Full Board Resolution re: Faso Amendment

I almost forgot that the reason I started writing about the Faso-Collins Amendment was to outline the Otsego County Board's actions before and during the July meeting, regarding a resolution to support the Amendment.

Ed Frazier, of Unadilla, brought the support resolution to the Administration Committee, where that kind of thing is debated and approved. Ed and I are both on Admin. Ed felt – and still feels – strongly that the kind of unfunded mandate that the county Medicaid payments represent is an egregious injustice and must be addressed. I agree with him entirely.

However, as noted below, I do not think the Amendment will do that; in fact, I think it will do the opposite. So I voted against it in the Administration Committee, after an extensive debate. The other four members voted for it, so it was put on the full Board agenda for the July meeting.

On the full Board agenda, the resolution was listed as coming from the Administration Committee, with the names of all five members, even though I voted against it in committee. This is the way it is always done, and has always been done, for every resolution that comes from a committee. Whether you voted for it, or against it, or weren't even there, your names goes on the full Board resolution. My apologies to all who were confused by this.

As you probably know, a great many citizens, many of them professionals in the fields that are impacted by this Amendment, came to the full Board meeting and every one spoke against it – eloquently, with passion and precision. Thank you all.

The resolution was pulled from the Consent Agenda (all the resolutions that no one wants to debate or ask questions about, and which are voted on en masse) so it could be debated. Then the Chair of the Administration Committee, Craig Gelbsman, polled the members of Admin, who voted, 4-1, to pull the resolution from the full Board agenda permanently. Ed Frazier voted 'no,' meaning he'd still like to debate and vote on it. Ed has said, and I fully believe him, that his approach to this resolution was to address the unfunded mandate, and was completely unrelated to the ACHA.

Nevertheless, Otsego County will not go on record as supporting a cynical, manipulative amendment to a terrible, destructive Federal bill, thanks, no doubt, to the outpouring of citizen opinion.

So – democracy! Cool, eh?