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Significant County Charter Changes in the Works
Mobile Hair Salon Services for Seniors Runs into Legislative Snags
by Margaret Sternberg
Legislators started thrashing out where the allegiance of the County Attorney should lie and under what circumstances during their February 19, 2008 meeting. Starting with the County Charter, which states that the County Attorney shall "serve at the pleasure of the County Executive," yet "may be removed by the County Executive, subject to a twothirds vote of concurrence by the County Legislature," the Rules Committee of the Legislature debated the inherent contradiction posed by the removal process versus the phrase "serving at the pleasure of…"
Legislators also attempted to understand the phrase "the County," as referred to in the Charter's discussion on conflicts, wherein the Charter repeatedly refers to "the Legislature or the County" or "the Legislature and the County." Legislature Chairman Tony Hay maintained that according to the County Charter, the County Attorney represents "the will of the Legislative body by a two-thirds majority, which he [County Executive Robert Bondi]…[can] veto and override."
Hay pointed out that despite the Legislature having passed a resolution last summer directing the County Attorney to seek no appeal of the Marathon Battery Settlement, the County Attorney had done so. County Executive Bob Bondi had not been in favor of the settlement, which he has maintained has cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Committee, after running into difficulties with the verbiage, asked the County Attorney to review other counties' charters on the issue, while the Committee is also contemplating giving the County Executive a budget line for outside counsel specific to the County Executive's office.
The Committee also initiated discussions on how to allow itself the power to make midyear changes in the budget, a power currently held only by the County Executive.
In other business, a proposed service to the county's seniors ran into some problems when the Committee tried to issue a license to the one business offering the service, Hair- A-Fair, yet also tried to ensure that the county treats equitably any merchants who might wish to compete to provide this service in the future.
A resolution was approved giving Hair-A-Fair the right to offer the service; however, the resolution was written to enable other companies to bid for the right to the county lease should they want to do so.
Bureau of Emergency Services Commissioner Robert McMahon's request that the Committee allow one of the training rooms at the EMS Center to be named in honor of Cynthia Covell, the first female member of the Patterson Fire Department, who also worked as a patient caretaker at Putnam Hospital for more than 20- years, and as an EMS worker since 1986 (the inception of the EMT program) prompted an extensive discussion based upon a similar request a few months before that had not sought "official sanctioning" by the Legislature.
Although the Committee approved the request, the issue ultimately evolved into a call for a uniform policy in deciding under what circumstances public facilities would be dedicated, and the committee began work on a resolution in which in the future public facilities would only be named after a deserving person who was deceased for at least five years.
Taking their cue from Suffolk County, the Committee also began discussions on adopting a local law that would require that any companies doing business with the County certify compliance with respect to lawful hiring of employees. Although not discussing specifics, Legislator Dan Birmingham said the law, which complies with federal law and has withstood legal challenges, requires that companies doing business with the County "certify that they are following federal law with respect to the hiring of their citizens or adult people…" The law, which was not adopted that evening and will be reviewed by the County's Law Department, covers employees to the subcontractor level. Asked what punishment violation of the law would entail, Birmingham said the Suffolk County law makes violation a misdemeanor, subject to $2,000 in fines and sixmonth imprisonment.
The March meeting of the Legislature's Rules Committee will be posted on the PCNR's website as soon as it becomes available.
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