PUBLIC HEARING – LOCAL
LAW #3
Monday, April 17, 2023
- 11:30 AM
Shaun Gillilland, Chairperson
James Monty, Vice-Chairperson
Vice-Chairman Monty called this Public Hearing
to order at 11:30 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton
Barber, Robin DeLoria, Stephanie DeZalia, Derek Doty, Charlie Harrington, Roy
Holzer, Ken Hughes, Steve McNally, Noel Merrihew, James Monty, Tom Scozzafava,
Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Davina Winemiller, Margaret Wood and
Mark Wright. Shaun Gillilland was excused.
Department Heads present: Jim Dougan, Judy
Garrison, Dan Manning and Michael Mascarenas.
Media present:
Sun News - Alana Penny
MONTY:
Good morning, it’s 11:30 we’ll call the public hearing to order. Judy –
GARRISON:
Notice
of public hearing proposed Local Law No. 3 of 2023.
Please
take notice that the Essex County Board of Supervisors will hold and conduct a
Public Hearing at the Supervisors’ Chambers at the Essex County Government
Center, 7551 Court Street, Elizabethtown, New York on the 17th of
April, 2023 at 11:30 a.m., on the proposed Local Law No. 3 of 2023 entitled, “A
local law superseding the residency requirements of Public Officers Law §3 for the positions of Assistant Public
Defender and Assistant Conflict Defender of Essex County.”
Please
take further notice that at said public hearing to be held at the time and
place set forth above, the Essex County Board of Supervisors will consider this
proposed Local Law and hear all persons interested therein concerning the same.
Please
take further notice that a copy of the full text of such proposed Local Law No.
#3 of 2023 may be obtained upon request from the Clerk of the Board’s Office,
7551 Court Street, Elizabethtown, New York 12932.
Judith
A. Garrison, Clerk
Essex
County Board of Supervisors
7551
Court Street, Elizabethtown, NY 12932
(518)
873-3353
Dated: April 5, 2023
MONTY:
Thank you Judy. Dan would you
like to –
MANNING: Yes, just briefly Public Officers Law
§3 provides any elected or appointed official in the county must be a resident
of the county and Assistant Public Defender and Assistant Conflict Defenders
like the Public Defender and Conflict Defender have to be pursuant to that law
residents of the county. That law has some I’m going to say 75 to 80 amendments
to it and in the past they have amended the law to allow public defenders and
conflict defenders and assistant public defenders and assistant conflict
defenders, let me digress not public defenders, Assistant Conflict Defenders
and Assistant Public Defenders they can either be residents of the county or
adjoining county and because of the plausibly of attorneys available in the
county we need to seek attorneys in adjoining counties to fill these roles so
because it hasn’t been done in the past this local law will allow us now to
permit Assistant Public Defenders or Assistant Conflict Defenders to be
residents of the county or adjoining county.
One caveat to that is the Chief Assistant or Deputy Assistant Public
Defender or Chief Assistant or Deputy Conflict Defender still has to be a
resident of the county because they would step into the shoes of the Public
Defender or Conflict Defender if they were not available. I know it’s a mouthful.
MONTY:
Are there any questions of the board?
McNALLY:
In addition to that should we have something in there that equally
qualified employees that apply to the position that Essex County residents get
preference? We’ve done that on the local
level which is only fair if you two equal candidates that you give preference
to the person that lives in the county.
MANNING: I think I’d rather leave it out.
MASCARENAS: I think as a department head I’m
going to do that too Steve and I think that it’s more about just being able to
function and we’ve been struggling for a long time to get attorneys so just to
not to turn off that spigot per say, of having employees enter our workforce it
certainly helped to stabilize us in the DA’s office.
MANNING: Yeah and this just gets you to that
point. This is allows you to make a decision to hire someone in an adjoining
county, how you do that, what it’s based on what you might do in the process so
I don’t think we should put it in here.
TYLER: I’m just curious, how many estimated
positions do we have that require we go out of the county?
MASCARENAS:
What’s the question? In terms of
General Municipal Law?
TYLER:
How many positions do we actually have that they have to live in the
county?
MONTY: In Essex County.
MASCARENAS:
Every department head has to.
MANNING: Every appointed official and every elected
official except District Attorney because we’ve got home rule it’s just
Assistant District Attorneys can live in adjoining counties.
MASCARENAS: Any Deputy to those appointed
officials also has to be, falls under that law where they have to be residents.
TYLER: Are we talking ten, fifteen?
MASCARENAS:
That’s every department. We have
twenty or so departments so just every department head has got to be under that
every deputy so it’s probably a good, closer to fifty I would say 45, 50.
MANNING: It applies to towns too like your
Planning Board Chairman is appointed and they are an appointed person they have
to be from your town.
MASCARENAS: Like the entire Public Defender’s
Office was supposed to be, the entire District Attorney’s office falls under
that and that’s what this law does.
TYLER: Thank you.
MASCARENAS:
It is a substantial amount.
MONTY:
Any other questions from the board?
Anyone from the public wish to speak?
If there are no other questions, Dan, do you have anything else to add
to that?
MANNING: I don’t.
MONTY: Mike?
MASCARENAS: No sir.
MONTY: Okay we stand adjourned, thank you.
As
there was no further discussion to come before this public hearing it was
adjourned at 11:35 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Garrison, Clerk
Board of Supervisors