Legislative Gazette Show 1328, 2013 July 12

From WAMC in Albany, this is the Legislative Gazette.
A weekly magazine about New York State government and politics, your host is David Castina, with
Political Commentary by Dr. Alan Shartock, Political Scientist and Professor Emeritus
at the University at Albany.
Statewide distribution for the Legislative Gazette is made possible by New York State United
Teachers, representing professionals in education and healthcare, online at nysut.org.
And NISCASA, the New York State Coalition against Sexual Assault, working to support men and
their decisions to end sexual violence with the My Strength is not for hurting campaign
online at nyscasa.org.
Coming up this week, a deeper look at the Moreland Act Commission.
Our Political Observer Alan Shartock will share his thoughts on Elliott Spittus Return to
Politics and will travel to an urban farm in Buffalo.
The New York State Council will also share his thoughts on the New York State Council
and will travel to the New York State Council.
Governor Andrew Cuomo's Moreland Act Commission to investigate the legislature is not the
first time a governor created a panel to probe state lawmakers, in fact Cuomo's own father
did a quarter-century ago with mixed results.
We get more from the Legislative Gazette's Karen DeWitt.
When Andrew Cuomo's father, Mario Cuomo, was governor back in the 1980s, he also called
on the powers in the now 100-year-old Moreland Act to appoint a commission to look into government
corruption.
It was chaired by the respected former Fordham Law School Dean John Fierrick and it
issued several reports with recommendations for change.
They were widely praised at the time by reform groups and newspaper editorials.
In fact the proposals were so good that groups like the League of Women Voters are still
drawing on them to this day, says the league's Barbara Bartoletti.
The lack campaign finance law is that we have everything from the loophole, the what we
call the LLC loophole, the high contribution limit all the way down.
But Bartoletti says that's just the problem.
While the Fierrick Commission was successful in documenting the campaign fundraising
systems problems and recommending ways to improve it, it failed in actually persuading
the state legislature to adopt the vast majority of the proposals.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has appointed a panel that includes many of the state's district
attorneys.
They'll be probing the campaign filings at the state board of elections.
Bartoletti says the elections board made up of two Democrats and two Republicans has
not attempted to even enforce current campaign filing laws in years.
Which does nothing except produce gridlock when it comes to campaign finance.
And in fact, right now they have no enforcement at all to actually do that.
Bartoletti, who is an advisor to the Newmoreland Act Commission, says she hopes this generation's
panel has a better track record.
Bruce Jorri, political consultant and SUNY Albany professor, says despite some of the
governor's rhetoric, the commission will not function like a U.S. attorney's office
and hand up indictments and reveal shocking charges.
The first thing we ought to disobey people of is the notion that a moreland Act Commission
is functionally a prosecutorial body.
Although if the commission finds any blatant criminal wrongdoing, you can forward it to
the district attorneys for prosecution.
Jorri says the commission can be an effective tool, if used right, to get the legislature
to respond to the reforms this time around.
The inherent opportunity of any moreland Act Commission is that through its broad
investigatory powers, it puts together a report that basically enables the governor to
get in the bully pulpit and be persuasive to public opinion and mobilizes that public
opinion in a way that moves the legislature to act.
Bartoletti says the current climate of corruption, which has resulted in the indictment,
resignation or imprisonment of 35 senators and assembly members in the past decade, including
several in 2013, has raised public awareness.
And she agrees that New Yorkers, who recently told the Sienna poll that cleaning up corruption
was their number one priority, will have to keep the pressure on their elected officials
in the 2014 election season in order to persuade the legislature to change a system that
she says provides incumbents with many benefits.
The public has to get so fed up that they decide they have to force their elected representatives
to change the culture and Albany.
That's the only way this is going to happen.
Bartoletti hopes the majority of lawmakers who are clean will have incentive to sign
on, so they aren't tainted by the seemingly constant scandals.
Jorri says the governor has to be careful of just one thing, though, that he doesn't
go too far in alien-athil legislature completely or use it to try to settle political scores.
If the alienates the legislature but has public opinion at his back and uses the issue
to win a resounding re-election victory, that has a way of replenishing political capital.
But Jorri says for any governor to ultimately win changes from a Moreland Act Commission
probe is a heavy lift.
In Albany, I'm Karen DeWitt.
Joining us now legislative Gazette political observer Alan Shartalk?
Well the signatures are in hand, in fact 27,000 signatures over 27,000 Elliott Spitzer
has turned in to run for control of the city of New York.
Well that's right, Spitzer's got a lot of guts.
He knows how to do this, he looks it in the eye and he goes ahead and does it.
Now he is going to really tick off the establishment, they're not going to like this at all.
