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The
Candidates on the Record
Tim
Looker
Albany
Common Council, Ward 13, Republican
Why
are you running?
I’ve
lived in the city since 1971. I’ve been a homeowner since
’76. I’ve lived up here on Winthrop Avenue since 1985, and
I think the citizens just aren’t getting their money’s worth
for the services they pay for—recent things like the sewer
problem. They kind of put Band-Aids on the problem. If the
sewers are bad, which I kind of doubt, they’re probably just
not maintained. They ought to have a program and just replace
them. I know it is expensive, but they keep putting it off.
What
is the number-one issue facing your ward?
I
think crime, probably, the threat of crime. There is not a
lot here and they don’t do much about it. A perfect example
of that is . . . it’s not in my ward but it’s two blocks from
me, the man bitten by the pit bulls. Other times they had
been running loose. One lady moving out of the city told me
she has a 1-year-old, and she goes, “I’m scared to death to
take him out on the streets.” From what I heard—I don’t know
if it’s true—the owner got fined $300. If he’s a repeat offender
that’s a slap on the wrist.
What
is your take on charter schools?
I
think it’s a necessary thing to get the schools to shape up.
I think you’re going to see some shaping up because they’re
getting scared.
What
do you think Albany should do with its garbage?
Since
the mayor already put a lot of money into the place [in] Coeymans,
they ought to go for that. There needs to be more recycling,
too. They have a little plant. They’ve taken a section of
it and put collection pipes to collect the gas and then they
burn it and make electricity. They should do that for the
whole place.
What
do you think the role of the council should be regarding the
Citizen Police Review Board?
I
think they should be involved. They should have members on
it. But it’s supposed to be a public body. There are personnel
issues, privacy issues. You can’t do everything in public
so it’s a little bit of a bind there. No police force is perfect,
but overall the Albany department does a good job. I can’t
say I’ve never heard of anybody who had a problem.
How
would you deal with the overflow of college students into
your ward?
Family
life and college life are totally not mixable. They should
be in dorms on the campus. Graduate students should be able
to get their own place. It’s a zoning issue. [The zoning laws]
are selectively enforced in neighborhoods. If important people
or lots of people complain, they are enforced. If they don’t,
they aren’t.
Is
there a proper balance of power between the mayor and Common
Council?
It
should be left as it is. If people want to vote for Jennings
for mayor and they like how it is going, then that’s our democracy,
that’s our system. I don’t think things are going that well.
It could be better, but if you fracture the power more, then
when someone comes in and wants to make good changes they
won’t be able to because they will have to please a million
little people from all over the city.
 Daniel
Herring
Albany
Common Council, Ward 13, Democrat, Incumbent
Why
are you running?
I’ve
been encouraged by my constituents to run again. I retired
from my full-time job two years ago, and now I have this opportunity
to dedicate a lot more time to it and to be involved to a
greater degree. This could be my last term, so I would like
to go out feeling fulfilled in the sense that I did everything
I could.
What
is the number-one issue facing your ward?
I
think it is more than just that. I don’t think that’s the
way people look at stuff. It’s a citywide thing: quality of
life coupled with the cost of living in the city. Taxes. You
know, the issue is going to be, is it worth the cost, their
life in the city vs. the cost of living in the city? That’s
the concern of the people. I think people will be looking
at taxes and essential services, the cost of police and fire
and schools.
What
is your take on charter schools?
Conceptually,
I don’t have a problem with charter schools. They may or may
not provide a better alternative to a lot of our school issues.
However, I believe since they were created by the state Legislature
. . . it’s incumbent upon them to fund it. Ironically, I think
we are beginning to see some of the charter schools saying
they aren’t funded adequately, and if we keep going down this
line we are going to end up with two underfunded or failed
systems.
What
should Albany do with its garbage?
A
person said last night at the meeting, “Close the dump! Ship
it out!” Lying behind all these arguments, without saying
whether it’s right or wrong, if it includes closing that dump
we’re collecting a $6 million swing or a $16 million tax hike.
