The Petition to Stop the County Executive's Games-- and Add Fred Knapp to the County Payroll
Sign Now
Incredibly, over six months after former Co. Leg. Fred Knapp was appointed to be Assistant to County Legislature Chair Roger Higgins January 9th, he still hasn't been put on our county payroll-- though even G.O.P. Justice James Brands on April 29th ruled that the County Executive has no authority whatsoever to block the hiring of Knapp, and found that Steinhaus should be compelled to place Knapp on the county payroll.
Specifically, Brands made clear in his Apr. 29th decision that, "The Dutchess County Legislature is an equal, separate, and distinct part of the government force of the county. Not only must the legislative branch have its independence to promulgate legislation, but moreover, it needs to have independent authority to tend to its own internal affairs. Were this court to permit the withholding of this appointment, it would amount to the de-facto establishment of a 'vacancy factor' for the legislative branch by executive fiat rather than legislative process."
Enough-- time for Mr. Steinhaus to cut the garbage, stop the games, and end this bizarre saga that continues to be a bigger and bigger embarrassment to all of us in Dutchess County.
So-- if you agree that Fred Knapp should no longer be disrespected in this manner by our County Executive, sign on to this petition, pass it along to all you know, send a letter to Mr. Steinhaus directly at [email protected], and ask others to do the same.
Joel Tyner
County Legislator (Clinton/Rhinebeck)
324 Browns Pond Road
Staatsburg, NY 12580
[email protected]
(845) 876-2488
[I sat next to Fred Knapp and shared a desk in our county's Legislative Chambers for three years in our County Legislature (2004, 2005, and 2006) and found the man to indisputably be a public policy genius, extremely experienced and well-versed in the ways of our county government, having served as assistant to former County Executive Lucille Pattison, for many years as county legislator-- and by far, frankly the most effective and eloquent persuader I have witnessed within the Democratic caucus (with all due respect to the rest of my colleagues)-- over and over again guiding us and turning us around on issue after issue over the four years I served with him, and particularly influential for years now in developing and honing the Democratic position on county budget/tax issues. Point-blank-- he doesn't deserve the treatment he is getting. Period. It's not just a disrespect to him-- it's a disrespect to the entire caucus, everyone who voted last November for a Democratic majority in our County Legislature (the first here in Dutchess in thirty years), and anyone who cares about democracy in our county (all 300,000 or so of us)-- and it should end.]
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Recall-- a front-page article July 27th from the Sunday Daily Freeman referred to "...a hiring freeze imposed by Republican Steinhaus last December and used in January to block the Legislature's new Democratic majority from putting Democrat Fred Knapp on the payroll as assistant to Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins. In May, state Supreme Court Justice James Brands ruled Steinhaus lacked the authority to keep Knapp off the payroll..." [see:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19873688&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6]
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Recall this headline from the Daily Freeman April 30th as well...
"Judge Rules Against Steinhaus in Dutchess Hiring Dispute"
by Patricia Doxsey
http://www.redhookconcerns.com/all-news/judge-rules-against-steinhaus-in-dutchess-hiring
POUGHKEEPSIE - In a blow to Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus, a state Supreme Court justice has ruled the county Legislature is a separate, co-equal branch of government largely outside the reach of the executive.
In a five-page decision, dated Tuesday, Justice James Brands said that, as such, Steinhaus has no authority to block the hiring of Fred Knapp, who Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins appointed as his assistant, and found the county executive should be compelled to place Knapp on the payroll.
The ruling, however, is significant beyond the appointment of Knapp as the full-time staff assistant to Higgins because it eliminates all questions about the authority of the executive branch over the legislative branch of government by declaring them "co-equal" branches of government.
"The Dutchess County Legislature is an equal, separate and distinct part of the government force of the county," Brands wrote in his ruling. "Not only must the legislative branch have its independence to promulgate legislation, but moreover, it needs to have independent authority to tend to its own internal affairs."
Higgins, D-Wappinger, lauded the judge's ruling, saying Democrats "always felt we were on the high ground on this issue."
"We're very pleased," Higgins said. "We've always believed, exactly as the judge indicated, there is a separation of powers between two equal branches of government. Now we can get Mr. Knapp on the payroll and get down to the serious business of county government."
"The court has ruled clearly that we were right in this position," Knapp said. "Hopefully the county executive now sees clearly that it's time to get on with the county's business and separate his individual battle with the Legislature from the needs of the county."