Clearly he has used his money to do this, number one, number two, clearly he has shown
that there's a real appetite for his return and I think part of that David is the fact
that people know he's going to mix it up and make it interesting and that's the one
thing you don't see in politics most of the time you see the sort of regular and Spitzer
does not have the regulars on his side.
So he had to collect a lot of signatures.
Now when I was a young man, very young, I was interning for a state senator and they
sent me down to the Variety Election headquarters at the time I believe to check signatures
because somebody was running in a primary and they wanted that person out of there and
I really learned so much.
I was only there one day but what happened was you would look up the signature page and
what somebody signed and if they left out their middle initial, they were kicked off.
If the address was wrong in any way whatsoever, if the zip code was wrong, if anything at
the time was wrong, that petition was invalidated so they played this with the vengeance.
You know that you have to have at least three times as many in order to make it work but
Spitzer was so smart.
He had a petition signing party.
He paid people to go out and do it.
Money talks all of this walk, no two ways about it but I also think it shows that there
is a tremendous appetite to have a meaningful race here.
I think this is a pretty good indication that he's going to win when the time comes.
Now Scott Stringer who is a opponent is a good guy.
I know him, I have respect for him, but the establishment wants him.
And if there's one thing about the electorate that I know and that is they like a contest,
they like to see a Horatio Aljistoy, they like to see a person come from behind.
Now Horatio Aljistoy as you will remember had nothing and then all the stories were about
people who had nothing and ended up having a lot.
Spitzer had a lot, lost a lot and now is on his way back and it's going to be very interesting.
Do you think should he win this and as you say royal the establishment that he'll go
for a higher office?
Well I don't think there's any question about it and I think they know that too.
You know when you're looking at the potential for support I don't see it.
In other words who's supporting the guy from regular political office?
This is something they don't want.
This is not only good news for him but it's potentially very good news for Anthony Weiner
who is running for mayor you know and who had his own scandal.
And I have to think that big part of this is redemption.
People believe that everybody deserves a second chance.
They believe that they have done things that they would rather not see in the New York
Times and their children have done things that they might not want to see in the New York
Times and they don't like this sort of condescending use in and therefore you never get up again.
I think Elliot Spitzer has a great deal to offer the people because he's smart.
And we saw what he did when he was attorney general and he really wildly establishment
especially on Wall Street and some of the rats there and I think this is going to scare
an awful lot of people.
I wouldn't be surprised to see them go after him in other kinds of ways.
You may remember that when he resigned there was always talk that somebody might prosecute
him.
He's spitting in their eye and when you spit in the eye of Wall Street when you spit
in the eye of the political establishment let me tell you people get pretty riled.
Legislative Gazette political observer Alan Shartock.
You are listening to the Legislative Gazette program about New York State government and
politics.
I'm David Gistina.
A Republican representative from New York and a Vermont Democratic congressman have teamed
up and submitted legislation that would restrict you as involvement in Syria.
The two were on C-SPAN this week to discuss their bill.
The Legislative Gazette's Pat Bradley has more.
HR 2494 titled the Protecting Americans from the Proliferation of Weapons to Terrorist
Act would prohibit any funding to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense
or any other intelligence entity that would directly or indirectly support military or
paramilitary operations in Syria.
It would cease to apply only if a joint resolution approving assistance is enacted by Congress.
On Wednesday morning the bill sponsors New York Republican Representative Chris Gibson
of the state's 19th district and Vermont Democratic congressman at large Peter Welch
appeared together on C-SPAN's Washington Journal program.
Welch, who is a member of the Oversight and Government Reform National Security Subcommittee,
says their legislation basically means if the president wants to arm the Syrian rebels
he cannot do it without congressional approval.
Chris and I feel very strongly Congress has to be involved in that discussion.
New York's Gibson, a member of the Armed Services Committee and retired U.S. Army
Colonel, says arming rebels would be a very serious escalation.
If another country was to arm rebels for the purpose of attacking our country, we would
view such action as an act of war.
I do not think it's wise to arm the rebels.
I oppose military intervention most certainly.
Before any of that takes place there should be a voice for the American people through
their representatives.
Both congressmen are concerned that a military intervention could backfire and escalate
U.S. involvement in the conflict.
If we arm these rebels we will exacerbate the situation.
We will not resolve it.
We will make it worse.
And we also make ourselves responsible for the civil war.
What they're proposing is that we take military action and they don't address the downside
in the complexity of taking military action when we Americanize that civil war.
Incidentally, arming the rebels is not going to change the military equation.
And then if we talk about further escalation we have to believe that the other actors involved
here are going to take similar tactic, which means that we're heading for a longer term
stalemate and then we'll be drawn into this.
