Democratic caucus hosts speak out

Orange County Democratic Legislators Tom Pahucki, Myrna Kemnitz, Roxanne Donnery, Jeff Berkman, Chris Eachus and Mike Paduch

The Democratic Caucus of the Orange County Legislature held an “Orange County Speak Out” public forum to listen to constituents at the Legislative Chambers at the Government Center in Goshen on Wednesday, May 11th.

Of the nineteen speakers, the most heavily discussed items were the proposed new Orange County Government Center building and future plans for county nursing home Valley View.  Several Valley View workers spoke, questioning why “benign neglect” has been allowed to happen and presenting a vision of a future privatized nursing home which might force some patients to receive care out of state, splitting up elderly families.

Not a single person spoke in favor of the county executive’s new government center proposal.  The costs of the new center were questioned.

Representing the Democratic Caucus were Legislators Roxanne Donnery, Chris Eachus, Myrna Kemnitz, Mike Paduch, Tom Pahucki and Jeff Berkman (Harvery Burger, the seventh member of the caucus, could not attend.)

Full video of meeting below, can be downloaded here.

Legislators requesting documents

The Times Herald-Record has an article today updating the Gemma bond payments story:

Orange County officials are expected to provide documents to lawmakers this week to substantiate their account of a redirection of county rental payments that led to more than $181,000 in bond defaults in 2010.

Democratic lawmakers demanded eight days ago that Legislature Chairman Michael Pillmeier seek the papers on their behalf. They are requesting, among other things, letters that administration officials cited in a briefing they gave legislators on Feb. 23 to discuss the recently disclosed rent problem.

“The Democratic caucus is determined to get these documents so that we can make a full review,” Democratic Leader Jeffrey Berkman said.

 

The article also states that the Newburgh IDA attorney has not received any response to its FOIL request for documents in over sixty days, triple the allowed time.