When the mayor is a felon

When Cohoes Mayor Shawn Morse admitted to felony wire fraud in U.S. District Court on Aug. 20, the Cohoes Common Council moved to take him off the city payroll and swear in a replacement. But Mr. Morse may have had the right to keep his office a little longer.

There’s a gray area in New York

about how to treat elected officials who plead guilty in federal court. State Public Officers Law says an elected official must vacate that role if convicted of a felony. But in federal court, a conviction via a guilty plea isn’t considered final until sentencing.

A guilty verdict? Yes, you’re done. A guilty plea? Opinions vary.

State Sen. James Gaughran of Suffolk County is planning legislation to straighten it out, so that future felon officeholders won’t be left wondering. Call it “Shawn’s Law.” Finally, a legacy Mr. Morse can be proud of.

Try again on straw ban

It’s too bad that a recent Schenectady City Council proposal to ban plastic drinking straws came up dry. In place of the ban, which didn’t make it out of committee, the city passed a resolution urging the county and state to pass their own bans on plastic straws.

“I would just like to see the state take the initiative,” City Council President Ed Kosiur said.

But anyone who understands why straws should be banned should also understand the merits of a city-level prohibition: They’re both the epitome of starting small.

Removing plastic straws from the waste stream will put barely a dent in our planet’s twin problems of plastics pollution and climate change — but that’s not such a law’s core purpose. Rather, it’s part of a drive to break our cultural addiction to single-use plastic. Straw bans aren’t a game-changer, but they are a conversation-changer.

As for Schenectady, it sometimes takes a critical mass of local laws to get the state or federal government to act. We saw that recently with the state’s move to ban plastic shopping bags.

Starting small brings results. Schenectady should reconsider, and other communities should look into enacting plastic straw bans, too.

Timing, it seems, is everything

Superintendent Joseph Kardash of the Rensselaer City School District says he never felt “gagged” by the agreement the board made with its neighbor, the S.A. Dunn construction and demolition landfill, not to “oppose, object to or otherwise interfere” with the landfill, in exchange for $125,000 per year.

And yet.

On Aug. 9, the district signed a revised donation agreement in which that language is removed.

On Aug. 20 the district sent a letter to the state Department of Environmental Conservation voicing concerns about air quality as the landfill prepares to open a new “cell” closer to the school.

The timeline seems to speak for itself. Still, it’s good to know the district has found its voice, even belatedly.