New York State Congressional Districts

State Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul are supporting an effort to redraw New York’s Congressional district lines.

Both James and Hochul filed an amicus brief in support of the effort rather than leaving the lines drawn by a court-appointed special master in place between now and the 2030 census.

The state’s Independent Redistricting Commission’s (IRC) maps were rejected by the Legislature, and the Congressional maps drafted afterwards were challenged in the courts, resulting in a special master drawing lines ahead of the 2022 Election.

In the brief filed in Third Division Appellate Court, Attorney General James and Governor Hochul asserted that while the special master’s maps may have been appropriate for the 2022 Election, there is significant time for IRC to generate new maps and follow the process outlined in the New York State Constitution for Congressional maps going forward.

The amicus brief urges the Appellate Division to reverse the lower court order rejecting the voters’ claim and to order IRC to draw and submit a new congressional map as required by the Constitution.

Jamestown School Board meeting (December 6, 2022)

Jamestown Public Schools’ Superintendent is accusing New York State of dragging its feet in resolving a lawsuit over the state under funding poor school districts.

Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the state is trying to “smoke out” the remaining eight districts involved in the Small Cities lawsuit even though they know the funding formula is unjust to poor districts, “They believe that extending through legal means the timeline for which this process will take will cause districts, especially the poorer ones, to run out of money and drop out of the lawsuit. I think it’s despicable and I think they should own up to their fiscal mismanagement over the course of decades and take care of the kids who need it the most.”

The Jamestown School Board voted 5 to 2 on Tuesday to continue paying litigation fees in the amount of $20,000 in the Small Cities lawsuit, also known as Maisto v. New York. Shelly Leathers and Pat Slagle were the two no votes, citing concerns over spending more tax money on a case that doesn’t seem to have a defined end.

The case is currently in the remedy stage after the New York State Appellate Court rejected an appeal by then Governor Andrew Cuomo in August 2021 of the court’s decision. The unanimous decision by the Third Appellate Division in May 2021 overturned Cuomo’s position that education aid to the eight small city school districts, including Jamestown, was constitutionally sufficient.

Whitaker said the districts’ goals are to change state foundation aid formulas so it’s fair for all districts in the state and for the eight small city school districts to be reimbursed for the funds lost over several decades. He said the district should receive $30 to $40 million from the lawsuit that would go specifically toward academic intervention, “It would go to tutoring. It’s essentially money that we need to help catch kids catch up to their grade level peers. [Reporter “These are teachers? Different kind of programs?] Additional teachers, additional supports – It’s all of that. It’s the entire process of assisting kids throughout their learning to close the gaps that exist with poorer communities.”

Whitaker added the state is in arrears for over $100 million for the Jamestown Public Schools District, but he doubts the district will ever see that money. However, a change in formula would provide ongoing support to the district.

The Maisto plaintiffs started the case in 2008 because they believed their districts were not getting enough educational funding/resources to give their students, mainly poor and disadvantaged, what they needed to succeed and that this violated the state constitution.

On the mascot and nickname guidance that the State Education Department is supposed to provide to school districts, Whitaker said he heard the topic is on the agenda for the Regents’ December meeting next week. He said he wasn’t aware if it was just going to be discussed or if there would be any formal action taken on on the guidance.

The New York State Appellate Court has rejected Cuomo’s request to appeal a May 27th decision in the small city school case – Maisto versus State of New York. The unanimous decision by the Third Appellate Division in May overturned the Governor’s position that education aid in 8 small city school districts, including Jamestown, was constitutionally sufficient.

Cuomo argued that there were important constitutional issues yet to be determined in the appeal received on July 12th. The court denied the motion without comment.

The decision leaves New York State with no option but to take steps necessary to provide significant additional school aid to these districts. Any further appeal would only allow the Governor to delay the case further which has been his primary tactic since 2008 when the Maisto case was commenced.

The case will have enormous impact on education funding, in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually just for the eight districts of Jamestown, Kingston, Mount Vernon, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Port Jervis, Poughkeepsie and Utica. If the principles established by the Third Department decision are applied statewide, the fiscal impact could be even greater.

The Maisto plaintiffs started the case in 2008 because they believed their districts were not getting enough educational funding/resources to give their students, mainly poor and disadvantaged, what they needed to succeed and that this violated the state constitution.

This was substantiated by the districts’ very low graduation rates, teacher pupil ratios and support staff ratios. During the period covered by the trial of the case, which looked at the districts’ performances from 2006-7 to 2013-14, these districts lost over $1 billion in promised funding which resulted in over 1500 teacher and staff layoffs.

The Appellate Court unanimously reversed the Trial Court judge who had dismissed Plaintiffs’ claims and said the State must craft an appropriate plan to remedy this situation and such plan will be subject to further judicial review.

After a court fight of over twelve years, the Appellate Division in Albany held that at-risk students in the small city school districts were not able to provide services such as guidance counselors, social workers, English language teachers, tutorial programs, school psychologists, adequate school buildings, technology facilities and academic intervention services that their students required. The Appellate Court noted that as a result of the reductions in State aid to public school districts, these eight small city school districts lost a “combined total of 1.1 billion” in school aid during the years reviewed by the court.

