Biased wording in Family Court proposition?
A county legislator calls the phrasing “manipulative and totally against democratic principles.”
An Ulster County legislator from Kingston is taking issue with the wording of a ballot proposition that will ask voters with the county’s Family Court should be moved from Lucas Avenue in Kingston to the county’s Business Resource Center in the town of Ulster.
Democrat David Donaldson said the wording seems intended to convince voters to support the plan.
“That is manipulative and totally against democratic principles,” he said.
The proposition, which the Legislature approved last month in an 18-4 vote, reads:
“In order to improve services to the children and families of Ulster County, reduce the need to raise property taxes and satisfy state mandates, the County of Ulster proposes to relocate the current leased site of the Ulster County Family Court, located at 16 Lucas Avenue in the City of Kingston, County of Ulster, State of New York, to a more suitable county-owned property situated less than 800 feet from the City of Kingston line, located at 1 Development Court, Ulster Avenue in the Town of Ulster, County of Ulster, State of New York. Shall this proposition be approved?”
Donaldson was among the four legislators who voted against the proposition. The others were Jennifer Schwartz Berky, D-Kingston, Manna Jo Greene, D-Rosendale, and John Parete, D-Boiceville.
Parete also sees the wording as biased in favor of the move but disagrees with Donaldson about the influence that will cause.
“It can be a little editorializing but not to the point that it would clearly make a difference in the minds of the voters,” he said.
Greene said the wording was an improvement over earlier versions, and she thanked legislature Chairman Ken Ronk, R-Wallkill, for making the wording less one-sided.
“The original wording was completely inappropriate,” she said. “It really was a sales pitch . ... I think because of the input that the chairman got, he did that. He toned it down.”
Ronk, said an effort was made to keep the language neutral but that some explanation of the need for the move was necessary.
“I think that it was a model process,” he aid. “I reached out early on . ... Technically, it’s the clerk of the Legislature who drafts, and she chose to involve me, the county executive, the county attorney and the legislative counsel because we ... want to make sure we get it right.”
Ronk said similar referendums from other communities were used to draft the Ulster County language.
Ulster County has been under pressure from the state to improve its Family Court facility. The proposed move to the town of Ulster, which is favored by both County Executive Michael Hein and the state Office of Court Administration, requires a public vote because it would result in the facility being outside the county seat.
Donaldson has said in the past that the county did not do enough to find another location in Kingston where the court could operate.
State court officials have called the existing Family Court building “wholly inadequate and not suitable for the transaction of court business” and have warned that the Office of Court Administration could cut off state aid if the county does not address the deficiencies.