College battle spills over into county legislature

A windmill, a budget, cops and FOIL

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Constant lobbying of the legislature appears to have paid off in a minor victory for a man who has made it his personal mission to bring changes to the college. The man is Kenneth Walter, and he has been battling Sullivan County Community College over a myriad of issues.

Over the past 18 months or so, Walter has urged the legislature to exert more control over the college board of trustees, which he has portrayed as being wasteful and unresponsive to the lawmakers and others in the community. For the 2008-09 year, the county provided about $4 million of the college’s $15 million budget.

At a meeting at the government center on May 7, the legislature took a small step in the direction of accountability. After college president Dr. Mamie Golladay presented a brief overview of the school’s budget for next year, legislator Ron Hiatt asked that Golladay provide lawmakers with more detailed information, as is done for lawmakers in Schenectady regarding the community college in that area. Walter had previously brought the Schenectady matter to the board’s attention.

Golladay balked at providing information in a similar manner, saying that the Schenectady facility had more money to produce such figures. But after Alan Sorensen, the chair of the general services committee, said that such a breakout would be helpful, Golladay said she would provide it.

This was just the latest skirmish between the college and Walter, who began to pay close attention to the college after it announced plans to build a vertical windmill some 500 feet from the house where his mother lives. Walter asked college officials to move the windmill to another spot on the campus, but they declined.

Since then, he has attended many college board meetings, and at the last one he came close, in his opinion, to being taken away in handcuffs. Golladay left the May 7 county meeting before the public comment period started, but had she stayed, she would have heard Walter recount the experience at the college.

He told lawmakers that, on April 16, he went to the meeting with a tripod and video camera, intending to record the session. He was informed that he would not be allowed to record the meeting. The board summoned security and went into executive session to discuss the matter and, a bit later, four officials from the sheriff’s office turned up.

After the board came out of executive session, said Walter, “I still questioned the board’s decision, but did not push it any further because the sheriff’s department was present and I had a strong feeling that if I insisted I would have been removed in handcuffs.” Walter called this an “abuse of power.”

In an email sent to Walter in April, Robert J. Freeman, executive director of the New York Department of State Committee on Open Government, wrote, “From my perspective, which is based on the holdings in judicial determinations, any person may audio or video record an open meeting of a public body… so long as the use of the recording device is not disruptive or obtrusive.”

Also at the county meeting, the matter of Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests came up. Walter has made many such requests, some of which remain unanswered by the college. Walter said that the college continues not to respond to FOIL requests that come via email.

County attorney Sam Yasgur said that he had notified the college that the law in New York now requires that entities, such as the college, that receive requests in electronic format are required to respond electronically if they have the ability to do so.

Yasgur, who also serves as the FOIL appeals officer for the college, said that he had informed college officials several times that they were wrong in their interpretation of their responsibilities regarding FOIL requests.

As for the windmill issue, Walter filed a lawsuit in December 2008 regarding the approval process for the two planned windmill projects. The suit was filed against the county legislature, the college board and the Fallsburg Planning Board.