Justin Hubbard, Missy Paterniti

Jamestown City Council voted down Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s citizen appointments to the Board of Public Utilities as well as the reappointment of Justin Hubbard to the Human Rights Commission.

City Clerk Jennifer Williams read a letter from the Human Rights Commission advocating for Hubbard’s reappointment, “We feel it is our duty to try to convey to our elected representatives how much we value Mr. Hubbard and the ideas, thoughtfulness, and passion that he brings to our group. As a teacher, he brings a point of view regarding education that helps us better understand and address human rights issues in our schools.”

Resident Missy Paterniti spoke out against Hubbard being reappointed, saying he publicly attacked her at an HRC meeting by calling her a racist and a bigot in response to her creating a petition to the school district to keep the “Red Raiders” name, “I contacted Elliot Raimondo [City Corporation Counsel] and nothing happened. I wrote to the mayor. And I’m just asking you, as the city council, that have the ability to remove this gentleman from the commission, please do so because he doesn’t belong there.”

Hubbard, speaking at privilege of the floor, said he was approached by Mayor Sundquist following rallies he helped organize after George Floyd‘s death in 2020 about serving on a reinstated Human Rights Commission. Hubbard said while on the HRC, he was approached by members of the community regarding issues on discrimination in relation to religion, race, and sexuality, “Even though I knew that some of these complaints were about members of council and that would make some members of this council unhappy with me for bringing them to the table, I knew that it was my duty to do so. I also believe that the passion I brought to this position made it so that people could feel free to contact me when dealing with very stressful issues.”

Council voted 2 to 6 not to reappoint Hubbard with Brent Sheldon, Marie Carrubba, Andrew Faulkner, Kim Ecklund, Randy Daversa, and Jeff Russell voting no.

The appointment of Sean Conner and Sabrina Gustafson to the BPU Board to replace Jim Olson and Greg Rabb failed 4 to 4 with Brent Sheldon, Andrew Faulkner, Kim Ecklund, and Randy Daversa voting no.

Council President Tony Dolce said while he supported the appointments to the BPU board, he doesn’t know why other council members did not but he guessed it may have come down to qualifications, “In the past, there’s always been a kind of.. not going to say controversy but discussion over replacing long time members that have experience with newcomers. And this mayor wanted to put his people in just like the previous mayor did as well. And so I don’t know specifically why those two individuals were voted down by specific council people.”

Jim Olson and Greg Rabb will remain on the BPU board as holdovers until new appointments can be made.

The plans are the result of a mandate issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last summer in the wake of the George Floyd death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, and which resulted in national protests against law enforcement. Under the governor’s directive, every police agency in New York state is required to access its operations and prepare a reform plan, based, in part, on input from the public. As part of his mandate, Gov. Cuomo said that any police agency that doesn’t present a reform plan could risk losing state aid.

Locally, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone announced last week his office’s draft plan was completed. That plan is now being reviewed in a series of public input sessions taking place this week and next week. A deadline for written input is March 10.

Meanwhile, the Jamestown Police Department has also completed its draft plan. During a conversation this with Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, the mayor said that plan will be released to the public in the coming days, while also explaining the process for collecting input for the plan.

“The police reform committee, which is comprised of the public safety committee, as well as our police department and some other components of the city, worked diligently to draft a reinvention program and looked at different portions of what we currently do in the city and where we should be going, in conjunction with the multiple stakeholder group meetings they held through the city and with the survey information we got from folks across the city who supplied that survey information,” Sundquist explained.

Video of the input sessions can be found at the city of Jamestown website.

Sundquist also said now that a draft plan is in place, it will now be put before the public for a final round of input before being passed along to state officials.

“We’ve taken all that information and put into a draft, and that will be released to the public for comment. Then the City Council’s Public Safety Committee will host an information session and an additional public input session later this month. The plan will then be finalized and voted by the City Council for approval by the end of this month, and then submitted to the state,” Sundquist said.

No date has been selected yet for when the public safety committee will review and discuss the plan, but the next two scheduled meetings are for March 8 and March 22.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s office held its first streaming input session for its plan on Tuesday, with the next one scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m.  All meetings are being streamed at Facebook.com/ChautCoSheriff.

The guidance offers a framework and topics for consideration by local police departments, elected officials and citizens as they develop their local plans for reform.

Per the Governor’s Executive Order, every locality must adopt a plan for reform by April 1, 2021 to be eligible for future state funding.

“We have to address the tensions and lack of trust between our communities and the law enforcement that serves them. I am sending a letter to 500 jurisdictions, explaining that it is imperative that we address this urgent crisis,” Governor Cuomo said. “I understand it’s complicated. I understand it’s difficult. But people are dying. New Yorkers do not run from a crisis – this is a time for leadership and action. Local elected officials must work together with the community and their police forces, to develop and implement reforms for a safer, fairer policing standard.”

