Resolution Information
RESOLUTION TEXT +-
Referred to: The Laws and Rules, Governmental Services Committee (Chairman
Roberts and Legislators Belfiglio, Donaldson, Lopez, Loughran, R. Parete and
Rodriguez)
Chairman Kenneth J. Ronk, Jr. offers the following:
WHEREAS, the Ulster County Charter, Article II, Section C-10 provides for a
method of apportioning the Ulster County Legislature decennially by a Commission
on Reapportionment; and
WHEREAS, the said Charter section C-10 sets forth the procedure for the
establishment of the Commission on Reapportionment and enumerates the powers
and duties of the Commission on Reapportionment with regard to the adoption and
approval of a plan of reapportionment; and
WHEREAS, the said Charter section C-10 further provides that the said plan
of reapportionment be subject to a permissive referendum; and
WHEREAS, Charter section C-10(L) further provides in relevant part that if
the County of Ulster is not authorized to hold a permissive referendum on the plan of
reapportionment adopted by the Commission on Reapportionment pursuant to State
law, then the Ulster County Charter Revision Commission must be reconvened, as
provided for in section C-5 of the Ulster County Charter, not earlier than September
1, 2017, and not later than November 1, 2017, for the purpose of providing for a
method of reapportionment of the 23 Ulster County legislative districts pursuant to
section C-10 of the Ulster County Charter; and
WHEREAS, a County generally may not conduct a permissive referendum
unless authority to do so is specifically articulated in State Law; and
WHEREAS, the Ulster County Legislature finds no express authority in
General Municipal Law Section 24 or other applicable State Law to conduct a
permissive referendum on a plan of reapportionment adopted pursuant to the
procedures set forth in Ulster County Charter section C-10; and
WHEREAS, The Ulster County Legislature must obtain such authority before
November 1, 2017 or the Ulster County Charter Revision Commission must be
reconvened to address the method of apportionment under the Charter; and
WHEREAS, the Ulster County Legislature is desirous of adhering to the
current method of apportionment provided for in Charter section C-10 and seeks to
obtain appropriate State authority to avoid the contingency of reconvening the Ulster
County Charter Revision Commission; now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the County of Ulster requests that the substance of the
following legislation be introduced in and passed by the New York State Legislature
and executed by the Governor enacting a new section 24-A of the State General
Municipal Law as follows:
Ulster County is authorized to conduct a permissive referendum on a plan
adopted by a Commission on Reapportionment to apportion the Ulster County
Legislature pursuant to the Ulster County Charter for the Primary and General
Elections to be held in the year 2023, and on such Reapportionment plans adopted by
a Commission on Reapportionment for such elections every ten years thereafter.
Solely for the purposes of this Article, each such plan adopted by the
Commission on Reapportionment of the County of Ulster for the apportionment of the
Ulster County Legislature shall be deemed a “local law”, and any such “local law”
which is subject to referendum on petition as provided in this section, in any other
state statute, or in the Ulster County Charter, if not also subject to mandatory
referendum, shall not take effect until at least forty-five days after its adoption by the
Ulster County Commission on Reapportionment; nor until approved by the
affirmative vote of a majority of the qualified electors of Ulster County voting on a
proposition for its approval if within forty-five days after its adoption there be filed
with the clerk of the Ulster County Legislature a petition protesting against such
“local law”, and the principle elements designated therein for separate submission,
signed and authenticated as herein required by qualified electors of Ulster County,
registered to vote therein at the last preceding general election, in a number equal to
the lesser of 15,000 or at least five (5%) per centum of the total number of votes cast
for governor at the last gubernatorial election in Ulster County.
If such petition be so filed, a proposition for the approval of such “local law”
shall be submitted at the next general election of state or local government officers
held in Ulster County not less than sixty days after the filing of such petition, unless
the petition request and the Ulster County Legislature adopt a local law submitting
such proposition at a special election held not less than sixty days after the adoption
of the said local law providing for such special election.
The petition may be made upon separate sheets, and the signatures to each
sheet shall be signed and authenticated in the manner provided by the election law
for the signing and authentication of nominating petitions so far as applicable. The
several sheets so signed and authenticated, when fastened together and offered for
filing, shall be deemed to constitute one petition. The clerk shall examine each such
petition so filed with him or her and not later than thirty days after the date of its
filing, or forty-five days before the day of the election at which such referendum
would appear on the ballot, whichever is earlier, shall transmit to the legislative
body a certificate that he or she has examined it and has found that it complies or
does not comply, as the case may be, with all the requirements of law.
If within five days after the last day to file such certificate a written objection
to the determination of the clerk be filed with the supreme court, or any justice
thereof, of a judicial district in which Ulster County or any part thereof is located,
such court or justice shall determine any question arising thereunder and make such
order as justice may require. Such proceeding shall be heard and determined in the
manner prescribed by section 16-116 of the election law.
The Ulster County Legislature on its own motion may adopt a resolution
requiring that a proposition or propositions for the approval of such a “local law”
and the principal elements therein as shall have been designated for separate
submission, be submitted at a referendum, in accordance with this section, at the next
general election, or at a special election, held not less than sixty days after the
adoption of such resolution.
and, be it further
RESOLVED, that the Chairman and the Clerk of the Ulster County
Legislature be authorized to execute and submit a Home Rule Request
(Request by a Local Government for Enactment of a Special Law), pursuant to
Article IX of the Constitution; and, be it further
RESOLVED, that these intentions be transmitted to New York State Senators
George A. Amedore, John J. Bonacic, William J. Larkin, Jr. and James Seward, and
New York State Assemblymen Kevin A. Cahill, Frank K. Skartados, Brian D. Miller,
and Peter Lopez,
and moves its adoption.
ADOPTED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE:
AYES: NOES:
Postponed in Committee: Laws and Rules, Governmental Services on April 17, 2017
Passed Committee: Laws and Rules, Governmental Services on _____________.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
NONE
Current Text: PDF
Updated: January 29, 2019
Votes on this Resolution
yes no abstained no voteCommittee Vote to Postpone Resolution No. 141
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