by Erin Lenseth
During Tuesday’s Rensselaer County Legislative Meeting Bob Brignola, a Rensselaer County citizen, addressed the Legislators regarding the recent ballot misprint which made national news. The misprint occurred on roughly 300 absentee ballots that were mailed out throughout Rensselaer County misspelling Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s name as “Barack Osama.”
Brignola gave his opinion on the misspelling of Senator Obama’s surname. “There’s a world of difference between a B and an S on a keyboard,” he said, going on to state that if the error was due to employee negligence then the responsible employees should be held accountable. He later clarified this, stating that he did not think that employees that may be responsible should be fired but that they should be held responsible for the extra expenses occurred as a result of having to mail out the new ballots. He also stated that he believed that both parties were responsible for the error due to a lack of proper oversight and proof reading. Said Brignola, “It had to be a subconscious, if not deliberate, mistake.”
In response, Stan Brownell stated that there will soon be a review of the ballots to determine what happened. He thought the incident was likely the fault of both parties.
Transparency
The meeting had opened promptly with a special guest. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli was present to receive a commendation from the Legislators for the creation of the OpenBookNewYork.com website. The website, which also included the creation of an unclaimed fund database, makes State financial information and decisions available online to the public. DiNapoli said of the program, “This OpenBook New York website was a very home-grown idea,” also commenting that next year will be a difficult time fiscally for New York but that “we’re going to get through this together.” He thanked the Legislature for the honor of the commendation and left to much applause.
Deputies Are EMTs
Sheriff Jack Mahar was also present for a commendation. Under the direction of Mahar, the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Department has a newly instituted program where every Sheriff and Deputy has become a certified EMT. This allows the responding Sheriff’s Department members to be a first line of aid to anyone in need of immediate medical attention. This will be especially essential in rural areas as oftentimes the Sheriffs may arrive ahead of ambulance crews. Legislator Stan Brownell said, “If anyone gets called to Stephentown.. the Sheriffs will be there and be first responders. That is key to rural towns.”
The meeting adjourned just prior to 7:30. Of note in future weeks will be the presentation of 2009 budget for Rensselaer County by County Executive Kathy Jimino.
Meetings of the Rensselaer County Legislature are held on the second Tuesday of every month at the Ned Pattison Government Center in Troy starting at 5:30 pm.