New York’s migrant lawsuit against Schuyler County dismissed.

New York City/Watkins Glen (July 19)--A state Supreme Court Justice has thrown out New York City’s lawsuit against Schuyler County over the county’s May state of emergency related the possible relocation of migrant asylum seekers within the state.

On Wednesday (July 19, 2023), Justice Lyle Frank granted Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman’s motion to dismiss the case for a failure by the city to state a cause of action against the county.

In doing so, Frank agreed with Getman that the city’s case against the county was “non-justiciable” and that the city’s arguments for continuing the lawsuit were “speculative and without merit.”

Attorneys from New York City’s 850-lawyer Department of Law had argued that Schuyler County continued to oppose the city's use of hotels in its communities to provide temporary housing assistance to asylum seekers during the statewide migrant emergency, despite the county’s emergency order having expired.

The decision comes a day after Getman traveled to New York City for oral argument before Frank on the motion.

Getman said he was relieved but not surprised.

“We were likely to succeed on a number of our claims, including mootness, arguments that the city lacked standing against Schuyler County and that the lawsuit was brought in an improper forum,” he said.

In May, Schuyler County Legislature Chair Carl Blowers issued a local state of emergency for ten days that prohibited municipal programs from housing illegal migrants or asylum seekers. It also prevented any hotel, short-term rental and motel in the county from entering into a contract to house them. It was issued in response to plans by New York City Mayor Eric Adams to send asylum seekers to other areas of the state. Blowers’ order expired May 21.

In June, New York City sued Schuyler County and more than 30 municipalities and local leaders throughout the state, alleging the emergency orders illegally obstructed the city's efforts to relocate migrants upstate. The suit asked the state Supreme Court to invalidate the emergency orders on claims that they were unconstitutional. It also sought to prohibit the municipalities from taking steps that "restrict or frustrate" the city’s efforts to address the statewide emergency, which Gov. Kathy Hochul declared on May 9.

Judge Frank’s decision applies to Schuyler County only, Getman said. The other municipalities’ motions are expected to be addressed in separate orders.

According to Getman, the city has approximately thirty days to appeal Frank’s decision.

A complete copy of the Schuyler County Attorney’s Memorandum of Law supporting dismissal is here.

A copy of Frank’s decision is available here.

Schuyler County Opposes Hochul Prison Closures

The Schuyler County Legislature has come out against what it called Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “abrupt, secretive and unsafe” prison closures on public safety, economic and environmental grounds.

Meeting in special session on Monday (November 15, 2021), the legislature voted unanimously to enact a resolution opposing the planned closure of six prisons across the state by March of next year: Ogdensburg Correctional Facility; Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility; Willard Drug Treatment Campus; Southport Correctional Facility; Downstate Correctional Facility and Rochester Correctional Facility.

The resolution, drafted for the legislature by County Attorney Steven Getman at the request of Legislator Phil Barnes (R-Watkins Glen) and Chairman Carl Blowers (R-Montour Falls), noted that two of prisons, Southport and Willard, were located in adjoining Chemung and Seneca counties and provided jobs to Schuyler County residents.

“Governor Hochul’s decision impacts hundreds of area correctional officers and prison staff, and means uprooting hundreds of area families and a devastating toll on already hard-hit local economies,” the legislature noted.

Further, the resolution stated, the closure of Willard threatened to “prevent or delay necessary upgrades to the wastewater treatment facilities for Seneca County Sewer District No. 1, which serves (the) Campus as well as Sampson State Park, commercial and residential properties in the hamlet of Willard, the villages of Ovid and Lodi, and users along the east shore of Seneca Lake… potentially endangering the Seneca Lake watershed.”

Finally, the document noted that the state “has recently invested $20 million into operations at Southport, implementing a step-down program to work with the most violent inmates in the state’s prison system to get them ready for reintegration into the general prison population.”

Based on the above, the legislature said it “stands with our brave New York State Corrections Officers, as well as with corrections support staff and their families, whose lives will be devastated by this decision, and other area residents along Seneca Lake and otherwise, and calls for this decision to be reconsidered and reversed immediately.”

At the legislature’s direction, copies of the resolution will be sent by Legislative Clerk Stacy Husted to the Governor, the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, various other state officials and the legislatures of the adjoining counties, among others.

A complete copy of the draft resolution is available here.

Schuyler County Honors Sept. 17 as Constitution and Citizenship Day

The Schuyler County Legislature is recognizing Thursday (Sept 17) as Constitution and Citizenship Day.

The legislature’s resolution, drafted by County Attorney Steven Getman, urges civil and educational authorities of states, counties, cities and towns to make plans for the proper observance of the day and “for the complete instruction of citizens in their responsibilities and opportunities as citizens of the United States, and of the state and locality in which they reside.”

The resolution was approved at the legislature’s Sept. 14 meeting.

Sept. 17 is the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution, which, the county resolution notes, "is the supreme law of the land and the document by which the people of this country self-govern."

In remembrance of the signing of the Constitution and in recognition of the Americans who strive to uphold the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, the Congress, by joint resolution on Feb. 29, 1952 (36 U.S.C. 106), designated Sept.17 as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.

SCHUYLER COUNTY LEGISLATURE... by Steven Getman

Schuyler County Reorganizes, Blowers elected Chair of legislature

Republican Carl Blowers, of Dix, was elected Chair of the Schuyler County Legislature at its annual reorganizational meeting held Thursday. The vote was unanimous among the legislature’s eight members.

In other action, the legislature reappointed Stacy Husted, of Montour Falls as Clerk of the Legislature, Steven Getman, of Watkins Glen, as Schuyler County Attorney and Wesley Roe as Public Defender. Tim O’Hearn continues at County Administrator.

Prior to the voting, County Court Judge Matt Hayden administered the oath of office to newly elected legislators Mark F. Rondinaro (District VII) and Gary L. Gray (District VIII). Blowers, a retired businessman, was first elected to the legislature in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. He is active in a number of organizations, including: the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, the Montour Falls Library, the Arnot Art Museum, the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, the Erie Canal Way Heritage Fund, the United Way of Schuyler County and Catholic Charities of Chemung and Schuyler counties. He has served as a member of the Regional Board of Trustees of Corning Community College as well as its Chairman.

Blowers replaces outgoing chair Dennis Fagan, who did not seek re-election to the legislature.

The County of Schuyler is governed by an eight-person legislature, headed by its Chair. Members serve staggered four-year terms. The legislature, in turn, appoints various department heads to oversee the county’s day to day operations, including the county administrator, public defender, county attorney and clerk to the legislature.

The current members of the legislature are James W.D. Howell, Jr., Gary L. Gray, David M. Reed, Michael L. Lausell, Mark F. Rondinaro, Van A. Harp, Philip C. Barnes and Carl Blowers, Chairman.