New Interview, Poll Question

Why would reform groups that had once favored non-partisan municipal elections campaign against the concept when it was put before the voters of NYC in 2003? That was what puzzled Francis S. Barry who served on the commission that developed the referendum. His search for the answer led to “The Scandal of Reform,” a book published by Rutgers University Press in 2009 that helps us understand the role of reform organizations in NY City and NY State politics.

It was my pleasure to interview Barry, who currently serves as Senior Policy and Communications Advisor to Mayor Bloomberg, for the Empire Page. A link to the interview can be found on the home page or in the Improving New York section to the site.

Poll Question of the Week

Last week we asked our readers who will be the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Senate seat currently occupied by Kirsten Gillibrand. Sixty-eight percent believe Gillibrand will be the nominee; 22 percent think it will be former NYC Comptroller Bill Thompson; 8 percent are uncertain and 2 percent like Jonathan Tasini — a recently Empire Page interviewee.

This week we’d like to know who you think the GOP will pick to run in November 2010 for that seat? Will it be Rudy Guiliani, George Pataki or Larchmont Mayor Liz Feld — another person previously interviewed for the Empire Page?

Have a good week and don’t forget to vote in our poll.

The Stamp of Disapproval

An article in today’s Buffalo News reports on the growing disapproval of policies instituted by the Post Service that don’t seem to be well thought out or made with any consideration of the consumer.

What do newspapers and the Post Office have in common?

I’ve been visiting the Post Office more often in recent years than I used to when I was CEO and Empire Information Service employees would make the daily stop at our box in Schenectady. What I find reminds me of why newspapers are failing. Both have a huge investment in an outmoded infrastructure. Both own buildings that are large and expensive to maintain based on early 20th century technology. The buildings are larger than needed for the future. Both also have bureaucratized business structures which results in an inability to modernize.

The weakest component of newspapers is their delivery systems where they’ve made pratically no investment in technology and as a result put customers at the mercy of systems that breakdown at the smallest sign of stress. For example, when I returned to my winter home from my summer residence in the Adirondacks, I asked my newspaper carrier to provide Sunday only delivery for a month (because I knew I would not be around consistently and didn’t want to pay for papers I wasn’t going to read) and then start up with daily delivery on a set date.

That was too much for them to be able to manage. The Sunday sub didn’t start when I asked them to start it and daily delivery started too soon. The people I talked to were always very nice and helpful. It’s the systems that they have been given to work with that are defective.

Back to my visits to the Post Office. Over the summer I had my personal and business mail forwarded. There were huge problems with forwarding the business mail. The PO threw out anything that wasn’t first class, which one of their employees confessed included bank statements and the like. They told me I need to pay them to have all of my business mail forwarded next year. In other words they have deliberately offered a free service — forwarding — that is so bad that people are forced to pay not to have their mail thrown out!

Then there’s the totally inefficient window service system. People have to stand in the same line to get passport photos, pick up mail that doesn’t fit in one’s PO Box, buy stamps (because as the News reports the PO is removing the vending machines), etc. No wonder many of the people who work at those counters come to resent having to deal with customers and take forever for simple transactions.

Bottom line. You want a single payer healthcare system run by the government? Visit your local post office to see what that could feel like in 2020!

New Poll Question & New Interview

In keeping with our goal of interviewing people running for statewide office in 2010, we interviewed labor activist Jonathan Tasini who hopes to primary Kirsten Gillibrand for the US Senate seat that she was appointed to.

We are also asking you to gaze in to your crystal ball and tell us who you think the Democratic Party nominee for that seat will be in 2010? Will it be Gillibrand or Tasini or perhaps Bill Thompson who did better than predicted in his run for NYC mayor?

Last week 37% of our readers told us the Republican Party will have a banner year in 2010; 25% think the Conservative Party will have a great year; 21% like the Democrats’ chances while 11% think it’s the Independence Party’s year. Only 6% see 2010 as the Working Families Party’s year.

Personally I think the Empire Page will have a banner year with more interviews, more roundtables, more news stories served to more subscribers than in 2009. Help me make it so by inviting your friends and colleagues to subscribe. Our standard rate is less than a quarter a day. Subscription links can be found on our home page.

Top Editorial & Poll Question of the Week

Last week we asked Empire Page readers whether Governor Paterson should act unilaterly to close the budget deficit that the Legislature failed to fix? 56% of our readers said ‘Yes’ while only 22% said ‘No.’ Another 22% said it depended on what the Governor did to close the gap.

This week we want you to study the tea leaves or look into your crystal ball — which ever method you like to employ to see the future — and tell us which of the state’s 5 largest political parties will have a banner year? Vote on our home page.

