachusetts program that uses GPS monitoring for those who violate orders of protection. "I got to raise two beautiful kids."

The Illinois House on Thursday unanimously passed legislation that would allow judges to order GPS monitoring for those who violate orders of protection. The proposed law is modeled on the statute in Massachusetts, one of only a handful of states with experience using the high-tech system to track those accused of domestic violence.

Approved more than a year ago, the Massachusetts monitoring system has proved most effective in the Newburyport area northeast of Boston, where experts say the results have been excellent. So far, none of the eight people outfitted with GPS there have violated protective orders, authorities say.

The effort in Illinois was prompted by last month's slaying of Cindy Bischof, 43, an Elmhurst real estate broker who was shot to death outside her office by a former boyfriend, who then turned the pistol on himself. Michael Giroux was twice charged with violating Bischof's restraining order.

GPS is not a panacea. But women whose attackers have been fitted with it, and advocates and researchers who have studied electronic monitoring, say the technology can turn the tables on people under orders of protection.

"It's really what the technology does to the mind of the batterer more than anything else, and if they realize that there will be very concrete evidence of their violating the restrictions, they are less likely to do so," said Edna Erez, head of the criminal justice department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Massachusetts has been using GPS monitoring for sex offenders since 2005, and in late 2006 started using it for those accused of domestic violence or stalking.

In the Bay State program, a GPS-fitted cell phone checks where someone is once a minute, and transmits that data to three central tracking centers every five minutes, said Paul Lucci, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Probation Service.

A companion ankle bracelet connects wirelessly to the phone and ensures the person is always carrying it. If the person wearing the GPS device moves into a restricted area -- such as near a victim's home or workplace, or if the bracelet is cut, or the cell phone left even a few feet away, authorities are alerted. They're also warned if the phone's batteries are low.

In a small office in a government building in Boston -- one of the three state monitoring centers -- several state probation employees watched computer screens and made calls to people on probation or parole fitted with the GPS devices. The operation is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When someone enters an area from which they are barred -- they're called "exclusion zones" -- an alert is set off, and a probation employee tries to contact the person being tracked on the GPS cell phone, Lucci said. If that doesn't work, a parole officer is contacted, and an arrest warrant can be issued.

Although the Illinois legislation would require victims to be automatically contacted if a potential attacker moves into a restricted area, a woman in Massachusetts is contacted by authorities only if required by court order. Some critics say that is a flaw.

Despite these and other gaps in the Massachusetts system, it's working in areas like Newburyport, where GPS tracking is recommended by a team of law enforcement and social service workers who review all domestic violence cases in the area. Not everyone is enthusiastic about GPS monitoring. Fathers' rights groups are skeptical of protection orders and even more wary of monitoring.

"These things, the protection orders, they're a license to dehumanize somebody," said Mark Charalambous, a spokesman for the state's Fatherhood Coalition.

But the young mother who went back to school and another woman said GPS tracking protected them and dramatically changed the quality of their lives. Both women were helped by the Newburyport team. "At least I could sleep at night when [my ex-husband] was on" GPS tracking, said the second woman, who also asked not to have her name used.
Some women such as Mary Rieves, 47, of Boston, look forward to taking advantage of the system. Rieves said she has had protection orders against her ex-boyfriend since 1993. If he ever is released from jail, she hopes he is fitted with a GPS device.

"Why should I, the victim, have to alter myself?" Rieves said.

In Springfield on Thursday, the House sent the legislation to the Senate on a 114-0 vote after Rep. Suzanne Bassi (R- Rolling Meadows), the sponsor, reminded lawmakers that Bischof "lived in constant fear of this coward."
As the chamber quieted, Bassi recounted how Bischof wore a panic button around her neck and had security cameras and an alarm system installed but that her effort "still wasn't enough."