The lawsuit, brought against Republican Steinhaus by the Democratic-led Legislature and Knapp, stems from Steinhaus' refusal in January to place Knapp on the payroll...Steinhaus implemented the freeze weeks after the Legislature adopted a budget that failed to include a pay raise for Steinhaus...days before the Democrats took control of the Legislature after 30 years of Republican rule...But Brands rejected Steinhaus' attempt to use the terms hiring freeze and vacancy factor as interchangeable phrases, stating the two have different meanings and implications under the law, and said the executive lacks the authority to impose a hiring freeze outside the fiscal year or impose the vacancy factor requirements on the legislative branch.
"However laudable the concept of preserving tax dollars may be, the justification for reaching over and interfering with the actions and will of a co-equal branch of government would have to be extreme, if permissible at all," the judge wrote. "Were this court to permit the withholding of this appointment, it would amount to the de-facto establishment of a 'vacancy factor' for the legislative branch by executive fiat rather than legislative process," he stated.
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And this one from the June 26th Daily Freeman...
"Dutchess Exec OKs Filling One Vacancy"
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19804846&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6
by Patricia Doxsey
POUGHKEEPSIE - Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus has given the county Legislature clearance to hire a stenographer, filling one of three vacancies in the legislative offices.
But it remains up an appeals court to decide whether Steinhaus also must put Fred Knapp on the payroll as assistant to Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins.
On Tuesday, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Second Department, considered a motion by the Legislature to either compel Steinhaus to put Knapp on the payroll immediately or expedite the executive's appeal of a lower court ruling ordering Knapp's hire.
Legislature attorney David Sears said on Wednesday that he expects the Appellate Division to issue a decision within days.
Higgins, D-New Hamburg, said he was pleased the executive has authorized the clerical position, which he said will reduce the stress on the current staff of a clerk, deputy clerk and senior stenographer.
But the chairman criticized the executive for "playing politics" over the legislative appointments.
"This whole thing has obviously become very political," Higgins said.
Steinhaus is a Republican. The Legislature is controlled by Democrats.
Steinhaus was not available for comment Wednesday, and county Budget Director Valerie Sommerville declined to comment.
Since becoming the majority party in the Legislature in January, Democrats have struggled to place their people in five legislative posts previously held by Republicans.
In February, Steinhaus allowed Clerk Barbara Hugo and Deputy Clerk Jon Gautier to be hired. But it wasn't until earlier month-- the day after Steinhaus was served with the Legislature's motion to vacate the stay, according to Higgins-- that Steinhaus OK'd the stenographer's hire.
The Legislature and Knapp sued Steinhaus over his steadfast refusal to put Knapp on the payroll, arguing the Legislature was a separate and equal branch of government over which Steinhaus lacked control. In an April 29 ruling, state Supreme Court Justice James Brands sided with the Legislature and ordered Steinhaus to put Knapp on the payroll.
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This one as well from the March 25th Daily Freeman...
"Dutchess Legislature Sues Steinhaus Over Hiring Freeze"
By Patricia Doxsey
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19423081&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6
POUGHKEEPSIE - Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus will have to answer in court for the hiring freeze he implemented in December.
County Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins announced on Tuesday that he has followed through on a legislative resolution authorizing him to sue Steinhaus for the freeze that has kept Higgins' assistant, Fred Knapp, off the county payroll.
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court on Tuesday, lists Knapp and the Dutchess County Legislature as petitioners.
"Last fall, the county Legislature, free of county executive vetoes, unanimously approved a county budget. ... The county executive is now attempting to undo that process, and he does not have the legal authority to do so," Higgins, D-Wappinger, said in a prepared statement. "The county executive has demonstrated disdain and disregard for the (county) charter, the budget process and the Legislature and that, simply, is unacceptable"...
As a result of the freeze, the Steinhaus administration has declined to put Knapp-- who was appointed on Jan. 9 - on the payroll, making Higgins the first Legislature chairman in at least three decades to operate without a full-time staff assistant.
On Jan. 31, the Legislature voted 14-11, along party lines, to authorize Higgins to take all necessary steps, including court action, to repeal Steinhaus' hiring freeze.
"It's been three months," Higgins said on Tuesday. "I think it's time we get a clear picture as to the rights that are outlined in the charter and what we can or cannot do."
The lawsuit alleges Steinhaus overstepped his authority by imposing the hiring freeze on the legislative branch, which Higgins said is "a separate but equal" branch of government.
"The most offensive aspect of the county executive's action is the disregard of the fundamental principles of the American constitutional system and the doctrine of the separation of powers," the lawsuit states.
"The charter creates a Dutchess County Legislature and a county executive as separate and distinct branches of government," it also states.