And this is not in our interest.
The program took questions from Collars and via Twitter, including Republican David from
White Lake in Sullivan County, a constituent of congressmen Gibson.
I think that it is absolutely disgusting that the United States is intervening there.
We have no business intervening in Syria.
The complexity with this concept really concerns me.
Having done this work, how difficult it is to establish logistical base, to be able
to vet people we're going to support, how difficult it is then to go through the training.
All while you're getting shot at.
If potentially you're getting shot at 120 degree heat, the efficacy of this is dubious
at best.
And the situation in Syria is very murky.
I don't think that this is going to result of the matter.
Arming these rebels will make it worse, not better, and we can't afford it.
Washington Journal host Greta Bronner read a tweet posed to the duo.
Save tranquility tweets in.
How do we know the CIA has not already sent arms to the rebels in Syria?
And if so, what are the consequences?
Well they probably have.
When I was traveling in the region, the CIA was very, very aggressive and wanting to be
able to arm the rebels.
But I suspect the CIA has been doing some of that.
If that were true, I'd be outraged.
The constitution is very clear.
It's the people's representatives who make decisions such as these.
We are urgent caution.
We say that there must be a vote first.
The American people get a voice.
And we say no to war.
But Syria, by the way.
No one told us in the CIA, or anywhere else, that there was actual army going on.
But I think all of us know that the CIA does things in secret so we don't know what they
were doing.
The bill's restriction does not apply to funding for non-lethal humanitarian assistance for
the Syrian people.
The Senate version of the bill is co-sponsored by Democrat Tom Udall of New Mexico, Mike Lee,
Republican of Utah, Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, and Kentucky Republican Rand Paul.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm Pat Bradley.
The citizens' injustice advocates are showing solidarity with those they believe are
unjustly imprisoned.
The legislative Gazette's Dave Lucas explains.
Yes, in RF, the Albany Imam convicted of material support for terrorism, along with
Pizzeria owner, Muhammad Hussein, after a 2006 FBI sting, is preparing to file a new appeal
asking for a new trial.
This after RF discovered significant new evidence about his case.
Kathy Manley is with the law firm, Kindlyn Shanks.
The government had claimed that Yassine was in Elkeda and that he was somebody named
Muhammad Yassine.
Yassine got this information from a FOIL request of the FBI in late 2011.
It showed that they thought he was this other guy.
This guy got killed by a missile strike in 2010.
It was absolutely proof that he wasn't him, which they should have known much sooner,
actually.
So we're filing a new motion saying that the whole case was predicated on this wrong identification
of Yassine as somebody in Elkeda.
And also it was at the time 2002-2003 when they were desperately looking for any connection
between Elkeda and Iraq.
And Yassine's Iraqi and so they were using him to make that connection, we think.
And it was totally false.
Manley says the evidence was apparently shown to the trial judge and the appeal court,
but not to either the defense attorneys or to the jury at trial.
Project Salam's Lynn Jackson is circulating an online petition that asks the judge who
would hear the appeal, honorable Thomas McAvoy, who was also the RF Hussein Case Trial Judge,
to give its serious consideration.
Saturday, Jackson will set out on a 133-mile walk from Albany to Binghamton to deliver
a petition to support the motion for a new trial.
The reason that I decided to hand deliver the signatures on the petition to the judge's
court is because I felt like we needed to make a statement to let the judge know that
people here in Albany really care about Yassine Iraq and about the RF Hussein case.
And I felt that walking for this distance is an extremely peaceful way of expressing our
concern about the case and our interest in the case.
And also what it does is it allows a lot of opportunity to meet a lot of other people
and to let them know about this particular case.
I'm sure the judge is going to make a very fair decision no matter what.
Jackson expects to arrive in Binghamton the morning of Tuesday, July 23rd.
The RF is serving his 15-year sentence at the Low Security Federal Prison in Laredo,
Pennsylvania.
His release date is October 2018.
Meanwhile, Brendan, Lasluskas Dunn is involved with citizen action and Occupy Utica in the
organization of a series of protests in Utica Friday and Saturday in solidarity with 30,000
inmates involved in a hunger strike in California.
It's specifically against solitary confinement in California's prisons, which has been called
a form of torture by the international community.
There are prisoners in California's prisons who are involved in the hunger strike, some
of whom have been in solitary confinement.
That's in a tiny cell for over 20 years.
Some of them haven't even been outside.
They have not had any human contact with anyone.
Solitary confinement only exists to break people psychologically, mentally, and physically.
So we will be picketing outside of the parole office this Friday and having what unions
used to call a flying picket will be going to cropping banners and holding signs outside
of all the local jails and prisons in Utica.
