Why Vote 'Yea?'

I was invited to an informal meeting in Cooperstown about the Manor earlier this week; it was a lively discussion and I am grateful for the invitation. During the conversation, I mentioned that I would probably vote for the sale of the Manor, when that question reappears (as you may know, a judge recently voided our first vote (September, 2012) on a technicality). I got an e-mail from one of the participants today, asking why. This is how I replied:

I feel strongly that we need to be following parallel paths in this: the path toward the eventual sale, and the path toward alternatives to the sale. There isn't time to move exhaustively through one alternative before taking up the other, not while owning the Manor is costing the citizens of Otsego Co. five million dollars a year, which translates into cutting many jobs, and even more services, year after year. If there is no alternative solution, we are responsible for acting in a timely manner.

Of course, if there is a solution, if an alternative path is found, the vote is reversible (as is any vote we take). It will be two years, at best, according to the experts, until the sale papers are signed; that's the point we can't go back from. Until that time, I'll work on finding and supporting plans such as the Kosmer plan.

There is no alternative plan, as you know, without the union taking some pretty substantial actions, rapidly. But the fact that the chair of the Board's Negotiating Committee is not committed to finding an alternative plan, and the union has not independently come to the Board to negotiate an alternative plan (the details of which seem to be pretty clear), makes any other approach much more difficult.

I remain committed to supporting any alternative plans that seem like they will work. The difficulties of this path are tremendous, and the time is short.

Formatting Issue

I'm really sorry about the extra white space between paragraphs lately - I've tried a lot of things to eliminate it, but I've had no luck.

Only Mostly Dead

According to the Daily Star, the Kosmer Plan is done. To paraphrase Mark Twain, those reports of its demise may have been exaggerated.

Here's what happened. There was no plan to vote on, or officially launch, any part of the plan at the regular Board meeting on Wednesday. Since it is a time-sensitive plan, this would seriously delay any kind of implementation. I moved that we suspend the rules in order to consider a Resolution putting the plan into action. All but one Representative voted to suspend the rules (both the rule requiring any Resolutions to be available for review three days before the meeting, and the rule requiring any Resolution to come from a Board committee), which I took as a good sign. This meant that we were ready and willing to debate the plan.

The Resolution simply put the plan as written into action. Opposition seemed to focus on the difficulty of individual pieces of the plan – negotiating successfully with the CSEA, creating a poll that could produce reliable results, and then getting the state legislature to approve our 0.25% sales tax increase.

It's true that any one of these steps would be very difficult. That is not, in my opinion, a reason to abandon the effort altogether. And there are reasons to think that it might be successful.

The CSEA should be motivated to cooperate on a plan that would keep the Manor in public hands; they will no longer be able to represent any of the Manor staff once it's sold to a private operator. They have already given some indication of their willingness to talk about it.

Organizations do polls all the time, and we have many experts available to help us word the questions and design the system that would produce a reliable result.

And it is true that Senator Seward has said that he would not support – nor introduce into the Senate – a bill supporting our tax increase this session. But we've all heard of politicians who were 'for it before they were against it,' or vice-versa, and five months is a very long time in the political world. And it's also true that no sales tax increase has been approved by the legislature in five years. But it's also true that never before has a request for a sales tax increase been sent to Albany by a county which has renegotiated a CSEA contract and shown that a vast majority of its citizens support it. As John Kosmer said at the meeting, “That would be state-wide headlines.”

So it's difficult, but not impossible. The County Board, by a relatively slim margin, has rejected it. But the first step – renegotiating the CSEA contract – can be initiated by the union itself. If they are interested in pursing a plan like this, and can assemble a proposal in time – a proposal which would only go into effect if and when the County suspended its search for buyers – the plan could rise again, because at that point there would no doubt be renewed interest in the poll and the sales tax increase.

There's a difference between 'dead' and 'mostly dead.' The CSEA still has a chance to play Miracle Max, taking the initiative the County Board has chosen not to take.

The Kosmer Plan

John Kosmer, County Rep from the Town of Otsego, has asked for this message to be circulated widely, so in the interests of time, I'm going to drop it in here verbatim.

John is the author of what the Daily Star calls 'the Kosmer Plan,' a three-part process that, if completed in all its parts, may eliminate the pressing need to sell the Manor.  His plan will be discussed Wednesday at the BoR meeting.  Here's his message:

The Kosmer Path To Save The Manor framework will be discussed when Kay Stuligross reads the minutes from the last Manor committee meeting even though it is not on the agenda for the upcoming 10:00 AM Wednesday, February 6th Otsego County Board meeting.

The representatives of the board may also be asked something like: “If you are satisfied that Otsego County residents show overwhelming support for a .25 % sales tax increase from 8% to 8.25% to keep the Manor and CSEA is willing to bring personal costs in line with other comparable facilities in the region, would you support Otsego County resident’s overwhelming wishes for a sales tax increase?

If you have an opinion on whether Otsego County should try to keep the Manor by giving the Kosmer Path To Save The Manor framework an opportunity to succeed or you think we should privatize it, I urge you to do two things.

First, come to the Wednesday Otsego County Board meeting to express your opinion during privilege of the floor at the beginning of the meeting. We represent you. Your opinion may be influential to the actions of the board.

Second, contact your County representative before the Wednesday meeting to express your opinion. The County Reps contact information is below.

Of course, if you want to contact me, my e-mail is otsego11@gmail.com.  Let us know what you think.