NEW CITY – Rockland County Executive Edwin Day vetoed Resolution No. 422 of 2019 – “Calling For A Rockland’s Future Summit in 2020”.
The main Sponsor of this Resolution stated that the facilitator will be from outside Rockland.
“My administration is always open to good ideas but before any law is introduced and passed there must be a basic level of due diligence performed,” said Day in a veto message. “Our Human Rights Commission already conducts multiple events of this nature every year. In fact, we have an upcoming Fair Housing Symposium happening at RCC on October 16, 2019. Why would we turn to someone from potentially outside our County to address the issues that our Human Rights Commission is already working on? Why would we spend additional taxpayer dollars on something we already do? I invite all of our County Legislators to attend this upcoming event and all the events we hold of this nature in the future. I am curious to see who takes action when it is not an election year.”
The main sponsor of the resolution, Democrat Legislator Nancy Low-Hogan, said the county is on a path towards extreme division and that it is “about to dissolve into a pool of permanent separation, disintegration and hatred.”
“How we got here is not so much the issue now as where are we headed,” Low-Hogan said. “We need leadership – by many and across the board – to identify solutions rather than fight with each other and to communicate rather than yell at each other.”
The resolution was adopted September 18, on a party-line vote. The ten Democrats voted for it; the six Republicans and one non-affiliated legislator voted against.
Day, a Republican, said he believes “… that the correct persons that should lead this discussion would be the County of Rockland Commissioner on Human Rights and the Commission on Human Rights whom are appointed by the County Executive and confirmed by the County Legislature.