Several lawmakers said they hoped Bischof's death would not be in vain, that the legislation soon will become a law that helps others fight what one lawmaker called a "reign of terror."
"Something now has to change to help these people so we do not hear on the radio of another woman who was found dead by someone who has attacked her ..." said Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Hinsdale).
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From http://www.Guardian.co.uk ....
Spain uses GPS trackers to protect women from domestic violence
Madrid surveillance center receives 1,200 alerts a month from 450 tags now in use

* Sandrine Morel
* Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 14 December 2010 14.01 GMT
Maria Dolores, 40, has short hair, an expressionless face, dark smudges under her eyes and a wry sense of humor no doubt left over from her recent troubles. She takes a black object from her handbag, a little bigger than a mobile phone but much heavier and without a keypad. "Here it is," she says. In the offices of the Centro Mujer 24 Horas, a centre for battered women in Valencia, Loli, as she asks to be called, displays a mixture of pride and anxiety as she shows the GPS device that has stayed with her at all times since June.
Night and day, when out for a meal or to see a film, Loli is never without the transmitter-receiver that connects her directly to the national surveillance centre in the suburbs of Madrid. There, they know where she is at all times - and where her husband is. "The court decided to give him a chance, but it deprived me of any hope of living in peace," Loli says. She never refers to her husband by name, always as "him". Juan (as we shall call him) was imprisoned in January after nearly killing her and released on 7 June. He will be tried next month.
When the court authorized Juan's release on parole, it stipulated that he should remain at a safe distance (300 meters) from his wife, requiring him to wear an electronic tag. The system, introduced by Spain in July 2009 to protect the victims of domestic violence, keeps permanent track of victim and assailant, alerting the police in the event of danger.
If the battery goes flat, the assailant attempts to remove the tag or tries to enter the victim's safety perimeter, an alarm rings. Loli explains: "The first time it started ringing, I was on my way to the court in Albacete", in Castille-La Mancha province, where she was living with Juan and their two children when the assault occurred. "My whole body started shaking," she says. "Just after that, the phone rang and they told me he was 700 meters away, with the name of the street. I stayed connected until I reached the police station where I was due to meet an officer to accompany me."
It was the only incident of this sort, but nothing in the world would separate Loli from her GPS protector. "I hope the people in Madrid keep watch on me round the clock, in fact I would rather they only watched me," she adds.
Assisted by her counsellor, Loli has decided to tell her story. She wants "him" to read this article, to realize what he did and to understand what she has to endure: the fear of sleeping alone, the visits to the psychiatrist and the pills "to stop the dreams". In a recurrent nightmare she relives the scene that almost ended in her death, waking up drenched in sweat.
On the morning of 5 January, Loli's mother was looking after the couple's two children, aged five and 10, so the parents could clean up their hardware shop in Albacete. The previous summer Loli had told Juan she planned to leave him. Though they slept in different rooms she continued living there, "for the kids' sake". "It was a terrible mistake, but there was no way I could have known. He had never been violent before," she explains.

To begin with, Juan tried using tears to win her over. Then he switched to emotional blackmail: "Without you, I'm nothing ... If you leave me, I'll kill myself."
But that day a new argument broke out. Loli discovered that Juan had opened a bank account in his father's name and transferred part of the family's savings into it. When she told him she wouldn't let him get away with it, he went wild. "He grabbed a chisel and hacked at my neck," she says, showing us the scar on her throat. "He threw me down and started banging my head on the floor."
She thought she was going to die, but neighbors heard her cries and alerted a police officer who happened to be passing. They found her on the ground, her husband on top of her, with his knee on her chest. She was rushed to hospital suffering from multiple injuries to the head and neck, two slipped discs and bruises all over her body. "I looked like a painting by Picasso," she says.
The court decided to take Juan into custody while the case was investigated. Loli nevertheless moved out with the children and went to live with her mother in Valencia. "I kept thinking I'd see him wherever I went in Albacete." She gradually began to recover, but then Juan was released on 7 June. It was such a shock that she barely heard the instructions given by the engineer who came to her with the GPS phone.
She has been under constant surveillance ever since. Loli is adamant: "If I didn't have the machine I'd never set foot outside the door. It gives me a feeling of security because I know if he comes within 700 meters of me, I'll be warned."

The surveillance center receives around 1,200 serious alerts a month (tag removal or safety perimeter intrusion), triggered by the 450 tags currently fitted in Spain, out of a total of 3,000 that the government purchased in 2009. "We need to improve the courts' appraisal of the risk before enlarging the scope of the system," says Miguel Lorente, a ministry specialist on gender-based violence. Since the beginning of the year, 63 women in Spain have been killed by their partners. Fourteen of them had already lodged a complaint with the police, but none of them had received a GPS phone.
Loli has decided to apply for a job on the Valencia underground. "I'd like to sell tickets at the counter," she says. But what she means is she wants a protected position, behind security glass - a dream her psychiatrist finds terribly revealing.

