Tuesday, June 16, 1998

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ALBANY, NEW YORK 9 June 16, 1998 10 11:30 a.m. 11 12 13 REGULAR SESSION 14 15 16 17 SENATOR RAYMOND A. MEIER, Acting President 18 STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 3 Senate will come to order. I ask everyone 4 present to please rise and repeat with me the 5 Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (The assemblage repeated the 7 Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.) 8 In the absence of clergy, I ask 9 that we bow our heads in a moment of silence. 10 (A moment of silence was 11 observed.) 12 The reading of the Journal. 13 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, 14 Monday, June 15th. The Senate met pursuant to 15 adjournment. The Journal of Sunday, June 14th, 16 was read and approved. Upon motion, the Senate 17 adjourned. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without 19 objection, the Journal stands approved as read. 20 Presentation of petitions. 21 Messages from the Assembly. 22 Messages from the Governor. 23 Reports of standing committees. 24 The Secretary will read. 25 THE SECRETARY: Senator Stafford, 1 from the Committee on Finance, offers up the 2 following nomination: As a member of the Board 3 of Trustees of the State University of New York, 4 Celine Racine Paquette, of Champlain. 5 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 6 confirmation -- wait a minute, please. 7 Mr. President, if we could just 8 lay that nomination aside temporarily, and I 9 would ask at this time if the members who are 10 interested in speaking on various nominations, 11 if they could come over to the chamber because 12 we are going to move through the report of the 13 Finance Committee expeditiously. 14 If you could now continue with 15 the nominations, Mr. President. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay that 17 nomination aside temporarily. 18 The Secretary will continue to 19 read the nominations. 20 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 21 the state Board of Parole: Lawrence C. Scott, 22 of Farmington. 23 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 24 nomination. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 1 question is on -- the question is on the 2 confirmation of Lawrence C. Scott as a member of 3 the state Board of Parole. All those in favor 4 of confirming the appointment say aye. 5 (Response of "Aye".) 6 Opposed, nay. 7 (There was no response.) 8 The nomination is confirmed. 9 Mr. Scott is in the gallery with 10 us today. He also has with him his daughter, 11 Deborah Ann, his daughter, Diane Marie, his son, 12 Larry and a friend, Darlene Hackett. 13 Sir, we welcome you today. We 14 congratulate you and wish you Godspeed with your 15 important duties. (Applause) 16 The Secretary will continue to 17 read. 18 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 19 the Workmen's Compensation Board: Candace 20 Kellogg Finnegan, of Garrison. 21 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 22 nomination. 23 SENATOR STAFFORD: Mr. President, 24 I see we're getting near the end of the session, 25 and I would like to say we're moving right 1 along. 2 I would say that at the Finance 3 Committee meeting today-- and many of you have 4 heard this before -- have heard this before, but 5 once again I have to say, the Governor sent 6 excellent nominations. All were confirmed 7 unanimously and it's a credit to the Governor, a 8 credit to the nominees and it just is good for 9 the state of New York and with that, I will 10 yield to, I believe the Senator from 11 Westchester, who we're waiting to come in like I 12 was and again we have the Senator from Dutchess 13 -- Putnam. Is he speaking on the nomination? 14 Westchester too. Very good. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 16 Leibell. 17 SENATOR STAFFORD: The captain. 18 SENATOR LEIBELL: Thank you very 19 much, now that we've determined where I'm from. 20 Mr. President, I would like to 21 join with my colleague, Senator Stafford, in 22 commending the Governor for the many fine 23 appointments that he has sent us over the last 24 few months. 25 I especially am very pleased 1 today to stand up and endorse this and to speak 2 on behalf of Candace Finnegan, who is my 3 constituent and who is someone who has served 4 our community well, who is someone who has 5 worked long and hard for the state of New York 6 and is someone who will bring great talent, 7 energy and integrity to this position. 8 I know we have a long schedule 9 today, so I will not speak at length, but I am 10 most pleased professionally and personally to 11 support this recommendation, this nomination 12 from the Governor and, Candace, we wish you 13 well. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any 15 other Senator wishing to be heard on the 16 nomination? 17 (There was no response.) 18 The question is on the nomination 19 of Candace Kellogg Finnegan as a member of the 20 Workers' Compensation Board. All those in favor 21 of confirming the appointment say aye. 22 (Response of "Aye".) 23 Opposed, nay. 24 (There was no response.) 25 The nomination is confirmed. 1 (Applause). 2 Ms. Finnegan, we welcome you to 3 the Senate today and we wish you good luck with 4 your important duties. 5 The Secretary will return to the 6 nomination of Celine Racine Paquette. 7 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 8 the Board of Trustees of the State University of 9 New York, Celine Racine Paquette, of Champlain. 10 SENATOR STAFFORD: Mr. President. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 12 Stafford. 13 SENATOR STAFFORD: We're 14 pronouncing Champlain correctly up there. We 15 appreciate it. 16 On a serious note, as I -- when I 17 came in, when we had started, I mentioned the 18 nominees that are here today and I can only say 19 again, the caliber, we're very, very fortunate. 20 Celine hails from Clinton 21 County. She has served in the school districts 22 in East Greenbush. She was Teacher of the Year 23 in the state, was principal of the high school 24 in Ticonderoga. The Racine family, she married 25 into the Paquette family, two of the finest 1 families of the North Country. She has an 2 excellent insurance business and serves also in 3 public life iin an elected post. 4 I can only say just as with 5 Candace, with Celine, I could go on and on. I 6 could even mention all their families and 7 embarrass everybody. I won't do that, but this 8 is a fine day, a fine day for the state of New 9 York because we're having the caliber of people 10 being appointed and being confirmed who will 11 make this state a better place in which to live. 12 So it's a pleasure for me to move 13 Celine's confirmation and also supporting the 14 other very fine nominees that are here today. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Does any 16 other Senator wish to be heard on the 17 nomination? 18 (There was no response.) 19 The question is on the 20 confirmation of the nomination of Celine Racine 21 Paquette as a member of the Board of Trustees of 22 the State University of New York. All those in 23 favor of the confirmation say aye. 24 (Response of "Aye".) 25 Opposed, nay. 1 (There was no response.) 2 The nomination is confirmed. 3 (Applause) 4 Ms. Paquette, congratulations and 5 good luck. 6 Senator Spano. 7 SENATOR SPANO: Mr. President, I 8 was delayed en route coming over to the 9 chamber. Without objection, if it would be okay 10 if I just say a couple of things about Candace 11 Finnegan who we just confirmed to the Workers' 12 Comp' Board. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without 14 objection. 15 SENATOR SPANO: Thank you, Mr. 16 President, my colleagues. 17 Just quickly, I wanted to make 18 sure that we made this part of the record as 19 well, but Candace Finnegan was unanimously 20 reported from the Labor Committee, sent over to 21 the Finance Committee, obviously today. 22 I first met Candace Finnegan in 23 her role with Rockland Children's Psychiatric 24 Center a number of years ago when I chaired the 25 Mental Health Committee and I learned firsthand 1 the role that she played in helping the lives of 2 children who suffer from mental illness in this 3 state. 4 She is an outstanding person, has 5 the right temperament to be a member of the 6 Workers' Compensation Board and I want to just 7 congratulate the Governor on that appointment 8 and thank the members for just giving me an 9 opportunity to get up and to say a few things 10 about Candace Finnegan. 11 Thank you, Mr. President. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 13 Nozzolio. 14 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you, Mr. 15 President. 16 Mr. President, I was 17 inadvertently detained on my way over to the 18 chamber today and I ask to have unanimous 19 consent to comment on the confirmation of 20 Lawrence Scott to the Parole Board. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without 22 objection, you're recognized. 23 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you, Mr. 24 President, my colleagues. 25 It is, indeed, an honor and a 1 happy privilege for me to add my support and 2 compliment to Governor Pataki for his excellent 3 nomination of Larry Scott, Lawrence C. Scott, 4 from Farmington, New York, as a member of the 5 New York State Parole Board. 6 The Parole Board is under great 7 challenge today and we in this Legislature are 8 working hard with the Governor to give the tools 9 necessary to ensure the integrity of our parole 10 system, but with this nomination of Larry Scott, 11 we have an individual added to the board that 12 will be an outstanding representative of the 13 people. 14 Larry Scott brings to this 15 challenge a diverse background of law 16 enforcement as a career law enforcement official 17 with the New York State Police, our state's 18 finest, heading as a member of the important 19 Criminal Investigations Bureau. As one who also 20 served in his early days as a uniform trooper, 21 Larry Scott certainly has his roots in law 22 enforcement, but he goes much -- far beyond 23 that. 24 As a member -- elected member of 25 the judiciary as a town judge in one of the 1 larger towns of upstate New York, serving in 2 that capacity for almost a decade, has combined 3 with his law enforcement experience great 4 judicial background. 5 Also as he currently serves in 6 another elected capacity, a capacity that brings 7 both executive and legislative background to his 8 resume and to his career as supervisor of the 9 wonderful town of Farmington, that supervisory 10 job gives him as the executive of one of the 11 fastest growing towns in the state, as one of an 12 extremely dynamic town, also that town's 13 representative on the Ontario County board of 14 Supervisors, the legislative board for the 15 county of Ontario. 16 Again, a mix of legislative 17 experience, coupled with judicial experience and 18 a career in law enforcement gives Larry Scott an 19 ideal background to serve the very important 20 challenges of the Parole Board. 21 Mr. Chairman, my colleagues, we 22 have seen many nominees to the Parole Board over 23 the last year. It's an excellent team and that 24 Larry Scott, Lawrence C. Scott, will be an 25 excellent addition and with that, I'm very 1 honored to have my name attached to supporting 2 this fine nomination. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 4 Secretary will continue to read. 5 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 6 the Crime Victims Board, Jacqueline C. Mattina. 7 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 8 nomination. 9 SENATOR STAFFORD: I'm sorry. 10 Move the nomination, please, Mr. President. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 12 Volker. 13 SENATOR STAFFORD: I yield to the 14 Senator from the west. 15 SENATOR VOLKER: As the Senator 16 from the west, I appreciate that from the 17 Senator from the north. 18 Let me just say that first of 19 all, Jackie Mattina has been a constituent of 20 mine for a number of years, I think is an 21 excellent choice to the Crime Victims Board. 22 Jackie has been an attorney for, 23 I believe 13 years. She has been an assistant 24 county attorney under two administrations in 25 Erie County. She's been the counsel to Social 1 Services, been very active in the community. 2 She's a person who I think would understand the 3 process and problems involved in the Crime 4 Victims Board. Comes from one of the old 5 families in Western New York. Her father is 6 probably one of the most respected jurists in 7 the state of New York who's -- Joe Mattina, who 8 is a Surrogate Court judge. 9 I would highly recommend her and 10 say that I think the Governor made an enormously 11 good choice in Jackie Mattina, and I commend the 12 Governor. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 14 Maziarz. 15 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you very 16 much, Mr. President. 17 I want to -- as another Senator 18 from the west, I want to join Senator Volker in 19 seconding this nomination and in congratulating 20 Governor Pataki on a fine nomination. 21 Although I'm not personally 22 acquainted with Ms. Mattina, I'm very much 23 acquainted with her father, a distinguished 24 jurist from Erie County, Judge Mattina. He is 25 not only an excellent jurist; he is also a super 1 Buffalo Bills fan, and I assume that this apple 2 has not fallen very far from the tree and that 3 Ms. Mattina is going to do an excellent job for 4 this administration. 5 Thank you, Mr. President. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 7 Rath. 8 SENATOR RATH: Yes, Mr. 9 President. 10 It gives me a great deal of 11 pleasure to rise also from the west to second 12 the nomination of Jackie Mattina. 13 The Governor has chosen an 14 exceptional young woman who will have many years 15 of service and by virtue of her experience and 16 her community activity, I believe she'll be a 17 great addition to the board, and I welcome you 18 to that kind of service and congratulate the 19 Governor. 20 Thank you. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 22 Nanula. 23 SENATOR NANULA: Thank you, Mr. 24 President. 25 I just very quickly wanted to 1 again commend you, Jackie, and congratulate you 2 and your father and my good friend Judge 3 Mattina. We're all very proud out in Western 4 New York of your great accomplishments and 5 certainly I look forward to working with you in 6 your capacity on the Crime Victims Board. 7 Congratulations. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 9 Stachowski. 10 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: I would like 11 to say I'm from the west too, Mr. President, but 12 some people think I'm from Ohio sometimes, but I 13 too would like to join in commending the 14 Governor on this appointment. I think that Ms. 15 Mattina will do a great job. Her father has 16 done a great job in his public service and I'm 17 sure in her other capacity she's been very, very 18 capable. 19 It's a good appointment by the 20 Governor, and I'm sure we look forward to her 21 doing a great job on the Crime Victims Board. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Are 23 there any Senators from the west who wish to 24 speak on the nomination? 25 (There was no response.) 1 The question is on the 2 confirmation of the appointment of the 3 Jacqueline Mattina as a member of the Crime 4 Victims Board. All those in favor signify by 5 saying aye. 6 (Response of "Aye".) 7 Opposed, nay. 8 (There was no response.) 9 The nomination is confirmed. 10 (Applause) 11 Jacqueline Mattina is with us in 12 the chamber here today. She's accompanied by 13 her husband Ted Chmiel, by her son Brian, her 14 daughter Bethany, also by -- also by her son 15 Jacob. She's also accompanied by her father, 16 the Honorable Joseph Mattina, and by some other 17 relatives, Arthur Sabia, Carolyn Sabia and Joan 18 Alba. 19 Jacqueline, we wish you well with 20 your important duties and congratulate you. 21 The Secretary will continue to 22 read. 23 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 24 the Public Employment Relations Board, Michael 25 R. Cuevas, of Schenectady. 1 SENATOR STAFFORD: Move the 2 confirmation and we yield to Senator Farley. 3 SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you very 4 much, Senator Stafford. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 6 Farley. 7 SENATOR FARLEY: It is with a 8 great deal of enthusiasm and pride that I urge 9 the nomination and second the confirmation of 10 Michael Cuevas. 11 I've known Michael Cuevas for a 12 lot of years. He's been a distinguished 13 practicing attorney, a public defender and a 14 corporation counsel for the city of Schenectady 15 and most recently in a very, very important 16 position -- in every job that Michael has done 17 he's done very, very well. He has a resume. It 18 is truly outstanding. 19 He's a graduate of Stuyvesant 20 High School in Brooklyn, and that's why I wanted 21 to find out where he came from, even though he's 22 been in Schenectady most of his adult life and a 23 graduate of New York University with a B.A. in 24 economics, and Albany Law School. 25 Michael is famous for every job 1 he's undertaken, he's done well. Currently he 2 is serving as chairman of the Unemployment 3 Insurance Appeals Board. The Governor's office 4 and everybody that has been involved with that 5 board has spoken so highly of him. He's taking 6 on one of the most important positions in the 7 state of New York as chairman of the PERB. 8 Now, let me just say as somebody 9 that comes from the Capital District, the Public 10 Employment Relations Board is terribly important 11 to those of us that have so many government 12 employees. Michael is an outstanding public 13 servant. We're fortunate to have him willing to 14 serve our state of New York. 15 Mike, I'm very, very proud of you 16 and it's with enthusiasm and pride that I move 17 his confirmation. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 19 question is on the confirmation of Michael 20 Cuevas as a member of the Public Employment 21 Relations Board. All those in favor of 22 confirming the nomination signify by saying 23 aye. 24 (Response of "Aye".) 25 Opposed, nay. 1 (There was no response.) 2 The nomination is confirmed. 3 Mr. Cuevas is present with us in 4 the chamber. We wish you well with your 5 important duties, congratulate you and welcome 6 you to the chamber today, sir. 7 (Applause) 8 The Secretary will continue to 9 read. 10 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 11 the Public Service Commission: John B. Daly, of 12 Lewiston. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 14 Stafford. 15 SENATOR STAFFORD: Well, Mr. 16 President, once again as the previous nomination 17 from Schenectady and all nominations, just the 18 finest. I now yield to the nominee's successor 19 and when you have these two people in the room 20 at the same time, you understand just what a 21 great Empire State we have. 22 Senator Maziarz, again from the 23 west. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 25 Maziarz. 1 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you very 2 much, Mr. President. Thank you, Senator 3 Stafford. 4 I want to rise and second the 5 nomination of former Senator and Commissioner 6 John Daly. As I often said, I thought the best 7 career move that John Daly ever made was 8 accepting that commissionership with the DOT. 9 However, Mr. Chairman -- I know 10 Commissioner Daly informed me he was going to be 11 here for this confirmation. I know that he 12 appeared today before the Senate Finance 13 Committee, and I just want to congratulate the 14 Governor. I don't think there's a finer 15 individual who has - 16 SENATOR STAFFORD: There he is. 17 There he is. Start over again. Start over. 18 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Mr. President, 19 I may beg your indulgence, please. 20 Senator Stafford doesn't have to 21 do his renomination, does he? 22 Commissioner Daly, you missed 23 Senator Stafford's introduction of you and it 24 was about 20 minutes long, so we're not going to 25 repeat it if you don't mind. 1 I was just telling my colleagues, 2 Commissioner, how thankful I was that you 3 accepted that call from Governor Pataki back on 4 December the 27th of 1994 to become the 5 Commissioner of Transportation. Obviously the 6 Governor has a great deal of faith in you and 7 your abilities, not only in the field of 8 transportation but in this instance in the field 9 of energy and with the deregulation that New 10 York State is currently undergoing, I could 11 think of no finer nominee to serve as a member 12 of the Public Service Commission than John Daly 13 of Lewiston. 14 I wholeheartedly second Senator 15 Stafford's nomination and congratulate the 16 Governor again on a very fine appointment. I 17 know that Commissioner Daly will carry out this 18 assignment with the same vigor that he did on 19 the very successful ISTEA reauthorization for 20 the state of New York and also with as much 21 vigor as he did as the Commissioner of the 22 Department of Transportation and also as a 23 member of this body. 24 Thank you, Mr. President. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 1 Cook. 2 SENATOR COOK: Mr. President, 3 Senator/Commissioner Daly and I were in a class 4 of 36 people, I believe, who entered the 5 Assembly at the same time, 24 of them at the 6 time having been Republicans. I think that 7 Senator Volker and I may be the only remaining 8 -- the people who are still remaining in the 9 Legislature. 10 John, if you expect I'm going to 11 say nice things about you again every time you 12 get confirmed to something, I'm just not going 13 to go through it. 14 Mr. President, I would ask you to 15 go back and engross into the record everything 16 that I said the last time he was confirmed and 17 take that as all the compliments that I would 18 normally give. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 20 Marchi. 21 SENATOR MARCHI: Mr. President, 22 we've had accolades from the far west and a 23 little more to the center of the state also and 24 since I represent a constituency that touches 25 the southern -- most southern part of the state 1 of New York, I want to emphasize and stress the 2 fact that this is not parochialism that dictates 3 this, I have to admit friendship but also a 4 tribute to a colleague that I remember so well 5 when he was with us and spoke so eloquently and 6 knowledgeably of all of the public issues that 7 we were addressing. 8 So anyone who has known him, no 9 matter where they come from in the state of New 10 York and beyond, more than delighted and pleased 11 to see this marvelous, splendid public servant 12 before us, and I certainly want to join in 13 asking for the confirmation of his nomination. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 15 Waldon. 16 SENATOR WALDON: Thank you very 17 much, Mr. President. 18 When I returned to elective 19 office and became a member of the Senate, one of 20 the first persons I got to know on a very 21 positive and personal basis was John Daly and 22 since that time it has been one of the warmest 23 personal relationships I have had not just here 24 in the Senate but in my entire elective office. 25 I guess part of the reason for 1 that is that there's not such a dissimilar 2 background between John and I. He was a ball 3 player and the older we become, John, you know 4 the greater ball players we were in our youth. 5 He also went to a school that has 6 outstanding credentials in the city of New York, 7 Regis High School and only one of the kids who 8 grew up with me was smart enough to get into 9 that school and that speaks to his acumen, but 10 the thing that I love the most about John is 11 he's regular people. He's a good guy. He keeps 12 his word. He's a friend. He doesn't let 13 politics interfere with the ability of people to 14 relate to each other. 15 And so I rise with the other 16 giants in this arena, in this chamber to second 17 his nomination and to praise the Governor on 18 again doing the right thing. 19 I know of no one who's a better 20 person to serve the people of the state of New 21 York and no one who to me is a dearer friend. 22 John, all the best. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 24 Gold. 25 SENATOR GOLD: Thank you, Mr. 1 President. 2 Mr. President, when John Daly was 3 elected to the Assembly and I heard about it, I 4 had nice things to say about it and when he was 5 elected to the Senate, I thought that was 6 terrific and I had some nice things to say about 7 it and when he was confirmed for Commissioner of 8 Transportation, it was a pleasure to second that 9 nomination and to say nice things about John 10 Daly. He left that and he lobbied for us in the 11 ISTEA issue and I could only say nice things 12 about John and, John, I want you to know that it 13 will be an honor to second your confirmation and 14 say nice things about you constantly until you 15 find a job you like. 16 The fact of the matter is that in 17 undertaking this new job, everybody has noticed 18 that John is still going to retain certain other 19 commitments and when you were talking at the 20 committee meeting about energy, energy, John, 21 you're the one who's going to need the energy to 22 do all of the things that you're going to be 23 assigned, but I'm delighted that if the Governor 24 had to pick one person to give all of this 25 responsibility to, he's giving it to John Daly. 1 You know, we come up here as 2 Republicans or Democrats or whatever, but every 3 once in a while somebody reaches a position 4 where they're not a Republican anymore. You're 5 part of all of us, John, and your warmth, your 6 friendship, your decency just overwhelms most of 7 us and I want to wish you the very best, and I 8 want to congratulate the Governor for knowing 9 what all of us know, and that is that you are 10 really one of the most talented people in this 11 state. 12 Good luck. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 14 Marcellino. 15 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you, 16 Mr. President. 17 I don't represent the district 18 that John lives in. I didn't know him when he 19 was in the Assembly. I didn't know him when he 20 was a state Senator. I know his replacement. 21 We were elected in the same class. John, come 22 on back. I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. 23 I met John when he was 24 Commissioner of the DOT and that's not an easy 25 job and many times we in the districts come to 1 the commissioner and we make requests that are 2 somewhat outrageous and the commissioner 3 sometimes has to tell you no, a painful task on 4 both ends. 5 John always found a way to say 6 yes graciously and make you feel that you did it 7 and say no and take all the blame on himself, 8 which made it easier on the elected official in 9 the district. 10 He was a great commissioner. He 11 represented this state well in the ISTEA 12 negotiations and what's coming back to the state 13 from the federal government is no small way 14 accountable to his actions and his good work. 15 John is a good person, a good 16 friend to all of us here. He's one of the 17 Governor's finest appointees, and I'm proud to 18 and pleased to stand up and speak on his 19 behalf. There's the old adage that nice guys 20 finish last. It's good to know that not in this 21 case. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 23 LaValle. 24 SENATOR LAVALLE: Thank you, Mr. 25 President. 1 I think Senator Gold had 2 indicated that John Daly would go on until he 3 found a job that he liked. 4 I would say to you that the PSC, 5 other than being in the state Legislature, is 6 that very position that he will not only like 7 but bring his many, many years of experience to 8 that position and as I said in the Finance 9 Committee, probably of any nominee or any person 10 to serve on the PSC, John Daly will go without 11 needing a single day of training. He will hit 12 the pavement running. 13 John, you have excelled in every 14 position you have been at, whether it was in the 15 Assembly, serving in this body, being 16 Commissioner of Transportation or bringing back 17 the dollars under the -- the ISTEA dollars for 18 New York State. 19 On a personal note, I thank you 20 publicly for playing cupid that brought my wife 21 and I together and that probably was one of your 22 best accomplishments as far as I'm concerned. 23 Good luck to you. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 25 Rath. 1 SENATOR RATH: Thank you, Mr. 2 President. 3 Whether we call you Senator Daly 4 or commissioner or friend, we have a lot of 5 titles for our colleague, John Daly, and I would 6 say ditto to all of the comments that my 7 colleagues have made but there's something very 8 special that I think I might suggest at this 9 moment and it was said by, of all strange 10 persons, a Supreme Court judge who is not one I 11 know terribly well but one I see occasionally 12 and his comment was this, that being on the 13 bench, it was wonderful to have served in the 14 Senate because he knew, or he thought he knew 15 what they meant when they sent things through, 16 quote-unquote, and I think that happens in a lot 17 of places in government, and I think as John 18 Daly proceeds in this new era of his wonderful 19 and outstanding career, he will know what, 20 quote, "they" meant when it came through. He 21 will have some idea of legislative intent, which 22 unfortunately does not always come through and 23 in the role you're about to assume is 24 extraordinarily important. 25 So as we all wish you Godspeed 1 and the wind at your back and all those good 2 Irish sayings, John, help them find out and try 3 to figure out what we mean over here and you can 4 do that better than anyone. 5 Good luck. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 7 Johnson. 