A Quick Report on the County Budget Meeting

Filed by Jeff Green
10/03/07

It's another foggy, cool, gray morning here in Putnam County which must echo the mood of the members of the County Legislature after the meeting last evening at the Court House in Carmel. It was more than standing room only as every seat in the house was taken and people stood packed in the back and down the stairs.

Outside in the gathering dusk, about 100 blood red-adorned CSEA members rallied on the steps of the courthouse - giant inflatable rat and all - to demand fair wage treatment and cost of living increases and that the budget not be balanced on the backs of civil servants. That sentiment was echoed in the Legislative chambers later in the evening as residents asked for cuts to be made at the executive level, political appointees and other "fluff" positions instead.

The main issues discussed were Tilly Foster Farm, Putnam National Golf Course and, of course, the removal from the budget of the county's Solid Waste Management Department. There was also a significant amount of Ball Bashing (which the crowd truly appreciated) and a little immigrant bashing from Carmel's dashingly handsome Rick Montes, which the crowd, albeit a smaller crowd, appreciated as well. All in all, the several hundred people in attendance made the message known: "What the hell are you guys doing?"

Other than Sam Olivario's bobble-head (he seems to ardently agree with every position ever mentioned regardless of what it was,) the Legislature sat rather impassively as speaker after speaker came to the microphone to implore them to take another look at the proposed cuts.

Legislative Chair Dan Birmingham handled the evening with aplomb, a remarkable show of leadership under difficult circumstances. He almost makes you think the Legislature actually cares. Kudos to him.

But they don't care and you know that.

See, for all the years the County Executive has proposed zero increase budgets, running down the reserve funds and spending the tobacco settlement monies, the Legislature voted to approve those budgets. Oh sure, there was public wrangling but in the end they still passed them... and now we're in the mess we're in. None of that was apparent last evening and not a single speaker pointed at the Legislature to make the accurate claim. But I assume that omission was intended not to piss them off for the result would have been another speech from Tony Hay and none of us were wearing boots high enough to keep the manure out of our socks.

The largest cut proposed in the budget was of the Solid Waste Management department and to their defense were many in the audience who underscored the importance of recycling and litter pickup. But the best defense came from Gordon Maxwell himself whose department stands to disappear from the county if the Legislature moves forward. Gordon handled the situation well, making his case and explaining just why none of his reports have been filed with Albany - as the law requires. In essence, he had nothing to report! After ten years of trying to implement the county's Solid Waste Management plan, an 800 page document, the county has never approved, moved on, accepted or dealt with a single issue held within it. Also to Gordon's defense came DEC Region 3's new head, Willie Janeway, who spoke briefly at the podium and reminded the Legislature of its requirements under the laws of the State of New York. But speaker after speaker also rose to the defense making their voices heard - sometimes emotionally, sometimes straight-out. Some told stories, some gave anecdotes, but all made the same point, "What the hell are you guys doing?" (Which seems to be the major sentiment of all the speakers last evening!)

Gordon claimed that all correspondence from within county government goes first to Bob Bondi and then is parsed out from there to where it needs to be. He also claimed that none of what he offered was passed on to the Legislature hence they could not know about the Solid Waste Management Plan, its implications or even its details.

There's history to back Gordon's claim wherein the Environmental Management Council, when it was under the direction of Kent's George Baum, also had the same problem. After each meeting notes would be sent to the County Executive; members in attendance, minutes, annual meeting reports, etc., and not a single one of them made it to the Legislature which caused the EMC to be disbanded based on a lack of information. History does repeat itself.

To that charge, Deputy County Executive John Tully rose to say that the facts were not as presented. But the reality is that the County Executive's office is not based in reality, nor even on this planet - and the audience wasn't buying Mr. Tully's lukewarm defense of a recalcitrant and aloof Bondi. But due to Mr. Bondi's current health condition the audience was kind enough not to directly target him. "I didn't even know he had a heart!" I overheard one person say.

So, that's the deal: about 50 people spoke during the two hours, each asking the Legislature to do what they could to maintain the beauty of Putnam County, to think "outside the box", to look more closely at cuts in non-essential personnel, to not only restore, but to expand the county recycling program (some mentioned Kent's all volunteer effort as a model), to force Albany to solve the property tax problem and most importantly, to stop driving long-term residents out of the county - assuming they can even sell their homes.

Your comments are always appreciated.

JmG