Top Editorial for Sunday December 13

The Glens Falls Post Star gets my vote for producing the best editorial of the day. In “State has reached the crisis point,” their editorial board keeps us focused on the major issue of the day, which is not the conviction of Joe Bruno or even gay marriage, but rather the fact that New York is out of money and the old ways of dealing with these periodic crises will not work.

If you want further evidence check out the statement Comptroller DiNapoli issued on Friday in which he says we have more obligations to pay in the remainder of the month of December than we have cash on hand.

With $1.739 billion on hand we have $634 million in pending payments AND scheduled payments of $2.5 billion for School Property Relief, $1.6 billion due THIS WEEK for school aid and $461 million owed municipalities.

To me that adds up to needing more than $5 billion with less than $2 billion available.

“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that property taxes could double in the next few years if government at all levels refuses to address the issues head-on,” the Post Star writes. If that comes about the National Guard might have to be brought out to control traffic on the highways out of the state!

What do you think we should do? Stay tuned for the views of the Empire Page’s columnists.

Poll Questions Focus on Budget Deficit

Mid-week last week the Legislature went 80% towards reducing the state’s projected 2009-10 budget shortfall. We asked our readers to grade the Legislature’s efforts. Forty eight percent gave the Legislature an ‘F’; 25 percent gave them a ‘D’. Only 4 percent of those who voted gave the Legislature an ‘A,’ 7 percent gave them a ‘B,’ and 15 percent gave them a ‘C’.

Our poll question this week asks if our readers favor Gov. Paterson acting unilaterally to reduce state spending by the missing 20%?

Mid-Week Poll Question

When events make a poll question moot, we get a chance to ask another.

This week we were asking our readers whether they favor a salary freeze for public officials. 63 percent said ‘yes’; 35% said ‘no.’

But the Legislature finally acted and passed their version of a Deficit Reduction Plan (DRP) — although leaving the state at least $400 million short of the projected shortfall. Maybe they think Santa Claus will make up the rest?

So how do you think the Legislature did this week? Go to the home page and give them a grade A-F.

Poll Q of the Week

More than a third of those who participated in last week’s Poll Question of the Week on the Empire Page, do NOT think Rudy Guiliani will run for US Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand and only 55% think he will.

This week we’re asking you if Gov. Paterson should freeze state salaries as a one means to balance the state’s 2009-10 budget and get a head start on reversing the projected $20 billion budget gap the state is facing over the next 2 & 1/2 years? That’s the recommendation of John Faso, former state legislator and 2006 Republican candidate for governor in an op-ed in the Albany Times Union.

Faso’s other recommendations are to freeze state aid to schools for at least 2 years, enact a “less generous” pension plan for new public employees — something Gov. Paterson has also put forth, eliminate the ability of the gov. and Leg. to incur new debt w/o voter approval, adopt a property tax cap and “sweep away state laws that only serve special interest…especially those that are related to labor negotiations and building construction.”

Upcoming listen to Capitol Pressroom Friday on WCNY for my discussion with host Susan Arbetter of two books on political philosophy that were written after Bush’s victory in 2004: Ronald Dworkin’s “Is Democracy Possible Here?” and George Lakoff’s “The Political Mind.” The program starts at 11 AM.

Poll Question of the Week: Will Rudy challenge Kirsten?

Last week we asked our readers if they agreed with Eric Holder’s decision to try KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) and his cohorts in federal court in NYC rather than by a military court? Only 36% of those who voted agreed with Holder; 59% disagreed and 5% had no opinion.

This week we’re asking you if Rudy (Guiliani) will challenge Kirsten (Gillibrand) for New York’s junior Senate seat? If he announces his decision before the end of the polling period (next Sunday, November 29), we’ll find another question for you to consider.

Ten things we have to be thankful for:

1) Andrew Cuomo for pushing government consolidation and not just attacking Wall Street.

2) John Sampson for stepping into the leadership void in the Senate.

3) Tom DiNapoli for being ten times the Comptroller his predecesor was without stealing from the voters while doing it.

4) David Paterson for trying to do his job with little leverage over the Legislature.

5) Doug Hoffman for giving conservative voters in the 23rd district a choice.

6) Bill Owens for running a thoughtful, clean race.

7) Unshackle Upstate for not letting the Legislature forget about upstate.

Siena College Research Institute for their monthly political polls.

9) WCNY for giving Susan Arbetter a platform.

10) My 4 editors (Janet, Linda, Joe and Greg) who get up early in the morning to provide 300+ links to news stories, editorials and columns on NYS gov’t & politics.

Ten things we are not thankful for:

1) The reckless self-serving June coup and its leaders.

2) The leaders of the Assembly and Senate who negotiated a budget last spring that was irresponsible in raising spending.

3) Governor Paterson for signing last spring’s budget.

4) The leaders of the Legislature who continue to try to raise money to balance the state budget with gimmicks and one-shots instead of having the courage to cut spending.