8 SENATOR JOHNSON: I also rise to 9 endorse the nomination of my good friend, 10 Senator John Daly, to his new position on the 11 PSC. 12 When he was first nominated to be 13 Transportation Commissioner, I felt chagrined by 14 that because I didn't want to lose him from this 15 chamber. He was a stalwart, stand-up reformer, 16 crusader and he always had a good argument and 17 many times his arguments prevailed and his 18 support was certainly helpful to many of us 19 getting our legislation through. So I miss you, 20 John, but I was happy to see the job you did at 21 Transportation, more happy to see you go down 22 and get that ISTEA money, and now I think more 23 than ever a man of your caliber is certainly 24 needed on the PSC because now you have an 25 entirely new crusade to embark upon or to join, 1 which is getting us to the 21st Century, 2 competitive environment, unregulated 3 environment, see that people are well served and 4 these utilities perform adequately for the 5 public. 6 John, you're going to do a great 7 job there as you did in every other position. 8 Godspeed and good luck to you, John. We have 9 every confidence in your capabilities and your 10 accomplishments which we'll soon hear about. 11 Thank you. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 13 Farley. 14 SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you, Mr. 15 President. 16 I rise to wish my Irish buddy 17 good luck. You know, John Daly has served in so 18 many facets of this government. In every one of 19 them he did an outstanding job, but I do want to 20 just emphasize something that several people 21 have alluded to, his most recent job. 22 When he was sent to Washington to 23 try to attack a real dismal situation in ISTEA, 24 he not only got us restored, he brought home all 25 of the bacon. It was tremendous the job that 1 you did for New York State, John, in your last 2 function. As commissioner, as Senator, as 3 Assemblyman, I think it's evident how everyone 4 has spoken about you and the love and respect 5 that you're held in, and I know that you're very 6 excited about going on to the PSC because this 7 is an area that you have always been interested 8 in, but you know so many of the areas that 9 you've worked in, so many facets of it, from 10 housing to every area that you have been 11 involved in in the Legislature, you've done an 12 outstanding job. 13 We're very, very proud of you. 14 You can see that your replacement is even proud 15 of you and we don't want you back necessarily 16 because the Irish legislators have never been 17 the same without you. They've never had a 18 chorus or anything since you've left, but we're 19 still looking for you to play the spoons when 20 the Irish legislators meet. 21 All the best to you, John, and 22 good luck and good health. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 24 Stachowski. 25 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: I too rise 1 to second the nomination of John Daly. I'm 2 tickled for John. I think other than president 3 of NYRA, there's no job that John would rather 4 have than this one. 5 I think that John will do a great 6 job. He's always been interested in energy. As 7 Senator Volker said in the committee meeting, 8 due to him being in the hospital, John passed 9 the biggest energy bill during the time when he 10 was here, and I think that John is just going to 11 do a superb job as good as he did lobbying in 12 Washington which I was more than capable at. 13 I think that it's interesting 14 that John will do this. We're happy in Western 15 New York because we have somebody that knows our 16 problems with energy and will have a good ear 17 for us when we come to him with them and talk 18 about all the energy we need to keep the plants 19 there that we have. 20 So that makes this appointment 21 all the more important to us in Western New York 22 now and, John, I have to admit, I enjoyed 23 working with you when you were a Senator. I 24 especially enjoyed working with you when you 25 were the chairman of the Hazardous and Toxic 1 Waste Commission, but unfortunately I think that 2 you and I carry that commission over when we 3 make our selections in August. 4 Congratulations, John. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 6 Volker. 7 SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President, I 8 guess I have to be a little careful what I say 9 here because I probably know John Daly better 10 than just about anyone. 11 As Charlie Cook said, we all came 12 together. Daly and I both -- I know it's 13 probably hard for you to believe, but we were 14 young and kind of crazy guys in a way. We both 15 had primaries. We both -- in fact, both of us 16 had what I call double primaries, Republican and 17 Conservative primaries. In all honesty, I don't 18 think too many people in Western New York gave 19 either one of us a very good chance to win. I 20 was supposed to lose because I was so late 21 coming into the process. John was supposed to 22 lose because he actually came from the outside, 23 ran a primary against an incumbent, but 24 fortunately we both won. We became very close 25 friends obviously and, in fact, when John got 1 the call from the Governor, I think I was one of 2 the first people that he called to tell me that 3 he was being named to the Department of 4 Transportation, and I have to admit to you it 5 was -- the two of us talked for about five 6 minutes because much I think as John obviously 7 relished a challenge, we both realized that it 8 was the end of in a sense an era for both of us 9 because we had been so close over the years and 10 now John was going on to other things. 11 Let me just say that -- I'm not 12 going to go on in detail except I will tell you 13 one story which I probably shouldn't tell you, 14 but I will tell it anyways about John. You have 15 to realize that John followed me a little bit 16 later. I came in '75. I think it was 1976, I 17 think, that John came to the Senate, if I can't 18 remember -- it was '78. I'm sorry. So John had 19 a little more practice in the Minority in the 20 Assembly and those of us that know John know 21 that he's never been shy about expressing his 22 opinions. 23 He came over to the Senate here, 24 was here a couple years and he came into the 25 Senate one day and John was up debating as he 1 had a habit of doing and Warren Anderson, who 2 was then the Majority Leader, walked over to me 3 and whispered in my ear. So I went over to John 4 and he was standing there debating and he looked 5 over at me next to him and he stopped for a 6 second and he said, What's going on, and I said 7 the Majority Leader just asked me to tell you to 8 remind you that you are now in the Majority. 9 You are not in the Minority anymore and you 10 don't have to speak on every bill. 11 John looked at me, laughed and 12 said, I think I just got a message that it was 13 time for me not to speak anymore and he sat down 14 and that's a true little story because one thing 15 about John -- and we kid ourselves about war, 16 because I always used to tell John that he 17 literally wasn't happy unless he was at war. He 18 had an issue or something that was going on, 19 something he felt so strongly about that had to 20 be done, whether it was pension reform, energy 21 changes, housing, whatever it was, John launched 22 into it big time, and let me just finish by 23 saying something. Unfortunately, in this time 24 when we don't want to say good things -- I mean, 25 we have a media particularly in this town that 1 is a bad news media. I don't think people 2 really realize what this gentleman up there just 3 accomplished in Washington. 4 He went to Washington on the 5 ISTEA issues. The situation in Washington was 6 very bad for New York and I won't get into all 7 the details of why. We are a state like few 8 other states and we are a big transit state as 9 well as a big highway state and in Washington 10 the way they work it is those are sort of two 11 separate entities and they're part of ISTEA. 12 The other states had ganged up 13 against us. What they were trying to do to us 14 is cut our transit money and cut our highway 15 money but in any case what they were trying to 16 do is cut one or the other for sure and the 17 story out of Washington was that we were 18 virtually doomed. It was John Daly and the 19 people in Washington were telling me as this was 20 going on what a tremendous job he was doing of 21 organizing and trying to make sure we got our 22 just due. 23 The result of his efforts was 24 that New York ended up not only getting the same 25 amount of money we had in the past from ISTEA, 1 we got more money both in transit and in highway 2 money. The people of this state probably will 3 never know how much that is going to save us in 4 taxation, in highways, in bridges done, in 5 transit fares and things of that nature. It's 6 unfortunate, as I say, I think that people 7 really don't realize it, but he did a super 8 job. I have no doubt in an era in the PSC when 9 enormous changes are coming that John Daly will 10 be one of the leaders in making sure that this 11 state's ratepayers are properly protected. 12 My best to you as always, John. 13 Good luck. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 15 Balboni. 16 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 17 I rise to second the nomination but also to join 18 in a celebration. Unfortunately, recently we 19 have considered the lives of colleagues who have 20 left this house, when they have passed from our 21 ranks. Today we have the opportunity to 22 consider the life of someone who is very much 23 with us but nonetheless as much of a giant as 24 the other men who served here. 25 John Daly quite simply put is a 1 hero. He is someone who has served in every 2 portion of this government and has done terrific 3 things. He is a legislator above all 4 expectations. He is an administrator with a 5 heart and compassion. He is a friend to all who 6 have ever served with him and when I consider on 7 occasion I will go before a group at an Eagle 8 Scout and talk about leadership and the 9 qualities of leadership, the greatest thing that 10 John Daly provides is that he is a role model 11 and to those children who are up in the gallery 12 today, if you look across this Senate chamber 13 and you see that man standing there, that is a 14 public servant in the best sense of the word and 15 for that we owe you a debt, John, and I know 16 that you're going to continue to distinguish not 17 only yourself but this fine body and this state. 18 Thank you, Mr. President. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 20 Leichter. 21 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 22 John Daly is one of the most amiable people that 23 I have ever met in politics or in public office 24 but anybody who mistakes his amiability, which 25 is very genuine and sincere, for lack of 1 interest or lack of concern or lack of ability 2 makes a very grave mistake because John has 3 shown that you can be a nice guy and also be an 4 incredibly effective public servant. He 5 certainly proved that. I served with John in 6 the Assembly. I served with him in the Senate. 7 We had many a good debate. He's a great 8 debater, a tough foe, but afterwards one of the 9 nicest people that you could ever meet. 10 John, I think really is a model 11 for us to avoid the partisanship which sometimes 12 crops up and the pettiness which sometimes crops 13 up. Nobody can ever reply -- apply the term 14 "partisan" or "petty" to John Daly. 15 John is committed to dealing with 16 issues on the merits and he's also committed to 17 dealing with people on a very human, on a very 18 personal basis, and I think that's what makes 19 him so effective. 20 John's taken on some tough jobs, 21 DOT, representing the state in negotiations down 22 in Washington and now taking on the very, very 23 tough job of the Public Service Commission. 24 I know as in all the other jobs 25 that he's had, he's going to give it his all. 1 He's going to bring to it that special John Daly 2 quality, decency and competence. 3 I look forward, John, to working 4 with you, writing you some -- not that much 5 longer because I'm leaving, but I hope I have a 6 chance to write you some letters complaining 7 about the Public Service Commission and -- but I 8 know that you're going to be working there for 9 all the people of the state of New York. 10 God bless you, John. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 12 Goodman. 13 SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. President, 14 John Daly is a very old and dear personal friend 15 with whom I had the pleasure to serve in the 16 Legislature for many seasons, but I think I 17 learned of his extraordinary effectiveness as an 18 administrator when he assumed the 19 responsibilities of his last position. 20 Let me give you a for instance. 21 There has been a very vexatious problem on the 22 East Side of Manhattan which has caused grave 23 traffic congestion and air pollution known as 24 the 48th Street ramp debacle. The 48th Street 25 ramp is a means of accessing the East Side Drive 1 in Manhattan from 48th Street to head north on 2 that drive and the ramp was closed long before 3 John assumed his responsibilities in his 4 previous position. 5 Unfortunately, due to 6 bureaucratic stasis in the prior administration 7 and in general, there has been lengthy delay up 8 to ten years in the completion of the revival of 9 that ramp so that cars could be diverted from 10 the East Side of Manhattan and go directly up 11 the highway provided for their egress from 12 Manhattan. 13 It was only when John Daly came 14 onto the scene, Mr. President, that it was 15 possible for this ramp to be rapidly constructed 16 and at the moment we're expecting a completion 17 date by the end of year, which is a truncated 18 version of what would otherwise have occurred 19 and it might have taken two or three additional 20 years to get the job done. 21 This says to me that this is a 22 man of enormous administrative skill and potency 23 in the ability to move the bureaucracy in 24 constructive ways and, therefore, Mr. President, 25 I give you this as further evidence of the fact 1 that he will be a superb member of the Public 2 Service Commission and he'll do that job equally 3 and may well be better than he's done before. 4 I admire him. I salute him and I 5 urge his prompt approval by this body. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 7 Wright. 8 SENATOR WRIGHT: Thank you, Mr. 9 President. 10 With due deference to my 11 colleague, I would like to have John Daly return 12 to the Senate. I think John did some of his 13 finest work in this chamber and would certainly 14 love to serve with him again but John has gone 15 on and in each of those assignments has 16 performed exceptionally well for the people of 17 the state of New York and if there's a word that 18 describes John Daly it's tenacious, whether he's 19 negotiating housing legislation, transportation 20 legislation in Washington or representing his 21 constituency on this floor. 22 As an individual who represents 23 an area with an awful lot invested in the 24 utility and energy business right now, I look 25 forward to John Daly joining the Public Service 1 Commission. He will bring that tenacity to the 2 watchdog role that he's assuming but he will 3 also bring a high degree of common sense and 4 integrity. 5 I don't think the Governor could 6 make a better nomination or appointment to the 7 Public Service Commission and I'm more than 8 proud to second that nomination and join his 9 confirmation this morning. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 11 Nanula. 12 SENATOR NANULA: Thank you, Mr. 13 President. 14 I'm standing to add my comments 15 to the ongoing tribute to John Daly today. It's 16 a tribute that, as I can recall, began a couple 17 years ago, Senator Maziarz, before you 18 officially joined us when then Senator Maziarz 19 was appointed Commissioner to the Department of 20 Transportation, it's unfortunate we're losing 21 the children because, John, as you know, our 22 history goes back quite some time and quite some 23 distance and Senator Balboni reminded me that my 24 first exposure to the New York State Senate was 25 up in the gallery as a legislative intern in a 1 three-day session for high school students at 2 that time Senator Daly put together and I don't 3 know if he's all that pleased with the fact that 4 I often attribute my Senatorial career to an 5 extent on John Daly's exposure to me at least 6 with respect to the Senate and its operations, 7 but really as a member now, I want to 8 congratulate you for that program because it 9 took a lot of young people and really gave them 10 a great exposure to this chamber and what we do 11 here as Senators. 12 Also with respect to Senator 13 Leichter's comments, tough jobs. Not too long 14 ago, Senator/Commissioner/Mr. endless titles, 15 John Daly, you and I had lunch probably about 16 maybe a year or so ago on a very controversial 17 issue in Western New York, the issue of what 18 approach we were going to take as a community to 19 building a new bridge, the Peace Bridge, versus 20 this Super Span concept and, John, your 21 leadership on that issue was tremendous. You 22 took a bipartisan approach. You really brought 23 a very divergent group of folks together here on 24 this issue and as a result he really had 25 elevated the debate when it comes to Super Span, 1 and I think really adding significantly to what 2 hopefully is going to be a great project for the 3 next millennium in Western New York, and I 4 really believe we owe a debt of gratitude to you 5 for that. 6 And finally, I want to conclude 7 by saying that John Daly to the west is an 8 import. Senator Waldon had mentioned where your 9 roots are, and I want to say personally and on 10 behalf of Western New York, that we're quite 11 happy that you decided to take that job with 12 Kimberly-Clark all those years ago and come and 13 join us in Western New York because you have 14 done a great job. You have been a great 15 resource for us, and I wish you the best in your 16 new role. 17 Thank you. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 19 Paterson. 20 SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you, Mr. 21 President. 22 I came to the Senate in 1986. I 23 met Senator Daly and he told me that at the time 24 as chair of the Housing Committee that he had 25 been of assistance to my predecessor, the very 1 admired late Senator Bogues, and that he had 2 come down and he had a housing forum in the 3 district and he said, "I'll also do it for you," 4 and I said, "Well, you probably have a lot of 5 Senate districts you have to go to before you 6 get a chance to come back and do our district 7 again," and he said, "Well, if it's an important 8 issue, I'll do it as soon as possible," and it 9 was a very important issue at that particular 10 time. That was a time when 72 percent of the 11 public-owned property in Harlem was abandoned 12 property and just walking through our 13 neighborhood, you could see the burned out and 14 abandoned blight that was more synonymous with 15 the South Bronx and Ocean Hill-Brownsville from 16 20 years before, and so Senator Daly came to my 17 district in Harlem and held this housing forum. 18 Mr. Holland was his counsel and he did this in 19 my first year of service, which was of extreme 20 assistance to me. 21 Ever since this time I can't 22 agree more with Senator Wright about this 23 gentleman's tenaciousness and his display of 24 integrity. He always offered me friendship in 25 the time he was here and Senator Leichter put it 1 very aptly when he said what a nice person he 2 could be and at the same time be an effective 3 public servant, and I have a favorite story 4 about him and I would love to tell it. 5 I was coming to work one day. 6 The temperature was minus eight degrees or 7 something. I was running as fast as I could. I 8 was running down -- I was running down State 9 Street and running up the steps by the LOB and I 10 didn't realize that there was a new rule that 11 they had -- would only shovel the main path for 12 snow removal and they actually had a chain fence 13 stopping you from using that part. Of course, I 14 didn't see the chain fence and at all full speed 15 I went over the chain and somehow Senator Daly 16 came down and caught me before I fell and 17 probably would have severely injured myself, and 18 I thought that the -- I thought that the most 19 important thing about that, that demonstrated 20 what a nice person he was, that he would run 21 down there and risk injury to himself to catch 22 me, but to show you what an effective public 23 servant and political leader he was, he actually 24 took a look at the Red Book to see whether or 25 not my district was marginal before he came down 1 there and still came down there to help me once 2 he determined that the Majority couldn't pick up 3 my seat. 4 Thank you very much, Mr. 5 President. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 7 Saland. 8 SENATOR SALAND: Thank you, Mr. 9 President. 10 Mr. President, I too rise in this 11 seemingly enormous ground swell of kind words 12 for our former colleague, Senator John Daly. 13 Certainly somebody who is perhaps one of the 14 finest representatives of a legislative body, 15 this legislative body or any legislative body 16 regardless of where it might be situated and he 17 inspires great loyalty, and I just want John to 18 know that Lisa Reid, former key employees 19 working this crowd mightily, Senator Nozzolio is 20 on the fence. She brought him in, John. He's 21 going to support you. I was working on Senator 22 Cook. So don't worry, John. You still have 23 that kind of loyalty. 24 I would like John to know and I 25 would like this body to know that there are few, 1 if any, people with whom I've served who I hold 2 in higher regard than John Daly. He's been a 3 marvelous legislator, a marvelous Senator, 4 somebody whom we can all learn from and 5 certainly seek to emulate and beyond that he's 6 been an extraordinary public servant. 7 The Governor has called upon him 8 now seemingly time and again to take on the 9 responsibility of very key and critical 10 positions and in each and every one of those 11 occasions he has done great, great service and 12 great justice for the people of the state of New 13 York. 14 John, you're perhaps among the 15 best that we have to offer. Keep doing those 16 good things that you've done for us always and 17 may you always do them in good health. 18 God bless. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 20 Oppenheimer. 21 SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Well, I 22 think everything has been said to John and John 23 knows I love him and -- but so does everybody 24 else love him and he -- John is just a very -- a 25 very good man and a very good man is hard to 1 find today. 2 So, John, thank you for being Mr. 3 Everything here in state government. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 5 question is on the confirmation of John B. Daly, 6 of Lewiston, as a member of the Public Service 7 Commission. All those in favor signify by 8 saying aye. 9 (Response of "Aye".) 10 Opposed, nay. 11 (There was no response.) 12 SENATOR GOLD: Slow roll call. 13 Forget it. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 15 Daly, with the great respect and affection of 16 the Senate, you are confirmed as a member of the 17 Public Service Commission. 18 (Applause). 19 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 21 Skelos. 22 SENATOR SKELOS: If we could just 23 go to motions and resolutions and have 24 Resolution Number 3961, by Senator Libous, read 25 in its entirety and move for its immediate 1 adoption. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 3 Secretary will read. 4 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 5 Libous, Legislative Resolution honoring Daniel 6 C. Kosick for his accomplishments as a member of 7 the United States Disabled Ski Team. 8 WHEREAS, it is the sense of this 9 legislative body that individuals with 10 disabilities merit our recognition as they 11 recognize goals that serve to lift barriers and 12 expand choices for all persons with 13 disabilities; 14 It is the intent of this 15 legislative body to acknowledge individuals with 16 disabilities who have risen above those 17 conditions which might otherwise hinder a 18 purposeful life of achievement and fulfillment 19 demonstrating that the barriers to success for 20 the disabled come more commonly from prevailing 21 attitudes and opportunities than the physical 22 limitations of a disability; 23 Daniel Kosick was born April 16, 24 1977. He became disabled at the age of 15 when 25 he lost his right leg above the knee to cancer; 1 As a member of the United States 2 Disabled Ski Team, Daniel Kosick trains all year 3 throughout the country. He trains all year long 4 on a bike or skis. This dedication has made him 5 well known - 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: One 7 second. Can we have some quiet in the chamber, 8 please. Staff members take your seats, quiet in 9 the chamber. 10 Secretary will continue to read 11 the resolution. 12 THE SECRETARY: WHEREAS, in 13 disabled racing where there are classes, Daniel 14 Kosick's class is the largest and most 15 competitive of 12 classes. His class is LW2, 16 which is primarily athletes who race on one 17 ski. The success in ski racing has brought him 18 to the top of his class and he is recognized as 19 one of the best disabled racers in the world; 20 Daniel Kosick's successes include 21 major disabled ski races such as the 1998 Winter 22 Paralympics, Nagano, Japan, fourth place in the 23 Downhill; 1998 Canadian Nationals, second place 24 in the Super-G, Giant Slalom and Slalom; 1998 25 United States Disabled Alpine Championships, 1 third place in the Super-G; 1998, World Cup 2 Finals, third place in the Super-G, and the 1998 3 Eastern Championships, first place in the 4 Slalom; 5 Daniel Kosick's goal as a member 6 of the United States Disabled Ski Team is to 7 successfully represent this country for many 8 years to come; 9 This legislative body is proud to 10 publicly proclaim and commend Daniel Kosick for 11 his inspiration to others; 12 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED 13 that this legislative body pause in its 14 deliberations to honor Daniel Kosick, 15 recognizing his courageous endeavors, 16 outstanding achievements, and unparalleled 17 contributions on behalf of the disabled and 18 their cause for increased awareness and 19 opportunity; and 20 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a 21 copy of this resolution, suitably engrossed, be 22 transmitted to Daniel Kosick. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 24 Libous. 25 SENATOR LIBOUS: Thank you, Mr. 1 President. 2 It is indeed an honor for me to 3 stand and speak on this resolution. There are 4 certain times in this position when we can 5 really talk about something or someone that we 6 are very, very proud of, and indeed Daniel 7 Kosick is that type of individual. 8 Mr. President, as was mentioned, 9 Dan, at a very young age, at the age of 15, 10 learned that he had cancer and had such great 11 pain in his leg, after several operations and 12 many trips over the years to the doctors, 13 learned that he would -- he would lose his leg. 14 After six to eight months of chemotherapy and 15 all the other treatment that goes along, Danny 16 didn't give up. He didn't quit. He believed 17 that there were opportunities out there for him, 18 just like anyone else, and he went out to prove 19 that those opportunities are available. 20 Mr. President, he began working 21 out, and this morning he was on my television 22 program, and we talked a little bit about it and 23 he said that what he started doing is, he just 24 started working with an instructor and started 25 skiing a little bit because Danny was a very 1 good athlete before his operation. He worked 2 real hard because he believed that he had an 3 opportunity not only to prove himself, but to 4 set an example for others. 5 I think setting an example for 6 all of us is something that he has accomplished 7 and will continue to accomplish. If you look at 8 his accomplishments, you know, in 1998 he was in 9 the Canadian National. In 1998 he was on the 10 U.S. Disabled Ski Team, the Alpine 11 Championship. In 1998 he competed in the World 12 Cup Finals. In 1998 he was in the Eastern 13 Championship and he received first place honors 14 in the Slalom. He then went on to serve in 15 Japan, where he came in fourth and he served our 16 country and did us very, very proud. 17 The U.S. Disabled Ski Team, Mr. 18 President, is made up of a select group of 19 individuals from throughout the country, of 20 which Danny serves on and we believe at this 21 point he is one or the only one that serves from 22 New York State. He trains year round. He works 23 extremely hard. He does bicycling. He does a 24 lot of training. He will be leaving us very 25 soon, in July, to a three-week camp where he 1 will be preparing for the upcoming events. 2 I think what's extremely 3 important here is that, as we honor people in 4 this chamber on a regular basis, there are a lot 5 of extraordinary people, this young man who 6 faced a very difficult time at the age of 15, 7 went on from that adversity and proved that he, 8 just like anyone else with a disability, can 9 achieve and accomplish great things. 10 He said to me with a big smile 11 earlier today that he wants to continue to 12 compete, and he wants to continue to represent 13 our country, and he wants people to be proud of 14 his accomplishments. 15 Danny joins us today in the 16 Senate chamber and, Mr. President, as I am 17 honored to move this resolution, I will ask 18 Danny to stand if he would, wearing his jacket 19 from Nagano, Japan, and Danny, we are all 20 extremely proud of you. You serve as a symbol 21 to each and every one of us, and you give us 22 that fortitude, that self-esteem and self 23 respect that makes us want to accomplish greater 24 things as you continue in your life to 25 accomplish great, great things. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 2 Wright. 3 SENATOR WRIGHT: Thank you, Mr. 4 President. 