Knapp said the central issue in the lawsuit is not his placement on the payroll but the authority of the county Legislature.
"It's about maintaining the integrity of the charter-provided provisions and privileges of the county Legislature, which are intended to maintain a balance of power between the county executive and the Legislature. and is something the county executive continues to ignore," Knapp said...
Steinhaus did not return a reporter's phone message on Tuesday.
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Finally, this from the Dutchess Beat March 28th...
[http://www.theweeklybeat.net/2008/03/28/couhigginslawsuit.html]
"Court Gesture: Legislature Chairman Higgins Sues Steinhaus Over Hiring Freeze"
By Steve Hopkins
We knew it was coming sooner or later. It was just a matter of when Dutchess County Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins (D-New Hamburg) would reach the end of his rope - and on Tuesday, March 25, he did. Firing off a scathing press release to back up his action, Higgins, who had allowed nearly two months to elapse since the Democratic-controlled legislature's January decision gave him the go-ahead, slapped County Executive William Steinhaus with an Article 78 lawsuit over his imposition of a countywide governmental hiring freeze at the beginning of the fiscal year 2008. Higgins termed Steinhaus's hiring freeze vis-а-vis the legislature: illegal, arbitrary and capricious.
The freeze, which Democrats maintain was politically motivated to prevent their new majority from filling key legislative positions with their own people, initially kept Higgins and company from hiring anyone at all, including a clerk and deputy clerk of the legislature to send out agendas, take down meeting notes and perform all the other administrative duties for the 25-member body. Steinhaus partially relented in February...allowing the hiring of Clerk of the Legislature Barbara Hugo and Deputy Clerk Jon Gautier to replace the Republicans former clerk, Patricia Hohmann, and her deputy, Carolyn Morris. He also subsequently didn't prevent them from hiring Democrat David Sears as legislative counsel at a reduced rate of $35,606...
Highest on Higgins's hiring wish list is his still officially jobless assistant, Fred Knapp, who is a party in the Article 78 lawsuit as well...In filing the lawsuit, Higgins continued to maintain that the hiring freeze applied to the county legislature by the county executive is not only illegal but has been applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner, and that Steinhaus has failed or refused to acknowledge the charter-provided powers and privileges of the county legislature.
Charging that Steinhaus ignores the charter's provision for a balance of power between the executive and legislative branches, Higgins will be trying to get a state Supreme Court justice in Dutchess County to agree that the county executive has no legal authority over the Legislative budget, lift the freeze with regard to the legislature, and make Steinhaus put Knapp on the payroll.
Specifically, Brands made clear in his Apr. 29th decision that, "The Dutchess County Legislature is an equal, separate, and distinct part of the government force of the county. Not only must the legislative branch have its independence to promulgate legislation, but moreover, it needs to have independent authority to tend to its own internal affairs. Were this court to permit the withholding of this appointment, it would amount to the de-facto establishment of a 'vacancy factor' for the legislative branch by executive fiat rather than legislative process."
Enough-- time for Mr. Steinhaus to cut the garbage, stop the games, and end this bizarre saga that continues to be a bigger and bigger embarrassment to all of us in Dutchess County.
So-- if you agree that Fred Knapp should no longer be disrespected in this manner by our County Executive, sign on to this petition, pass it along to all you know, send a letter to Mr. Steinhaus directly at [email protected], and ask others to do the same.
Joel Tyner
County Legislator (Clinton/Rhinebeck)
324 Browns Pond Road
Staatsburg, NY 12580
[email protected]
(845) 876-2488
[I sat next to Fred Knapp and shared a desk in our county's Legislative Chambers for three years in our County Legislature (2004, 2005, and 2006) and found the man to indisputably be a public policy genius, extremely experienced and well-versed in the ways of our county government, having served as assistant to former County Executive Lucille Pattison, for many years as county legislator-- and by far, frankly the most effective and eloquent persuader I have witnessed within the Democratic caucus (with all due respect to the rest of my colleagues)-- over and over again guiding us and turning us around on issue after issue over the four years I served with him, and particularly influential for years now in developing and honing the Democratic position on county budget/tax issues. Point-blank-- he doesn't deserve the treatment he is getting. Period. It's not just a disrespect to him-- it's a disrespect to the entire caucus, everyone who voted last November for a Democratic majority in our County Legislature (the first here in Dutchess in thirty years), and anyone who cares about democracy in our county (all 300,000 or so of us)-- and it should end.]