They are very rough numbers. Tax rates now are barely competitive
with surrounding areas. In the best world I’m not going to
build a landfill there, certainly don’t want it encroaching
on the Pine Bush. Then again, we’re down to this cost. I can’t
see it coming out satisfactory to everyone involved.
What
do you think the role of the council should be regarding the
Citizen Police Review Board?
It
seems to be working adequately or better. I don’t see any
fatal flaws in how it is working that can’t be addressed.
There is a mechanism that they can come to the Common Council
to make the case and utilize the subpoena power of the council.
That’s never been done, so to say that [they need subpoena
power] without ever attempting to utilize what’s in place
. . .
How
do you deal with the overflow of college students into your
ward?
I’d
have to say it’s improved. We’ve had some calls, but it does
seem to have improved in the last couple of years. A lot more
attention has been paid to it by the press and the schools.
SUNY and St. Rose have started getting serious on the problem,
so many actions they’ve taken have had positive results in
my ward.
Is
there a proper balance of power between the mayor and Common
Council?
I’m
on the charter commission. I’m not sure it’s the balance of
power so much, it’s about a more effective way to balance
both the powers of the council and the powers of the executive.
Just the idea of taking the power away from one and giving
to the other, that’s not really the point. It’s finding the
route that leads to effective operation of the government.
I believe there are issues that have to be examined as it
[the charter] exists now. I believe the commission is the
proper place where these changes should be examined, vetted
and made part of the charter.
Interviews by David King
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| What
a Week |
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Oh
No Mommy . . . My Doll Is Pro-Choice!
The American Girl dolls and books have been put
under attack by conservative activists, who are
threatening to boycott the dolls unless contributions
from their makers to the organization Girls Inc.
are severed. Conservatives are not happy that
Girls Inc. supports abortion rights, accepts lesbians,
and opposes abstinence-only education.
Just Another Perk
It has been discovered that federal anti-terrorism
employees sent e-mail messages to a group of business
and art executives they knew, giving them a heads
up on the recent NYC subway threat. The problem?
The messages were sent three days prior to Mayor
Bloomberg going public with the threat (or even
being fully briefed on it). The federal employees
involved have been fired.
War? What war?
War got you down? Do you feel like there is another
jihad, genocide, civil war, or coup every time
you turn on the news? According to researchers
at the University of British Columbia, your fears
are unwarranted. The first ever Human Security
Report shows that there are 40 percent fewer armed
conflicts in the world today than there were in
the early ’90s. Furthermore, the arms trade has
declined by a third from 1990 to 2003 and the
number of refugees displaced by armed conflict
has dropped 45 percent from between 1992 and 2003.
However, 2003 was the last full year which data
was available, so most of the deaths and conflicts
stemming from the current Iraq war were not included.
“No
Comment” in 2004
This election, it appears that Albany Mayor Jerry
Jennings may have finally met his match—in lack
of communication with the press, that is. Benzie
Johnson, who was last heard from in April when
he announced his candidacy for the mayor’s office,
recently surfaced again to announce that he is,
in fact, still a candidate and is hoping to get
a few write-in votes this November. We’d say that
such an incommunicado campaign isn’t likely to
win him much support, but since the primary it
seems to have been working all right for the 12-year
incumbent.
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Not
in Our Front Yard
The
Bush administration is trying to make it easier to put soldiers
on American streets
A
man stands in the center of a New Orleans Street, his clothes
completely soaked. Two National Guard soldiers flank the man,
shouting orders at him, pointing their guns at his head. His
arms pulled tight to his body, he shivers, absolutely at the
mercy of the troops.
A woman with curly red hair and dark-black shades stands in
front of the chain-link fence that guards her apartment building
with her hands raised. Her husband stands behind her, clutching
her shoulders, pulling her away from three men dressed in
green-and-black military fatigues, holding automatic rifles
in their hands. The look in his eyes seems to say “Please
don’t shoot my wife.”