5 I too rise this morning to 6 recognize Daniel's achievements. I've had 7 occasion to be in this chamber when we've 8 recognized the New York Yankees as World 9 champions, and we've recognized the 10 accomplishments of the Buffalo Bills. We've 11 recognized their leader, Jim Kelly. In turn, 12 I'm very pleased to see that we're recognizing a 13 young man of Daniel's caliber this morning, 14 because he's not only a member of the ski team 15 but also he's an individual champion, and if you 16 look at the challenges that he has faced, he has 17 taken those challenges and created opportunities 18 and I think that speaks volumes for this young 19 man, his ability, his fortitude, his willingness 20 to put and go beyond. 21 I'm very pleased that we have the 22 opportunity to recognize him this morning. Want 23 to wish him every success in his future 24 endeavors and very pleased to see the state 25 Senate recognize him this morning. 1 Thank you. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 3 is on the resolution. No. I'm sorry. Senator 4 Stachowski. 5 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: I really 6 don't mean to hold things up, but I would be 7 remiss if I didn't stand also to congratulate 8 Dan and commend Senator Libous on his 9 resolution. 10 As somebody that happened to 11 bring the Bills and Jim Kelly in and has an 12 appreciation for athletics, I think Dan's story 13 is truly remarkable. How many people do we know 14 that can face a trial like this and instead of 15 feeling sorry for themselves and sitting back 16 and say, Why would this happen to me, he worked 17 all that much harder to accomplish all the 18 things that he's accomplished and people like 19 Dan are what we really consider truly role 20 models and the kind of people that should be 21 held up as examples and should be publicly 22 hailed so that maybe the young kids in different 23 parts of New York State will see all the 24 misfortune that faced Dan and how he took it and 25 rose above it, and so I would be remiss if I too 1 didn't get up and congratulate him and commend 2 Senator Libous on his resolution. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any 4 other Senator wish to be heard on the 5 resolution? 6 Question is on the resolution. 7 All those in favor signify by saying aye. 8 (Response of "Aye.") 9 Opposed nay. 10 (There was no response.) 11 The resolution is adopted. 12 Danny Kosick is with us today in 13 the chamber. He's accompanied in the gallery by 14 his father, Dan, his grandfather, Dan Kosick, 15 and his friend Tracy and also his girl friend 16 Laurie. 17 Danny, we extend to you today the 18 greetings of the Senate. We're very proud and 19 pleased to have you here. We congratulate you 20 on your achievement, and I'm sorry, Senator 21 Libous forgot to put your grandmother's name on 22 the list, and she can deal with him later. 23 But welcome to the Senate and 24 congratulations, Dan. 25 (Applause) 1 Senator Skelos. 2 SENATOR SKELOS: Could we return 3 to reports of standing committees and to the 4 Finance report. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Reports 6 of standing committees. The Secretary will 7 read. 8 THE SECRETARY: Senator Stafford, 9 from the Committee on Finance, offers up the 10 following nomination: 11 As a member of the Battery Park 12 City Authority, Charles J. Urstadt, of 13 Bronxville. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 15 is on the confirmation of Charles J. Urstadt as 16 a member of the Battery Park City Authority. 17 All those in favor signify by saying aye. 18 (Response of "Aye.") 19 Opposed nay. 20 (There was no response. ) 21 The nomination is confirmed. 22 Secretary will read. 23 THE SECRETARY: As a trustee of 24 the Power Authority of the state of New York, 25 Gerard D. Dimarco, of Rochester. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 2 is on the confirmation of Gerard D. Dimarco as a 3 trustee of the Power Authority of the state of 4 New York. All those in favor signify by saying 5 aye. 6 (Response of "Aye.") 7 Opposed nay. 8 (There was no response. ) 9 The nomination is confirmed. 10 Secretary will read. 11 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 12 the New York State Bridge Authority, Gladys 13 Goesch, of Germantown. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 15 Skelos. 16 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 17 confirmation. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 19 is on the confirmation of Gladys Goesch as a 20 member of the New York State Bridge Authority. 21 All those in favor signify by saying aye. 22 (Response of "Aye.") 23 Opposed nay. 24 (There was no response.) 25 The nomination is confirmed. 1 Secretary will read. 2 THE SECRETARY: As members of the 3 Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, John 4 D. Hoffman, of Clarence, and Stephen G. Juhasz, 5 of Amherst. 6 SENATOR SKELOS: Move 7 confirmation. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 9 is on the nominations of John D. Hoffman and 10 Stephen G. Juhasz as members of the Niagara 11 Frontier Transportation Authority. 12 Senator Stachowski. 13 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Explain my 14 vote. 15 Mr. President, I have nothing 16 personal against either Mr. Hoffmann or Mr. 17 Juhasz. I imagine both gentlemen are very 18 capable. However, we have still yet to fill a 19 position on the Niagara Frontier Transportation 20 Authority that was formerly held by a union 21 member, so that there would be a voice of labor 22 on the board, and we continue to put business 23 people on and not that business people aren't 24 capable, but we think to have a well-rounded 25 board and have the interest of the whole 1 community, basically a blue collar community, we 2 are remiss not to have appointed yet someone to 3 replace the labor seat that was filled by 4 another businessman. 5 So because of that reason, I vote 6 no on both Mr. Hoffman and Mr. John -- Stephen 7 Juhasz rather. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: So 9 noted. 10 Senator Nanula. 11 SENATOR NANULA: Thank you, Mr. 12 President. 13 Consistent with Senator 14 Stachowski's comments, I too rise to vote 15 against these two nominations and believe that, 16 as was stated, we need diversity in a very 17 diverse community as we have in western New York 18 with the very diverse organization, the Niagara 19 Frontier Transportation Authority, an authority 20 that covers two counties, several cities, towns 21 and villages and several populations. 22 I think it's really poor 23 judgment, quite frankly, on behalf of the 24 Governor not to be recognizing labor with 25 respect to its important role in an authority 1 such as Niagara Frontier Transportation 2 Authority. 3 For those reasons, I too stand to 4 vote no on these nominations. 5 Thank you. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: So 7 noted. 8 Question is on the confirmation 9 of the nominations. All those in favor signify 10 by saying aye. 11 (Response of "Aye.") 12 Opposed nay. 13 (There was no response.) 14 The nomination is confirmed. 15 Secretary will read. 16 THE SECRETARY: Members of the 17 New York Convention Center Operating Corporation 18 Board of Directors, Edward P. Kane, of Rockville 19 Centre and Gary J. Lavine, of Fayetteville. 20 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 21 nominations. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 23 is on the confirmation of Edward P. Kane and 24 Gary J. Lavine as members of the New York 25 Convention Center Operating Corporation Board of 1 Directors. 2 Senator Skelos -- All those in 3 favor signify by saying aye. 4 (Response of "Aye.") 5 Opposed nay. 6 (There was no response.) 7 The nominations are confirmed. 8 Senator Skelos. 9 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 10 if I could just interrupt. There will be an 11 immediate meeting of the Labor Committee in the 12 Majority Conference Room. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 14 Immediate meeting of the Labor Committee in the 15 Majority Conference Room. 16 Secretary will continue to read. 17 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 18 the State Racing Commission, Robert W. Lee, of 19 Gansevoort. 20 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 21 confirmation. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 23 of is on the confirmation of Robert W. Lee as a 24 member of the State Racing Commission. All 25 those in favor signify by saying aye. 1 (Response of "Aye.") 2 Opposed nay. 3 (There was no response.) 4 The nomination is confirmed. 5 Secretary will read. 6 THE SECRETARY: As a director of 7 the Municipal Assistance Corporation for the 8 city of New York, Alfred Kingon, of New York 9 City. 10 SENATOR SKELOS: Move 11 confirmation. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 13 is on the confirmation of Alfred Kingon as a 14 member of the Municipal Assistance Corporation 15 for the city of New York. All those in favor 16 signify by saying aye. 17 (Response of "Aye.") 18 Opposed nay. 19 (There was no response.) 20 The nomination is confirmed. 21 Secretary will read. 22 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 23 the New York State Hospital Review and Planning 24 Council, Paul F. Macielak, of Saratoga Springs. 25 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 1 confirmation. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 3 is on the confirmation of Paul F. Macielak as a 4 member of the New York State Hospital Review and 5 Planning Council. All those in favor signify by 6 saying aye. 7 (Response of "Aye.") 8 Opposed nay. 9 (There was no response.) 10 The nomination is confirmed. 11 Secretary will read. 12 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 13 the State Fire Prevention and Building Code 14 Council, Robert Hankin, of Poughkeepsie. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 16 Skelos. 17 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 18 confirmation. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 20 is on the confirmation of Robert Hankin as a 21 member of the State Fire Prevention and Building 22 Code Council. All those in favor signify by 23 saying aye. 24 (Response of "Aye.") 25 Opposed nay. 1 (There was no response.) 2 The nomination is confirmed. 3 Secretary will read. 4 THE SECRETARY: As a member of 5 the Board of Visitors of the Capital District 6 Developmental Disabilities Services Office, 7 Thomas W. O'Connor, of Delmar. 8 SENATOR SKELOS: Move the 9 confirmation. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Question 11 is on the confirmation of Thomas W. O'Connor as 12 a member of the Board of Visitors of the Capital 13 District Developmental Disabilities Services 14 Offices. All those in favor signify by saying 15 aye. 16 (Response of "Aye.") 17 Opposed nay. 18 (There was no response.) 19 The nomination is confirmed. 20 Secretary will continue to read. 21 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 22 are there any reports of select committees? 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 24 Secretary will go to the order of reports of 25 select committees. 1 Communications and reports from 2 state officers. 3 Motions and resolutions. 4 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, I 5 move to adopt the Resolution -- are there any 6 substitutions to be made? Please make the 7 substitutions. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 9 Secretary will read the substitutions. 10 THE SECRETARY: On page 5, 11 Senator Velella moves to discharge from the 12 Committee on Rules Assembly Bill 1829-A, and 13 substitute it for the identical Senate bill 14 1189-A. 15 On page 30, Senator Kuhl moves to 16 discharge from the Committee on Rules Assembly 17 Print 4833-B, and substitute it for the 18 identical Senate Print 2846-B. 19 On page 43, Senator LaValle moves 20 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 21 Assembly bill 8637-B, and substitute it for the 22 identical Senate bill 5780-A. 23 On page 43, Senator Holland moves 24 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 25 Assembly Print 5661, and substitute it for the 1 identical Senate bill 6036. 2 On page 43, Senator Seward moves 3 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 4 Assembly bill 9642, and substitute it for the 5 identical Senate bill 6391. 6 On page 44, Senator Leibell moves 7 to discharge from the Committee Rules Assembly 8 bill 10297, and substitute it for the identical 9 Senate bill 6830. 10 On page 44, Senator Leibell moves 11 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 12 Assembly bill 10298, and substitute it for the 13 identical Senate bill 6831. 14 On page 44, Senator Leibell moves 15 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 16 Assembly bill 9145, and substitute it for the 17 identical Senate bill 7288. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 19 Substitutions ordered. 20 Senator Skelos. 21 SENATOR SKELOS: Are there any 22 motions on the floor? 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 24 Nozzolio. 25 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President, 1 I have a number of motions I wish to make. 2 On behalf of Senator Velella, 3 please place a sponsor's star on Calendar Number 4 1376. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 6 Sponsor's star will be placed on Calendar 1376. 7 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: And on behalf 8 of Senator Larkin, please call up Print Number 9 3840, recalled from the Assembly which is now at 10 the desk. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 12 Secretary will read. 13 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 14 Larkin, Senate Print 3840, an act to amend 15 Chapter 698 of the Laws of 1991. 16 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: I now move to 17 to reconsider the vote by which this bill was 18 passed. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 20 roll on reconsideration. 21 (The Secretary called the roll on 22 reconsideration.) 23 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 25 Nozzolio. 1 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President, 2 on behalf of Senator Larkin, I now offer the 3 following amendments. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 5 Amendments received. 6 Senator Nozzolio. 7 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President, 8 on page 29, I offer the following amendments to 9 Calendar Number 921, Senate Print Number 5508, 10 on behalf of Senator Marchi, and ask the bill 11 retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 13 Amendments are received, and the bill will 14 retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 15 Senator Nozzolio. 16 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President, 17 on page 29, I offer the following amendments to 18 Calendar 920, Senate print 1893-B, and ask that 19 said bill retain its place on the Third Reading 20 Calendar, on behalf of Senator Maltese. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 22 Amendments received, and the bill will retain 23 its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 24 Senator Nozzolio. 25 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President, 1 on page 11, I offer the following amendments to 2 Calendar Number 356, Senate Print 4597-A, and 3 ask that the said bill retain its place, on the 4 Third Reading Calendar on behalf of Senator 5 Velella. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 7 Amendments are received, and the bill will 8 retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 9 Senator Nozzolio. 10 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President, 11 on page 42, I offer the following amendments to 12 Calendar Number 1303, Senate Print 7491, and ask 13 that said bill retain its place on the Third 14 Reading Calendar, on behalf of Senator 15 Stafford. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 17 Amendments received, and the bill will retain 18 its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 19 Senator Kuhl. 20 SENATOR KUHL: Yes, Mr. 21 President. 22 Yesterday I was out of the 23 chamber when two votes were taken, particularly 24 on Calendar Number 40 and also on 1346. I would 25 like the record to reflect that had I been in 1 the chamber, that I would have cast my vote in 2 the negative on both bills. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 4 record will so reflect. 5 SENATOR KUHL: Thank you. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 7 Skelos. 8 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 9 at this time could we adopt the Resolution 10 Calendar with the exception of Resolutions 3891 11 and 3961. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: All in 13 favor of adopting the Resolution Calendar with 14 the exception of Resolutions 3891 and 3961, 15 signify by saying aye. 16 (Response of "Aye.") 17 Opposed nay. 18 (There was no response.) 19 The Resolution Calendar is 20 adopted. 21 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 22 3961 was adopted. May we please take up 23 Resolution 3891 by Senator Lachman, which was 24 previously adopted on June 9th and have the 25 title read. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 2 Secretary will read the title. 3 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 4 Lachman, Legislative Resolution honoring the 5 life and accomplishments of Rabbi Moshe Sherer. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 7 Lachman. 8 SENATOR LACHMAN: I rise, Mr. 9 President, to say a few words about the life of 10 Rabbi Sherer. I believe that the resolution is 11 at the desk. Could you perhaps summarize the 12 resolution, a few paragraphs? 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator, 14 the title was requested. 15 SENATOR LACHMAN: All right. 16 That will be sufficient. 17 A month ago I attended a funeral 18 at which 20,000 people were present. It was the 19 first time in my life that I ever attended a 20 funeral where we had over 20,000 people 21 present. Besides the Vice-President, who paid 22 his respects prior to the funeral, the Governor, 23 the Mayor and numerous public officials, there 24 were people -- average people, who took off from 25 work to attend the funeral of Rabbi Moshe 1 Sherer, a name that is not always familiar with 2 lay people in New York City or around the 3 country. 4 Why do so many people come to pay 5 their respects to such extraordinary 6 individuals? Rabbi Moshe Sherer was a man of 7 tremendous integrity, charisma, dignity, 8 intelligence, and eloquence. 55 years ago he 9 took a small organization, Agudith Israel, and 10 brought it to a pinnacle of where it is today, 11 the largest Orthodox Jewish organization in the 12 United States of America. 13 He met with presidents and prime 14 ministers, heads of state, and yet when one of 15 his friends entered his office and one day saw 16 on one wall pictures of John F. Kennedy, Robert 17 F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, George Bush, Gerald 18 Ford, Ronald Reagan, all inscribed to Rabbi 19 Sherer, he said to his guest, to his visitor, 20 You're looking at the wrong wall. Look at the 21 opposite wall for the important people, and the 22 opposite wall, the individual knew no one. 23 These were the great philosophers, the great 24 theologians, the great religious thinkers of the 25 18th, 19th and 20th Century. 1 Rabbi Sherer was a man who was 2 not a headline hunter. He worked behind the 3 scenes in the most effective manner possible, 4 becoming a bridge builder, bridging together the 5 Jewish community, bringing Christians and Jews 6 together, bringing blacks and whites and Latinos 7 and Asians togetheer, on behalf of a common 8 agenda, and on behalf of common goals. He was a 9 great communicator of his time and, as I've 10 said, he was a giant in his generation. 11 In the years of World War II, 12 between 1941 and '45 when he was only in his 13 20s, he led a drive to rescue Jews from Nazi 14 dominated Germany and from Nazi-dominated Europe 15 and after World War II, led a drive to supply 16 food to people in displaced persons camps. In 17 1965, he became a national figure when he was 18 one of the few national Jewish leaders who 19 supported President Lyndon Baines Johnson's 20 Elementary/Secondary Education Act, and there 21 was a division in the community whether a 22 provision of that act should be supported which 23 was Title I, later Chapter 1, that federal funds 24 should go to economically and educationally 25 deprived children regardless of what schools 1 they attended, and that is as part of the child 2 benefit theory of the Constitution. This 3 decision was recently upheld, in Felton -- in 4 the Felton case, and is the law of the land once 5 again. 6 He also was involved in 7 developing other operations, a national 8 accreditation body, the seminary, the Yeshivas 9 for post-secondary school work. He was involved 10 in the creation of the Southern Brooklyn 11 Community Organization, affordable housing for 12 all people in Southern Brooklyn, and last 13 September, there was an international event that 14 reached the first page of the New York Times 15 when over 75,000 people, almost 100,000 people 16 gathered around the world in Madison Square 17 Garden in the Nassau Coliseum, and in the 50 18 states of the Union, in Asia, in Europe, in the 19 Middle East, to celebrate and to experience the 20 celebration of completing the Talmud and to 21 start reading the Talmud again. 22 This was a major spiritual 23 experience that was recognized by all. Rabbi 24 Sherer was a mentor, a teacher, a leader to 25 thousands of people, and those of us who have 1 survived him can best remember him by attempting 2 to achieve those goals and those objectives that 3 he sought in his lifetime. 4 Thank you. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 6 resolution was previously adopted. 7 Senator Balboni. 8 SENATOR BALBONI: Thank you, 9 yes. 10 Mr. President, at this time could 11 we please take up the non-controversial 12 calendar. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 14 Secretary will read the non-controversial 15 calendar. 16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17 56, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 308-B, an 18 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 20 last section. 21 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 22 act shall take effect on the first day of 23 November. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 25 roll. 1 (The Secretary called the roll. ) 2 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 4 is passed. 5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 6 213, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 3157-B, an 7 act to amend the Environmental Conservation Law, 8 in relation to use of pesticides. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 10 Balboni. 11 SENATOR BALBONI: Lay the bill 12 aside for the day, please. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 14 bill aside for the day. 15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16 256, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 2550-E, an 17 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in 18 relation to motor vehicle accident prevention 19 courses. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 21 last section. 22 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 23 act shall take effect in 120 days. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 25 roll. 1 (The Secretary called the roll.) 2 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 4 is passed. 5 Senator Kuhl. 6 SENATOR KUHL: Negative on that 7 bill, Calendar Number 256. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without 9 objection, Senator Kuhl will be recorded in the 10 negative on Calendar Number 256. 11 Secretary will continue to read. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 331, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 934, an 14 act to amend the Public Health Law, in relation 15 to requiring. 16 SENATOR BALBONI: Please lay 17 aside that bill, please, for the day. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 19 bill aside for the day. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 21 335, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 2657, an 22 act to amend the Public Health Law, in relation 23 to authorizing. 24 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay it 1 aside. 2 THE SECRETARY: 378, by Senator 3 Seward, Senate Print 3095-A, an act to amend the 4 Town Law, in relation to qualifications. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 6 last section. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This 8 act shall take effect immediately. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 10 roll. 11 (The Secretary called the roll.) 12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 14 is passed. 15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16 389, by member of the Assembly Sanders, Assembly 17 Print 4442-D, an act to amend the Education 18 Law. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 20 last section. 21 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 22 act shall take effect on the first day of July. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 24 roll. 25 (The Secretary called the roll.) 1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 57, nays 2 one, Senator DeFrancisco recorded in the 3 negative. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 5 is passed. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 7 390, by member of the Assembly Miller, Assembly 8 Print 8836-A, an act to authorize the payment of 9 transportation aid. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There is 11 a local finance impact statement at the desk. 12 Read the last section. 13 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 14 act shall take effect immediately. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 16 roll. 17 (The Secretary called the roll.) 18 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 20 is passed. 21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 22 431, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 4741-A, an 23 act to amend Chapter 554 of the Laws of 1996. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 25 last section. 1 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 2 act shall take effect immediately. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 4 roll. 5 (The Secretary called the roll.) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 8 is passed. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 496, by the Assembly Committee on Rules, 11 Assembly Print 8437, an act to amend the 12 Agriculture and Markets Law. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 14 last section. 15 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 17 aside. 18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 19 664, by Senator Holland, Senate Print 5989-B, an 20 act to amend the Social Services Law. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 22 last section. 23 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 24 act shall take effect immediately. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 1 roll. 2 (he Secretary called the roll.) 3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 5 is passed. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 7 756, by Senator Libous, Senate Print 1919, an 8 act to amend the General Business Law. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 10 last section. 11 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 12 act shall take effect on the first day of 13 January. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 15 roll. 16 (The Secretary called the roll.) 17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 19 is passed. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 21 774, by member of the Assembly Weisenberg, 22 Assembly Print 10046-A, an act to amend the 23 Public Health Law. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 25 last section. 1 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 2 act shall take effect immediately. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 4 roll. 5 (The Secretary called the roll.) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 8 is passed. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 797, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 7027, an act 11 to amend the Labor Law. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 13 last section. 14 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This 15 act shall take effect immediately. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 17 roll. 18 (The Secretary called the roll.) 19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 21 is passed. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 810, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 3612, an 24 act to amend the Executive Law and the Family 25 Court Act. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 2 last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This 4 act shall take effect in 90 days. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 6 roll. 7 (The Secretary called the roll.) 8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 10 is passed. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12 814, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 7302-A, an 13 act to amend the Social Services Law. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 15 last section. 16 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 17 act shall take effect immediately. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 19 roll. 20 (The Secretary called the roll.) 21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 23 is passed. 24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 25 833, by Senator - 1 SENATOR GOLD: Lay aside. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 3 bill aside. 4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 5 854, by member of the Assembly Connelly, 6 Assembly Print 2633, an act to amend the 7 Environmental Conservation Law. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 9 last section. 10 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 11 act shall take effect immediately. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 13 roll. 14 (The Secretary called the roll.) 15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 17 is passed. 