It must go through Committee!
Protection of school children must go through a committee?
What you missed at the June 9th full legislative meeting and has not been put to print is the following.
A motion was presented at the end of the meeting charging the Chairman of the Legislature to form a taskforce, to find out the feasibility of connecting all (9) school districts security cameras to the E911 center and the Sheriff’s department.
This action, if possible, would save minutes and saving minutes saves lives.
Statements like: This must go through committee! He is going to hold us hostage with these motions!
He is grandstanding!
Grandstanding is the act of attracting attention in order to influence the audience, if it takes Grandstanding to help protect the children, I will Grandstand all day long. It’s not for me, it’s for the children.
Explaining that we needed to start this process as soon as possible, as it is the end of the school year and before you know it, it will be September.
Explaining that it is just a feasibility study; no money will be spent. We need to know if it is possible.
Our children must be protected.
Asking for a roll call vote, upset one legislator so much that he stormed out of the chambers ,saying he wasn’t going to be a part of this vote.
A Statement was made that the presenter was trying to embarrass us with this vote.
Voting to help protect our children will never be an embarrassment.
Voting against such a motion won’t be an embarrassment either; it will show the parents your true colors. You vote for a party over people if that embarrasses you, then vote for the people, not the party.
Time is short. We need to do whatever is possible to protect our children and it should not have to wait for a committee to decide what should be done.
But it is.
The majority overruled the motion by making an amendment taking the action of forming a taskforce to the public safety committee, over 4 weeks away. A time wasting strategy!
Many times, in the past, the majority caucus has moved on items that hadn’t been through a committee.
This should not have been a Democratic or Republican issue, this is and should be a issue to protect our children, nothing more.
This should have been a bipartisan collaboration with only the protection of our children in mind and that is what the presenter was hoping for. It was done as a motion to save time and hopefully save lives.
I must ask: Aren’t our children worth skipping the committee process by moving quickly?
Only action items that require the use of taxpayer money must go through a committee (unless the action is being brought forward by the majority caucus). This action was not going to cost the taxpayer any money to do a fact-finding process.
I say this because when you ask your legislator why he would vote to move this item to a committee. You know the truth.
Frank Castiglia Jr. Minority Leader Oswego County Legislature
*A video of the June 9, 2022 legislature meeting can be viewed here.
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I was present for this meeting and was taken back by the response to this motion. I will admit I do not know all the ins and outs on how all this works, but I will say that since March, two motions have been brought up concerning the children in our community and both were shut right down. What I witnessed at this meeting was appalling. Legislators ganging up on one another, one walking out, and most leaving before the conclusion of the meeting. If the Legislators find it hard to get along with one another, how are they going to come together and do what’s best for our community?