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Recall-- a front-page article July 27th from the Sunday Daily Freeman referred to "...a hiring freeze imposed by Republican Steinhaus last December and used in January to block the Legislature's new Democratic majority from putting Democrat Fred Knapp on the payroll as assistant to Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins. In May, state Supreme Court Justice James Brands ruled Steinhaus lacked the authority to keep Knapp off the payroll..." [see:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19873688&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6]
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Recall this headline from the Daily Freeman April 30th as well...
"Judge Rules Against Steinhaus in Dutchess Hiring Dispute"
by Patricia Doxsey
http://www.redhookconcerns.com/all-news/judge-rules-against-steinhaus-in-dutchess-hiring
POUGHKEEPSIE - In a blow to Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus, a state Supreme Court justice has ruled the county Legislature is a separate, co-equal branch of government largely outside the reach of the executive.
In a five-page decision, dated Tuesday, Justice James Brands said that, as such, Steinhaus has no authority to block the hiring of Fred Knapp, who Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins appointed as his assistant, and found the county executive should be compelled to place Knapp on the payroll.
The ruling, however, is significant beyond the appointment of Knapp as the full-time staff assistant to Higgins because it eliminates all questions about the authority of the executive branch over the legislative branch of government by declaring them "co-equal" branches of government.
"The Dutchess County Legislature is an equal, separate and distinct part of the government force of the county," Brands wrote in his ruling. "Not only must the legislative branch have its independence to promulgate legislation, but moreover, it needs to have independent authority to tend to its own internal affairs."
Higgins, D-Wappinger, lauded the judge's ruling, saying Democrats "always felt we were on the high ground on this issue."
"We're very pleased," Higgins said. "We've always believed, exactly as the judge indicated, there is a separation of powers between two equal branches of government. Now we can get Mr. Knapp on the payroll and get down to the serious business of county government."
"The court has ruled clearly that we were right in this position," Knapp said. "Hopefully the county executive now sees clearly that it's time to get on with the county's business and separate his individual battle with the Legislature from the needs of the county."
The lawsuit, brought against Republican Steinhaus by the Democratic-led Legislature and Knapp, stems from Steinhaus' refusal in January to place Knapp on the payroll...Steinhaus implemented the freeze weeks after the Legislature adopted a budget that failed to include a pay raise for Steinhaus...days before the Democrats took control of the Legislature after 30 years of Republican rule...But Brands rejected Steinhaus' attempt to use the terms hiring freeze and vacancy factor as interchangeable phrases, stating the two have different meanings and implications under the law, and said the executive lacks the authority to impose a hiring freeze outside the fiscal year or impose the vacancy factor requirements on the legislative branch.
"However laudable the concept of preserving tax dollars may be, the justification for reaching over and interfering with the actions and will of a co-equal branch of government would have to be extreme, if permissible at all," the judge wrote. "Were this court to permit the withholding of this appointment, it would amount to the de-facto establishment of a 'vacancy factor' for the legislative branch by executive fiat rather than legislative process," he stated.
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And this one from the June 26th Daily Freeman...
"Dutchess Exec OKs Filling One Vacancy"
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19804846&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6
by Patricia Doxsey
POUGHKEEPSIE - Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus has given the county Legislature clearance to hire a stenographer, filling one of three vacancies in the legislative offices.
But it remains up an appeals court to decide whether Steinhaus also must put Fred Knapp on the payroll as assistant to Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins.
On Tuesday, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Second Department, considered a motion by the Legislature to either compel Steinhaus to put Knapp on the payroll immediately or expedite the executive's appeal of a lower court ruling ordering Knapp's hire.
Legislature attorney David Sears said on Wednesday that he expects the Appellate Division to issue a decision within days.
Higgins, D-New Hamburg, said he was pleased the executive has authorized the clerical position, which he said will reduce the stress on the current staff of a clerk, deputy clerk and senior stenographer.
But the chairman criticized the executive for "playing politics" over the legislative appointments.
"This whole thing has obviously become very political," Higgins said.
Steinhaus is a Republican. The Legislature is controlled by Democrats.
Steinhaus was not available for comment Wednesday, and county Budget Director Valerie Sommerville declined to comment.
Since becoming the majority party in the Legislature in January, Democrats have struggled to place their people in five legislative posts previously held by Republicans.
In February, Steinhaus allowed Clerk Barbara Hugo and Deputy Clerk Jon Gautier to be hired. But it wasn't until earlier month-- the day after Steinhaus was served with the Legislature's motion to vacate the stay, according to Higgins-- that Steinhaus OK'd the stenographer's hire.
