Board members continue to spar over program
Some Niskayuna seniors were hoping to get a ride to Town Board meetings, but they are going to need to find a different way.
During a Niskayuna Town Board meeting in late October, the question of bringing seniors to the board meetings on the senior bus owned by the town was brought up, but ultimately denied. Margaret Blechienger read at the meeting the e-mail response Supervisor Joe Landry sent her in regard to busing, which stated the bus could not be used to bring seniors to meetings.
I was informed of a request that the Niskayuna Town Bus be used to transport Niskayuna seniors to a Town Board meeting, said Landry in the e-mail. `After discussing this matter with my staff, including the appropriate department head, I was advised that this would not be proper use of town resources. In fact, it may even be illegal.`
Town Attorney Peter Scagnelli said at the meeting that any time public resources are used to participate in a political meeting brings up concern. Councilwoman Liz Kasper then asked how a board meeting is a political meeting since it is town government. Scagnelli responded the board is a political body and it is a political function of the town.
`This is a political function of the town, you are now using town resources to get people to participate in a political function,` said Scagnelli at the meeting. `You get into issues concerning, well, if the Democrats are doing that for the seniors, why can’t the Republicans do that for their people?`
Blechienger interrupted Scagnelli and said she didn’t believe using the bus was a political issue.
`Listen, I’m sorry Peter, I think this it not a political issue,` said Blechienger. `It is a human rights issue and the seniors have a right.`
McKinney said after the meeting hat he would `hesitate` to call the seniors a lobby, but he pointed out that in the past the bus has been used to bring seniors to polling locations on Election Day.
`You are kind of deciding free speech for them,` said McKinney after the meeting. `You are promoting them voting, but won’t let them come and dissent at a meeting.`
Landry compared the situation to when children were asking the board members to consider letting an ice cream truck operate in the town again. He thought there was no difference between picking up children in the bus and picking up the seniors.
`You want to take a town bus and pick up people and bring them to a Town Board meeting and they are going to take sides and advocate for one side of an issue,` said Landry after the meeting. `You can not use a town vehicle to selectively pick who you want to a Town Board meeting.`
Landry also said bringing seniors to voting locations isn’t lobbying, because it is a public service the town offers seniors.
`If you are not comfortable taking [seniors] to a board meeting what is the difference if you are taking to them to vote?` said McKinney. `If you are going to take a senior to vote, isn’t that in fact helping a discreet group?`
While McKinney said he isn’t advocating stopping taking seniors to vote, he doesn’t see how there is a real difference between the two situations.
Landry is still the chair of the senior committee for the town since McKinney resigned from his position on Oct. 4 over the reorganization of the senior program and how he said he was excluded. The most recent meeting was also held on a night that senior programs are offered at the center, which led some seniors to say there is a conflict in scheduling.
`The chair of each committee has the ability to schedule those meetings when they want to schedule those meetings,` said Landry. `If there are programs going on, I don’t think we have an attendance problem at that, I will take into consideration that we have programs going on.`
According to McKinney he has requested his chairmanship position back on the committee and said Landry has yet to respond to him. Landry said McKinney has never met with him personally and discussed getting his chairmanship position back.
The supervisor appoints the chair to the committee, so when the position is vacant the supervisor attains the position as default.
`Quietly everyone has come up to me and said they respect what I did,` said McKinney.
Councilwoman Liz Kasper also expressed her passionate feelings about where the senior program is headed in the town at the recent board meeting.
`The seniors are the most important part,` said Kasper. `We are sacrificing seniors for things that we think are what we need in this town. The seniors are the town.`
Landry disagreed with the statement made by Kasper and said the town is focusing on seniors.
`I don’t think we are sacrificing any seniors,` said Landry after the meeting. `We are providing the same programs that we have been providing. If you look at my budget it is increasing programs for seniors and increasing money going into the senior programs.`
McKinney also said after the meeting that he is concerned about the amount of funding recreational programs in the town might be overspending.
`There has been a lot of tension in the community that funds are being funneled to the rec program,` said McKinney. `What they have been doing is bringing in more and more employees in the rec program which is increasing cost and what I have been finding out is that the rec programs have been losing money.`
Landry contested revenues have increased in the rec program and the town tries to enhance programs and services for everyone in the town. He said it is the town’s duty to provide certain services to residents.
`We are a government, we are not out to make money on programs,` said Landry. `We are in the business to provide services to our residents for the least amount of cost.“