Lawmakers looks to ban officials from PSAs
KINGSTON, N.Y. » If Ulster County Legislator Joseph Maloney has his way, gone will be those public service announcements in which one elected official or another urges county residents to get their flu shot, use their seat belt or quit smoking.
Maloney, I-Saugerties, has proposed a local law that would prohibit elected officials from attaching their name to any messages disseminating information to the public.
The county Legislature is expected to consider the resolution establishing the ban as county policy when it meets Tuesday.
“If we’re going to inform people of things with their own money, I think we should leave politics out of it, and that means leaving people’s names out of it,” the freshman legislator said. “I think people are frustrated when they turn on the radio and hear a taxpayerfunded ad mentioning elected officials.”
Maloney, who took office in January, said his original resolution would have banned the use of the names or likenesses of elected officials on any county signs or property, but that the measure was scaled back as a result of discussions with other legislators.
Maloney said he sees the change as a way to hold the county more accountable and said the measure isn’t intended to impede government operations or to target a particular elected official.
“I just look at this as good government and fairness to people,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe people use their seat belts because they heard a radio ad with the sheriff saying to do so or get a flu shot because the county executive urges it.
The policy would not apply to appointed officials, he said.