The Legislature and Knapp sued Steinhaus over his steadfast refusal to put Knapp on the payroll, arguing the Legislature was a separate and equal branch of government over which Steinhaus lacked control. In an April 29 ruling, state Supreme Court Justice James Brands sided with the Legislature and ordered Steinhaus to put Knapp on the payroll.
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This one as well from the March 25th Daily Freeman...
"Dutchess Legislature Sues Steinhaus Over Hiring Freeze"
By Patricia Doxsey
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19423081&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6
POUGHKEEPSIE - Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus will have to answer in court for the hiring freeze he implemented in December.
County Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins announced on Tuesday that he has followed through on a legislative resolution authorizing him to sue Steinhaus for the freeze that has kept Higgins' assistant, Fred Knapp, off the county payroll.
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court on Tuesday, lists Knapp and the Dutchess County Legislature as petitioners.
"Last fall, the county Legislature, free of county executive vetoes, unanimously approved a county budget. ... The county executive is now attempting to undo that process, and he does not have the legal authority to do so," Higgins, D-Wappinger, said in a prepared statement. "The county executive has demonstrated disdain and disregard for the (county) charter, the budget process and the Legislature and that, simply, is unacceptable"...
As a result of the freeze, the Steinhaus administration has declined to put Knapp-- who was appointed on Jan. 9 - on the payroll, making Higgins the first Legislature chairman in at least three decades to operate without a full-time staff assistant.
On Jan. 31, the Legislature voted 14-11, along party lines, to authorize Higgins to take all necessary steps, including court action, to repeal Steinhaus' hiring freeze.
"It's been three months," Higgins said on Tuesday. "I think it's time we get a clear picture as to the rights that are outlined in the charter and what we can or cannot do."
The lawsuit alleges Steinhaus overstepped his authority by imposing the hiring freeze on the legislative branch, which Higgins said is "a separate but equal" branch of government.
"The most offensive aspect of the county executive's action is the disregard of the fundamental principles of the American constitutional system and the doctrine of the separation of powers," the lawsuit states.
"The charter creates a Dutchess County Legislature and a county executive as separate and distinct branches of government," it also states.
Knapp said the central issue in the lawsuit is not his placement on the payroll but the authority of the county Legislature.
"It's about maintaining the integrity of the charter-provided provisions and privileges of the county Legislature, which are intended to maintain a balance of power between the county executive and the Legislature. and is something the county executive continues to ignore," Knapp said...
Steinhaus did not return a reporter's phone message on Tuesday.
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Finally, this from the Dutchess Beat March 28th...
[http://www.theweeklybeat.net/2008/03/28/couhigginslawsuit.html]
"Court Gesture: Legislature Chairman Higgins Sues Steinhaus Over Hiring Freeze"
By Steve Hopkins
We knew it was coming sooner or later. It was just a matter of when Dutchess County Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins (D-New Hamburg) would reach the end of his rope - and on Tuesday, March 25, he did. Firing off a scathing press release to back up his action, Higgins, who had allowed nearly two months to elapse since the Democratic-controlled legislature's January decision gave him the go-ahead, slapped County Executive William Steinhaus with an Article 78 lawsuit over his imposition of a countywide governmental hiring freeze at the beginning of the fiscal year 2008. Higgins termed Steinhaus's hiring freeze vis-а-vis the legislature: illegal, arbitrary and capricious.
The freeze, which Democrats maintain was politically motivated to prevent their new majority from filling key legislative positions with their own people, initially kept Higgins and company from hiring anyone at all, including a clerk and deputy clerk of the legislature to send out agendas, take down meeting notes and perform all the other administrative duties for the 25-member body. Steinhaus partially relented in February...allowing the hiring of Clerk of the Legislature Barbara Hugo and Deputy Clerk Jon Gautier to replace the Republicans former clerk, Patricia Hohmann, and her deputy, Carolyn Morris. He also subsequently didn't prevent them from hiring Democrat David Sears as legislative counsel at a reduced rate of $35,606...
Highest on Higgins's hiring wish list is his still officially jobless assistant, Fred Knapp, who is a party in the Article 78 lawsuit as well...In filing the lawsuit, Higgins continued to maintain that the hiring freeze applied to the county legislature by the county executive is not only illegal but has been applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner, and that Steinhaus has failed or refused to acknowledge the charter-provided powers and privileges of the county legislature.
Charging that Steinhaus ignores the charter's provision for a balance of power between the executive and legislative branches, Higgins will be trying to get a state Supreme Court justice in Dutchess County to agree that the county executive has no legal authority over the Legislative budget, lift the freeze with regard to the legislature, and make Steinhaus put Knapp on the payroll.
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