18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 19 871, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 7352-B. 20 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 21 could we lay the bill aside temporarily. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 23 bill aside temporarily. 24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 25 879, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 4417-D, an 1 act to amend the Insurance Law, in relation to 2 risk-based capital. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 4 last section. 5 THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This 6 act shall take effect immediately. 7 SENATOR GOLD: Lay aside. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 9 bill aside. 10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 11 916, by Senator Marcellino, an act to amend the 12 Real Property Tax Law. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 14 last section. 15 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 16 act shall take effect immediately. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 18 roll. 19 (The Secretary called the roll.) 20 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 22 is passed. 23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 24 922, by member of the Assembly Sweeney, Assembly 25 Print 9583-E, an act to amend the Public Health 1 Law. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 3 last section. 4 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 5 act shall take effect immediately. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 7 roll. 8 (The Secretary called the roll.) 9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 11 is passed. 12 THE SECRETARY: In relation to 13 Calendar Number 958, Senator Libous moves to 14 discharge from the Committee on Rules Assembly 15 Bill 9367-B and substitute it for the identical 16 Senate bill, 6145-C. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 18 Substitution ordered. Secretary will read. 19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 20 958, by member of the Assembly Warner, Assembly 21 Print 9367-B, an act to authorize the payment of 22 transportation aid. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There is 24 a local finance impact note at the desk. Read 25 the last section. 1 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 2 act shall take effect immediately. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 4 roll. 5 (The Secretary called the roll.) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 8 is passed. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 1011, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 5473-B, an 11 act authorizing the town of Islip, county of 12 Suffolk. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 14 last section. 15 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This 16 act shall take effect immediately. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There is 18 a home rule message at the desk. Call the 19 roll. 20 (The Secretary called the roll.) 21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 23 is passed. 24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 25 1092, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 7200-A, 1 an act to amend the Tax Law. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 3 last section. 4 Secretary will read a 5 substitution. 6 THE SECRETARY: In relation to 7 Calendar Number 1092, Senator Balboni moves to 8 discharge from the Committee on Rules Assembly 9 Print 9324-A and substitute it for the identical 10 Senate bill 7200-A. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 12 Substitution ordered. Secretary will read. 13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 14 1092, by Member of the Assembly DiNapoli, 15 Assembly Print 9324-A, an act to amend the Tax 16 Law. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 18 last section. 19 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 20 act shall take effect immediately. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 22 roll. 23 (The Secretary called the roll.) 24 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 1 is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 1130, by member of the Assembly Lopez, Assembly 4 Print 10407-A, an act to amend Chapter 915 of 5 the Laws of 1982. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 7 last section. 8 SENATOR LEICHTER: Lay aside, 9 please. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 11 bill aside. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 1195 by Senator Spano, Senate Print 7507-A, an 14 act to amend the Tax Law. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 16 last section. 17 SENATOR LEICHTER: Will you hold 18 on. Lay the bill aside. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 20 bill aside. 21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 22 1198, by Senator Fuschillo, Senate Print 7546, 23 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in 24 relation to authorizing. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 1 last section. 2 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 3 act shall take effect immediately. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 5 roll. 6 (The Secretary called the roll.) 7 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 9 is passed. 10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 11 1262, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 7446, an 12 act to amend the Economic Development Law. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 14 last section. 15 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 16 act shall take effect immediately. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 18 roll. 19 (The Secretary called the roll.) 20 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 22 is passed. 23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 24 1264, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 7450-A, 25 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in 1 relation to cancellation. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 3 last section. 4 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 5 act shall take effect immediately. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 7 roll. 8 (The Secretary called the roll.) 9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 11 is passed. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 1282, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 5358-B, an 14 act to amend the County Law. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 16 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 17 section. 18 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 19 act shall take effect immediately. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 21 roll. 22 (The Secretary called the roll.) 23 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 25 is passed. 1 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 2 1353, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 2653, an act 3 to amend the Tax Law, in relation to exempting. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 5 a local fiscal impact note at the desk. Read 6 the last section. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 8 act shall take effect on the first day of 9 October. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 11 roll. 12 (The Secretary called the roll.) 13 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 15 is passed. 16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17 1354, by Senator Skelos. 18 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. 19 President. Mr. President. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 21 Leichter. 22 SENATOR LEICHTER: Is Calendar 23 1262 still at the desk? 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: No, it 25 has left the desk, Senator. 1 SENATOR LEICHTER: Well, I think 2 they're checking, Senator. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: They've 4 confirmed that it's left the desk, Senator 5 Leichter. 6 SENATOR LEICHTER: I'm sorry, Mr. 7 President. I'm a little confused. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Wait a 9 minute. We're going to look again. I'm sorry, 10 Senator Leichter, it is, in fact, at the desk. 11 SENATOR LEICHTER: It has left 12 the desk? 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: It is at 14 the desk. 15 SENATOR LEICHTER: Oh, it is at 16 the desk. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: It is at 18 the desk. 19 SENATOR LEICHTER: Well, may I 20 make a motion, please, to reconsider the vote by 21 which that bill was passed. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 23 Leichter, can we finish the bill that we're on 24 and then return to your motion. 25 SENATOR LEICHTER: Good. In the 1 meantime, you'll keep the bill at the desk. 2 Thank you. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 4 Secretary will read. 5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 6 1354, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 5098-B, an 7 act to amend the Real Property Tax Law. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The last 9 section. 10 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 11 act shall take effect January 1st. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 13 roll. 14 (The Secretary called the roll.) 15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 17 is passed. 18 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 19 I'd like to call an immediate meeting of the 20 Rules Committee in the Majority Conference 21 Room. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There 23 will be an immediate meeting of the Rules 24 Committee in the Majority Conference Room. 25 Senator Leichter. 1 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 2 would it be appropriate now for me to make my 3 motion to reconsider the vote by which 1262 4 passed? 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Yes, it 6 would. 7 SENATOR LEICHTER: Fine. I make 8 that motion. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 1262, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 7446, an 11 act to amend the Economic Development Law. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 13 Secretary will call the roll on 14 reconsideration. 15 (The Secretary called the roll on 16 reconsideration.) 17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 18 SENATOR LEICHTER: Please lay 19 that bill aside. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 21 bill aside. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 1355, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 5477-C, 24 an act to amend the Public Health Law. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 1 last section. 2 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Lay aside. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 4 bill aside. Lay the bill aside. 5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 6 1356, by Senator Smith, Senate Print 5696-A, an 7 act authorizing the city of New York. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 9 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 10 section. 11 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This 12 act shall take effect immediately. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 14 roll. 15 (The Secretary called the roll.) 16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 18 is passed. 19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 20 1357, substituted earlier today, by the Assembly 21 Committee on Rules, Assembly Print 8637-B, an 22 act to amend the Mental Hygiene Law. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 24 last section. 25 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 1 act shall take effect immediately. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 3 roll. 4 (The Secretary called the roll.) 5 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 7 is passed. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 1358, substituted earlier today, by member of 10 the Assembly McEneny, Assembly Print 5661, an 11 act authorizing and directing the Commissioner 12 of the office of General Services. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 14 last section. 15 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 16 act shall take effect immediately. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 18 roll. 19 (The Secretary called the roll.) 20 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 22 is passed. 23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 24 1359, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 6200, an 25 act to amend the Erie County Tax Act. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 2 last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 4 act shall take effect immediately. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 6 roll. 7 (The Secretary called the roll.) 8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 10 is passed. 11 THE SECRETARY: In relation to 12 Calendar Number 1360, Senator Meier moves to 13 discharge from the Committee on Rules, Assembly 14 Print 9528-A, and substitute it for the 15 identical Senate bill 6311-A. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 17 Substitution ordered. Secretary will read. 18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 19 1360, by member of the Assembly Destito, 20 Assembly Print 9528-A, an act authorizing the 21 city of Utica. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 23 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 24 section. 25 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 1 act shall take effect immediately. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 3 roll. 4 (The Secretary called the roll.) 5 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 7 is passed. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 1361, by Senator Holland, Senate Print 6360-A, 10 an act to amend the Social Services law, in 11 relation to extending. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 13 last section. 14 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 15 act shall take effect immediately. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 17 roll. 18 (The Secretary called the roll.) 19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 21 is passed. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 1362, substituted earlier today, Assembly Print 24 9642, by member of the Assembly Luster, an act 25 to amend Chapter 463 of the Laws of 1965. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 2 last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 4 act shall take effect immediately. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 6 roll. 7 (The Secretary called the roll.) 8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 10 is passed. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12 1363, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 6528, an 13 act to amend the General Municipal Law. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 15 last section. 16 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 17 act shall take effect immediately. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 19 roll. 20 (The Secretary called the roll.) 21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 23 is passed. 24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 25 1364, by Senator Santiago, Senate Print 6638-A, 1 an act to authorize the city of New York. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 3 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 4 section. 5 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This 6 act shall take effect immediately. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 8 roll. 9 (The Secretary called the roll.) 10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 12 is passed. 13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 14 1365, by Senator Breslin, Senate Print 6722-A, 15 an act to authorize the city of Cohoes. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 17 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 18 section. 19 THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This 20 act shall take effect immediately. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 22 roll. 23 (The Secretary called the roll.) 24 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 1 is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 1366, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 6755, an 4 act to amend the Real Property Tax Law. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 6 last section. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 8 act shall take effect immediately. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 10 roll. 11 (The Secretary called the roll.) 12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 14 is passed. 15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16 1367, substituted earlier today, by member of 17 the Assembly Matusow, Assembly Print Number 18 10297, an act to amend the Town Law and the 19 Public Officers Law. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 21 last section. 22 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 23 act shall take effect immediately. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 25 roll. 1 (The Secretary called the roll.) 2 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 4 is passed. 5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 6 1368, substituted earlier today, by member of 7 the Assembly Matusow, Assembly Print 10298, an 8 act to amend the Town Law and the Public 9 Officers Law. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 11 last section. 12 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 13 act shall take effect immediately. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 15 roll. 16 (The Secretary called the roll.) 17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 19 is passed. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 21 1369, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 6926, an 22 act to amend the General Municipal Law and the 23 General Finance Law. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 25 last section. 1 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 2 act shall take effect immediately. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 4 roll. 5 (The Secretary called the roll.) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 8 is passed. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 1370, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 7008-A, 11 an act to amend the General Municipal Law, in 12 relation to temporary investments. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 14 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 15 section. 16 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 17 act shall take effect June 30, 1998. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 19 roll. 20 (The Secretary called the roll.) 21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 23 is passed. 24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 25 1371, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 7193-A, an 1 act to amend Chapter 269 of the Laws of 1979. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 3 last section. 4 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 5 act shall take effect immediately. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 7 roll. 8 (The Secretary called the roll.) 9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 11 is passed. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 1372, substituted earlier today, by member of 14 the Assembly Luster, Assembly Print 9145, an act 15 to amend the Education Law. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 17 last section. 18 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 19 act shall take effect on the first day of 20 January. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 22 roll. 23 (The Secretary called the roll.) 24 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 1 is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 1373, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 7385, an 4 act to authorize the town of LaGrange, in the 5 county of Dutchess. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 7 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 8 section. 9 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 10 act shall take effect immediately. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 12 roll. 13 (The Secretary called the roll.) 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 16 is passed. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 18 1375, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 7527-A, 19 an act to legalize, validate ratify and 20 confirm. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There's 22 a home rule message at the desk. Read the last 23 section. 24 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This 25 act shall take effect immediately. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 2 roll. 3 (The Secretary called the roll.) 4 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 6 is passed. 7 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 8 1377, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 7626, 9 an act authorizing the assessor of the county of 10 Nassau. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 12 Leichter. 13 SENATOR LEICHTER: I'm sorry, Mr. 14 President. We're going so fast that I occasion 15 ally miss one of these bills. 16 1376 we just passed? 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 1376 is 18 starred, Senator. 19 SENATOR LEICHTER: Oh, O.K. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 21 Secretary will continue to read. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 1377, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 7626, 24 an act authorizing the assessor of the county of 25 Nassau to accept an application. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 2 last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 4 act shall take effect immediately. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 6 roll. 7 (The Secretary called the roll.) 8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 10 is passed. 11 THE SECRETARY: Excuse me. In 12 relation to Calendar Number 1377, ayes 58, nays 13 one, Senator Cook recorded in the negative. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 15 is passed. 16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17 1378, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 7627, an 18 act authorizing the assessor of the county of 19 Nassau. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 21 last section. 22 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 23 act shall take effect immediately. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 25 roll. 1 (The Secretary called the roll.) 2 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58, nays 3 one, Senator Cook recorded in the negative. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 5 is passed. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 7 1379, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 7644, an 8 act to amend Chapter 466 of the Laws of 1995. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 10 last section. 11 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 12 act shall take effect immediately. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 14 roll. 15 (The Secretary called the roll.) 16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 18 is passed. 19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 20 1380, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7659, an 21 act to amend the Mental Hygiene Law, the 22 Correction Law and the Criminal Procedure Law. 23 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 24 SENATOR LEICHTER: Lay aside. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 1 aside. 2 Senator Balboni, that completes 3 the reading of the non-controversial calendar. 4 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 5 can we please take up the controversial 6 calendar. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 8 Secretary will read the controversial calendar. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 335, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 2657, an 11 act to amend the Public Health Law, in relation 12 to authorizing. 13 SENATOR LEICHTER: Explanation. 14 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 15 will you please lay that bill aside temporarily. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: We'll 17 lay the bill aside temporarily and ask the 18 Secretary to proceed. 19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 20 496, by the Assembly Committee on Rules, 21 Assembly Print 8437, an act to amend the 22 Agriculture and Markets Law. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 24 last section. 25 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 1 act shall take effect immediately. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 3 roll. 4 (The Secretary called the roll. ) 5 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 7 is passed. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 833, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 4248-B, an 10 act to amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 12 last section. 13 SENATOR BALBONI: Will you lay 14 the bill aside temporarily, please. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 16 bill aside temporarily. Secretary will continue 17 to read. 18 THE SECRETARY: In relation to 19 Calendar Number 871, Senator Farley moves to 20 discharge from the Committee on Rules Assembly 21 Print 10419-A and substitute it for the 22 identical Senate bill, 7352-B. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 24 Substitution ordered. Secretary will read. 25 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 1 871, by member of the Assembly Lafayette, 2 Assembly Print 10419-A, an act to amend the 3 Banking Law. 4 SENATOR LEICHTER: Can we have an 5 explanation, please. 6 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 7 could we please lay that bill aside for the 8 day. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 10 bill aside for the day. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12 879, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 4417-D, an 13 act to amend the Insurance Law, in relation to 14 risk-based capital requirements. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 16 last section. Senator - 17 THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This 18 act - 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 20 Balboni. 21 SENATOR BALBONI: Would you lay 22 the bill aside temporarily, please. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 24 bill aside temporarily. 25 Senator Leichter. 1 SENATOR LEICHTER: I think your 2 acting floor leader made a good point that many 3 members are at the Rules Committee meeting. I'm 4 supposed to be at the Rules Committee meeting. 5 Could it -- would it be possible when we have 6 these meetings of the Rules Committee, to 7 suspend the proceedings in the house until the 8 Rules Committee is finished? 9 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 10 if we might please continue, let's see how we do 11 with the list. Perhaps there are some members 12 that will be here and let's see if we might 13 proceed, but we're considering your request, 14 Senator Leichter. 15 SENATOR LEICHTER: If I may just 16 point out, I don't think we're doing very well 17 and there are people like myself who should be 18 at the Rules Committee meeting. 19 SENATOR BALBONI: Well, Senator, 20 if we carry on, perhaps we'll find a sponsor. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 22 Secretary will continue to read the 23 controversial calendar. 24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 25 1130, by member of the Assembly Lopez, Assembly 1 Print 10407-A, an act to amend Chapter 915 of 2 the Laws of 1982. 3 SENATOR LEICHTER: Could we have 4 an explanation. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 6 Leibell, an explanation has been requested of 7 1130, by Senator Leichter. 8 SENATOR LEIBELL: I'm not on the 9 Rules Committee. 10 This bill would extend the sun 11 set date of SONYMA's mortgage financing and 12 mortgage insurance program and increase the 13 maximum amount of tax-exempt bonds which SONYMA 14 is authorized to issue. Further, the bill 15 extends the date to the 15th of June 1999 for 16 persons looking forward to mortgages, provides 17 insurance for SONYMA mortgages, establishes an 18 infrastructure trust fund and extends SONYMA's 19 authority to issue new money, taxes and bonds. 20 The Authority is scheduled to 21 expire on July 15th of this year. The bill 22 would also extend to March 31st, 2000 SONYMA's 23 authority to issue taxable bonds and would 24 further increase SONYMA's taxable bonding 25 authority by $300 million to $3.9 billion. The 1 extension of SONYMA's authority to issue money, 2 taxes and bonds will allow the Authority to 3 issue bonds after July 15, 1998. 4 SONYMA has long been recognized 5 as a leader in the housing finance industry and 6 is greatly helping the agency's primary target 7 group, low and moderate income first time home 8 buyers. SONYMA program bill. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 10 Leichter. 11 SENATOR LEICHTER: If Senator 12 Leibell would yield. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 14 Leibell, would you yield for a question? 15 SENATOR LEIBELL: Yes, my 16 pleasure. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 18 yields. 19 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, I 20 have one concern which I confess is a parochial 21 concern, and that's the availability of some of 22 this SONYMA money for a project in my district 23 known as Riverside South which is, as you 24 rightly point out, sponsored by that great real 25 estate impresario, Donald Trump. 