This reduction in State educational funding necessitated these school districts to drastically cut staff and essential services.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi (second from right) and police chief Harry Snellings (far right) during the Nov. 26 voting session of the Jamestown City Council, when the council voted 7 to 1 in favor of challenging a recent binding arbitration ruling involving  a contract with the city police union.

JAMESTOWN – As Jamestown City officials await their day in court to challenge a recent binding arbitration decision involving the city police union, a court in another region of the state has already made a ruling in a similar case, favoring the union over the municipality.

Last month the New York Supreme Court 3rd Appellate Division upheld a State Supreme Court decision supporting an arbitration panel’s ruling involving a labor contract dispute between the city of Plattsburgh and its firefighters union, Plattsburgh Firefighters Association Local 2421. According to an article in The Sun newspaper based out of Plattsburgh, a three-member arbitration panel ruled 2-to-1 that the city must pay members of its firefighters’ union $740,000 in backpay and retroactive wage increases.

The Appellate Division decision involving Plattsburgh came more than 18 months after the arbitration panel first directed Plattsburgh to pay the union a 2 percent raise and retroactive payments for wages between 2012-2013.

If the Plattsburgh arbitration decision sounds somewhat familiar to local residents, it’s because a similar scenario is now playing out in Jamestown.

JAMESTOWN CHALLENGES RECENT ARBITRATION RULING

Sam Teresi

In October 2018, a three-member arbitration panel ruled 2-to-1 that the city of Jamestown had to give a 2 percent salary increase for all members of the Jamestown Kendall Club police union for both 2016 and 2017 and that the city had to honor the retroactive increase by mid December 2018.  But in November the Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 1 to challenge the arbitration ruling on the grounds that the ruling violates a state arbitration statute that is supposed to weigh the ability for the municipality to pay (Civil Service Law S 209). According to that section of the civil service law, 70 percent of the arbitration panel’s decision is supposed to be based on the ability to pay by the municipality. Jamestown officials contend the arbitration panel didn’t follow that section of the law – even though in its decision, the arbitration majority opinion specifically stated that they did weigh all evidence and did fact follow the 70 percent statute of state law.

“All the parties agreed that the 70 percent weighting factor in the new statute applied to Jamestown because of Jamestown’s fiscal condition. The statute says that with qualifying financially distressed municipalities, the decision needs to be weighted at a factor of 70 percent on the ability to pay issue,” Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi said following the November vote.

According to Teresi, if the city honored the arbitration ruling, Jamestown would have to pay about $400,000 just to cover the retroactive payments for 2016, 2017, and 2018. Even more money would have to be paid for 2019, not only because of the compounded police union raises, but also because the city’s firefighters union would also likely see similar raises – due to those two city employee groups have very similar contracts. The firefighters union contract with the city for 2016 and 2017 is also at an impasse.

“Bottom line, the city can’t afford it,” Teresi said in November. “We can’t raise property taxes to pay for an expensive, outlandish award like this. We can’t rely upon other sources of revenue to come in and cover a gap of that amount. And furthermore, the way that it’s going to elevate the base moving forth with future contract negotiations, we simply can’t afford that either.”

PLATTSBURGH ALSO ARGUES 70-PERCENT WEIGHTING FACTOR IN CHALLENGE

The New York Cities Fiscal Stress Test for fiscal year 2017

Similar to Jamestown, the city of Plattsburgh filed an appeal against the 2017 arbitration ruling for its firefighters’ union, sending the issue to the Clinton County Supreme Court. Just like Jamestown, Plattsburgh city officials believed that the arbitration panel didn’t “take fully into account the level of financial distress the city faces,” arguing the arbitration panel was required to factor 70 percent of its final determination based on the city’s evidence of financial distress.

As part of its case, Plattsburgh argued that since the New York State Comptroller’s Office designated the city as being in “moderate fiscal stress” on its most recent Fiscal Stress List, the second-most dire category, it would be unable to pay. Despite that piece of evidence, the arbitration panel ruled it wasn’t enough to stop a raise from taking place. Jamestown doesn’t even appear on the comptrollers distressed cities list so it had to resort to other pieces of evidence – including the city reaching its constitutional taxing limit – to make its case.

In the Plattsburgh appeal, the Clinton County Supreme Court ruled in January 2018 and upheld the arbitration panel’s decision. When the city appealed a second time, the issue was sent to the state State Appellate Division. There, the court felt that it were in no position to second-guess the arbitration panel’s process for weighing the evidence and that it must defer to the arbitration panel, upholding its initial ruling and handing down its decision last month.

JAMESTOWN PAYS $25,000 TO FIGHT ARBITRATION RULING

As for Jamestown, the city council in November approved a $25,000 payment to the law firm Bond, Schonek and King to represent the city in Chautauqua County Supreme Court to challenge the local arbitration ruling. At the time, it appeared Teresi was unaware that the Plattsburgh case was playing out, basing its argument on the 70-percent statute in state law.

“We’re in a little bit of uncharted waters here because the statute is relatively new and this is the first test on what the statue means by 70 percent weighting factor on ability to pay by fiscally distressed communities,” Teresi said in November 2018 after the council voted to hire a law firm to challenge the arbitration decision.

WRFA reached out to Teresi Thursday afternoon for comment regarding the Plattsburgh case but have yet to hear back from him.

Arguments in that Jamestown arbitration challenge could come as soon as next month in Chautauqua County Supreme Court.