The guidelines -which are 130+ pages and can be found at the governor’s website –  builds on Cuomo’s actions following the death of George Floyd. Earlier this year, Governor Cuomo signed into law a series of reform policy items – called the “Say Their Name” agenda – including allowing for transparency of prior disciplinary records of law enforcement officers by reforming 50-a of the civil rights law; banning chokeholds by law enforcement officers; prohibiting false race-based 911 reports and making them a crime; and designating the Attorney General as an independent prosecutor for matters relating to the deaths of unarmed civilians caused by law enforcement.

George Borrello

ALBANY – Chautauqua County’s Senate representative in Albany says there’s already been unintended consequences of the recent repeal of a state law that protected members of law enforcement from disclosing disciplinary records.

Earlier this month both the State Senate and Assemblyman approved the long-stalled reform of the state’s 50a statute — which since the 1970s had routinely been used to keep the public from learning about police misconduct and disciplinary actions taken against police officers, correction officers, and fire fighters.

The repeal of the statute came in response to protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black Minnesota man who was killed when a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. But even before Floyd’s death, a 50a repeal effort had been gaining steam in the legislature. The law became a point of contention in New York City following the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner at the hands of then-NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, whose disciplinary record was shielded in secrecy.

With the State Senate falling to Democratic control after the 2018 Elections, and with the Floyd’s death gaining national attention from protesters and demonstrates calling for immediate reforms, the effort was made in Albany at the start of this month to repeal the statute. The bill ultimately passed along party lines in the Senate by a vote of 40-22 and in the Assembly by a vote of 101-43. It was signed by governor Andrew Cuomo at the start of last week.

Sen. George Borrello (R-Irving), who represents all of Chautauqua County in the upper chamber in Albany and who was one of the 22 Republicans to vote against the repeal, released a statement this week denouncing the repeal and pointing to what he says are unintended consequences that will impact the budgets of local governments across the state.

According to Borrello, officials in the Town of Cuba recently received a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request from an out-of-state organization called MuckRock, demanding copies of all police personnel files that contain complaints of misconduct, including accusations that were found to be groundless after investigation. The request is for information dating back to the 1970s. MuckRock has stated that they have made this request of every policing agency in New York State.

“This is why I voted against the repeal of 50-a,” Borrello said in his statement to the media. “At a time when localities are struggling to meet their regular expenses because of the crushing impact that COVID-19 has had on their budgets, it is outrageous that they will now be required to devote precious staff time and taxpayer dollars towards searching, copying, faxing and emailing decades-old personnel files containing groundless claims, even those where the officers involved have been deceased for decades.”

Borrello said that for many police departments across the state, the small reimbursement that they are entitled to collect from a requesting organization won’t even begin to cover the costs with researching, assembling, and sending out the requested information. He also said that services to the public may even be impacted due to the time and resources required to fulfill the FOIL request.

“What good will this information serve?” Borrello asked. “It will wrongly tarnish officers who had unsubstantiated complaints lodged by vengeful criminal defendants and serve as fodder for lawsuits by trial lawyers looking to line their pockets. Taxpayers will be picking up the tab for this phishing expedition. That’s why a thoughtful analysis that included the potential financial impact and unintended consequences should have been done.”

“This is another example of why knee-jerk reactions for political reasons are costly,” he added.

According to the Post-Journal, over 250 people – the vast majority wearing masks with some trying to maintain social distancing – gathered in Dow Park on Sunday.

The event featured several speakers from the community, a voter registration table, a book exchange, and live poetry.

Those in attendance for Sunday’s rally also took a knee in silence for nearly nine minutes, symbolizing the length of the video depicting an officer pressing his knee to George Floyd’s neck that went viral after his death.

The rally came after Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist announced on Friday that the city would be re-instating a Human Rights Commission that will be comprised of members of the community.

•  AUDIO ALSO AVAILABLE AT SOUNDCLOUD

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist talks about a series of protests that took place recently in Jamestown – one of which he participated in – involving the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a Minneapolis police officer. Sundquist also gives an update on the COVID-19 situation in the city and the reopening effort – including trying to accommodate downtown businesses that want to reopen.

Eddie Sundquist

•  AUDIO ALSO AVAILABLE AT SOUNDCLOUD

Conference Call on June 3 with Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23), who discussed the murder of George Floyd by an officer in the Minneapolis department and subsequent protests, demonstrations, and riots that have broken out across the country afterward.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

JAMESTOWN – The Robert H. Jackson Center has released a statement in regards to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25. The death sparked a series of national protests and demonstrations, some of which escalated into riots, with violence and looting taking place in several major cities around the country.