1 Do you know whether any of the 2 monies, the additional authority that we're 3 giving to SONYMA, is intended to be available 4 for the Riverside South project? 5 SENATOR LEIBELL: In fact, the 6 reason I was aware of that because we had 7 discussed this before on the floor. No, I'm not 8 aware of it, but I have in the past after we 9 have had this discussion, expressed your 10 concern, Senator, to SONYMA and I'm not aware of 11 any funds that are there. 12 SENATOR LEICHTER: O.K. It -- if 13 you'd continue to yield, and let me thank you 14 for - 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 16 Leibell, do you continue to yield? 17 SENATOR LEIBELL: Yes, I do. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 19 yields. 20 SENATOR LEICHTER: And let me 21 thank my friend for his sensitivity and 22 consideration. I appreciate that. But I just 23 want to be clear, as far as you have been 24 advised by SONYMA, they have not advised you 25 that any of this amount would be available for 1 Riverside South; is that a fair statement? 2 SENATOR LEIBELL: They have never 3 spoken to me at all about any funding going into 4 that project. I am not aware of any. 5 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, and 6 if you continue to yield. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 8 Leibell, do you continue to yield? 9 SENATOR LEIBELL: Yes. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 11 yields. 12 SENATOR LEICHTER: And when you 13 expressed the concern about whether any of this 14 money would go to Riverside South, did they make 15 any statement or representation as to whether 16 any of that money might be available for 17 Riverside South? 18 SENATOR LEIBELL: At the time 19 they told me there was no current intention of 20 doing so, but I did also give them your name and 21 advise them that, if they should have any 22 concerns in this area, they should advise you 23 directly inasmuch as I didn't know when we'd be 24 debating this - 25 SENATOR LEICHTER: You gave them 1 my phone number too? 2 SENATOR LEIBELL: Your home phone 3 number. 4 SENATOR LEICHTER: O.K., because 5 I've been sitting by the phone, and it hasn't 6 rung. So, O.K. Let me thank you. I'm not going 7 to hold up a SONYMA appropriation which I think 8 serves a purpose for the people of the state of 9 New York, but I just want to say I think it 10 would be a misuse of SONYMA's powers and a 11 misuse of public funds to make this money 12 available for a luxury development where the 13 rents are going to be thousands and thousands of 14 dollars a month, where the price for purchase of 15 a co-op or condominium would be in the range of 16 millions of dollars. I don't think that we want 17 to subsidize that sort of housing and, with the 18 assurance that I have received from Senator 19 Leibell, for which I again thank you, Senator, 20 I'll vote for the bill. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 22 last section. 23 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 24 act shall take effect immediately. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 1 roll. 2 (The Secretary called the roll. ) 3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 5 is passed. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 7 1195, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 7507-A, an 8 act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to 9 creating an exception. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 11 Spano, an explanation has been requested of 12 Calendar Number 1195. 13 SENATOR SPANO: Mr. President, 14 this bill has been dubbed "Leslie's Law" and it 15 stems from a woman who lives in Halfmoon, New 16 York who is Leslie Selkirk, is a mother of 17 five. The state Tax Department was going to 18 seize money from her -- threatened -- from her 19 checking account, threatening to take her 20 property and garnish her wages for $2600 that 21 was owed - 22 SENATOR LEICHTER: Explanation 23 satisfactory. Thank you. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 25 last section. 1 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 2 act shall take effect immediately. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 4 roll. 5 (The Secretary called the roll. ) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 8 is passed. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 1262, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 7446, an 11 act to amend the Economic Development Law. 12 SENATOR LEICHTER: Explanation. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 14 Leichter, as soon as we find the sponsor, we'll 15 give you an explanation. 16 Senator Seward, an explanation 17 has been requested of Calendar Number 1262, by 18 Senator Leichter. 19 SENATOR LEICHTER: Certainly, Mr. 20 President. 21 One of the best things in my 22 estimation that this Legislature accomplished 23 last year in 1997 was after a several-week 24 conference committee, we as a legislature 25 produced a product that's called "Power for 1 Jobs" program. It was Chapter 316 of the Laws 2 of 1997, and under the Power for Jobs program, 3 we provided 400 megawatts of low cost power over 4 a three-year period to go to businesses which 5 agree to either create or retain jobs in New 6 York State, and I was very pleased that up to 75 7 megawatts of that power is available to small 8 businesses as well as not-for-profit 9 corporations. 10 Now, this bill before us today 11 amends the -- the measure that we passed and 12 enacted last year to simply increase the amount 13 of power available under the Power for Jobs 14 program by adding another 400 megawatts of power 15 to be available. Now, this also, of course, 16 doubles the amount of power available to small 17 businesses and not-for-profit corporations as 18 well, and under this legislation the 400 19 megawatts of power that we are adding would not 20 -- the only change from last year is the 21 additional 400 megawatts that we would be adding 22 under this bill would not be allocated by 23 utility service territory as the original 400 24 megawatts was and will continue to be. The 25 additional 400 megawatts will be distributed 1 based on the best application for the power. 2 Now, why -- why add this 3 additional 400 megawatts? The demand for the 4 Power for Jobs electricity had vastly exceeded 5 the supply. The 276 applications that have been 6 received as of a few weeks ago at the Power 7 Authority requests nearly 550 megawatts. That's 8 417 megawatts more than that's available this 9 year under this program under existing law. 10 So this has been a very 11 successful program. All told it has helped to 12 create or retain nearly 100,000 jobs in New York 13 State, and the demand is exceeding the power 14 that's available under the existing law. Thus 15 the bill before us today, Mr. President, to 16 provide an additional 400 megawatts of power and 17 to continue to create and retain even more jobs 18 in New York State. That's somethjing that's 19 very, very important to all of our constituents 20 all over this state. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 22 Leichter. 23 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 24 if Senator Seward would yield, please. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 1 Seward, do you yield for a question? 2 SENATOR SEWARD: Yes. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 4 yields. 5 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, thank 6 you for the explanation. 7 One of the things I was 8 interested in was whether the not-for-profits 9 and small businesses would benefit, and you've 10 answered that, and I apprciate knowing that 11 indeed they will benefit from this. 12 The next question I have, if you 13 would let us know, is this an agreed-upon bill? 14 SENATOR SEWARD: The bill has a 15 number of Majority Assembly members that are 16 sponsoring it in the other house and I -- it 17 would be agreed upon in terms of Majority 18 members in the other house, and we are hopeful 19 that by week's end the other house will take 20 action on this bill, because it is building on 21 the -- a program, Power for Jobs, which was, as 22 I said earlier, created and authored mutually by 23 the Assembly and the Senate through the 24 conference committee that we held last year. 25 SENATOR LEICHTER: Right. I 1 remember that, Senator Seward, but if you would 2 be so good as to continue to yield. Could you 3 tell us why the manner of the allocation of the 4 power was changed, and that really made me 5 question whether there was agreement by the 6 other house to the allocation that you've now 7 set forth in this bill. 8 SENATOR SEWARD: Well, Mr. 9 President and Senator Leichter, we are not 10 changing the allocation that was agreed upon and 11 enacted last year for the original 400 12 megawatts. What we are doing under this measure 13 is, the additional 400 megawatts will not be 14 distributed based on the service territory of 15 the various utilities. 16 SENATOR LEICHTER: And what is 17 the reason for that? 18 SENATOR SEWARD: The reason for 19 that is that we have seen across the state 20 greater demands for this power in some parts of 21 the state which far exceed the available power 22 based on the allocations that were set up in 23 last year's legislation, so it makes perfect 24 sense if we are to help meet the demand that's 25 there for this cheaper power, it makes perfect 1 sense then to, rather than get hung up on an 2 allocation formula, why not have this additional 3 power follow the best applications that are 4 submitted for the power, regardless of where 5 they are in the state? 6 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 7 if Senator Seward will continue to yield. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator, 9 do you continue to yield? 10 SENATOR SEWARD: Certainly. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: He 12 continues to yield. Senator Leichter. 13 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, I 14 think there's a certain logic and merit to 15 what you say, but I think there's also some 16 concern that the allocation may become more 17 politicized unless there are standards and 18 restrictions that are set forth in legislation. 19 What -- what guarantees, what assurance, do we 20 have that this isn't going to be done in a -- in 21 a biased, politically-driven manner? 22 SENATOR SEWARD: Well, Senator, I 23 would just say in response to your question that 24 I have not heard one hint of a charge on the 25 part of anyone that under this Power for Jobs 1 program, that there's been any kind of politi 2 cization of the process of selecting the 3 applications. In fact, quite the contrary, the 4 -- the demand that we have seen for this power 5 comes from districts, legislative districts, 6 throughout this state. Individual legislators, 7 when an application is submitted from their 8 area, are notified under the -- under the law 9 that we passed last year, and so the legislators 10 from across this state, Republican and Democrat, 11 are part of the process. They're fully 12 notified, they go to bat, so there's an open 13 process and I just see no room here at all for 14 politicizing this. 15 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 16 if Senator Seward will continue to yield. But, 17 Senator - 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator, 19 do you continue to yield? 20 SENATOR LEICHTER: That's 21 precisely the reason - 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 23 Leichter, I'm waiting to hear if Senator Seward 24 continues to yield. 25 SENATOR SEWARD: Certainly. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: He 2 continues to yield. 3 SENATOR LEICHTER: That's 4 precisely the reason I raised that question. 5 You say it's functioning very well now. Then 6 you tell us that you're going to change the 7 allocation system, and my question to you is, is 8 there a risk in the manner in which we now will 9 do the allocation should your bill become law 10 that the system which has worked very well and, 11 as you tell us, in a non-political manner, may 12 become politicized? 13 SENATOR SEWARD: I certainly 14 don't -- do not anticipate this being 15 politicized. Let me -- let me go on to explain 16 something additionally to Senator Leichter, Mr. 17 President. 18 Under our existing law that we 19 passed last year, the Power Allocation Board 20 which actually approves and distributes this 21 power, the Power Allocation Board does have the 22 authority to move power from one service 23 territory to another at its discretion in order 24 to meet the demands that -- that may be there in 25 a different service territory and, in fact, they 1 have done that on a couple of occasions already, 2 so with that in mind, Senator Leichter, it - 3 unless you can point to a situation where this 4 has been politicized, I -- I'm suggesting under 5 our bill that we're simply streamlining that 6 process to allow this power to move towards the 7 best applications that are submitted, those 8 applications that can meet the criteria which 9 will remain in place under -- under the law, so 10 frankly, Senator, I think you're looking for 11 trouble in all the wrong places here because it 12 does not exist and will not exist. 13 SENATOR LEICHTER: O.K. One final 14 question. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 16 Seward, do you yield for another question? 17 SENATOR SEWARD: Certainly. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: He 19 yields. 20 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, I'm 21 inclined to believe that the program has been 22 effective, but all you've given us really are 23 some very general comments on that. Do you have 24 any statistics on how effective the program has 25 been? What are the claims of jobs created, jobs 1 retained? How many different businesses, 2 institutions, have benefited from this program? 3 SENATOR SEWARD: Well, Senator, 4 the -- the information that you're seeking, I 5 can share with you. The -- as of a few weeks 6 ago, which is the last power that was distrib 7 uted under this program, because all of the 8 available power for this year has been allocat 9 ed. There were a total of 152 allocations that 10 were approved for 76 businesses, 32 small 11 businesses and 44 not-for-profits, and combined 12 the allocations helped to retain and create more 13 than 100,000 jobs and these allo... the approved 14 allocations averaged 750 jobs per megawatt. 15 That's a ratio that is seven and a half times 16 the bench mark that has been used for economic 17 development power programs in the past. 18 So this program has been very 19 successful, has touched many businesses, but 20 more importantly, it's touched many working men 21 and women in New York, and their families, by 22 retaining and creating of jobs. 23 SENATOR LEICHTER: Excuse me, Mr. 24 President. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 1 Leichter. 2 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator 3 Seward, thank you. I'm sorry that, frankly, your 4 response to the last question was as general as 5 it was, because I think it would be helpful to 6 have, you know, some statistics and facts and 7 figures. I think you indicated that you might 8 have some available and maybe you'll let me 9 share in that. I think it would be helpful for 10 us to have this. 11 I just want to say on the bill, I 12 am -- I - 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 14 Leichter, on the bill. 15 SENATOR LEICHTER: I am concerned 16 -- I am concerned somewhat about changing the 17 allocation because I think we've got a system 18 that's worked well as far as I understand it and 19 it hasn't been subject to political pressure. 20 I'll support the bill because I want to -- I 21 want to see this program increase, but I'd like 22 to -- I'd like to be assured, more so than 23 Senator Seward's good intentions - 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 25 Leichter, could you stop for just a second. 1 Could we have some quiet in the chamber. 2 Senator Leichter, go ahead. 3 SENATOR LEICHTER: I think we 4 could look and have a right to seek assurances 5 that this, in fact, is not going to be done in a 6 political manner and that indeed all areas of 7 the state will continue to benefit from this 8 program. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 10 last section. 11 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 12 act shall take effect immediately. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 14 roll. 15 (The Secretary called the roll. ) 16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 18 is passed. 19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 20 1355, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 5477-C, 21 an act to amend the Public Health Law. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 23 last section. 24 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 25 act shall take effect immediately. 1 SENATOR ONORATO: Explanation. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 3 Goodman, an explanation has been requested by 4 Senator Onorato. 5 SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. President, 6 the Senate Investigations Committee has recently 7 held a series of -- may we have some order, Mr. 8 President, if you please. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: May we 10 have some order in the chamber so that we can 11 hear the debate and so the stenographer can take 12 it down. 13 SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. President, 14 the Senate Investigations Committee has recently 15 examined the question of the possible use of 16 newly invented technology for the purpose of 17 saving the lives of those who suffer from 18 cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest occurs when the 19 heart muscles function improperly and I'm going 20 to demonstrate this to you if you will give me 21 your attention. 22 Assume that my fist is the human 23 heart. The regular rhythm of the heart is 24 something of this sort. It's a regular rhythm 25 in which the muscle pumps oxygen to the rest of 1 the body to keep it alive. In the case of 2 cardiac arrest, the heart muscle ceases to 3 function in its normal contractile method and 4 becomes a sort of Jello-like substance which 5 flickers but does not pump blood. 6 The question is somehow can we 7 restore a person to normal heart rhythm through 8 the use of defibrillation. Fibrillation is a 9 quivering or fluttering. Defibrillation is a 10 shock when it's administered to the Jello-like 11 muscle and it shocks that muscle to an extent 12 that it then can resume its normal shape and its 13 pumping action to save the individual's life. 14 Now, Mr. President, in the course 15 of its investigation of this matter, the 16 Investigations Committee learned that the single 17 most important life-saving measure that could be 18 undertaken in New York State and the nation 19 today would be to make more widely available the 20 so-called automatic defibrillator. 21 What is an automatic 22 defibrillator? It is a technological device 23 which has been developed by a number of 24 companies which permits the administration of a 25 shock to the quivering heart muscle in such 1 fashion that it enables it to flatten out and 2 resume its normal function. This is not a 3 computer nor is it a portable radio that I am 4 holding in my hand, but rather the very latest 5 life-saving technology of the type that I've 6 just described to you, and I want you to see it, 7 if you will, because a picture is worth a 8 thousand words. 9 This simple device is the 10 automatic defibrillator, and the way this works 11 in the condition of emergency is, an individual 12 is down with a cardiac arrest. If that 13 individual is not up within five, at the most 14 ten minutes after that event, that individual 15 would die. This has been proven medically and 16 repeatedly and, unfortunately, we've lost many 17 people who have had difficulties of this sort. 18 By making these more widely 19 available and by permitting people to use them 20 without fear of liability, we're going to save 21 thousands of lives every year. 22 Mr. President, let me emphasize 23 that this machine is very unique in that after 24 the two paddles that flatten the chest have been 25 applied to that individual, the individual then 1 who is operating this machine then listens to 2 the machine and the machines determines whether 3 it can -- whether the shock should properly be 4 administered, whether the heart failure is one 5 that is susceptible to defibrillation. If it is 6 susceptible, the shook is administered and the 7 machinery then permits the resumption of normal 8 heart rhythm. If the heart fails again, then 9 the machine continues to indicate that and can 10 administer a second or even a third shock if 11 necessary. 12 Now, let me emphasize that these 13 are easy to use and that all the while spoken 14 instructions are given by the machine, so there 15 is no way in which it can be misused if anyone 16 is able to understand the language in which the 17 instructions are given, and this can be a 18 bilingual or tri-lingual or multi-lingual 19 instruction packet. 20 We've just had a demonstration of 21 this using a defibrillator using a dummy and the 22 dummy I would be happy to tell you survived 23 fully in the demonstration that we had and is 24 now going to enjoy a full and productive life. 25 The dummy has expressed its thanks to this 1 chamber for allowing us to demonstrate it, and 2 expresses the hope that this bill will pass 3 promptly. 4 Let me give you just a few more 5 pieces of information that may help you to 6 evaluate this proposal. 7 The American Heart Association 8 estimates that close to a hundred thousand 9 deaths nationwide could be prevented each year 10 if automated external defibrillators, and from 11 now on, we'll call them AEDs, were more widely 12 distributed. 13 People from rural or suburban 14 areas who are stricken with sudden cardiac 15 arrest have low survival rates because the 16 distance that an ambulance must travel to get to 17 them when they're in distress is so great that 18 the chances are it will not arrive on time. 19 Sudden cardiac arrest is usually 20 caused by a condition called ventricular 21 fibrillation which I've indicated to you -- the 22 nature of which I've indicated, and defibril 23 lators were first introduced in the early 1960s 24 but they could only be used then by paramedics, 25 nurses and physicians who received extensive 1 training in interpretation of electrocardiogram 2 readings. 3 The developers of the portable 4 defibrillators, in the 1970s came up with a 5 major step forward, and these defibrillators 6 still required the operator to interpret the 7 electrocardiogram strips and that was an 8 extensive process. 9 This bill, by its passage, will 10 permit, as I've said, the widespread use of 11 this. Let me say that, since coming up with our 12 findings, the New York City Police Department 13 has placed one of these machines in each and 14 every one of its radio motor patrol cars and 15 expects that this will help it to save lives. 16 The fire department has long used defibrillators 17 and will now be able to use these portable 18 models, and the State Police have indicated 19 their full cooperation with the nurses at the 20 Capitol, with whom we just appeared, and I'd 21 like incidentally, to thank Liz Anthony, Nancy 22 Fyvie and Mickey Kelley who are the nurses 23 charged with keeping us well and healthy, for 24 their cooperation. They've indicated their 25 enormous support for this, as has the 1 Commissioner of OGS, Joe Seymour, who was with 2 us a few moments ago at the conference at which 3 we announced this development. 4 So, my colleagues, I hope that 5 you will be fully in favor of this and will 6 allow us to pass the legislation which will 7 permit the wider use of this in what has again 8 been described as the most important single 9 medical help, life-saving measure that we could 10 possibly have in the United States or the state 11 of New York. 12 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr. 13 President. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 15 Dollinger. 16 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Couple of 17 quick questions for the sponsor, Senator 18 Goodman. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 20 Goodman, do you yield to a question from Senator 21 Dollinger? Senator yields. 22 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, is 23 it your understanding that these defibrillators 24 which I think you accurately characterize as the 25 best life-saving device that we can put in the 1 hands of our emergency personnel, is it your 2 intention that these would be more wildly 3 available in the hands of emergency personnel, 4 police, fire, EMS people, or that we would 5 encourage their use throughout our society in 6 restaurants and athletic clubs and other 7 places. 8 My question really deals with how 9 do we make sure that those people who are not of 10 the trained professional caliber as our police, 11 fire and EMS people, that they're capable of 12 determining when use of that machine is 13 appropriate and how to use it? 14 SENATOR GOODMAN: The answer to 15 that is we hope to make these as widely 16 available as a training program will permit. 17 The training program must be administered to any 18 individual who uses these, but at the moment, 19 even if an individual were trained by such a 20 program that individual, unfortunately, would be 21 subject to liability, and the Good Samaritan law 22 would not apply to such an individual. 23 The purpose of our legislation is 24 to see that the Good Samaritan provisions do so, 25 and make it possible for a well trained 1 individual to use the devices in places of 2 public assembly of the type you mentioned. In 3 the Capitol, for instance, I think it would be 4 highly advisable for these to be available on 5 the legislative floor, on the second floor 6 where, I'm happy to say, they're anxious to have 7 them. 8 We've given these even to the 9 City Council in the city of New York. The press 10 stated at that time that it did not seem 11 appropriate to give them to the City Council or 12 to the executive chamber there because they 13 weren't sure those people had hearts, but we 14 ignored that and felt that they most assuredly 15 did and that they were worth saving, so that we 16 feel that this will be widely utilized and, 17 therefore, is a very appropriate matter. 18 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you, 19 Mr. President: How much training does it 20 actually take to use that? Seems as though it's 21 relatively -- as you describe it, a relatively 22 simple process. 23 SENATOR GOODMAN: Fifteen hours 24 -- fifteen should be sufficient to qualify an 25 individual to use it effectively. 1 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Just one 2 other question, Mr. President, if the Senator 3 would yield. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 5 Goodman, do you yield for another question? 6 SENATOR GOODMAN: Yes; yes, I do. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 8 yields. 9 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Could you 10 just tell us, is the Medical Society in support 11 of this, and secondly I've been given some in 12 formation that the National Association of State 13 Emergency Service Directors was against the 14 wide-spread extension of the AEDs and yet -- or 15 at least a year ago. Do you know whether 16 they've changed their position or why the state 17 emergency medical directors would have been 18 against this? 19 SENATOR GOODMAN: The staunchest 20 supporters of our proposal in New York City, 21 where first of all, one of the most prominent 22 internal medicine specialists, in fact, the 23 chief of the service at Columbia Presbyterian 24 Medical Center, who was the one who 25 characterized this as the most important single 1 life-saving measure that he knew of that could 2 be enacted anywhere in the country, the 3 emergency people of whom we had approximately a 4 half a dozen working with us in New York, were 5 the staunchest supporters of this because they 6 realized the relative simplicity of 7 administration and the extraordinary life 8 saving potential that these machines have. 9 It was their view that, if only 10 we could make these available, particularly to 11 emergency trained individuals, that it would 12 save literally thousands of lives, and we know 13 that about a thousand lives a day are snuffed 14 out due to cardiac arrest around the country. 15 So the answer to your question is yes, and may I 16 add further that the American Heart Association 17 is in full support of this. I have their memo 18 in support here if you care to examine it. 19 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Again through 20 you, Mr. President, just so I understand the 21 bill and, in summary, what this does is this 22 allows for collaborative agreements to buy these 23 in large numbers by -- for people to combine 24 into a collaborative agreement and buy it 25 through the collaborative agreement, and it also 1 includes anyone who uses it within the scope of 2 the Good Samaritan law. Is that accurate, 3 that's what the bill, in essence, does? 4 SENATOR GOODMAN: Well, let me 5 just be a little more explicit about this 6 because I think you've described some - 7 SENATOR DOLLINGER: And it 8 requires training, of course, as part of it. 9 SENATOR GOODMAN: Yes. That's 10 the point I wanted to make, the training is the 11 critical prerequisite. You're absolutely right. 12 SENATOR DOLLINGER: So there's a 13 training component; there's a collaborative 14 agreement, that allows these things to be bought 15 and there is a exception to the Good Samaritan 16 law that says, if you're using this machine, you 17 don't have to run the risk of liability if 18 you're using it in an emergency situation. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 20 Lachman. 