Dems vs. DCC: The movie

The meeting Wednesday night between the Dutchess Legislature's Democratic caucus and top Dutchess Community College officials featured a diverse cast of characters and some lively dialogue.

Not enough for boffo box office in the summer blockbuster season, but an intriguing scene all the same.

Legislator Fred Knapp of Poughkeepsie was typecast as the enforcer. He is an outspoken opponent of the college's annual tuition increases, and he made it clear he wasn't happy with the new increase. He also took the hardest line on withholding support for DCC's improvement bond without concessions on tuition.

"You want a bond resolution?" he said. "We want a budget with no tuition increase – this year. How do we get there?"

He made that argument twice during the meeting.

A new vote on the defeated bond resolution could come Monday at the Legislature's monthly meeting. The DCC budget with a $100 tuition increase is scheduled to be approved by the Legislature in July.

In asking for the Democrats' support for the bond resolution, DCC Board President Thomas LeGrand and Trustee Vincent DiMaso seemed to take on the good cop/bad cop roles. LeGrand came offering the proverbial olive branch while emphasizing that the college needs to move forward with the improvements, with the Legislature's help.

"I don't believe we have a troubled relationship. I think we have a good relationship," he said, adding that the college and the Democrats just seem to be at odds on tuition.

DiMaso fought back directly against some of the Democrats' criticisms, their opposition to the tuition increase and their defeat last month of the bond.

It's hard to pick one quote as representative – so many good ones – and like a good movie you had to see it to appreciate it. But DiMaso seemed to sum up his arguments with this: "You should have come to us first before making this vote."

Minority Leader Roger Higgins of New Hamburg, the Democrats' ringleader, moved the meeting along while pointing out that he personally made the Democrats' case to the DCC board last month just before it approved the tuition increase anyway.

"There was no effort at all made to try to compromise," Higgins said.

Toward the end of the meeting, DCC President David Conklin played the pragmatist and caught the Democrats' attention when he said that the Legislature's Republican leadership "didn't want a $100 increase. A $100 increase is a victory."

The implication was that the Republicans would have preferred an even larger tuition increase to offset more of the county tax dollars in the college's budget.

How will it end? Stay tuned for the sequel Monday night.

Until then, there are the previews, such as Poughkeepsie Legislator Barbara Jeter-Jackson's assessment of the minority party's chances of reversing the tuition increase this year.

"Until there is a majority on this side, it's not going to happen," she said after the DCC officials had left.

Legislative replay: Democrats mistaken, confused

I was on vacation on May 14 when the Legislature held its last board meeting, so I had to catch up via the Legislature's streaming online video of the meeting. I'm starting to wish I hadn't been on vacation. (OK, that's a lie. Vacation was great. I just wish I hadn't missed that meeting.)

Here's why:

Resolution 136 would seem to be a mundane item, a boilerplate vote to authorize distribution of mortgage tax revenues to the cities, towns and villages. The money is significant – more than $1 million just for the Town of Poughkeepsie, more than $7 million across the county from six months worth of collections. The votes on such measures usually aren't significant. Unanimous approvals.

But this time all 12 Democrats voted against the measure. Huh?

I shouldn't have been surprised. All five Democrats in the Budget, Finance and Personnel Committee had voted against the measure days earlier. I found this odd, so I asked Minority Leader Roger Higgins afterward what the deal was. When he began to state the Democrats' case against the mortgage tax increase backed by the Republicans, I had to stop him. That was a different resolution, I said. This was just to distribute the money already collected.

Higgins seemed surprised and muttered something about a mistake being made in the vote. I didn't think much more about it, figuring the mistake would be corrected by the full board meeting.

It wasn't. The Democrats again voted no.

Later in the meeting, some seemed to realize their mistake and questioned the way the resolutions were presented. Here is my amateur transcription of the scene that took place, starring Chairman Gary Cooper, R-Pine Plains; Minority Leader Higgins, D-New Hamburg; Assistant Minority Leader Sandy Goldberg, D-Wappingers Falls, and Legislator Fred Bunnell, D-Poughkeepsie. The term "consent agenda" refers to uncontroversial resolutions that are approved together unanimously before debate moves to more controversial items.

