POUGHKEEPSIE – At Thursday’s legislative committee meeting to disband the current Independent Reapportionment Commission, Democratic lawmakers walked out of the chambers in protest. The resolution was passed by Republican lawmakers that remained.
Legislature Chairman Gregg Pulver sought to disband the commission after it was learned that a Democratic appointment to the commission, Richard Keller-Coffey, was an elected school board member, a violation of the rules establishing the group. The law says, in part, that ” A member shall not currently be nor have been for the three years preceding the formation of the Commission an elected official, employee of New York State, Dutchess County or any town, city, or village in the County, or a member or officer of any political committee. A member shall maintain eligibility while serving on the Commission.”
“Reapportioning the County Legislature must be truly independent and having an elected official on the Commission muddies the waters too much,” said Chairman Gregg Pulver. “In 2019, Republicans and Democrats worked hand-in-hand to write the reapportionment law and we didn’t foresee such a circumstance. Thankfully, the attorneys relied on sound legal precedents and doctrine to guide us through having an ineligible member. Not starting from scratch was too risky and would have left the adopted map open to lawsuits.
Democratic legislators protested the proposed law to create a new commission and ban any member of the current body from serving on it. The bill would reopen the application process. 163 county residents expressed interest in serving on the commission when it was first created.
”So, 163 volunteers is not enough for seven slots? That’s absurd on its face,” said Democratic Minority Leader Rebecca Edwards (Poughkeepsie), who praised the applicants for their “diversity of backgrounds and impressive skills and experience.” “The obvious agenda here,” she said, “is to blow up the commission and install someone who is not in the current applicant pool. On a pretext, the democratic process is being overturned.”