21 SENATOR LACHMAN: I strongly 22 support this measure. I have a friend who is 23 alive today because he has this emergency 24 equipment available. But is there a provision 25 of the bill, Senator Goodman, that prevents 1 those who are not qualified, those who are not 2 involved in emergency medical service, from 3 using something like this? 4 SENATOR GOODMAN: There is 5 something to prevent the promiscuous use of 6 this, Senator, and there are penalties, of 7 course, for use of non-prescription drugs and, 8 in effect, this would be a non-prescription. 9 SENATOR LACHMAN: That would be 10 after the fact. 11 SENATOR GOODMAN: I beg your 12 pardon? 13 SENATOR LACHMAN: That would be 14 after the fact. This is a more serious thing 15 than a non-prescription drug. 16 SENATOR GOODMAN: Well, of 17 course, we do not prescribe penalties for people 18 who illegally use it because the law already has 19 penalties for them who improperly use it and 20 they would be - 21 SENATOR LACHMAN: This does not 22 apply to anyone who does not fall within the 23 Good Samaritan law and doesn't have the ability 24 or the license to use it. 25 SENATOR GOODMAN: That's 1 correct. 2 SENATOR LACHMAN: Thank you. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the 4 last section. 5 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 6 act shall take effect immediately. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the 8 roll. 9 (The Secretary called the roll. ) 10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 59. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill 12 is passed. 13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 14 1380, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7659, the 15 Education Law, the Correction Law and the 16 Criminal Procedure Law. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 18 Volker, an explanation has been requested of 19 Calendar 1380 by Senator Paterson. 20 SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President, 21 this is a bill -- a Governor's program bill 22 which was fairly recently introduced. It is 23 similar but not the same as a bill that passed 24 this house last year by a vote of 55 to 1. My 25 esteemed colleague, Senator Leichter, voted in 1 the negative, which deals with the issue of 2 civil commitment of sexual predators. 3 What this bill does is to deal 4 with a Supreme Court case called Kansas vs. 5 Hedrick, which legalized or at least 6 constitutionally supported the proposition that 7 certain people who are considered sexually 8 violent predators could be kept in civil 9 detention after their full term is served, and 10 it sets up a process to do that. 11 The bill here builds upon 12 legislation which I sponsored, in effect, which 13 I believe is still on the calendar, which is 14 based on that Kansas vs. Hedrick decision, but 15 it improves many of the procedural issues. In 16 fact, some of the language in here resulted from 17 last year's debate. Now, some people may not 18 agree with that, but that's the fact. 19 For instance, let me just point 20 out one. Senator Dollinger, in the debate last 21 year -- and I have the debate here -- questioned 22 the issue of victim notification. There is an 23 extensive victim notification section in here, 24 in fact a section that says that the agency that 25 has the person is charged with notifying the 1 victim when a person is considered a sexual 2 predator, and also obviously should the person 3 escape, and so forth. 4 Last year there was reference in 5 the bill but it wasn't specific. This bill has 6 much more specific reference to sexual predators 7 and to notification. 8 The second issue, another issue 9 that was discussed in last year's bill, is the 10 issue of district attorneys handling these cases 11 after the expiration of the term. Would there 12 be cost to localities? We assured everybody at 13 the time that the -- any cost to localities 14 would be absorbed by the state. What this bill 15 does is specifically point that out and 16 specifically doing that, but as one way it dealt 17 with is to shift the, if you want to call it 18 prosecution or the litigation of these cases to 19 the Attorney General's which would lift the 20 burden from the local district attorneys to do 21 that. 22 The bill, in addition to the 23 so-called VFO crimes, violent felony offense 24 crimes, Rape I, Sodomy I, and certain aggravated 25 sexual crimes, the bill permits the civil 1 commitment of persons convicted of assault, 2 manslaughter, murder, kidnapping, burglary, 3 arsons, robbery, if the indictment charges that 4 the offense was sexually motivated and a 5 defendant either pleads guilty to all those 6 allegations or the offense was -- the jury 7 returns a special verdict that the commission of 8 the felony was sexually motivated. 9 The bill also sets up a 10 multi-disciplinary team to assess whether the 11 person was actually a sexually violent 12 predator. One of the questions last year was 13 how that would actually be determined. The 14 recommendation of this team would be to the 15 Attorney General. 16 The team would comprise a 15 17 member team organized into three five-member 18 groups established by the Commissioner of 19 Corrections in consultation with the 20 Commissioner of OMH. 21 This bill would also authorize a 22 prosecutor review committee to assist the 23 Attorney General in terms of filing a civil 24 commitment decision, and the members who would 25 be appointed by the AG would be composed of 1 district attorneys, former district attorneys, 2 ADAs, and various people that are part of the 3 prosecutorial set-up. 4 The ADA can request a psychiatric 5 examination of the person prior to the 6 determination but, in any case, if the case goes 7 forward, there has to be a determination, a 8 physical, psychiatric examination. The 9 individual himself has the right to a 10 psychiatric examination. If you will notice, in 11 the bill, there is full knowledgeable 12 disclosure, but full coverage of the person's 13 rights, is entitled to an attorney from the OMH 14 developmental health attorneys, he's entitled to 15 an appellate attorney if the -- if there is an 16 appeal needed, and he's entitled to all sorts of 17 back-up. 18 One other issue, the question, on 19 the prosecution of these cases, whether 45 days 20 was enough prior to the -- the trial or the 21 proceeding and the 45 days was extended to 60 22 days, so essentially, that is the prime parts of 23 this bill. It is, as I say, essentially the 24 same bill that passed this house last year with 25 these procedural changes in the bill, which in 1 fact were made because of the discussions that 2 were had on the floor of the Senate last year 3 since this bill did not pass the Assembly last 4 year. This is the only floor where this bill 5 had a chance to be debated. 6 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 8 Leichter. 9 SENATOR LEICHTER: If Senator 10 Volker would yield for a question. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 12 Volker, will you yield for a question from 13 Senator Leichter? 14 SENATOR VOLKER: Sure. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 16 yields. 17 Senator Leichter. 18 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, I see 19 that the bill provides that in order to 20 establish somebody as a sexual predator, that it 21 must be beyond a reasonable doubt. 22 SENATOR VOLKER: Right. 23 SENATOR LEICHTER: I didn't know 24 whether that was from last year. 25 SENATOR VOLKER: It was. In fact, 1 I don't know whether you remember, if I might 2 just ask, the Kansas vs. Hedrick decision that 3 wasn't necessarily the burden of proof in our 4 bill. We used it as a burden of proof because 5 we felt that that was important to do. 6 SENATOR LEICHTER: Right. But 7 what troubles me about this bill, and what makes 8 this procedure different than any procedure that 9 I know that we have in our penal system, is that 10 if somebody who has not committed a felony 11 crime, may have initially committed a crime but 12 at this moment may not be charged with a crime, 13 may nevertheless be incarcerated for the rest of 14 his life, for that matter, not on the basis 15 again of any act that he's done, but on the 16 basis that he may do some act in the future, 17 which is really a radical departure from the 18 jurisprudence of this state. My question to you 19 is, what sort of proof do you envisage which can 20 establish beyond mere conjecture or suspicion or 21 fear that somebody is indeed likely to commit 22 another crime so that society is justified in 23 staying in prison, even though you haven't 24 committed a crime, you're going to commit a 25 crime and, therefore, we're going to put you 1 away. 2 SENATOR VOLKER: Well, I think 3 that your premise is entirely wrong. Everyone 4 involved in this procedure has committed a crime 5 and is a sexually violent predator in the first 6 place. He's considered a sexually violent 7 predator, therefore, has committed a crime, and 8 a crime is a crime. 9 The issue of commitment after the 10 person's term is up relates to protection you 11 could say not only for other people but in a 12 sense for himself, because the issue is if, 13 given the state of a great deal of -- I'm sure 14 you're aware, a great deal of study that has 15 been done and discussions that have been made on 16 these kinds of crimes, there are some grave 17 questions whether these people really being sent 18 to jail gets them into a situation where they 19 are prepared to be released to the public. 20 Now, when you say forever, keep 21 in mind that these -- these commitments can be 22 re-evaluated every year. They have the right to 23 be re-evaluated every year, based on the 24 situation. When you say what evidence, I just 25 reiterate to you there has to be a psychiatric 1 examination. There has to be evidence put forth 2 and there has to be a jury trial if they 3 actually get to the point of trying to determine 4 whether this person should be civilly committed. 5 So I think there is ample 6 opportunity for these individuals to be able to 7 show that -- or to be able to demonstrate that 8 there is no reasonable doubt that they are not 9 -- they are not -- should be not subject to 10 this kind of a restriction. It's not, by the 11 way, a penal restriction. Remember, they are 12 going to be civilly committed, not criminally. 13 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. 14 President. Senator Volker, if you will continue 15 to yield. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 17 Volker, do you continue to yield? 18 SENATOR VOLKER: Sure. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 20 yields. 21 SENATOR LEICHTER: First, 22 Senator, let me correct two things that you 23 stated. First is it's true that this person has 24 committed a crime before but at this moment he 25 is not charged with a crime. He has committed a 1 crime; it's a serious crime. He was penalized 2 for that crime. Now, he has served a sentence 3 and it is now a new proceeding to determine if 4 he should be incarcerated as a sexual predator 5 and to say, well, it's only a civil commitment, 6 the fact of the matter is the person is shut up 7 behind walls, he doesn't enjoy the liberty that 8 you and I and other people have, so it is an 9 incarceration. 10 But what I did not hear you say 11 is what sort of proof. Is it sufficient for 12 psychiatrists to state, Well, I think this 13 person may commit a crime. Is it -- is it 14 sufficient if somebody in the neighborhood says, 15 Well, we fear this person. What -- what is the 16 proof? Give me a -- give me an indication of 17 evidence that you have would see sufficient to 18 submit to a jury or a jury to determine that 19 this person should be physically committed. 20 SENATOR VOLKER: First of all, 21 Senator, it is not an incarceration. You can 22 call it all you want, it is not an 23 incarceration. Incarceration is in jail. This 24 person is not going to be in jail. This person 25 is going to be in a mental health facility, 1 secure mental health facility separated, by the 2 way, from everybody. 3 Now, in the bill, we talk about 4 "general abnormality" and "general abnormality" 5 is defined in the bill. The determination would 6 be to determine not on conjecture, not on 7 assumption, but on evidence based on not only 8 the psychiatric evidence, obviously using the 9 previous crime, the testimony, the testimony of 10 what the person has done, what the person is, 11 and so forth, to determine whether there is a 12 mental abnormality that would cause that person 13 to be a danger to other people or in fact him or 14 herself, and I think that there is sufficient 15 procedures in this bill to protect the person 16 from mere conjecture, and you and I know that no 17 court would allow mere conjecture to have a 18 person be civilly committed. 19 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 20 if Senator Volker will continue to yield. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 22 Volker, do you continue to yield? The Senator 23 yields. 24 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, let 25 me just say I'm not going to get into an 1 argument with you about incarceration or not, 2 but if you're put behind bars, walls, to say, 3 well, this is not incarceration, he's not in a 4 maximum security prison but he's certainly not 5 at liberty. 6 So I think we ought to be clear 7 certainly that we're depriving somebody of their 8 liberty, and I'm sure you would agree with that 9 definition, but what you've just said really 10 gets to the heart of what one of the things that 11 disturbs me about this bill. 12 We have a procedure now where 13 people can be found to be mentally disabled -- I 14 don't think that's the exact name but they're 15 found to be - 16 SENATOR VOLKER: Mentally 17 incompetent. 18 SENATOR LEICHTER: -- mentally 19 incompetent -- thank you -- and can be put into 20 a secure facility to avoid harm to society and 21 harm to themselves. We have that procedure and, 22 indeed, many people each year are committed 23 under that provision of the Mental Hygiene Law. 24 Why isn't that sufficient to 25 protect us in the case of a sexual predator? 1 SENATOR VOLKER: The problem with 2 that process is that if that person is in that 3 condition to start with, then I assume there 4 would not be a prosecution. That person could 5 be held in prison to start with. That's the 6 reason for the difference here in the use of the 7 word "abnormality" and because we are talking 8 about people who have been classified here as 9 sexual predators based on the crimes that 10 they've committed and we would then -- using the 11 evidence that has been obtained, including the 12 psychiatric exam to determine whether they would 13 be a danger to society, we would assume probably 14 most of the people who would be evaluated 15 probably wouldn't be, but what we're trying to 16 do here is develop a process, a process, by the 17 way, which is now beginning to sweep across the 18 country to deal with sexual predators which has 19 been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United 20 States and I note in the frustration of some 21 people who say, well, we shouldn't be doing this 22 sort of thing. It's easy to say that but not so 23 easy to the victims of people who have been 24 attacked and killed or whatever by repetitive 25 sexual predators and we know that that has been 1 happening. 2 And I think this bill attempts to 3 deal with that, and I think it deals with it in 4 a rational, guarded way, and I think that's why 5 the Governor has sent this bill to us. 6 SENATOR LEICHTER: Well, Mr. 7 President, I have my own suspicions why the 8 Governor sent this bill, but I know that you're 9 bringing it forth in good faith and I may 10 disagree with you, but I've never questioned 11 your good faith because I know that you act out 12 of principle and commitment. We've served 13 together for too many years and you have been 14 too clear in how you act for me ever to question 15 that, but what you haven't answered for me, 16 Senator, is why the Mental Hygiene Law doesn't 17 work. 18 You've said, well, if the mental 19 hygiene provisions applied, this person 20 initially would have been sent to such a 21 facility. That's not true at all. He may have 22 committed a crime. He may have, in fact, 23 pleaded insanity. The jury may not have 24 accepted the plea of insanity. May have found 25 him guilty. He served his sentence. Now he's 1 coming out of jail and there's a determination 2 made by doctors and others that this person is 3 not competent. He served in jail for many 4 years. There may be a lot of reasons why he may 5 have been found competent to stand trial but 6 he's not competent now and in point of fact, 7 even under your bill, you can't retry or bring 8 out his previous crime. You have to deal with a 9 person as he or she are now getting out of jail 10 and whether they are a danger to society. If 11 they're a danger to society, the Mental Hygiene 12 Law provides that we can commit them. 13 What more are you trying to do? 14 SENATOR VOLKER: Senator, I think 15 you're confusing a little bit the issue of 16 mental illness. 17 Under the law, as I understand 18 it, if a person is actually considered to be 19 mentally ill, then that person technically 20 probably shouldn't be in a prison and should be 21 put in a secure facility. We're talking about 22 mental abnormality, which is a variation of this 23 and which doesn't classify this person as 24 totally mentally ill but does have tendencies 25 because of his -- the fact that he is a sexual 1 predator, that would cause him or her to be a 2 danger to society or to himself. 3 SENATOR LEICHTER: Well, let me 4 thank my good friend for his answers. I must 5 say, Senator Volker, I have not heard an 6 explanation that satisfies me that for those 7 individuals who really are a danger to 8 themselves or to others, whether because of 9 their sexual predilection or for other reasons, 10 why the provisions of the Mental Hygiene Laws 11 are not sufficient. 12 This, it seems to me, is clearly 13 an effort to try to deal with people who have 14 committed some horrible crimes, no question 15 about it, to lengthen their sentence and to do 16 it under the guise that we're going to civilly 17 commit them is no different than saying we're 18 going to continue your sentence. 19 If they are a danger, there is a 20 method of putting them away, but it seems to me 21 that with all the concern that there is about 22 sexual predators -- and I think sometimes that 23 concern, you know, approaches unfounded fears, 24 that I think it's going to be very difficult 25 even when the burden of proof being stated to be 1 beyond a reasonable doubt, for juries not to 2 find that this person is a sexual predator. 3 I just want to emphasize again 4 what we're doing. I mean, this is a radical 5 departure to say that somebody can be 6 committed. It doesn't much matter that he's 7 civilly committed instead of criminally 8 committed. He's denied his liberty on the basis 9 that he or she may commit a crime in the 10 future. This is a totally radical departure and 11 I've stood on this floor before and I've argued 12 against our eroding the basic liberties that 13 really are the foundation of this country and 14 that make us the great society that we are. 15 There's no doubt in my mind that 16 if you put people away under this provision or 17 some of the other bills, Senator Volker, that 18 you've furthered, I think you will decrease 19 crime. There's no question. There's no 20 question in my mind that for anybody who commits 21 any sort of a crime, you say we're going to put 22 this person in jail for life that eventually 23 you're going to end up avoiding some crimes that 24 occur but you do it at an enormous cost to the 25 liberty, the freedom of this society, and I 1 think that's what you're doing - 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 3 Leichter, could you stop for just a moment. 4 Could we have some quiet in the chamber, 5 please. It will make matters move along faster 6 if we could have some quiet in the chamber. 7 Staff take your seats, members please stop your 8 conversations. 9 Senator Leichter, go ahead, 10 please. 11 SENATOR LEICHTER: And it seems 12 to me that while we do have an understood and 13 workable process for putting people into civil 14 or criminal commitment if they are a danger to 15 themselves or society, that here we really don't 16 have a process, as carefully maybe as Senator 17 Volker has tried to draft this bill, which is 18 going to, I think, avoid people being branded as 19 sexual predators and being put away possibly for 20 the rest of their life without our having firm 21 standards and a clear understanding of the basis 22 that we can say to somebody, you're likely to 23 commit a crime and we're going to put you away. 24 I see it as a very significant 25 erosion of the basic freedoms and rights that we 1 have as a society, rights and freedoms that make 2 us different from other societies. 3 I was born in a society and had 4 to flee from a nation where you were deemed 5 guilty. You were deemed that you were going to 6 commit acts against the state even though you 7 hadn't done it and in some ways we're moving 8 into that direction with these sort of bills. 9 I just really appeal to you to 10 consider what we're doing. Yes, sexual 11 predators are horrible people but these are 12 people who have committed a crime, have been 13 found guilty. They have been punished. Now to 14 say we're going to keep you in civil commitment 15 for the rest of your life because we think 16 you're going to commit a crime, where is the 17 basis for it? Where is our understanding of 18 human nature that we can say that we're in a 19 position to make that determination? I really 20 don't think we are, and I think that we're going 21 down a very, very slippery path because the next 22 thing you're going to do is to say, well, we can 23 determine that somebody is going to commit 24 another type of a crime, maybe not as a sexual 25 predator but as another crime. Where do we 1 stop? When are we going to say - 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 3 Leichter. 4 SENATOR LEICHTER: Thank you, Mr. 5 President. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: That's 7 much better, don't you think, Senator Leichter? 8 Please proceed. 9 SENATOR LEICHTER: Where -- once 10 you establish this justification for saying that 11 somebody can be committed because of a sexual 12 predator, maybe he could be committed because he 13 could be a financial predator or he may be a 14 violent predator in some other ways. It's a 15 dangerous step that we're taking. It may be 16 very popular. Nobody obviously is particularly 17 fond of sexual predators, but we have laws to 18 deal with them. This is not the way to protect 19 society. This essentially weakens, hampers and 20 jeopardizes the freedoms that we have. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator 22 Waldon. 23 SENATOR WALDON: Thank you very 24 much, Mr. President. 25 Would Senator Volker yield to a 1 question or two? 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator, 3 do you yield for a question from Senator 4 Waldon? 5 SENATOR VOLKER: Why, certainly. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 7 sponsor yields. 8 SENATOR WALDON: Senator Volker, 9 as you know, last year we debated this bill at 10 length. 11 SENATOR VOLKER: Yes, we did. 12 SENATOR WALDON: It covered a 13 panoply of concerns regarding the bill and your 14 responses were very detailed and very well 15 thought out and we learned a lot in our 16 exchange, at least I hope that we did. I know I 17 did. 18 In looking at this version of the 19 bill, which is somewhat different from what we 20 dealt with last year, I notice that the Attorney 21 General is playing a much greater role, but I 22 also notice that in regard to the term 23 "treatment", there is nothing in the bill which 24 says something like this, and this is what I 25 would like you to respond to. 1 In the treatment of these people 2 who are characterized as violent predators, they 3 are a different ball of wax than our other 4 prison population or criminal population. 5 There's nothing which says we will have so many 6 dollars to treat them. Besides segregating this 7 place of 150-some beds which was in our budget, 8 that we will have on hand so many psychiatrists, 9 so many clinical whatever, whatever, and that 10 there is no proviso to report back to the 11 Legislature in regard to the results of some of 12 these treatment modalities which would be 13 created as a result of this bill. 14 Did I misread the bill, or is 15 that -- is it true that there's no provision in 16 the bill for treatment per se? 17 SENATOR VOLKER: Senator, first 18 of all, there is one little difference in this 19 bill that I had that I didn't mention, that if 20 you look at this bill, it amends -- the prime 21 amendment is to the Mental Hygiene Law. This is 22 not -- the bill last year that was different in 23 that way -- let's keep in mind that anyone 24 committed to a mental hygiene facility has to be 25 treated. That's -- in fact, that's already the 1 law. 2 So we really don't need to put in 3 this bill, if a person is civilly committed to a 4 secure mental health facility -- in this case it 5 would be a secure separate mental health 6 facility -- that person has to be treated. 7 That's the law already. Now, we could 8 certainly, I suppose, ask the Governor's office 9 to put that in the bill, but frankly I think it 10 was considered to be redundant. 11 You make an interesting point, 12 which I guess probably I didn't think about, of 13 some report to the Legislature. Not a bad idea 14 because it will -- we know that if this bill 15 eventually, as I personally believe, eventually 16 will become law at some point, maybe not exactly 17 this bill, but I think a similar bill in the 18 future will be, I think it will be the subject 19 of a great deal of study and you may make a 20 point that it would probably -- I would think, 21 in fact, my own personal feeling is I would 22 probably make even maybe a separate bill or - 23 to -- at that point that would evaluate the 24 program because it would obviously become a 25 program, in effect, to deal with civil 1 commitments. 2 So you make a very good point. I 3 think that's something that we should seriously 4 consider, but as far as treatment is concerned, 5 that is really the law now. Once you civilly 6 commit a person to a mental health facility, 7 they must be treated and their treatment is 8 certainly something that will be the subject of 9 evaluation. 10 SENATOR WALDON: Would the 11 gentleman continue to yield, Mr. President? 12 SENATOR VOLKER: Sure. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 14 gentleman yields. 15 SENATOR WALDON: Thank you, Mr. 16 President. 17 Senator, touche. That was good. 18 I did not realize that. I read it page to page 19 and it didn't jump off the page at me, so I 20 appreciate your clearing it up for me and I'm 21 sure you've cleared it up for quite a few of our 22 colleagues and it's good that we understand more 23 fully what this will allow and what this will 24 mandate in terms of treatment. 25 I have two other areas of 1 concern. I don't want to revisit all of the 2 things we discussed last year but the two areas 3 of concern are, again, one that we did visit 4 last year. 5 There's an anticipatory portion, 6 as I perceive the bill, in regard to those who 7 have done something and it's extremely violent 8 and distasteful and abhorrent and unacceptable 9 to our society what they've done but we are 10 anticipating, the way this is constructed, in my 11 opinion, that someone will do it again and so 12 we're taking preemptive steps to preclude their 13 doing it again. My fear is that, one, we 14 shouldn't have that approach and two, it may 15 find itself influencing other things that we do. 16 For example, will we take 17 preemptive shots at those who may become drug 18 offenders again, that kind of thing. So I just 19 want you to take a minute and elaborate on that 20 and I'll give you the second question which - 21 well, let's deal with that first and then we'll 22 deal with the hearings. 23 SENATOR VOLKER: Yeah. Let me 24 just say, Senator, that if you read the Kansas 25 vs. Hendricks decision and if you look at the 1 Constitution, I think that it would be 2 impossible at this point to extend this process 3 to anything other than sexual predators, because 4 I think you would run smack up into court 5 opposition and potential constitutional 6 opposition. 7 The decision really -- the 8 Supreme Court decision -- and we have it -- my 9 counsel -- I have read it. Two of my counsel 10 have gone through it very carefully, and I know 11 the counsel to the Governor has gone through it 12 very carefully -- specifically deals with sexual 13 predators and because of the special nature of 14 sexual predators, I can't conceive where this 15 concept would be extended, legally could be 16 extended or even would be extended to any other 17 area and I share your concern, by the way, and I 18 understand what you're saying, by the way, and 19 I'm not taking, by the way, Senator Leichter, 20 what you say lightly. I want you to understand 21 it. 22 I think we are taking a rather 23 drastic and dramatic step here and I think it's 24 based on the evidence that is -- that has been 25 accumulating as to the real severe problem that 1 we have in dealing with people of this nature 2 and, by the way, we would hope that as our 3 knowledge of mental illness and of mental 4 problems and of the sexual nature of some of 5 these problems improves, that we'll be able to 6 deal better with some of these problems. They 7 won't need possibly the thought of a sexual - 8 but right now it seems to me and I think to a 9 lot of people in this country that this sort of 10 thing is necessary not just to protect society, 11 by the way, but in a sense to protect the very 12 individuals that have been involved in these 13 sexual predator acts because their responses 14 seem to be such that they need special 15 attention. 16 SENATOR WALDON: Will the 17 gentleman yield to one more question, Mr. 18 President? 19 SENATOR VOLKER: Sure. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 21 Senator yields. 22 SENATOR WALDON: Thank you, Mr. 23 President. Thank you, Senator Volker. 