For the legislative gazette, I'm Dave Lucas.
You are listening to the legislative gazette, a program about New York State government and
politics.
I'm David Gissteena.
As urban farms become a familiar feature of many large cities, they're also presenting
a challenge for zoning laws and regulators.
The innovation trail is actually has hit reports now on the story behind Buffalo's second urban
farm as the east side of the city looks at how to handle more farms in the future.
For a moment, you feel like you're in one of the most rural parts of upstate New York listening
to the serene sounds of birds and insects.
But a few minutes later, a police car barrels by is a friendly reminder that you're in the
city.
The land is was owned by the railroad company for about a hundred years.
Newly wed's Daniel and Alex Ash live in an old two story house on Getree Street located
on the east side of Buffalo or they lease six acres.
It's their first year running their own urban farm.
Somebody at some point we think about 40 to 50 years ago planted about 25 apple trees,
a couple of paratries and three or four cherries.
They haven't been maintained for at least a decade or not more.
And so we're looking to bring those back into production.
Alex Ash came to Buffalo with her parents, Mark and Janice Stevens five years ago from
rural Wyoming County.
The Stevens family owned the other urban farm on the east side, a few blocks away on
Wilson Street.
Alex and Daniel attribute all of their farming knowledge to their parents.
Another important thing that has been successfully passed down is that they feel that they can
do these things.
They can do whatever they want to.
Janice and Mark Stevens say they started farming because they didn't want to grocery
shop for things they could grow themselves.
They also used farming to teach their children life lessons.
I was using example of potatoes from the littlest kid who was like spacing out the potatoes
with their feet to the ones who were you know tamping it over and then when it came to
harvest time we all did that together.
We dug up the potatoes, we sorted them, we stored them in the basement and they would feed
us all winter long.
They knew that they were an integral part of their process.
With the younger Stevens children digging holes for bean plants as part of their summer
project, Daniel Ash talks about why soil is usually a big concern for urban farmers.
If the area that you're growing has been historically residential, you're more likely to have
issues with soil fertility and low levels of organic matter.
They demolish houses they bring in loose fill that's low quality and you're basically
having to start from scratch in terms of building your soil.
Ash says he and his wife got lucky with their soil because the land they lease has never
been developed.
Mark Stevens says the city location has other benefits.
We lived in a large dairy farming community and we were the only really organic people
surrounded by large farmers so we were constantly worrying about this chemicals they were spraying.
What our well water was bringing up because all those chemicals were leaching down in airplanes
flying over to spray the corn so we don't worry about that here.
Alex Ash says that's not the only difference between rural and urban farming.
There's a lot of positive feedback people like whoa this is a great thing you're doing
but other people are like a farm and the city now.
Farm school on the country.
Mark Stevens says they also made the move so they could share their love of farming with
others.
He says they're working with a local co-op called farmer pirates.
So we're sharing equipment.
We have a tractor that we have access to.
We have various tillers that we share lawnmowers.
We share knowledge and the cooperative is now owns some land that is leased to its members.
Composting is another business sideline for the co-op.
As Daniel and Alex pick up ingredients from the local equestrian center, neighbors and
other businesses.
Buffalo has been suffering from a declining population, leaving most homes and lots on its
east side vacant and run down.
City Common Council member David Franz X says that's why he supports the two urban farms
in his district.
You're not going to build houses in every lot.
At one point some developers said well we might want to build.
Well we got plenty of streets with a lot of empty lots where you can build because this
is a great experiment and I think it's been a big success.
Alex Ash says she and Daniel planned to bring chickens, roosters and maybe even goats
to their urban farm in the future.
I would love to get animals.
I want to start working with the city on that soon.
The local member Franz X says right now goats aren't allowed but he'd be open to the
idea if it's done properly.
We're a city, we're not a farm but it's a city that is emptied out more than half its
population and on the east side a lot more than that.
So if there's ways to do it in a way that of a high standard it's something you can
look at because we do allow chickens.
Mark and Janice Stevens say the future looks good for their city farm and others like
it.
In Buffalo I'm Ashley Haset for the Innovation Trail.
That about does it for this week's show.
We had help from the New York State Public Radio Network.
Copies are available call 1-800-323-9262.
That number 1-800-323-9262.
That's for program number 1328 or just listen or podcast on the web at wamc.org.
And join us again next week at the same time for more news on New York State government
and politics.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm David Gazene.
Statewide distribution for the legislative Gazette is made possible by New York State United
Teachers representing professionals in education and healthcare online at nysut.org.
And Nisqaça, the New York State Coalition against Sexual Assault, working to support
men and their decisions to end sexual violence with the My Strength is not for hurting campaign
online at nyscasa.org.