France follows

Taking its cue from Spain, France is about to start trials of orders requiring violent spouses to wear an electronic tag, and to equip victims with a warning device. "In France, around 3,600 eviction orders were issued against violent spouses between 2006 and 2008, but it is difficult to keep track of them," France's former secretary of state for family affairs, Nadine Morano, said. "As a result the women are not safe."

In 2008, 157 women were killed by their partners. "In many cases murder is the culmination of ongoing assault," a parliamentary committee of inquiry reported last year. French homes are more dangerous for women than public spaces, but incidents are often not reported. According to the 2001 National Survey of Violence Inflicted on Women, only 13% of incidents at home are reported, compared with 32% for workplace violence and 43% for assaults in public places.
Anne Chemin

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From http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_22226.shtml ...

Spain issues GPS bracelets to protect victims of domestic violence
By m.p. - Jul 8, 2009 - 4:43 PM

3,000 will be issued to high risk offenders in a first phase
Courts in Spain are from 24th July this year distributing 3,000 GPS tracking bracelets to those found guilty of domestic abuse, which will alert the authorities if a distancing order is being broken.
A similar program is already in place in the Community of Madrid, and the 3,000 tracking devices issued in the first phase of the national programme will cover 10% of offenders affected by distancing orders - those seen as the highest risk cases. EFE reports this phase is setting the government back 5 million ?.
Equality Minister, Bibiano Aído, said while presenting the programme this Wednesday that the bracelet is a symbol of what society has to say to the aggressor: '40 million Spaniards are watching you. Don't go near her'. And as her fellow Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba from the Interior Ministry, said, 'It means whoever wears it is going to think twice'.
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From http://www.WomensViewonNews.org ...

Almost 500 Spanish women protected from domestic violence by GPS
Posted by Sara Rydland Naerum on December 15, 2010

Since electronic tags were introduced in Spain in July 2009, the Madrid surveillance centre has received around 1200 alerts every month.
Around 450 tags are currently in use.
The GPS devices are carried by women who are victims of domestic violence, and trace the electronic tag worn by the perpetrator. If the tag is removed, or if safety perimeter intrusion is recorded, an alarm goes off in the Madrid surveillance center.
The woman's alarm will further alert her, and shortly after staff from the center will contact her with details of the breach and suggest solutions to keep safe.
This year, 63 Spanish women have been killed by their partners. None of these had a GPS tracking system.
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From http://www.PoughkeepsieJournal.com yesterday...
Orders of protection offer victims no guarantees

Poughkeepsie Journal March 14, 2011
by Larry Hertz

It's often described as "only a piece of paper," and law enforcement officials agree there's no guarantee it will protect you.
But virtually every day, judges throughout Dutchess County issue orders of protection to accused and convicted criminals - most often in cases of domestic violence - as a means of keeping victims out of further harm's way.

Orders of protection are designed to help ensure the batterer and the victim stay apart so further violence doesn't occur.

"Most crimes happen just once. Your house gets burglarized, your car gets broken into, and that's it - it's over," said Sgt. Mel Clauson of the City of Poughkeepsie police.
"Domestic violence is different," Clauson said. "When someone is victimized, it's not over. It's going to happen again."

In most cases, orders of protection are so-called "full" orders, barring any contact or communication - by phone, e-mail, text message or other means - between the victim and the alleged abuser. In some cases, such as when the couple share custody of children, the orders may be more limited, allowing some communication but barring the defendant from using threatening language or committing other abuse. In either case, a violation of the judge's order may result in defendants being charged with an additional crime, criminal contempt, subjecting them to enhanced penalties.
There is no state law requiring judges to issue an order of protection against someone arrested in a domestic violence incident. But according to protocols established by law enforcement agencies in Dutchess County, police will usually request one if they make an arrest, and judges will usually agree to do so, one local magistrate said.
"(State law) does say that if an order of protection is requested and the court doesn't issue one, we have to state on the record why we're not doing so," Hyde Park Town Justice David Steinberg said. "In domestic violence cases, it's one of the most important decisions we have to make at the time of arraignment."

The question defendants and their victims often ask when such an order is issued is: What exactly does this piece of paper mean? In Dutchess County, that question is answered, in detail, in an information sheet that is handed to everyone involved in the case when the order is issued.