24 I notice the date of the print on 25 this bill is June 9th, 1998. This, in my 1 opinion, has the potential for monumental impact 2 on not only the law of this state but our very 3 attitude as a state regarding the way we will 4 treat people not just in the area of sexual 5 predators but our whole approach to 6 incarceration, to treatment modalities, to the 7 way we handle those who come into confrontation 8 with the criminal justice system. 9 Is there a reason, one, that we 10 received the bill so late that you could share 11 with us and if not, then secondarily to that, is 12 there a reason that, again there was not a 13 series of public hearings of the moment not as 14 we discussed last year, Senator Padavan's 15 previous hearings, your previous hearings, 16 historical hearings in regard to this area which 17 were all cogent with the exception that they 18 happened some time ago. We did not have 19 hearings, to my knowledge, of recent nature in 20 regard to this issue, and I would like you to 21 share with us, if you can, an explanation as to 22 why we received this so late. If that's not 23 appropriate, then why there were no hearings. 24 SENATOR VOLKER: No. I think you 25 make a good point. Let me just say that on the 1 calendar, as I said, is a very similar bill, 2 which is the bill actually we passed last year 3 during that session. As I stated last year - 4 although primarily the changes in this bill are 5 procedural, the concept of civil commitment was 6 clearly in the bill -- the other bill that we 7 passed last year by a vote, I believe of 57 to 8 1, if I'm not mistaken. The concept is the same 9 but this does have some major changes. 10 The reason it took so long, 11 frankly, is that the counsel's office to the 12 Governor worked long and diligently on this bill 13 and frankly consulted with us several times on 14 certain aspects that they were very concerned 15 about, including one issue relating to juveniles 16 and very honestly we did not feel as if it was 17 appropriate for juveniles to be included in this 18 bill because we couldn't exactly figure out how 19 you would deal with that and it seemed to us, 20 and I think the Governor's office eventually 21 agreed, after a great deal of soul searching and 22 if you know Jim Maguire, the counsel, he's a 23 very methodical person and he talks to all sorts 24 of people and deals with these issues in a very, 25 very detailed fashion. I think the real reason 1 this took so long is he was looking at all the 2 statutes across the country and there are 3 changes being made. Apparently there are a 4 number of these bills in Legislatures across the 5 country, and I think he was looking at these 6 various aspects of it. 7 As far as hearings are concerned, 8 we have not held hearings on this bill 9 specifically, but as we discussed last year, 10 there have been hearings on the issue of mental 11 illness and mental defect and all that sort of 12 thing in this area for years, but you are right, 13 there have not been specific hearings on this 14 bill itself. 15 SENATOR WALDON: Thank you very 16 much, Senator Volker. 17 Mr. President, if I may on the 18 bill. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 Senator Waldon, on the bill. 21 SENATOR WALDON: Thank you, Mr. 22 President. 23 Last year in my closing remarks, 24 I dealt with areas of concern which I have 25 shared with my colleagues from time to time over 1 the years that I have been here in terms of what 2 I believe is a disparate impact of what we do in 3 regard to certain laws that we pass. I don't 4 want to repeat that this time. I think you all 5 understand where I'm coming from. 6 I would like us, though, to be 7 aware that there may be some ominous precedent 8 in anticipating what people will do and just as 9 you deliberate on this proposal, keep that in 10 mind. 11 I will support this proposal by 12 Senator Volker and by the Governor simply 13 because no one in his or her right mind, in my 14 opinion, wants to see people or to have the 15 experience of knowing that they did something 16 which facilitated the kinds of violent sexual 17 attacks that cause this proposal to be born. 18 These people are, in my opinion, 19 extremely sick and we need to find in our 20 sophisticated society a way to help them so they 21 will not continue to wreak havoc upon innocent 22 victims who happen to encounter them 23 serendipitously going about their everyday way 24 of life. 25 So I support this bill with some 1 reservation. I would hope in the future we will 2 craft a legislative proposal that will address 3 my concerns, that will also have before it's 4 brought before us a series of hearings where 5 psychiatrists and doctors of medicine and other 6 learned experts can lend their expertise to us 7 so that we could have a better awareness of how 8 to deal with these issues, and I would hope that 9 whenever this bill down the road becomes law, 10 that there will be a reduction in the disparate 11 racial treatment or result that has historically 12 sometimes occurred even in our great state. 13 I thank you, Mr. President. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 Thank you, Senator Waldon. 16 Senator Dollinger. 17 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you, 18 Mr. President. 19 Will the sponsor yield to a 20 series of questions? Just -- I've got some 21 minor - 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 23 Senator Volker, do you yield to a series of 24 questions? He yields, I believe. 25 SENATOR VOLKER: Sure. 1 SENATOR DOLLINGER: First of all, 2 Senator, I'll try to be very brief with my 3 questioning. I appreciate the incorporation of 4 the notice discussion that we had last year. 5 Question number one, what happens 6 to an individual who is charged with a sexual 7 violent crime and is found not guilty by reason 8 of impairment? It doesn't appear as though he 9 fits the definition of a sexually violent 10 predator. 11 SENATOR VOLKER: That's true. If 12 he's found innocent by reason of being mentally 13 ill, which is what would happen, then that 14 person would be committed to a mental health 15 facility until he's found to be able to get back 16 into society, if that's the determination. So 17 that would follow the present law. That would 18 not have any impact, but you're right. It would 19 not be covered by this bill because a person 20 would not then be guilty of a -- being a sexual 21 violent predator. 22 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Fine. Second 23 question. The current -- Senator Waldon 24 mentioned the Attorney General's involvement. 25 SENATOR VOLKER: M-m h-m-m. 1 SENATOR DOLLINGER: And I just 2 ask the question that I thought he was going to 3 ask. Why the Attorney General rather than the 4 district attorney who's got all the files, did 5 the prosecution, knows the victim, knows the 6 witnesses, knows the whole landscape? 7 SENATOR VOLKER: The reason for 8 this is that the -- this is a mental health 9 bill. Remember that what we have -- we have 10 changed the direction a little bit in the way 11 this bill was set up. The attorney for the 12 Commissioner of Mental Health is the Attorney 13 General. That's one thing. 14 The second one very quickly is 15 the D.A.s became a bit alarmed because they saw 16 this as a possible increase in their work load, 17 and so forth, because they would be and they 18 were worried that even indirectly it would 19 create a situation where the county that they 20 represented or -- would end up footing some of 21 the bills because their staff and themselves 22 would have to take care of a lot of these 23 problems. 24 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Again through 25 you, Mr. President. The bill says that the 1 Attorney General will file a complaint that 2 starts this process in the county in which the 3 person is located. 4 My question is why in the county 5 in the person which they're located rather than 6 in the county which they were convicted because, 7 Senator, you can imagine that there are places 8 like little old Wyoming County, I think, 9 represented by the chairman of the Codes 10 Committee that will suddenly find itself 11 inundated with these petitions. 12 SENATOR VOLKER: No. They're not 13 going to be inundated with these petitions. 14 You'd be surprised to find there aren't as many 15 as you might think. 16 SENATOR DOLLINGER: May well be. 17 SENATOR VOLKER: The reason for 18 that is you don't want to be moving these people 19 all over the state and what you're obviously 20 trying to do is locate the proceeding in the 21 immediate area where these people are so that it 22 will be easier to facilitate it, and I think 23 that's the reason why they decided on that 24 because if you didn't, you could have somebody, 25 for instance, in Attica prison who was convicted 1 in the Bronx and you literally have to move 2 these people back and forth, and I think the 3 city of New York may take a rather dim view of 4 that also. 5 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay. Okay. 6 You have -- at several points in this bill, the 7 comment is made that notice has to be given in 8 such and such a time frame but -- and to use the 9 general language, I'll paraphrase it. It's used 10 on several occasions -- the failure to give it 11 in a timely fashion doesn't invalidate it. 12 My question is why -- it would 13 appear to be that that's one of those procedural 14 defects that someone who's going to be confined 15 should be entitled to, which is sort of an 16 absolute statute of limitations on the 17 government's ability to prosecute them just like 18 the 3030 notice, the ready for trial notice, 19 some other things like that. We give the 20 government lots of latitude, and I understand 21 perhaps this may be difficult to administer and 22 you don't want to hang the prosecution and let 23 somebody go free because you haven't done it 24 right but still you seem to give a tremendous 25 latitude on the notice side. 1 SENATOR VOLKER: I don't think 2 it's a tremendous latitude. You and I know that 3 if that notice involves something which could 4 impair the rights of that person, then that 5 person, presumably a judge could -- despite the 6 fact that we talk about the fact that notice 7 doesn't impair the rights of the people that are 8 moving forward, if it would be considered to be 9 enough of an impairment, a judge could still 10 rule in favor of the -- you want to call him the 11 defendant or the person who is involved here but 12 primarily, I think we're trying to avoid the 13 possibility of procedural mistakes upsetting the 14 entire case because clearly judges have a 15 tendency to rule in those kinds of favor and we 16 understand that. 17 SENATOR DOLLINGER: I -- I'm not 18 sure I would do it any different, Senator, but 19 it just raised a question. 20 SENATOR VOLKER: All right. 21 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Again through 22 you, Mr. President, a couple questions about the 23 disclosure provisions. There's one that the 24 bill says that the CPLR shall govern the 25 disclosure with the exception of -- and then 1 it's got a series of Criminal Procedure Law 2 sections that deal with the 270 notice and some 3 other provisions. My only question is I don't 4 know what those provisions are, but does this 5 restrict the otherwise available methods of 6 disclosure that would be available in any civil 7 litigation? 8 SENATOR VOLKER: No. That's 9 because of the trial juries. Those notices - 10 everything relates to the CPLR except what those 11 references are is to the use of trial juries, 12 the 12 jurors, and so forth, which is different 13 obviously from the CPLR. It has nothing to do 14 with disclosure. It would not impair the 15 person's disclosure in any way that I know of. 16 That does not do anything to disclosure. 17 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay. Again, 18 on the issue of disclosure, Senator, in the 19 provision, you also talk about that the examiner 20 appointed on behalf of the respondent will have 21 access to all the information with the exception 22 of one, and that is the victim without court 23 order or good cause showing. 24 SENATOR VOLKER: Right. 25 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Obviously in 1 a sexual predator, if it's a plea or if it's a 2 conviction, the victim is going to be the 3 critical witness and yet the examiner, the 4 person who is going to go in and examine the 5 respondent -- defendant/respondent, who is going 6 to have to evaluate what their state of mind is 7 to determine their proclivity for the future 8 doesn't get access to the victim. I understand 9 the need to protect the victim from the 10 perpetrator but the perpetrator's psychologist 11 or psychiatrist who is trying to do a full 12 evaluation, why should they have to have -- show 13 good cause? Why shouldn't they just be able to 14 as part of the process have access to the 15 victim? 16 SENATOR VOLKER: What you're 17 trying to avoid here -- and it says right in the 18 statute, you're trying not to relitigate the 19 whole case. So what you're trying to do here is 20 to give as much latitude as possible but not set 21 up a situation where the person involved here is 22 attempting to or to relitigate the entire case 23 and create a problem where the victim then in 24 effect becomes the source of the entire case. 25 If it's absolutely essential -- and that's why 1 this language is in here -- that the victim be 2 directly part of it, then it could be done, but 3 I think what we're trying to do here is to avoid 4 the situation where the victim becomes the 5 central figure because, remember, there's 6 already been a decision by a jury that this 7 person is a violent sexual predator and, 8 therefore, has committed the crime and what 9 we're trying to determine here is, is this 10 person now in a position where they have a 11 mental abnormality, not the issue specifically 12 of the crime itself. 13 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you, 14 Mr. President. On that issue, the question of 15 the violation of the double jeopardy clause, on 16 page 9 it includes the fact that the jury will 17 be instructed that they may not find that he's a 18 violent sexual predator simply on the basis of 19 the fact that he was convicted before. 20 Would it make better sense and be 21 fairer if the jury were simply told that there 22 was no conviction or plea before, simply 23 describe the act, simply describe what his 24 behavior has been since then without prejudicing 25 them by saying, Oh, by the way, he's already 1 been convicted or pled guilty to it. Wouldn't 2 it be fairer to allow that and then they're not 3 tarnished by the fact that someone says, Yeah, 4 he was found guilty and he already admitted it? 5 SENATOR VOLKER: Well, they're 6 tarnished to start with. The jury obviously 7 knows that the person isn't even going to be 8 there unless they're a violent sexual predator, 9 or at least classified as a violent sexual 10 predator. They had to either plead or be found 11 guilty, otherwise the case would not even be 12 there before that jury. 13 So I guess the answer to that is 14 that that is an assumption to start with. So 15 the fact that you assert that, I don't think 16 really makes any particular difference and I 17 don't see where it prejudices anybody. That's 18 the decision that has to be made. Does this 19 person have a mental abnormality and you just 20 assert the type of crime that was committed at 21 the time that the person was first 22 incarcerated. 23 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay. On 24 that question, Senator, is that the language 25 from the Kansas statute that was approved by the 1 United States Supreme Court, that that 2 disclosure would have -- that advice would have 3 to be given by the jury? 4 SENATOR VOLKER: We understand it 5 is the language directly from the Kansas 6 statute. There are some -- as I told you, there 7 are some changes but most of those changes 8 actually are more favorable to the defendant and 9 I don't have to reiterate them. We've already 10 dealt with them. This is language directly from 11 the statute. 12 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Just one 13 final question, Mr. President, since we've run 14 into this problem all the time before. What's 15 the effective date of the statute and to whom 16 does it apply? 17 SENATOR VOLKER: It's January 1, 18 1999. The reason for that, by the way, doesn't 19 relate as much to -- it relates to the 20 procedures that must be set up, timing. It will 21 take at least six months, I believe, for the 22 committees to set up. You want to give time. 23 Now, it could relate -- and we went into this 24 last year. It could relate to some people who 25 are already in prison because of the fact that 1 this is not a criminal statute but is a civil 2 statute. Al Waldon -- Senator Waldon and I went 3 into this last year, the ex post facto is not 4 available here and, in fact, that was an issue, 5 I believe in the Supreme Court case itself. The 6 Supreme Court specifically said that you can 7 deal with crimes previously committed as long as 8 people have already been sentenced and, 9 therefore, it could apply to some crimes that 10 were committed prior to January 1st of 1999. 11 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay. 12 On the bill, Mr. President. I 13 appreciate - 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 Senator Dollinger, on the bill. 16 SENATOR DOLLINGER: -- Senator 17 Volker's comments in response to my questions. 18 Since this is a big long bill and I had seen it 19 for the first time, I tried to read it as 20 quickly as I could, it raises all kinds of 21 questions and I think the reason for that is 22 that this is an area in which we're going to 23 allow a civil confinement on the basis of a jury 24 finding of certain conduct, future conduct 25 beyond a reasonable doubt, it will be the only 1 instance in which we punish, we restrain someone 2 for anticipated future conduct. We confine them 3 on the basis of a finding beyond a reasonable 4 doubt. No other place in our civil litigation 5 will we have a situation where we're going to 6 require beyond a reasonable doubt in order for 7 the courts to do something. 8 I close with only one thought and 9 I know that a lot of this is based on the 10 science of sexual predators, that there's a 11 revolving science about proclivities of those 12 who have committed these crimes. 13 I simply add one observation to 14 that debate and it is this: My understanding is 15 that the only thing the United States Supreme 16 Court said was that restricting someone's 17 liberty, as the civil confinement statute does, 18 with all the safeguards that are built in that 19 Senator Volker had and that the Kansas statute 20 had, the only thing the Supreme Court said was 21 it wasn't a violation of the double jeopardy 22 clause to subject someone who had been found 23 guilty of a criminal offense to this type of 24 civil confinement. 25 I'm not convinced that the 1 science of the future predictivity of people's 2 behavior is at such a level that they will be 3 able to sustain the burden of proof beyond a 4 reasonable doubt that you can show that someone 5 who has committed even a violent sexual predator 6 crime before will be beyond a reasonable doubt 7 able to predict that they will do it in the 8 future. 9 So, unfortunately, the danger in 10 this bill is that the -- what I call bad science 11 or minimalist science that may accompany this 12 whole theory will be under tremendous pressure 13 given the enormous prejudice that society has 14 against violent sexual predators and we may have 15 minimalist science, extremely agitated juries 16 and nervous public unduly restricting people's 17 liberty. 18 I know, Senator Volker, in my 19 long discussions with you about this bill that 20 you're concerned about that. Senator Leichter 21 is concerned. Senator Waldon is. I am too, but 22 I'm willing to give this a try because let's see 23 how it comes out. Let's see how it works out. 24 Let's keep our eye on whether we've gone too far 25 but from the point of view of trying to protect 1 our society by civil confinement of those who 2 are sexual predators, I don't think this is an 3 unreasonable step. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 5 Read the last section, please. 6 THE SECRETARY: Section 12. This 7 act shall take effect on the first day of 8 January. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 10 Call the roll. 11 (The Secretary called the roll.) 12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 60. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 14 bill is passed. 15 THE SECRETARY: Excuse me. Ayes 16 59, nays 1, Senator Leichter recorded in the 17 negative. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 19 bill is still passed. 20 The Secretary will read Calendar 21 Number 335. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 335, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 2657, an 24 act to amend the Public Health Law, in relation 25 to authorizing. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 Read the last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 4 act shall take effect on the 120th day. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Senator Leichter. 7 SENATOR LEICHTER: I just want to 8 check. Explanation. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 10 Senator LaValle, an explanation has been asked 11 for by Senator Leichter and others. Before you 12 start, if we could get some order. Can we take 13 the conversations out of the chamber, please. 14 Thank you. 15 Senator LaValle. 16 SENATOR LAVALLE: Senator 17 Leichter, this bill would authorize the 18 Commissioner of Health to promulgate rules and 19 regulations requiring that a medical facility 20 give notice of the presence of communicable 21 disease or other health risk to emergency 22 respond personnel. 23 There is, as you know, a list of 24 -- under the code -- Health Code of 25 communicable diseases. We have indicated in 1 this legislation, as you will see, that we are 2 not limiting -- it's HIV and other communicable 3 diseases that are in the Health Code. We define 4 emergency response personnel as firefighters, 5 law enforcement officers, paramedics, emergency 6 medical technicians, public safety officers and 7 other persons including employees of legally 8 constituted volunteer organizations, whether or 9 not compensated, and that's specifically our 10 volunteer fire and ambulance personnel. 11 This legislation has been one of 12 the top priorities for the individuals that I 13 mentioned in terms of the emergency respond 14 personnel. 15 This legislation would, Senator 16 Leichter, complement and supplement what we 17 already have under federal regulation in 18 defining how we deal with such matters for those 19 individuals who respond to emergencies. 20 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 21 if Senator LaValle will yield. 22 SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 24 Senator, do you yield? 25 SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: He 2 yields, Senator. 3 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, as I 4 read this bill, an example I'm going to give 5 you, would that notification be required? 6 Somebody has a heart attack. Emergency 7 personnel responds, takes the person to a 8 hospital. The person is not bleeding. There's 9 no exchange of fluids. There's no possible way 10 to transmit the HIV virus. 11 Under your bill, would the 12 medical facility be required to notify the 13 emergency workers that that person has HIV and 14 under my example, he's HIV-positive. 15 SENATOR LAVALLE: I assume by 16 your question, then, that you are indicating 17 that someone who is bleeding - 18 SENATOR LEICHTER: He's not 19 bleeding. 20 SENATOR LAVALLE: No. Just let 21 me - 22 SENATOR LEICHTER: Oh, I'm 23 sorry. 24 SENATOR LAVALLE: That a person 25 who is bleeding would be a person who could 1 transmit the HIV virus but someone who had a 2 heart attack could not. 3 Under federal regulation -- and I 4 would imagine that the state regulations would 5 be -- would have to parallel what is in federal 6 law and in the case of HIV, the federal 7 regulations require the medical facilities to 8 determine whether an emergency worker is at 9 significant risk of becoming infected with HIV. 10 So in the example that you gave 11 of a heart attack, the answer would be that 12 there would be no risk to the worker. 13 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator 14 LaValle, I appreciate the answer and that 15 certainly clarifies for me what is in your 16 mind. 17 SENATOR LAVALLE: No. It's not 18 what is in my mind. It is what is already in 19 federal regulation, so - 20 SENATOR LEICHTER: Well, let me 21 finish my question. I understand it's in 22 federal regulation. The fact it's in federal 23 regulation doesn't mean that the state of New 24 York is going to have the same regulations. 25 You're now trying to provide regulations that 1 are going to be enacted in the state of New 2 York, right? Is that correct? 3 SENATOR LAVALLE: What we are 4 asking is the health commissioner to promulgate 5 those rules and regulations, that is correct. 6 SENATOR LEICHTER: And certainly 7 under the bill as written, the health 8 commissioner could promulgate rules so that in 9 the example that I gave, in any instance where 10 emergency workers took somebody to a medical 11 facility where it's determined afterwards or it 12 becomes known that that person is HIV-positive, 13 you advise the medical emergency workers 14 thereof. 15 SENATOR LAVALLE: Senator, I 16 would -- first of all, we are talking about all 17 communicable diseases. You, for purposes of 18 this question, have narrowly focused on HIV, I 19 presume. It is difficult for me to comprehend 20 our Commissioner of Health promulgating a 21 regulation that would be inconsistent with a 22 federal regulation in this regard. 23 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, if 24 you would continue to yield, please. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 1 Senator, do you continue to yield? 2 SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: He 4 continues to yield. 5 SENATOR LEICHTER: Do the federal 6 regulations in any way now apply to medical 7 facilities in the state of New York? 8 SENATOR LAVALLE: The answer is 9 yes. 10 SENATOR LEICHTER: Well, if we 11 have these federal regulations and they seem to 12 avoid the example that I gave you, why do we 13 need state regulations? 14 SENATOR LAVALLE: Because in our 15 code we do not have HIV as part of the code of 16 communicable diseases. Also what we are asking 17 here is that the individual or individuals who 18 are at the scene, who are involved with the 19 individual would be directly notified and there 20 is a difference. 21 SENATOR LEICHTER: If you'll 22 continue to yield. 23 SENATOR LAVALLE: By statute. 24 SENATOR LEICHTER: Is there a 25 difference between the federal regulations and 1 the bill that's before us? 2 SENATOR LAVALLE: Well, here in 3 the bill you can see we specifically statutorily 4 are requiring that the individual be notified. 5 That's what -- this is a notification -- as you 6 had indicated, this is a notification bill. 7 SENATOR LEICHTER: Right. Okay. 8 Is that -- is that notification requirement in 9 the federal regulations and do they apply to the 10 persons that are listed in Section 3 of your 11 bill? 12 SENATOR LAVALLE: The answer - 13 the answer is the federal regulation is 14 different from what is in this bill because in 15 this bill we are asking that the individual 16 involved specifically gets the notification, 17 where I believe in the federal regulation it is 18 a specific person of the department or the 19 officer. So I think there is some difference. 20 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator, as I 21 understand it, is it your intention or your 22 belief that the Commissioner of Health will so 23 condition the requirement of notification to 24 those instances when there is a risk that the 25 disease will be transmitted? 1 SENATOR LAVALLE: Senator, that's 2 a very good and that's a very fair question, and 3 I think it goes really to the heart of what the 4 emergency respond personnel are concerned about 5 and so as I have indicated here in my remarks, 6 that it should be related -- there should be a 7 nexus to the risk of the worker and the patient 8 and what that patient is suffering from. 9 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 10 again, if Senator LaValle will continue to 11 yield. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 13 Senator LaValle. 14 SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 16 Excuse me, Senator. Do you continue to yield? 17 He yields. 18 SENATOR LEICHTER: I'm grateful 19 to you for explaining the bill as you have. 20 It's certainly clearer to me, but my question to 21 you is why not put in the bill that nexus which 22 you consider so necessary and appropriate? 23 SENATOR LAVALLE: Well, because I 24 think that the commissioner will be guided by 25 what is in federal regulation, and I know that 1 what you're trying to do on the floor is to give 2 legislative intent so that the commissioner will 3 be guided in that regard, and I am sure that the 4 commissioner will be consistent with that which 5 is in federal law and the intent given here, 6 Senator, by myself in my remarks in answer to 7 your questions. 8 SENATOR LEICHTER: Okay. Just 9 one final question. While, you know, we've 10 established some intent and we're hopeful that 11 the commissioner will do what seems sensible and 12 certainly the present health commissioner, I 13 have a great respect for her, I think would do 14 it. I would think that any health commissioner 15 in the future would promulgate regulations that 16 has that nexus which you intend, but wouldn't we 17 be safer? Wouldn't we avoid any risk of having 18 a regulation that doesn't carry out your intent 19 if we actually put into the bill itself that 20 essential nexus? 21 SENATOR LAVALLE: Well, I suppose 22 that you could always in a piece of legislation 23 put belts and suspenders as we would say to make 24 sure but, Senator, I think you know that in the 25 same manner that we are guided in the 1 formulation of legislation, our departments, 2 particularly in the area of health, are guided 3 by the interest of the various stakeholders and 4 their input into the process. 