HIGGINS: Could you go back and tell me when you pulled 136 out of the consent agenda? I don't think it was mentioned earlier that it was not in the consent agenda. And in fact – in fact, we all voted for the consent agenda earlier with that included in it.

COOPER: No, she did not read that.

HIGGINS: Can you – I'd like to see where that was stated whether it's on the video or in the minutes. I need to see that, because –

COOPER: That wasn't on the consent agenda.

HIGGINS: That's correct. I need to see some evidence of that, because frankly, when we voted for the consent agenda, we all assumed 136 was in the consent agenda. So I need you to show me some kind of evidence of that.

COOPER: Well, the evidence would be, if we played the tape back you would see 136 was not read, or the resolution was not read into the – as a consent agenda item. And it will be there. Legislator Goldberg.

GOLDBERG: Then I would just like to make a comment that my intention was always to vote for 136 —

COOPER: Well, we’re already past that.

GOLDBERG: — and when I assumed I had voted for it and didn’t realize – which was my mistake. I certainly apologize for that – but didn’t understand what we were voting on, and I just want the public record to state that. ...

BUNNELL: In a case such as I think is clearly illustrated by what Legislator Goldberg said – and I would echo for myself what she said – it was an honest confusion about this matter.

Michael Moore at Marist?

Not being an expert on health care and the numerous proposals calling for universal coverage, I found Congressman John Hall's forum on the issue last night at Marist College quite informative, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

But I had a sneaking suspicion that a significant portion of the audience fell under the heading "preaching to the converted." One young man, a Marist student who said he suffers from a disability and from the health insurance nightmare that comes with it, made an impassioned plea for help to John Hall, however, many of the people who addressed the panel identified themselves as affiliated with advocacy organizations, typically Democratic or progressive in nature. Some had set up a display outside the auditorium with signs and pamphlets calling for single-payer national health care coverage, and I rode on the elevator before the forum with a man and his daughter, a Vermont physician, who each clutched signs advocating the same.

Of course, their views count as much as "ordinary" residents, and Hall seemed conscious of the diverse backgrounds of his audience. He also is scheduled to meet later this week with small business owners.

So what does this all have to do with Michael Moore, you ask? Not much. Except that before the forum a young woman, possibly college-age, tried to stick a hand-made sign to the wall outside the auditorium announcing the upcoming release of Moore's new documentary, "Sicko," about the country's health care conundrum.

Hall's chief of staff, Jean Bordewich, sternly told the woman to take the sign down. Hall wanted to hear all points of view, Bordewich said, and wouldn't let the forum be hijacked by one side or the other. Even so, she said it was fine to hand out the informational brochures, which could never hope to be as polarizing as the director of "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Post-holiday roundup

A few stories to pass along...

Dick Anderson announced today that he's back in the running for the Dutchess County clerk on the Democratic ticket after he was unseated in 2003 by Republican Colette Lafuente. If he gets the nomination, his Republican challenger in November will be Brad Kendall, who was appointed to the position last year after Lafuente retired.

Republicans are using a new radio add to link U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Hudson, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in votes on peanuts and fish. Sounds like an interesting entree, but there's more to this story than a high-protein diet.

And Gov. Eliot Spitzer was in Pine Plains on Monday to participate in the town's Memorial Day parade and ceremonies. Spitzer, who owns a home nearby in Columbia County, says he likes the local coffee.

Bunnell is "torn," Kelly doesn't care

After about 10 months reporting on the Dutchess Legislature, there's one thing I've learned to expect: Legislator Fred Bunnell's regular requests to abstain from votes.

I haven't crunched the numbers, but I'd say he has abstained from more votes than any other legislator in my short time on the beat. It's a pretty safe bet that he'll do so at least once during each monthly cycle of meetings.