5) Local government officials who refuse to face the reality of the current fiscal climate.

6) Local officials who put their own interests ahead of the public’s by refusing to consider the benefits that sharing services and government consolidation offer.

7) The state’s newspaper editorial writers who criticize the Legislature without being willing to take a stand on issues such as where to cut spending or how to cap escalating property taxes.

The people going back 2 or 3 admininstrations who approved spending $22 billion of Highway Funds on projects for which they were not intended.

9) The managers at Newsday, the NY Post and other media websites who allowed their programmers and web designers to create websites that sacrifice content for the sake of design.

10) AOL, Yahoo and the other email service providers that block the Empire Page’s emails to our subscribers and friends.

On balance we’re thankful for all of our subscribers and friends. Have a happy!

Poll Question of the Week

Last week we asked Empire Page readers if aid to education should be included in the cuts necessary to balance New York’s budget. Surprisingly 72% of those who voted think it should be included while only 20% do not. Gov. Paterson will attempt to get the Legislature to agree on some means of bridging the $3.2 billion deficit this week.

This week we’re asking readers to tell us whether they support US Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try the alleged mastermind of 9/11 and his colleagues in New York City. The announcement on Friday resulted in a rash of negative reactions, although I’m not sure I understand why. It seems to me that New Yorkers would want the trial held in the city where the greatest death toll and destruction took place rather than in some remote location. So, it will be interesting to see how the Empire Page readers vote.

Click here to go to the home page to vote.

A World Few Care To Enter

Prison; Twenty-Five Years as a New York State Correction Officer by Chris Leo.

In a famous experiment in the 1970s at Stanford University a professor created a “prison” in the basement of an academic building, then brought in a group of volunteers screened to exclude any with past involvement in the criminal justice system. The group was divided up arbitrarily into inmates and guards. Within hours members of each group began acting as if the situation were real. The “guards” imposed increasingly harsh punishments of any degree of resistance to their authority and the “inmates” began to exhibit typical prisoner behavior. The experiment had to be called off before planned as the guards’ treatment became so severe as to cause multiple “inmates” to breakdown.

As much as people want to believe that upbringing, religious beliefs, personalities AND TRAINING can overcome the influences of the prison environment, evidence from history as well as numerous academic studies demonstrate otherwise. The fact of the matter is that prisons are an unnatural social environment where thick rulebooks are necessary to control every aspect of the behavior of the guards as well as the prisoners.

The general public has little appreciation of the impact prisons have on guards or “correction officers” as they are known in most systems. They also have no idea that many guards feel they are treated worse by prison administrations than the inmates. Social scientists view this is a natural characteristic of prison systems in which even administrators who might like to supply CO’s with proper respect support and training are constrained from doing so in order to preserve the totality of the system.

Keep in mind that prisons exist so that society can punish those who have violated its laws by denying them liberty for a period of time that is supposedly commensurate with their crime. One problem with that formula is the tendency to escalate punishment for existing crimes as well as continuously add new crimes to the books as legislators find that it is easier to be “tough on crime” than risk non-penal solutions to social misbehavior. Those same legislators however do not find providing funds for programs, training or a sufficient number of guards to ease the tension between guards and administrators helps their re-election efforts.

Chris Leo, Sr. began his career as a CO at the age of 18 at a time when New York was having trouble finding enough people over the age of 21 to take the job. After 25 years of service he “retired” to take on the duties of legislative director of the NYS Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), a group which won the right to represent New York CO’s when a previous union was seen as not having fought hard enough on their behalf.

Leo has self-published a brief book in which he discloses some of his own experiences as a CO and details his complaints against the NYS Dept. of Correctional Services (DOCS). Leo’s stories are instructive and I recommend the book for anyone who cares about what really takes place inside our prisons. The problem is that it’s hard to envision a world in which Leo’s complaints are adequately addressed.

Today in New York demographic factors have reversed the long-build up of the prison population from under 20,000 in the late 1970s to over 70,000 at the turn of the century. The decline in the prison population has enabled DOCS to begin the process of closing prisons, but in so doing they have not mitigated NYSCOPBA’s view that the corrections officer is lower on the state totem pole than the prisoner. (Read my interview with NYSCOPBA president Donn Rowe for further details.) Given New York’s fiscal situation unless there is a sharp upturn in crime, increasing funding for DOCS is and will continue to be the lowest of priorities.

The most optimistic outcome of the current economic and political climate would be a continued decline in the overall prison population while maintaining most of the current number of correction officers. That and more insights like those provided by Leo into what a CO has to go through on a daily basis might help NYSCOPBA achieve its mission and give Leo cause to feel putting his life on the line for 25 years were not in vain.

Click here to learn how you can purchase the book or contact Chris Leo at 518/573-2996; email: chrisleo.leo@gmail.com.