Memorializing resolutions might be allowed again
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Ulster County lawmakers appear poised to lift their 18-month long ban on memorializing resolutions.
The county Legislature is expected to vote Tuesday to change the its rules to once again allow members to introduce the resolutions, which carry no force of law and often call on the state or federal government to take a particular action or put the county Legislature on the record on a particular issue.
The Legislature banned memorializing resolutions in April 2017 in a largely party-line vote, with all Republicans and two Democrats voting to end the practice after several lawmakers complained the resolutions were becoming too politicized and polarizing.
The proposal to again allow the introduction of such resolutions would require that either the resolution be sponsored by at least one Republican lawmaker and one Democratic lawmaker or that it carry the signatures of at least seven legislators from either one side of the political aisle or the other.
Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk, who fought off attempts to ban the resolutions before acquiescing last year, said he hoped the new sponsorship requirements would keep the most politically motivated measure from the floor.
“For a long time, I supported memorializing resolutions as a great way to stand up for our constituents,” said Ronk, R-Wallkill. “But there were a number of members [of the Legislature] at that point who were using them for purely political reasons.”
In 2016, 14 memorializing resolutions were introduced by legislators, including measures that opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, supported state legislation that called for the immediate suspension of Common Core education standards, opposed the relicensing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant and supported state legislation known as the Gender Expression Nondiscrimination Act.
Ronk said that with eight new members of the Legislature this year, he thinks the dynamic of the body has changed enough to lift the prohibition and bring back the resolutions “as a tool we can use as a voice of the people.”