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SCHENECTADY
Lobbyist on payroll surprises official
Discovery confuses council head, Tedisco staffer
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

   The city is spending thousands of dollars on a state lobbyist, a fact that surprised the City Council president when he learned of it this week.
   It also surprised a staffer with Assemblyman James Tedisco, the Assembly minority leader, whose office is across the street from City Hall. The staffer wondered why city officials, all Democrats, didn’t try to get Tedisco, a Republican, to lobby for them.
   Schenectady has been paying for a lobbyist for most of the year, but officials used the legal department’s fees for services line, so City Council members didn’t know about the expense until it appeared in the proposed 2008 budget. Council President Mark Blanchfield learned about it when he went over the legal department’s spending plan in a budget review session this week.
   “Things have changed quite a bit when a municipality has to hire a lobbyist,” Blanchfield said. “Remember when we used to have those legislators who would carry legislation and stick up for us? Without us having to pay $12,000 a year for it?”
   The city spent $10,000 on a lobbying firm this year and is slated to spend up to $12,000 next year.
   Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said the expense is necessary because all of the city’s state legislators are Republicans.
   “They’re all on the other side of the aisle now,” Van Norden said.
   But Tedisco’s chief of staff said city leaders should give their representatives a chance.
   “We’d be happy to have them in here,” said William Sherman. “Mark Blanchfield has never even called. Mayor Stratton has sent letters, but I’ve been chief of staff since November 2005, and in all that time, I can’t remember one time Mayor Stratton has stopped by.”
   Stratton did not return a phone call seeking comment.
MEETING WITH SPITZER
   The venture into lobbying began this year, when the city hired Vidal Group at a cost of $1,000 a month to help fight the police discipline bill. That bill — supported by all three Schenectady state legislators — would have allowed arbitrators to determine police discipline instead of letting the local public safety commissioner mete out the punishment.
   The bill passed the Assembly and the Senate, so Van Norden asked Vidal Group to arrange a meeting with Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s staff. He wanted to persuade Spitzer to veto the bill.
   Both Schenectady and New York City officials received one-on-one meetings with the governor’s legal staff. Spitzer cited their arguments when he vetoed the bill.
   “I don’t think we would have gotten an audience with the governor’s legal staff without a lobbyist,” Van Norden said.
   But Sherman said Tedisco arranges such meetings all the time — even for Democrats who are opposing his positions.
   “The city wasted their money,” he said. “If Mr. Blanchfield would pick up the phone and call Assemblyman Tedisco, he would be able to arrange meetings.”
   In response to that invitation, Blanchfield said he’d consider dropping the lobbyist if communicating with Tedisco seems to work. “I’d be happy to work with him. We’ll have to get together, I guess,” he said after hearing about Sherman’s offer. But he said he isn’t certain that Tedisco can do everything Vidal Group does. “I’d have to get a better sense of the scope of what the lobbyist is being asked to do,” he said. Sherman responded by saying it’s a “sorry state of affairs” when city leaders believe they must hire a lobbyist. But Van Norden said Vidal Group has proved invaluable.
   “I wouldn’t know who to call. Who has whose ear?” he said.
   After the successful police discipline meeting, Van Norden gave Vidal Group a new task: getting the city permission to demolish commercial buildings.
   Schenectady has been using an abandonment law to knock down derelict residential houses for years, but the law does not apply to commercial structures. Van Norden is hoping Vidal Group can persuade state legislators to extend the law to commercial buildings.
   But Sherman said that, too, is a waste of money.
   “Jim Tedisco is Schenectady’s best lobbyist, and it doesn’t cost the city a dime,” he said. “We would help them meet with legislators. On a regular basis we provide access, even with [Mayor] Valerie Keehn of Saratoga [Springs], who happens to be a Democrat. They don’t even have to drive — they could walk across the street from City Hall to Jim’s local district offi ce.”
MAYORAL EFFORTS
   Stratton may not be meeting with Tedisco regularly, but he has often gone to Albany and Washington, D.C., to lobby for Schenectady. However, it can be a time-consuming task, and lobbyists sometimes argue that they can do a better job of explaining complex arguments.
   But Sherman said he and other staff members place far more importance on comments from residents and elected officials.
   “The best people to speak for the city of Schenectady would be first the beleaguered taxpayer and second the mayor,” he said. “The elected official has spoken to the constituents and has been elected by them. A lobbyist is responsible to nobody but their client.”
   Lobbying is rare for municipalities in New York. Schenectady is one of only six cities to hire a state lobbyist this year. The other cities are Mount Vernon, Rochester, White Plains, Yonkers and New York City.
   So far this year, Schenectady has spent the least, according to state- mandated reports issued every six months from all registered lobbyists. The city spent $3,200 by midyear on its police discipline lobbying. Mount Vernon, which has been lobbying for legislation involving its library, spent the next least: $10,000. Rochester spent $19,637 on its lobbyist, while White Plains spent $22,000 and Yonkers spent $37,500. All three hired a lobbyist to simply advocate for them on all local issues.
   New York City spent the most, at $63,960 by mid-year. Their lobbyists had a laundry list of items to work on, ranging from a renter tax credit to full-day pre-kindergarten and same-sex marriage provisions.  

  
  
  

It seems like a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars to hire an outside firm to do the job Jim Tedisco was elected to do.  Represent Schenectady!!

It's pretty clear that the Dems that control this county don't care about saving the residents any money, they just want to do whatever they want to advance their agenda and the residents pay the freight.

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It seems like a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars to hire an outside firm to do the job Jim Tedisco was elected to do.  Represent Schenectady!!

I'm sure the majority of residents believe that this is rediculous but let's face it, the dems are NOT going to go to a republican or visa versa to represent them. They will hire their own people to do that. And that is politics folks. And it's all at OUR cost!

after The Tea Party, we used to have the same goals---life liberty and the pursuit of happiness......now it seems our representatives their families and friends are attaining these goals full throttle....at the expense of the sheeple, via blowing smoke up our butts......

SHOW ME THE $$ TRAIL.......