Voting in the Pandemic Era: Safety First.

David Posnett — Tue, 12 May 2020 01:36:06 +0000

Safety First (in the Southampton Press)

As the officers of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee, we wanted to share some thoughts about the controversial decision to cancel the New York State Presidential Primary. We understand that there are Democrats who wished the primary to go forward so that their chosen delegates would have more of a say in the development of the Party Platform. However, there are many circumstances that argue in favor of the decision to cancel the primary.

New York State is constitutionally prohibited from automatically mailing absentee ballots directly to voters. That translates into an onerous process requiring many hands to send out applications, check the applications when returned for validity and then mail out the actual ballots. So, this is a two-step process. Approximately 600,000 applications will be mailed in Suffolk County alone and then, depending on how many completed applications are received back at the Board of Elections, hundreds of thousands of ballots will have to be processed and mailed.

Once ballots are returned, they would be clocked-in, sorted and finally opened after election day, June 23^rd. Furthermore, since Suffolk County does not have scanners to do this work, hundreds of thousands of ballots in Suffolk County will have to be read and tabulated by hand at a time when the Board of Elections does not have a full complement of employees and social distancing rules are in effect.

We do not want any voters to feel disenfranchised, but the reality is that there is no contest for the Democratic candidate for President. This is not the same as canceling the Presidential election on November 3^rd. While the party platform is a worthy aspirational statement of our ideals, it has no teeth unless we elect more Democrats to every branch of government who will then have the power to implement those values. Similarly, the United States Constitution is just a piece of paper, unless there is the political will in this country to enforce it. We have already seen tremendous erosion of the rule of law in the past four years. Instead, let us focus on getting our candidates elected.

This is not politics as usual. This is politics in the midst of a life-threatening pandemic. It makes ultimate sense for us to put safety, health and the well-being of our voters and election workers first.

Gordon Herr, Chair, Southampton Town Democratic Committee

Robin Long, 1st Vice-Chair

Andrea Klausner, 2nd Vice-Chair

Jay Schneiderman

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman pledged to work to make sure all the town’s electrical energy generation comes from renewable sources by 2025 and committed the town to do more to provide affordable housing in his State of the Town Address Tuesday evening.

“That may seem ambitious, but it’s a very possible goal,” said Mr. Schneiderman of the renewable energy pledge, adding that he plans to unveil a bill soon to commit the town to 100 percent renewable energy.

Southampton’s pledge is not without precedent — East Hampton Town committed to producing all its electrical energy from renewable sources by 2020 back in 2014.

Mr. Schneiderman acknowledged that the promise of the Long Island Power Authority’s approval of the South Fork Wind Farm off the coast of Montauk in January helped pave the way to make these pledges attainable.

The wind farm is currently slated to come online in 2022, providing 90 megawatts of power to East Hampton’s transmission substation, with capability for input to other areas of the grid if the wind farm is expanded.

Mr. Schneiderman added that the New York State Energy Research & Development Agency, or NYSERDA, has named the town a Clean Energy Community.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Clean Energy Communities initiative in August of 2016, as part of his Reforming the Energy Vision strategy to help the state meet its goal of producing 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by the year 2030.

Southold Town also achieved a Clean Energy Community designation earlier this year.

Mr. Scheiderman said he’s also excited to bring Diana Weir, who is currently serving as the chair of Brookhaven Town’s office of Housing and Community Development, in to serve in the same role in Southampton, which would be a new position for the town.

“I’ve know Diana for many years. She serves on the East Hampton planning and LTV boards,” said Mr. Schneiderman. “She’s been very involved with housing initiatives.”

Mr. Schneiderman said he’d like to see the town commit to building more affordable rentals, and thanked the community of Speonk for supporting a new 38-unit rental project on North Phillips Avenue, which received a zone change in late March allowing the project to proceed with site plan review.

Mr. Schneiderman said he wants to make it easier for homeowners to build affordable accessory apartments, especially in areas with high land values east of the Shinnecock Canal.

“It would put workers closer to where they work, save traffic, and give a homeowner additional revenue,” he said. “I think it’s going to be an exciting new program.”

Mr. Schneiderman said constituents often come to him looking for help finding a place to live, and he recently sat down to talk with a single mother, who’s taking care of her child and grandchild and works in a local school, who lost her housing and can’t find a place to live.

“Her story is not dissimilar to others,” he said. “They’re part of the fabric of our community, part of who we are…. Our quality of life is deteriorating by the fact that we are not able to house our workforce in reasonable conditions.”

Mr. Schneiderman added that the town’s new Tiana Bay Marine Education Center is due to come online this spring, offering aquaculture programs through Cornell Cooperative Extension.

He also has tasked Councilwoman Christine Scalera and Councilman John Bouvier with putting together a committee to develop and vet projects to improve water quality using newly granted Community Preservation Fund money for water quality projects.

Voters overwhelmingly supported the initiative in a public referendum on last November’s ballot, which would allow the five East End towns to use up to 20 percent of their CPF revenue for water quality projects.

Mr. Schneiderman also said he is hopeful that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ updated Fire Island To Montauk Point Reformulation Study will include money to elevate Dune Road from Hampton Bays to East Quogue.

“We’re waiting for the federal government to put together the final touches,” he said. “It’s very exciting in terms of how its going to protect the shoreline.”

Southampton – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Voting in the Pandemic Era: Safety First.

Safety First (in the Southampton Press)

Schneiderman Pledges Renewable Energy, Affordable Housing in State of the Town Address

East End Beacon