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