Years ago, when I was reporting on municipal government in Wausau, Wis., I grew accustomed to the rule that lawmakers couldn't abstain unless they had a good reason, usually a conflict of interest that prohibited them from voting. I think the idea was that lawmakers should be compelled to go on the record on issues by voting, and that we should expect them to make tough choices. That is what they are elected to do, after all.

So I was surprised to learn that Dutchess legislators don't have the same burden in justifying an abstention. All they need is permission from a committee chairman or the Legislature chairman.

Usually, when Bunnell asks to abstain, he cites some variation on the "lack of adequate information" explanation. Usually, the chairman grants his abstention.

Today was different.

When it came time for the Budget, Finance and Personnel Committee to vote on a measure increasing the county mortgage tax from 1 percent to 1.25 percent, Bunnell, a Poughkeepsie Democrat, said he would be abstaining. Committee Chairman David Kelly, a Pawling Republican, asked him why.

"I'm torn," Bunnell replied.

Kelly said that wasn't a good reason and told him to vote.

Bunnell protested Kelly's ruling before saying simply, "I choose not to vote."

"I take that as a 'no' vote," Kelly said, and moved on to the next legislator. The measure passed with unanimous Republican support and near unanimous Democratic opposition.

Near unanimous because one Democratic vote was missing. Legislator Fred Knapp had left the meeting early and was marked "absent."

Politics or public good?

Here are a couple of questions to ponder, one open-ended and the others more to the point.

First, is any aspect of government completely free of politics?

In this case, I'm not necessarily speaking of "politics" in the nefarious sense of the word, though certainly you could provide many examples to support that connotation. Rather I'm talking about the day-to-day business of getting things done in government. Political play seems to be written into the DNA of democracy.

This brings me to my more specific questions, which relate to the often strange beast known as the political appointment.

This press release was disseminated by Michael Kelsey, assistant to Dutchess Legislature Chairman Gary Cooper, R-Pine Plains. Some Democrats cried foul because it was the work of a county employee. Clearly the points made in the press release are political, at least in the general sense, but was the press release inappropriate?

For starters, here are a few things to consider.

Kelsey is on the county payroll. He was appointed by Cooper, who was chosen as chairman by the Republican majority in the Legislature. You can argue that Kelsey is being paid partly to push a Republican agenda, but isn't that to be expected?

The Democrats, if they were in the majority, surely would rely on an appointed chairman's assistant to push their own agenda? Or would they?

Regardless of who is in power, is such a position serving the public good? You might agree that the chairman needs an assistant to fulfill the administrative responsibilities that come with the top job in the Legislature. But when does public service cross the line into political campaigning, which isn't supposed to be done on the public's dime?

My guess is that Republicans and Democrats have differing takes on this scenario, but the underlying questions shouldn't be partisan. What do you think?

Polly Sigh a-go-go

No one knows how to party like political scientists know how to party. OK, so they aren't actually partying this weekend, but they will be having a major conference here in our back yard.

An estimated 200 or more political science panelists from this country and Canada will converge Friday at the FDR site in Hyde Park and Saturday on the campus of Marist College in Poughkeepsie for the 61st annual conference of the New York State Political Science Association.

Gannett News Service's Albany bureau chief, Jay Gallagher, will deliver the keynote address Friday evening in Hyde Park. (Gannett also owns the Poughkeepsie Journal.)

The conference is intended for scholars, students and government officials, though others are welcome, too. If you're curious about the association click here.

A (mostly) unrelated side note: Some of you might be familiar with a song called "Political Scientist" by alt-country rocker Ryan Adams, who is scheduled to perform May 16 in Kingston.

The song, from the album "Love is Hell," is less about academics who teach and study political science than it is about the decay of civilization and politicians who allow it to happen. Bleak stuff, but perhaps it will end up as required listening in a college course someday.

But I'm not the PoJo's music writer. If that's your bag, check out John Barry's blog.