Dutchess County Senior Assistant District Attorney Marjorie Smith said the document is commonly called the "hearts and flowers handout" because it explains, in plain language, that the defendant is barred from having any contact with his alleged victim, even if it's only to send flowers or a box of candy.

Conversely, victims are advised not to approach their alleged abusers even if they want to discuss reconciliation over a "Valentine's Day dinner." Defendants are warned that even if they receive a friendly call, they are violating the order simply by responding to such an invitation.

"I tell victims, 'This is not your order of protection, it's mine, and only I can lift it,' " Dutchess County Family Court Judge Joan Posner said.

Posner said she and other judges routinely field five to 10 requests for orders of protection every day, and the frequency of those requests is increasing.
In the past two years, more than 2,800 orders of protection have been issued by Family Court judges here, an increase of more than 30 percent over the previous two years, according to statistics provided by the court.

In every case involving an arrest, advocates are assigned to help victims navigate the judicial system and provide other support. State police crime victim specialist Rochelle McDonough said her job is both rewarding and frustrating.

"The first thing I ask (a victim) is, 'Are you safe right now?' " McDonough said.
Once she determines what immediate services her clients need, McDonough explains what will happen later in court and emphasizes the importance of refraining from having any contact with their alleged abusers.

McDonough said it is often hard for judges to determine how serious any incident may be because most women who are in abusive relationships refrain from calling police until their partner's behavior becomes unbearable.

"If someone calls the police (to report domestic violence), you can almost bet this isn't the first time something like this happened," she said. "But a judge may look at the case and say there's no prior history of such conduct and make a decision accordingly."

Thalia Hallenbeck, domestic violence police liaison to the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office, said law enforcement officers are often frustrated by what they see as a lack of proper sanctions on defendants who violate orders of protection.

"There have to be consequences on these individuals," Hallenbeck said. "These guys have to know that if they violate, they're going to have to pay a price, and that doesn't always happen."

Judy Lombardi, director of outreach and support at Grace Smith House, an agency that provides shelter and other services for victims of domestic violence, agreed.
"Everybody knows the saying that an order of protection is just a piece of paper, and it's true that if someone's hellbent on violating it, there's not much you can do to stop them," Lombardi said. "But if there were quicker sanctions (imposed by judges), I think that would deter more people."

Beacon resident Amy Ritter said she and a Grace Smith House advocate, Nada Montesano, attended every court appearance of her former boyfriend, Roland Daise, after Daise assaulted her in August. On the day Daise was sentenced to three years' probation, Beacon City Court Judge Timothy Pagones issued a five-year order of protection, barring him from having any contact with Ritter.

Ritter said that when Daise left the courtroom holding the order of protection, he looked at her and whispered an obscenity as he folded the paper in half. She said she was outraged when he did not receive any further sanction.

"I have to look over my shoulder every day," Ritter said in an interview with a Journal reporter last week. "I feel I was slapped in the face by the (criminal-justice) system. Where's my justice?"


Senior Assistant District Attorney Angela Lopane, who prosecuted Daise, said she could not file additional charges because she had no corroborating evidence he had violated the order. Absent any additional criminal charges, Pagones said, he could not impose any further sanctions.

Daise's attorney, Senior Assistant Public Defender Nancy Garo, said Ritter's allegations were "thoroughly investigated" by police and prosecutors.

"There was absolutely no evidence my client did anything to violate the order of protection, and that's why there were no further charges filed," Garo said.
Lombardi said she hopes publicity about four recent homicides in Dutchess County that involved domestic violence would raise public awareness about the importance of doing more to prevent it. But she said she's not convinced the climate for victims has improved.

"We have wonderful relations with the police, and most of them respond (to domestic violence incidents) appropriately," she said. "The court system? I think there are a lot of variables there."


Clauson, of the City of Poughkeepsie police, said that while orders of protection can be effective tools in preventing further violence, they don't address the root of the problem, and they are by no means foolproof. Last year, he said, there were more than 1,000 orders of protection in force against city residents, and police arrested more than 100 people for violating them.

Clauson said he believes educational programs on domestic violence should begin earlier in the schools.


"We need something like the DARE program (designed to warn middle school students of the dangers of drugs) for domestic violence," he said. "This is learned behavior. It can be changed."