Written by Rokosz Most, a regular contributor to Hudson Valley One, this Point of View is by agreement with its author unedited for content. – G.S.
When county human rights commission member Katie Scott Childress published a letter accusing fellow commissioners of regularly talking over women and trans persons at commission meetings, it would have been useful to listen in after the fact and confirm the commissioner’s allegations.
Or when the Ulster County Economic Development Alliance met in April to give the go ahead on the list of businesses which were presented by the scoring committee to receive coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) it could have been instructive to know what they said as they deliberated over the awardees before signing off on the ill-fated list.
Would have, should have. The minutes of committee meetings don’t quite cut it.
Better late than never, language in a resolution crafted by county legislators last month, aims to establish a policy to record all public meetings electronically.
Sponsored by Kingston legislator Phil Erner, along with legislators Tracey Bartels, Laura Petit, and co-sponsored by minority leader Ken Ronk, the resolution seeks to cut through the ‘he said, she said’ by providing for an impartial ear to listen in on all meetings throughout the county, commissions, committees, boards.
“I introduced this legislation, but it’s obviously not a new idea,” explains Erner. “During the pandemic, we saw how essential it was to have video conference meetings and hybrid meetings. And unfortunately, some of that has not continued. I think it’s essential for accessibility, for people who can’t travel through our large county to get to meetings, or may choose not to.”
When Erner introduced the idea, he recalls that legislator Laura Petit quickly gave her support. Then followed Bartels, who worked to clean up the bill’s language. Ronk joined as a co-sponsor.
“I learned at that meeting when Ken announced his support,” says Erner, “that [Bartels and Ronk] had discussed doing something like this in the past.”
In fact the two are responsible for co-sponsoring the resolution in 2010 that has made legislature committee meetings be posted online. “And one legislator at the time remarked, ‘don’t you realize if we put these things online, people are going to hear what we say’?” laughed Ronk.
Ronk considers himself a proponent of transparency. He says that because he has the courage of his convictions it’s fine if people find out how he feels and the things he says, but he’s not naïve.
“I always try very hard to control myself,” admitted Ronk, “and only say things that I would I would want people to hear but sometimes, of course, you know, the frustration comes out a bit.”
Ronk likewise understands the cynicism of a reporter regarding a politician. He tells the story of speaking with a reporter who had caught him out by comparing something he had said at one time with the thing he said now.
“Well, you said this back then,” Ronk remembers the reporter saying. I said, ‘Yeah, I was wrong.’ ‘Excuse me,’ she said. She was surprised. I said, ‘Yeah, I changed my mind.’ You always make the best decision you can with the info you have at the time. You know, the info changes, and you learn new things and you change your mind.”
Some Ulster County residents like Jack Smith, (a bartender in Poughkeepsie, thinks the legislature hasn’t gone far enough.
“I want politicians recorded 24/7,” said Smith. “We pay their salaries. They spend oodles of our money. If they want to be public servants, this is one way they can start behaving like it. We want to require it from cops right? That they wear body cameras? Same thing.”
As it happened during the same August legislature meeting, an issuance of bonds for up to $440,753, offset by $248,000 in grant monies, went to new body cameras for police officers working at the Ulster County Jail, chair of the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee legislator Abe Uchitelle explained.
“Basically the sheriff’s office has been replacing their Panasonic body cameras with new cameras from a company called Axon,” said Uchitelle. “And the Axon cameras are pretty cool, because they turn on automatically.”
When a weapon is unholstered, for instance, said Uchitelle, the cameras are activated, even outside the jail. “If there’s an active situation and one of your colleagues who you might not see or might be on the other side of the property, if they unholster their weapons, everyone’s camera automatically turns on.”
The Axon cameras communicate with each other regardless of which department purchases them. So if the Kingston police, also using Axon cameras, respond and a sheriff’s deputy is there when KPD unholsters a weapon, the sheriff’s deputies cameras all turn on automatically as well.
“So there’s an interdepartmental record keeping component,” said Uchitelle. “And the other thing that’s important is all the footage is uploaded onto a cloud server, which makes dealing with the discovery reforms a lot easier. They no longer have to host physical hardware to store the data before it’s transferred to the discovery unit.”
One can imagine skeptical bartender Smith taking issue with the cameras activating only after a weapon has been drawn, and so missing recording whatever incident causes the officer to draw their weapon in the first place. Uchitelle seems to have foreseen this issue.
“I think it’s worth noting that interdepartmental policy holds that any interaction with the public is recorded,” said Uchitelle. “So no officer should interact with the public without first manually hitting the button to begin reporting. This was true when we had the Panasonic cameras, and it will continue to be true when we have the Axon cameras.”
The resolution was sponsored by legislators Gina Hansut and Chris Hewitt.
Elsewhere on the transparency front was another bill worth noting which was introduced in March by legislators Joe Maloney and Tracey Bartels which for the first time established a policy requiring the disclosure of names of individuals holding an ownership interest in any entity doing business with Ulster County.
The names of all individuals with an interest in, ownership or control of ten percent or more of the profits or assets of such business entity, the names of any subsidiary business entities directly or indirectly controlled by the business entity and the names of all principals, partners, officers, or directors of the business entity, and yes, even their immediate family members and members of household.
All information to be entered into the Ulster County financial software system, under the aegis of pragmatic ethics laws. Previously, the identities of the above-mentioned members were beyond the inspection of the legislators, who are expected to deliberate on all potential county contracts awarded. No longer. If you want to pad your bottom line courtesy of the Ulster County taxpayer dime now, the county legislature wants to know who you are.
Upon reflection, bartender Smith acknowledged that his proposed scheme for 24-hour surveillance of elected officials could be unreasonably intrusive.
“Okay. Let’s be nice. Here’s what you do,” said Smith. “Everyone has to wear a badge. From the mayor on down. They get elected, then they have to wear that badge whenever they’re in public which identifies them as a public servant, like a reporter with a press pass. The badge has in it a recording device which is triggered by proximity to other badges. So if they don’t want to be recorded they can’t get near each other and then they’ve got their privacy. But then the city workers wear them too. That’ll be the end of harassment of subordinates by their superiors.”
Though the idea sounds ingenious, there still remain complications. The spouse of the mayor of Kingston, for instance, or the spouse of the Kingston police chief is also in city government. Under Smith’s plan, both couples would effectively be under 24-hour surveillance. To that, Smith has no answer.
“Yeah,” answered Smith lamely. “Well, I guess it’s the family business.”
The idea that authority figures should be trusted because they’re authority figures is a well-known circular logical fallacy. Known as a tautology, the rhetorical device attempts to end all criticism without further explanation. “The law is the law,” for instance. Or “It’ll be done when it’s done”
For some reason, repeating something twice makes the words sound as if something profound has been expressed. Pop artists and balladeers discovered this long ago.
But remove the badge, the necktie, take away the orb and the scepter, and what is left is a human being, capable of all the failings, missteps and desires of every child who shows up the earth with a hundred years at the outside to look forward to, and however it happens, with no idea why.
Like Smith says, “We’re all in it together. We should help the others recognize it.”
Join the family! 