The Jackson Center is a nonprofit organization that envisions a global society where the universal principles of equality, fairness and justice prevail. The Center invites and engages students of all ages, scholars, educators, national officials and international dignitaries to analyze contemporary issues of peace and justice through the lens of Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg War Crimes prosecutor Robert H. Jackson’s body of work.

Here is the statement, in full:

The Robert H. Jackson Center envisions a global society where the universal principles of equality, fairness and justice prevail. Those principles have been tested significantly for decades, coming to a head…again…in these last weeks. We are angered by and mourn for the most recent in a long line of those for whom equality, fairness and justice have not only not prevailed, but have utterly failed. We say their names – Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd – because names have power.

To quote Justice Jackson, “I cannot deny that racial ill-will and intolerance exist in America, but I do deny that they are American.” Those who are protesting have been mired in systems that have repeatedly failed them – failed to recognize the inequalities, failed to acknowledge the impact, and failed to correct the underlying conditions.

A society grounded in the rule of law is also a society where the systems that support it must be fair and just. The discontented have the right, in truth have the duty, to openly voice their dissent, and the contented have the obligation to listen and respond, by word and just action, to that dissent. Violence is not the answer; ‘this concept of liberty has no tolerance of any form of lawlessness,’ because ‘an attack on any member is an attack on the peace of all.’

Black lives matter. Black experiences matter. We have more work to do. On the front of the United States Supreme Court building, four words are inscribed: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW. That is the ideal – one that each and every one of us should be able to support and for which we should never – we can never – stop fighting.

At the Jackson Center, we are committed to elevating and amplifying the voices that fight for the marginalized, speak truth to power, lead by example, and work to correct abuses of power, internationally and domestically. We advance the legacy of Robert H. Jackson through our dedication to inspire, educate and encourage public discussions regarding justice and law. This year, our programming explores “The Other – Through Your Eyes” to open a window into another person’s experiences to foster understanding, even where agreement is not possible. We always will be a home for these conversations, but we know we can do more. Join the conversation. Hold us accountable. Do more with us.

Chuck Schumer (left) and Kirsten Gillibrand

WASHINGTON – New York’s two U.S. Senators are joining their Democratic colleagues in condemning President Donald Trump’s threat to use military force to combat demonstrations and protests that had grown into riots in some areas of the country.

While the demonstrations have remained large but mostly without the violence both Tuesday and Wednesday, that wasn’t the case earlier in the week and over the weekend. President Trump responded on Monday by threatening to use the military to “dominate” the streets where Americans are demonstrating following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died when a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.

Trump had urged governors to call out the National Guard to contain protests that turned violent and warned that if they do not, he would invoke the Insurrection Act and send in active duty military forces.

The response by the president led to U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to join other Senate Democrats in condemning the Trump administration’s threat. In a letter to U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Sen. Gillibrand expressed deep concerns over the use of the military to restrict what they are calling peaceful protests, which fall under rights given to Americans by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Rather than listen or acknowledge the legitimate pain of protesters and the black community, President Trump has sought to divide us further, eagerly inflaming tensions and sowing anger and fear,” said Senator Gillibrand. “His continued threats to use violence against peaceful protesters and deploy our military to states is outrageous and deeply troubling. The Department of Defense must immediately answer whether the Department would deploy federal troops outside of the use of the Insurrection Act and I demand that combat units are not used to impede on Americans’ civil liberties in the fight for racial justice.”

Defense Secretary Esper reportedly angered Trump when he said he opposed using military troops for law enforcement, seemingly taking the teeth out of the president’s threat to use the Insurrection Act. Esper said the 1807 law should be invoked “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He added, “We are not in one of those situations now.”

President Donald Trump holds up a bible while taking a photo outside of St. John’s Episcopal Church, near Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. Prior to the photo being taken, peaceful protesters were forced by authorities dressed in riot gear and who were wielding shields and using pepper spray .

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis, a retired Marine general, also lambasted both Trump and Esper in an essay in The Atlantic for their consideration of using the active-duty military in law enforcement — and for the use of the National Guard in clearing out a largely peaceful protest at Lafayette Square near the White House on Monday evening.

According to Gillibrand’s office, the Insurrection Act, last used in 1992 during the L.A. Riots, is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act to be invoked only under extreme conditions. The legislation allows states to request support from the federal government, and would allow the President to activate federal troops independent of a state’s request – under specific and limited conditions that Gillibrand argues are not currently met.

In the letter, Gillibrand urges the Department of Defense provide information by Friday, June 5 on whether the Department would deploy federal troops outside of the use of the Insurrection Act, if deployments would ever include combat designated troops, how troops would be trained and prepared, what the mission, scope, and rules would entail for the use of force as well if they would be authorized to perform arrests.

