Sullivan launches new charter commission; To recommend changes to the legislature

Posted 8/21/12

MONTICELLO, NY — The last commission to examine the Sullivan County Charter was convened in 2005. It met twice a month for two years and ultimately recommended changes to the county.

This …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Sullivan launches new charter commission; To recommend changes to the legislature

Posted

MONTICELLO, NY — The last commission to examine the Sullivan County Charter was convened in 2005. It met twice a month for two years and ultimately recommended changes to the county.

This process is scheduled to occur every 10 years, so the county legislature is beginning the process of forming a new commission, and the co-chair of the previous commission, Robert Green, met with the legislature to give his input on how the process might play out.

He said that last time around, the commission was full of dedicated people, albeit representing the entire political spectrum. By way of illustration he said, “I’ll give you the example of three people: me, Dick Riseling and Noel van Swol. We’re talking about three people who were totally different. One was completely left, one was completely right and I’m a centrist;” but despite various differences, “everyone got along well,” and they all were dedicated to the task.

Legislator Cindy Gieger said she thought the legislature should give the next commission direction in advance of its members’ deliberations. She said, “I would like to see this legislature review the charter and make recommendations, guidelines for the commission ahead of time.”

Legislator Jonathan Rouis said, “The spirit of a charter commission is not necessarily from the ground up, but they are supposed to take a new look at the entire charter… it’s not just to build upon what was already in place… but it’s to review the whole charter, to make sure it’s still a viable… governing instrument for the next decade. So input first, defeats the purpose of the independent review.”

Green said he agreed. He said to the legislators, “Our job was to take the charter independent of you.” And he said they started by reading the entire charter and asking questions about it of the county attorney Sam Yasgur, and the treasurer and former county attorney Ira Cohen.

But a bit later in the meeting, Gieger read from a state government document that said, “‘In establishing a charter commission a county legislative body may endow it with broad authority to determine the scope of its own concerns, or it may give the commission specific directives.’ So that’s what I’m advocating for.”

Rouis said last time around all of the legislators were interviewed by the commission, and they made the members aware of issues each of them thought should be addressed. That would serve as input.

In discussing the final report of the commission to the county legislature in 2007, Green said that while there was a great deal of support from county officials, “At the end we felt the recommendations were not completely digested by the legislature at the time and a formal feedback probably should have been given to the commission.”

Rouis said, “They spent two years creating the recommendations, and there was a lot of ownership and rightly so, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the legislature is going to agree with all of them. As a legislator at the time, Rouis said, “We agreed with some of the recommendations, and some we didn’t, as a collective legislative body.”

County chairman Scott Samuelson said the commission would be discussed again by the legislature next month.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here