Of all the striking images that followed Hurricane Katrina,
some of the most compelling have been those of armed American
troops patrolling the streets of a major American metropolis.
If Congress agrees with the president, that sight may become
a much more common one.
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was designed to end the occupation
of the South by Union troops. The act forbids using “any part
of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise
to execute the laws . . . except in cases and under circumstances
expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.”
Recently, President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
and a number of generals have insisted that Congress should
consider repealing or amending the PCA to allow the president
to utilize active-duty troops in the event of a major natural
disaster.
Experts respond that, thanks to amendments already in place,
the act does not limit the president’s ability to react to
a disaster. In the years since its creation, the act has undergone
significant erosion. It has been amended to allow troops to
respond to disasters and acts of disobedience on U.S. soil
if requested by individual states. President Ronald Reagan
fought hard to eliminate the act to allow the Navy and Air
Force to take part in the war on drugs. But instead of repealing
the act, Congress amended it to allow branches of the military
to take part in limited ways in the war on drugs.
Katrina is not the only excuse the Bush administration has
used to argue the PCA is out of date. Former Secretary of
Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Rumsfeld have insisted the
act needs to be repealed to help fight domestic terrorism,
and in early October, Bush asked Congress to consider amending
the act to allow him to use troops to respond to an outbreak
of avian flu. “If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United
States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country?”
Bush said. “And who best to be able to effect quarantine?
One option is the use of a military that’s able to plan and
move.” Under current law, states could call the National Guard
to respond to a flu outbreak, but handing over the reins to
a federal authority would violate the PCA.
Critics of Bush’s position point out that putting the military
in charge of disaster and avian flu response will allow the
Bush administration to further increase military spending
while ignoring funding for other federal agencies. According
to The Wall Street Journal, the Bush administration
plans to request $6 to $10 billion to stockpile vaccine to
be prepared for an avian flu outbreak. If it were the lead
agency in avian-flu response, the Defense Department would
likely get more than half of those funds.
The media has largely ignored what has become a trend of the
administration attacking the PCA anytime there is a perceived
threat to Americans. References to the act usually come buried
at the end of articles that detail a new administration plan,
and have rarely been connected to each other. Despite the
media’s general lack of coverage, many members of Bush’s own
party are livid over the administration’s crusade against
the PCA.
Currently, Bush’s suggestions about the PCA have been greeted
with as much warmth from his fellow Republicans as his most
recent Supreme Court nomination has.
For example, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a doctor, recently stated
that he feels bird flu has been “overhyped” by the Bush administration.
And in a November 2001 speech to the House of Representatives,
he said, “This act prohibits the military from carrying out
law-enforcement duties such as searching or arresting people
in the United States, the argument being that the military
is only used for this type of purpose in a police state. Interestingly,
it was the violation of these principles that prompted the
Texas revolution against Mexico.”
Even the former secretary of defense for President Reagan,
Casper Weinberger, a staunch military supporter, testified
before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986 that military
involvement in civilian law enforcement is “extremely repugnant
to a democratic society.”
With Bush pushing to do away with or weaken the PCA on at
least three fronts, it will be up to Congress to decide if
the PCA stops the government from protecting its citizens
or if it stops the government from creating a police state.
—David
King
dking@metroland.net
| Loose
Ends |
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Corey
Ellis [“The Candidates
on the Record,” Trail Mix, May 19], who lost Albany’s
Third Ward Common Council Democratic primary by
17 votes, is challenging incumbent Michael Brown
to a “rematch” in the general election. Calling
the primary a “virtual coin toss,” Ellis will
run on the Working Families Party line on the
Nov. 8 ballot. . . . A bid by Friends of Hudson
to get the comment period extended a second time
on a proposal to burn tires at the Ravena LaFarge
Cement plant [“What a Week,” Sept. 29] came
to naught as the state DEC closed comments on
Oct. 3. Next, LaFarge will get to respond to the
comments received, which were overwhelmingly negative.
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Columns
& Opinions
