Foil Westchester

A North Georgia newspaper publisher was indicted on a felony charge and jailed overnight last week – for filing an open-records request. Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason, along with his attorney Russell Stookey, were arrested on Friday and charged with attempted identity fraud and identity fraud. Thomason was also accused of making a false statement in his records request. Thomason’s relentless pursuit of public records relating to the local Superior Court has incensed the court’s chief judge, Brenda Weaver, who also chairs the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Weaver took the matter to the district attorney, who obtained the indictments. Thomason was charged June 24 with making a false statement in an open-records request in which he asked for copies of checks “cashed illegally.” Thomason and Stookey were also charged with identity fraud and attempted identity fraud because they did not get Weaver’s approval before sending subpoenas to banks where Weaver and another j

In 1911, after a particularly bitter campaign and election for Town Supervisor, the leaders of the Scarsdale Town Republican Party and Democratic Party committees agreed to jointly choose a single candidate for any open town government position who would best serve the interests of the entire Village and whom both parties would endorse. This system worked fairly well until 1930, when the Party committees were unable to agree on a single candidate for an open Village Trustee position. As a result, the Party committees and the Scarsdale Town Club agreed to form a new committee, unaffiliated with either Party, “consisting of representative citizens … to select candidates,” and Scarsdale’s first nonpartisan election system was established. That fall, the Scarsdale Town Club and the Woman’s Club co-drafted the first version of the Non-Partisan Resolution (the “Resolution”), a document that outlines the consensus method to be followed in nominating Village officials. The original Resolut

Gov. Andrew Cuomo should waste no time resolving the latest controversy over a Texas company’s application for a permit to store liquid petroleum gas, or LPG, in unlined salt caverns next to Seneca Lake. At issue is whether a specifically designated “state geologist” has a legal responsibility to conduct a rigorous analysis of such potentially dangerous activity or whether a simple undocumented sign-off by — well, anybody — will do. In its six-year bid to win that underground storage permit, Crestwood Equity Partners has made a practice of hiding documents, fudging facts and co-opting state regulators and local officials. Last week the company was called to task by the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association for dodging a fundamental rule of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The first sentence of the DEC’s “underground gas storage permitting process” states that such permits may only be granted with “approval in writing from the State Geologist.” SLPWA notes th

The reporting and editing staff of The Daily Gazette got a lesson in open government earlier this week from the state's top official on New York's Open Meetings Law and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, spent more than 90 minutes speaking to Gazette reporters and editors about the intricacies of the laws, the resources available to them, the challenges they face, and their role in ensuring that government remains open to the public. Among the issues Freeman discussed were how to address a government body when it attempts to go into a closed-door executive session that might violate the law, the availability of records under FOIL, accessibility of electronic records such as emails and text messages, meeting notices and agendas, and how to successfully obtain records without resorting to FOIL. He also provided them with some of the resources available to reporters and the general public when they hav

An Albany law firm has submitted a request for all documentation relating to LEGOLAND as the amusement park seeks a zoning change for property it is looking to develop in the Town of Goshen. The law firm, Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, LLP, said in its Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request it represented the Village of Kiryas Joel and asked for records like “originals and drafts of all laws, regulations, ordinances, procedures, correspondence, memoranda, emails, decisions, handwritten or other notes, meeting minutes and/or agendas” of the proposed LEGOLAND project. While Town Supervisor Doug Bloomfield said he does not know what to make of the request, it is not unprecedented. The Village has sought to involve itself in zoning changes at the former Camp La Guardia property, owned by the county but within the Village and Town of Chester and the Village of Blooming Grove, and has sued the Town of Woodbury over its comprehensive zoning plan, arguing it did not have enough af

Federal Senators Contactability Legislator Name Legislative Office via E-mail? via Webform? via Fax? Kirsten Gillibrand NY federal senator NO YES YES Charles Schumer NY federal senator NO YES YES Federal Representatives Contactability Legislator Name Legislative Office via E-mail? via Webform? via Fax? Yvette Clarke NY federal representative - District 9 YES YES YES Chris Collins NY federal representative - District 27 YES YES YES Joseph Crowley NY federal representative - District 14 NO YES YES Eliot Engel NY federal representative - District 16 NO YES YES Chris Gibson NY federal representative - District 19 YES YES YES Richard Hanna NY federal representative - District 22 NO YES YES Brian Higgins NY federal representative - District 26 NO YES YES Steve Israel NY federal representative - District 3 YES YES YES Hakeem Jeffries NY federal representative - District 8 NO YES YES