Write a commentI watched the February 2nd, Oswego County Public Safety Standing Committee Meeting online with great interest, because the Committee was voting on a “Resolution Establishing Rules of No Collusion Governing the Participation of the Oswego County Sheriff’s Department in Federal Immigration Enforcement Activities.”
Myself and many others in this community have been lobbying Sheriff Hilton and the Oswego County Legislature to pass a “No Collusion Policy” because we follow the evidence and court rulings that show the Sheriff has cooperated in enabling crimes to be committed against people of this community by ICE and Border Patrol.
The Oswego County Legislature has been completely complicit in supporting the Sheriff’s decision to assist in violating individuals constitutional and due process rights, until the February 2 meeting, where (3) or in my opinion (4) Legislators, voted in the affirmative to advance the Resolution to the full Legislature for consideration.
The quality of meeting videos on the County website are terrible. If you can see the video there may not be audio. If you can hear the audio, it is not of good quality. In person meetings are not much better, as many legislators do not know how to speak into a microphone and they don’t have microphones or name placards at the Standing Committee Meetings.
The Public Safety Committee Meeting was a disgrace. The Chair, Legislator Connolly apparently did not know how to run a meeting and spent most of the meeting talking to Legislator Chesbro, which distracted from the discussion. When the roll was called for a vote on the Resolution for No Collusion, this is what I hear on the video/audio:
Legislator Bombardo “I’m for ICE”
Legislator Yerdon “No”
Legislator Caldwell “Yes”
Legislator Walker “Yes”
Legislator Lockwood “Yes”
Legislator Chesbro “No”
Legislator Connolly (I did not hear him cast a vote)
Despite Legislator Bombardo voting in the affirmative and not the negative, County Administrator Phil Church announced that the Resolution had 3 for and 4 against, so according to Church the Resolution failed. Typically, the Committee Chair announces the results, but at this chaotic meeting the County Administrator took over interpreting the vote count. Since most people at the meeting couldn’t hear well enough to know for themselves, he got away with it.
I hope people will continue to attend and watch their County government in action. I encourage you to speak up at these meetings and demand the transparency we all deserve. From where I sit at my computer screen, the “Resolution Establishing Rules of No Collusion Governing the Participation of the Oswego County Sheriff’s Department in Federal Immigration Enforcement Activities” passed and the County Administrator recorded the vote incorrectly.