Schumer, meanwhile, tried to force action in the U.S. senate on Tuesday for lawmaker to approve a symbolic resolution to condemn both the violence and Trump’s actions at Lafayette Square. But Majority leader and Sen. Mitch McConnell objected, chiding Democrats for pushing a measure that he said addressed neither justice for black Americans nor “peace for our country in the face of looting.”

“Instead, it just indulges in the myopic obsession with President Trump that has come to define the Democratic side,” Mr. McConnell said.

Rev. Chloe Smith (left) talks with Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist (center) and Jamestown Police Chief Harry Snellings (right) during a Black Lives Matter rally in Dow Park Sunday, May 31, 2020.

JAMESTOWN – There were two rallies that took place in Jamestown on Sunday as part of the series of national protests taking place across the country. The days of protests were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

Nearly 200 people were at Dow Park at noon to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to also share concerns about how law enforcement deals with minorities in the community. Leading the rally at noon was Rev. Chloe Smith from God and Zion Tabernacle Church, who urged the community to come together and work with public officials to improve the relationship between police and its residents.

“We are demanding a change starts in our city and we are going to be proactive. We are not going wait until something bad happens. We want the change now,” Smith said, speaking to those in attendance. “We’re not going to be reactive, having the protests after something happens. We want the communication with our law enforcement now! We want to conduct with our law enforcement now!”

Other members of the faith community, including Pastor Roy Ferguson of the Busti Church of God, were also on hand to share support.

“All of us who are not a person of color, whether we want to believe it or not, we have privilege. We need to leverage that privilege to love our neighbor as ourselves, and everyone including persons of color are our neighbors.  We need to leverage that privilege. We didn’t ask for it but we were born with it and we need to use it to bless those who God has created equal in his sight,” Ferguson told the crowd.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, Police Chief Harry Snellings and Chautauqua County Sheriff Jim Quattrone all attended the rally, along with some members of the Jamestown City Council. Sundquist, the chief and the sheriff also spent nearly 45 minutes talking to attendees to respond to their questions and concerns.

Sundquist said he felt it was important to be at the event and show support with those who were attending.

“As communities across the country start to protest and start to demand more things, we wanted to let our entire community know that myself and our entire police force are hear to listen actively and to start to make changes to be more inclusive here in the city,” Sundquist said.

A crowd gathers around city of Jamestown Police Chief Harry Snellings and Mayor Eddie Sundquist as the two answer questions during a Black Lives Matter rally on May 31, 2020

Some of those concerns focused on hiring more minority officers in the Jamestown Police Department, along with working to ensure officers who work for the city also live within the city. Others also expressed frustration over feeling like they are being specifically targeted by law enforcement for no other reason than the color of their skin.

When asked how man officers live in Jamestown, Snellings said 25 of of the 62 members of the Jamestown Police Department are residents of Jamestown.

“So 25 out of the 60 officers actually live in the city? That is not community policing. We need community policing. If [an officer] does not live in Jamestown, you are coming in and you are enforcing a law. You are not part of the community. You are an occupying force,” stated Justin Hubbard, a city resident who was in attendance. “I will not be occupied any more. How are you going to fix that?”

Afterward, Mayor Sundquist said the city will be continuing to meet and talk with the community and work toward addressing some of the concerns brought up at the rally, including having more officers who reside within the city.

“It’s very difficult unless its negotiated [into a collective bargaining agreement] or certain local laws are passed. But we’re trying very hard to encourage our residents to apply for those positions and to be part of our community. We’ve talked about incentivizing that for every employee in the city.  It’s a process. I’ve only been on the job for five months so we’re trying very hard to deal with things as they come up,” Sundquist said.

Chief Snellings also said that while he supports hiring more minority officers, it can be difficult when the city receives few, if any, applications In response, one attendee suggested the police department work harder at encouraging young minorities within the community to pursue careers in law enforcement.

When asked if they felt George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis Police Officer, Snellings and Quatrone both acknowledged the the restraint being used wasn’t standard procedure and shouldn’t have been used, but both stopped short of saying it was murder, saying there could have been other factors at play that may have resulted in death. Mayor Sundquist did say that it was murder, based only on what he saw and the information he knows about the case.

A second rally took place at City Hall on Sunday night, beginning at 6 p.m. and continuing until just before 11 p.m. While there was a large gathering in front of city hall on East Third Street near the intersection with Spring, it appeared to be a peaceful event with no damages or arrests reported at that location. However, later in the evening, shortly before midnight, city police did say two men were arrested following an altercation with another group in an area near E. Second and Pine Streets.

Police say 32-year-old Jason Burham of Ashville and 31-year-old Michael Burham of Russell, Pa. were taken into custody on charges of disorderly conduct and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.