5 So I am not particularly 6 concerned that the commissioner will veer very 7 far -- will veer at all from the intent of this 8 legislation and what is already in federal 9 regulation. 10 SENATOR LEICHTER: Good. I thank 11 Senator LaValle for his very clear explanations. 12 Just very briefly, on the bill. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 14 Senator Leichter, on the bill. 15 SENATOR LEICHTER: I just want to 16 point out that we really don't have belts and 17 suspenders here because there's absolutely 18 nothing in this bill that sets forth that nexus 19 which Senator LaValle intends and which I think 20 makes the bill a very sensible bill. 21 I think people who are at risk of 22 developing a communicable disease ought to be 23 informed, whether it's HIV or whether it's 24 syphilis or hepatitis, and so on. I think we 25 owe that particularly to people who work as 1 emergency medical workers, but if that nexus was 2 in the bill, Senator LaValle, I think that you 3 would have a bill that would pass the Assembly. 4 My understanding and what I have 5 just been told is without that nexus, the bill 6 is not going to go in the Assembly. I would 7 hope that you add that nexus, and I think it's a 8 safeguard that we should have in the bill. 9 Based on what Senator LaValle 10 tells me he intends to do in the bill, which I 11 think makes it a sensible bill, I'm going to 12 support it, but I don't think it's as well 13 drafted as it should be to avoid having a 14 notification made where it's not necessary, and 15 I think we all ought to appreciate and 16 understand that people who have communicable 17 diseases -- it's not HIV. It can be other 18 sexually transmitted disease or it could be 19 hepatitis -- don't want that information spread 20 around for obvious reasons. 21 On the other hand, that interest 22 is certainly overriden by the concern that we 23 have for medical workers who ought to be 24 protected. If the nexus were in the bill, I 25 think there would be no problem with it. 1 Since you intend it to be such, 2 I'm going to vote for it, but I'm afraid you're 3 not going to get it through the Assembly in this 4 form. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Read the last section, please. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 8 act shall take effect on the 120th day. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 10 Call the roll. 11 (The Secretary called the roll.) 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 13 Senator Abate, why do you rise? 14 SENATOR ABATE: I would like to 15 explain my vote. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 17 Senator Abate, to explain her vote. 18 SENATOR ABATE: While I trust in 19 the good faith intentions of Senator LaValle 20 that the Health Department will write in that 21 nexus, I'm not prepared to support the bill 22 until the nexus is fully detailed in the 23 legislation. 24 We all know that HIV and AIDS 25 cannot be transmitted through casual contact and 1 while we need to protect workers, emergency 2 workers, I believe this bill as crafted is much 3 too broad. When the bill is amended to include 4 that nexus so that we can in a reasonable manner 5 safeguard the health and safety of these 6 workers, I can support the bill but not until 7 that amendment occurs. 8 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in 9 the negative on Calendar Number 335 are Senators 10 Abate, Markowitz, Montgomery, Paterson, Rosado, 11 Sampson, Santiago, Smith. Ayes 52 -- also 12 Senator Connor. Ayes 51, nays 9. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 14 bill is passed. 15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16 833, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 4248-B, an 17 act to amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules, 18 in relation to prohibiting. 19 SENATOR GOLD: Explanation. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 21 Senator Balboni, an explanation has been 22 requested. 23 SENATOR BALBONI: Thank you, Mr. 24 President. 25 This bill would create a new 1 Section 1411 (a) of the Civil Practice Law and 2 Rules. That would essentially establish in law 3 a complete bar as a result of a felony 4 conviction of an individual whose culpable 5 conduct contributed to their injury. 6 Now, take away that legal 7 definition, what you're talking about is a 8 concept that we've discussed before here on the 9 floor, that is, basically denying the right to 10 participate in our justice system for 11 individuals who are injured through the course 12 of criminal conduct, and might I just add that 13 we have -- if we adopt this bill today, we're 14 taking a step that we took -- this Legislature 15 took back in 1975. 16 In 1972, the Court of Appeals in 17 the case by the name of Dole versus Dow 18 criticized the comparative -- the contributory 19 negligence scheme and in 1975 the Legislature 20 reacted and adopted a comparative negligence 21 scheme. We now in this year after considering 22 Manning versus Brown, the Court of Appeals in 23 December, which has criticized our current law 24 as it relates to allowing people to bring these 25 lawsuits, can now adopt this new section and, 1 therefore, reverse the mistakes that were made 2 back in 1975 with the prior contributory 3 negligence reform. 4 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Senator Gold, are you going to request that I 7 read the last section? 8 SENATOR GOLD: I don't think so. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: Oh, 10 okay. 11 SENATOR GOLD: Will the gentleman 12 yield to a question? 13 SENATOR BALBONI: Yes, I will, 14 Mr. President. 15 SENATOR GOLD: First of all, 16 Senator, we all know that bad cases make bad 17 law, and I hope this isn't going to be one of 18 those examples but, Senator, to begin with, this 19 bill had an original print and an "A" print and 20 it's now in its "B" print. 21 The original print and the "A" 22 print sought to amend Section 1411 and that 23 section deals with the issue of contributory 24 negligence and assumption of risk and it uses 25 the expression "the culpable conduct 1 attributable to the complainant." Now, 2 understand, the culpable conduct and then it 3 goes on and has some language, "provided any 4 culpable conduct". 5 This is my question, Senator. In 6 the "B" print, which is what we're being asked 7 to debate today, we create a new section, 8 Section 1411 (a), so all of that preliminary 9 language is not in the section and the way I 10 read your section, which is very short, "In any 11 action to recover damages", et cetera, it says 12 "any culpable conduct of the claimant which 13 results in a conviction." The way I read this, 14 if anyone's convicted of a crime, it sounds like 15 you're barring them from suing anybody for 16 anything even if it is not related to the 17 incident. 18 SENATOR BALBONI: Senator, if I 19 might, I would direct you to the word "culpable" 20 and its definition within the law, both in the 21 common law and in the statutory law. Culpable 22 specifically refers to the incident in question 23 and that's been -- when you take a look at the 24 Pfaltzgraf case versus the Long Island Rail Road 25 and you go back to those definitions of 1 culpable, those are the specific definitions 2 they're referring to and, frankly, we decided to 3 make this very simple. Some of the other 4 attempts at this particular change, I believe 5 led to questions of fact. There were inherently 6 raised questions of fact. 7 The point of this amendment is to 8 permit the defendant to bring a motion for 9 summary judgment, either in lieu of answer, in 10 3212 of the CPLR, or just as a motion for 11 summary judgment at the threshold of the case so 12 as to short circuit the inquiry. Inherent in 13 that is the ability to avoid a question of fact 14 which would, as you know, defeat a motion for 15 summary judgment. 16 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President, 17 will the gentleman yield to a question? 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 19 Senator Balboni, do you yield? 20 SENATOR BALBONI: Of course, Mr. 21 President. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: He 23 yields. 24 SENATOR GOLD: You didn't discuss 25 Pfaltzgraf in the Fordham Law School article, 1 did you? 2 SENATOR BALBONI: No, I didn't, 3 because the issue of culpable conduct was -- has 4 not been raised as to one of the objections to 5 the bill. As the you know, the Trial Lawyers 6 had extensive memorandum in opposition. 7 SENATOR GOLD: Well, we'll get to 8 that. We'll get to that. If the gentleman will 9 continue to yield. One second. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 Will the gentleman continue to yield? 12 SENATOR GOLD: One second. If 13 the gentleman will continue to yield. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: I 15 believe he continues to yield, Senator. 16 SENATOR GOLD: Yeah. See, what 17 I'm concerned about on the language issue -- and 18 you may want to take a look at it -- it says any 19 culpable conduct, and I think if you're going to 20 go to a new section, it would at least make your 21 thought clearer if you said any culpable conduct 22 involved in these circumstances -- in the 23 particular instance, because I do think that 24 that affects it. 25 I would also say, Senator, you 1 refer to McCummin and I'm familiar with that 2 situation. I'm familiar with the Sandusky 3 case. I wrote the original "Son of Sam" Law and 4 was very interested in Justice Crane's opinion 5 where he did not allow the Sandusky suit, and I 6 think that is an issue whether or not as between 7 a victim and a perpetrator, there should be some 8 capacity to sue back and forth, but in your 9 situation, Senator -- let's go to the Trial 10 Lawyers' memo. They raise some concerns and I 11 think they ought to be dealt with on this floor. 12 For example, when I went to law 13 school in the early 1700s, we all heard that you 14 couldn't set up traps for people. If somebody 15 came onto your property even as a trespass... I 16 think Sandusky is calling you -- even as a 17 trespasser, you couldn't set up a trap. 18 The way I read this bill, if 19 you're setting up a trap for somebody or if 20 somebody is trespassing, you might be creating a 21 situation where you're now giving them some 22 civil immunity from that situation. They raise 23 that issue. You want to deal with it. 24 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President, 25 I would be happy to respond to that. First, 1 though, I would just like to in regard to your 2 point about the drafting of the bill, for anyone 3 who would take a look at Section 1411-A, that 4 specifically refers to a comparative negligence 5 scheme. We reject that. We do not want any 6 comparative negligence being done. We - 7 therefore, that's why we created the separate 8 section, to take it out but to keep it in the 9 same theme, that is, assumption of risk and 10 contributory negligence. We believe that it 11 would be very - 12 SENATOR GOLD: Can I debate with 13 you on that issue? I don't mean to interrupt, 14 but the point I'm making is I understand that 15 you don't want it in 1411. I understand that. 16 All I'm saying is that there was language in 17 1411 which helped to explain the issue of what 18 culpable conduct you were talking about. 19 SENATOR BALBONI: In the context 20 of a comparative scheme which would necessitate 21 considering the facts. I don't want to consider 22 the facts. I want this to be a motion on the 23 law without a question of fact presented to the 24 court and, therefore, subject to a motion for 25 summary judgment. That was our intent. 1 SENATOR GOLD: Will the Senator 2 yield to a question and then we'll come back to 3 that? 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 5 Senator Balboni, do you yield to a question? 6 SENATOR BALBONI: Yes. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: He 8 yields, Senator. 9 SENATOR GOLD: Is it your 10 intention that anybody who's been convicted of a 11 felony should be barred from any kind of a 12 lawsuit after that? 13 SENATOR BALBONI: Yeah. 14 Senator - 15 SENATOR GOLD: In any situation. 16 SENATOR BALBONI: Senator, that 17 is consistent -- the answer is yes, and it is 18 consistent with the case of Barker versus 19 Kallash which in 1982, the Court of Appeals 20 enunciated the criteria for when you would bar 21 from entering into our judicial system and they 22 spoke of serious crimes, serious offenses and 23 that's why this particular statute speaks to - 24 or this particular bill speaks to felony and for 25 the felony level. There are many who would 1 argue that we should expand the breadth of the 2 actions and the offenses that would come under 3 this -- the ambit of this bill, but I 4 specifically kept it to felonies so that we 5 would be consistent with the Barker 6 methodology. 7 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President, if 8 I may ask another question. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 10 Senator Balboni, do you yield to another 11 question? 12 SENATOR BALBONI: Yes, Mr. 13 President. If I might, though, before I respond 14 to the gentleman's question, may I please call a 15 Committee on Banking in the Majority Conference 16 Room immediately. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 18 Thank you, Senator. 19 There will be an immediate 20 meeting of the Banking Committee in the Majority 21 Conference Room, that is 332, the Banking 22 Committee. 23 Senator Gold, he yields to your 24 question. 25 SENATOR GOLD: Yeah. Senator, a 1 person is convicted of bank robbery, a felony. 2 They go to jail. They're now out of jail and 3 they're driving in a car and they get slammed by 4 somebody who goes through a red light and they 5 get injured. Do you believe that they should be 6 able to sue the person who slams into their car 7 and causes them injury? 8 SENATOR BALBONI: Yes. 9 SENATOR GOLD: Well, that's my 10 point, Senator, if I can continue. What I'm 11 saying is you are trying to bar anybody from 12 recovering from injury in the course of the 13 conduct of a crime and that's one issue. I'm 14 telling you that the way you have your language 15 here, it sounds like you would be barring 16 anybody who had any culpable conduct that led to 17 a felony from suing anybody in any other 18 situation for personal injury. So I'm just 19 saying you may want to look at that. It is 20 obviously from your last answer, if I'm reading 21 it right, an unrequested consequence of your 22 language. So you may want to just take a look 23 at that. 24 SENATOR BALBONI: That's, of 25 course, assuming your premise that it was 1 culpable conduct -- that it was not culpable 2 conduct. That's what I assume from your fact 3 scenario. 4 SENATOR GOLD: Well, you can't - 5 if I may, Mr. President. If somebody is 6 convicted of a felony, it's because they had 7 culpable conduct. 8 SENATOR BALBONI: No, Senator, I 9 disagree. Culpable conduct, that's not what the 10 statute refers to. If you take a look at how 11 the sentence is constructed, the word "culpable" 12 does not take -- does not modify the actions 13 that caused or gave rise to liability in the 14 felony. It modifies the actions that gave rise 15 to the injuries. 16 SENATOR GOLD: Well, Senator, 17 that's where you and I disagree and I would say 18 to you as a careful draftsman, you may want to 19 look at your language. 20 SENATOR BALBONI: Very good, 21 Senator. 22 SENATOR GOLD: But getting back 23 -- let me reiterate the question I asked 24 before, the issue of the trap and I don't have 25 to restate the whole question. Somebody comes 1 along and how do you handle that? 2 SENATOR BALBONI: I believe it is 3 the state's -- in the state's best interest to 4 deter that behavior, to provide for punishment 5 of an individual who would take it upon 6 themselves to basically take the law into their 7 hands and to set up a trap, a spring gun as it 8 were, and the question becomes what is the best 9 deterrent? Is it to allow for a civil lawsuit 10 in which the individual who's already committing 11 a felony would be a burden in this instance - 12 let's assume a burglar -- with the intent to 13 cause a felony within the premises at night and 14 comes in and is shot? 15 Now, if that is the case, is 16 society in this state best represented by a 17 civil lawsuit that would try to deter that 18 course of conduct or would it be through the 19 criminal system that we have in the state. I 20 believe it would provide a much greater 21 deterrent to an individual. I mean, it's -- and 22 this is -- it's axiomatic and common sense that 23 as you look at your own conduct, which would you 24 be more afraid of, spending time in jail or 25 losing money? That -- if you -- if you disagree 1 with my analysis that I believe it is the jail 2 time, well, then, that -- great minds can 3 differ, but that's what I would respectfully 4 suggest. 5 SENATOR GOLD: All right. If the 6 Senator will yield to another question. 7 SENATOR BALBONI: Of course, Mr. 8 President. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 10 Senator Balboni, do you yield? I believe he 11 does, sir. 12 SENATOR GOLD: Senator, again, 13 and it's the Trial Lawyers' example of somebody 14 who commits a crime, is apprehended, perhaps 15 they're in cuffs and now the police, as 16 unfortunately we're learning in New York these 17 days, are too aggressive and they cause injury 18 to the individual who is now in custody and no 19 longer a threat. Are they barred under your 20 bill from bringing an action? 21 SENATOR BALBONI: Yes, they 22 would, and you may think that is a harsh 23 result. However, as you well know, there are 24 other civil remedies that can be achieved 25 through the federal law, that is, in 1983, a 1 civil rights action which has the -- not only 2 can you get attorneys' fees in that, but you can 3 also have personal liability against the 4 officer. 5 As I pointed out in the article 6 that you alluded to beforehand, there are many 7 statutes right now on the books which provide 8 for a reimbursement, an indemnification of 9 municipal employees, specifically officers, 10 notwithstanding the fact that their conduct may 11 have been found to be punitive and, therefore, 12 there is no personal financial liability 13 exposure for them. Under -- in the 1983 civil 14 rights action, that is done away with and, of 15 course, you know, all the case law that we cite 16 in the Monnell decision that predicates 17 liability upon actions taken in the course and 18 scope of conduct of the job but that again, if 19 you're going to -- what do you say to a police 20 officer, don't beat this person who's in your 21 custody because we're going -- we're going to 22 have to sue you, or don't beat this person who's 23 in your custody because we will send you to 24 prison and you will go away for a long time and 25 lose your personal freedoms, and I think that 1 that is a much greater deterrent. 2 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 4 Senator Gold. 5 SENATOR GOLD: Yeah. On the 6 bill. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 8 Senator Gold, on the bill. 9 SENATOR BALBONI: Thank you. 10 SENATOR GOLD: I want to thank 11 Senator Balboni for explaining the bill because 12 it really clarifies my opposition, and I 13 appreciate his being forthright in his answers. 14 Too many times on this floor I 15 see people introduce bills, they sort of run 16 away from what it does on the floor and then the 17 press releases are very different but he's very 18 candid about what it does, and I think that's 19 the problem with this bill. 20 First of all, our legal system is 21 filled with circumstances where people have 22 civil and criminal remedies. It happens all of 23 the time and sometimes we have to explain to lay 24 people that, well, in the criminal case it was 25 beyond a reasonable doubt but the other one is 1 different and the O.J. Simpson trial, as an 2 example of someone who was convicted in one 3 courtroom in the criminal side but there were 4 damages given in the civil side. There are two 5 separate things and whether it's -- one or the 6 other is a deterrent, I think it's a system of 7 justice that we're talking about. 8 Senator Farley and I had a 9 dispute one day and I realized that 10 unfortunately he was right and I was wrong 11 because I made the comment that we are here to 12 make laws and laws have specific words and he 13 said to me, no, no. We debate concepts and as 14 foreign as that concept was to me, he's really 15 right. 16 Unfortunately, you have put 17 before us something and we're debating ideas but 18 if it becomes a law it is words, and I would 19 urge upon you that the words of your bill need 20 some expansion if they're going to at least say 21 what you want it to do, but I'm against what you 22 want it to do and the reason I'm against it is 23 the very examples we used. 24 You said to me, for example, the 25 situation of the teenager who was already no 1 longer a threat to society, the individual is 2 handcuffed and he's in police custody and now 3 he's beaten and he's abused and that may be a 4 crime but it also should lead it him having some 5 rights to damages and when you say that your 6 bill may sound harsh, I say to you it sounds 7 outrageous. It's not harsh. It's outrageous, 8 if that is what the consequence is going to be. 9 Now, there were some very, very 10 interesting -- and that's a terrible word -- but 11 interesting legal questions raided by the 12 McCummin situation, the Sandusky situation and 13 McCummin got a lot of money and it was in a 14 situation where most people said, What, and 15 that's why I say to you that we say that bad 16 cases make bad law. 17 My distinguished colleague, 18 Senator Volker, who I respect greatly brings 19 before us every year a bill that would change 20 something in the grand juries because one 21 assistant D.A. made one mistake in one case out 22 of hundreds of thousands and I say to him 23 respectfully, don't change the law for that. 24 Thank God it only happened once in so many 25 situations but I think, Senator, we cannot as a 1 Legislature, not in 1998 when you read what goes 2 on in the papers, open up a door, particularly 3 as the Trial Lawyers have pointed out, for 4 police officers to bang up people and take away 5 part of their rights say, well, you still have 6 the Criminal Law. I don't think you can do it. 7 I know everybody in this chamber 8 was horrified last week when a retired police 9 officer killed his wife and his daughter, but I 10 bet everybody in this chamber, including me - 11 I'm no better -- has voted that if you were a 12 retired cop, give him a gun. After all, they're 13 retired cops, give them a gun. Well, I don't 14 know whether that retired cop should have had a 15 gun. 16 My issues on gun control are 17 going to vary substantially by my colleagues on 18 both sides of the aisle perhaps, but I think, 19 Senator, that we have to have a criminal justice 20 system that takes care of the criminal and 21 distinguishes that some activity is criminal and 22 society has an interest and then you have the 23 civil law where maybe individuals have an 24 interest, and I say to you, Senator, as harsh as 25 it may sound, that certainly if an individual 1 has an action because something has been done to 2 them which is wrongful, we should not be saying, 3 yeah, but there was a crime some place along the 4 line and even though it may be over, that's just 5 -- that's just tough luck and when you talk 6 about summary judgment versus the costs to 7 municipalities, I will say one other thing to 8 you, Senator. If we're talking about the costs 9 of litigation, there's a lot of things we ought 10 to look at. 11 I heard the Trial Lawyers beaten 12 up in this chamber year after year when I know 13 and everybody knows that one of the most expens 14 ive portions of tort litigation is what the 15 insurance company lawyers get paid. You want to 16 cut the cost of policies, take a look at that. 17 Well, if you're talking about municipalities, 18 Senator, I can tell you that there is a fortune 19 that is paid by municipalities in defending 20 simple contract actions where people who do work 21 for these municipalities are caused delays 22 because of the municipalities, because of the 23 red tape and what happens? Contractors who do 24 work for the state are delayed, delayed, 25 delayed. That's a cost. Let's do something 1 about that, but I believe, Senator, that with 2 the best intentions of the world, you are 3 overreacting and you are going too far. 4 I think that the -- and I've 5 tried to change the law with regard to the 6 Sandusky case because I think he should have had 7 a claim against McCummin, but in your situation 8 if you're telling me -- if you had say to me 9 that the Trial Lawyers go too far, that the 10 crime was over and forget about it, that would 11 have had maybe one reaction but if you're 12 telling me that under this law, a police officer 13 can arrest someone after a crime and while a 14 person is in custody and no longer a threat, 15 they can be injured and they lose their right to 16 sue if they were convicted of a felony, it goes 17 too far and I respect the fact that we now have 18 a colleague who reads law and reads cases. That 19 may be disturbing to some. I think the article 20 is well written, but I think that I have to 21 disagree with your conclusion. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 23 Senator Balboni. 24 SENATOR BALBONI: Yeah, Mr. 25 President. On the bill. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 Senator Balboni, on the bill. 3 SENATOR BALBONI: In response, I 4 think that this debate illustrates what 5 oftentimes occurs in a deliberative body. We 6 take concepts and we expand on them that are 7 frankly irrelevant to the law itself. 8 Senator Gold makes an argument 9 that an individual who's no longer a threat, is 10 in cuffs and is beat, that is a horrific visual 11 image for all of us to consider and yet that has 12 no relevance to the bill. That is not culpable 13 conduct any way, shape or form. That is simply 14 an assault, police brutality, and whether you 15 want to sue in the state court, you can do that 16 but certainly there is much more deadly conduct 17 in that particular instance than this bill 18 considers. 19 In addition which this particular 20 statute will be implemented by the courts of 21 this state and what we fail to do oftentimes - 22 and in the seven years I have been in the 23 Assembly we did it again and again and again, 24 we're doing it here today -- we fail to take the 25 next step. 1 Ladies and gentlemen, there is a 2 society out there that will take this bill and 3 implement it. So work it through for those 4 trial practitioners, people who know the court 5 system. There will be a motion for summary 6 judgment under the scheme of this bill to 7 dismiss a case. The court will then review the 8 affidavits which support the motion and will 9 decide on the law whether or not the pleadings 10 themselves describe culpable conduct. If they 11 do, the case is dismissed. If they don't, the 12 case is -- then goes forward to trial. 13 Let's say you have an egregious 14 situation where justice is not done and the 15 judge sitting in judgment makes a mistake and 16 you have the appellate division that can come 17 and take a look, a far cry from the instant and 18 absolute denial of justice that we talk about if 19 we were going to insulate police officers from 20 any type of criminal liability. 21 Senator Gold, your fight is not 22 with me. It is not with this bill. It is with 23 the current system of liability escape clauses 24 that a lot of the police departments in the 25 state have and many of them need those escape 1 clauses, but that is a criminal justice system 2 issue, not a civil justice issue. 3 Today in this state we need to do 4 a very simple thing to return to where we were 5 in 1975, pre-1975, when we said to you if your 6 conduct contributes to your juries, you are out 7 of luck. You cannot sue, period. That's what 8 the contributory negligence law said. 9 All this bill seems to do is a 10 little bit retro', is a little nostalgic. We 11 want to turn to the pre-1975 days for the 12 felonious plaintiff, simple, and here's the real 13 shock, ladies and gentlemen. This bill does 14 nothing more, nothing more than codify what is 15 already the law in the state of New York from 16 the Court of Appeals which is the highest court 17 in this state and it's been that way since 1982. 18 So now we're understanding all 19 the diatribes by the Trial Lawyers, I would 20 suggest that they are overreacting because this 21 was the way the law was. What we did was we 22 failed to carve it out. That's all. If we 23 carved this out in '75 when we adopted the new 24 comparative system, we wouldn't be having this 25 debate and you know what? Neither would the 1 people in the drug stores and the diners and the 2 Eagle Scouts who talked to me about this bill 3 and why we need to do this to bring some common 4 sense back to this system. 5 Thank you, Mr. President. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 7 Senator Paterson. 8 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. President, 9 if the - 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: Why 11 do you rise? 12 SENATOR PATERSON: If the Acting 13 Majority Leader would please yield for a 14 question. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 16 Senator Balboni, do you yield? 17 SENATOR BALBONI: Of course. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: Of 19 course he does, sir. 20 SENATOR PATERSON: Senator 21 Balboni, am I correct when you are saying that 22 actually at a point that a person being arrested 23 is subdued and is in handcuffs, if there was a 24 further assault by police officers, that would, 25 in effect, be police brutality, that would not 1 apply because there wouldn't be any contributory 2 action on the part of the -- on the part -- any 3 culpable conduct. So, therefore, there's no 4 culpable conduct on Barker versus Kallash. 5 SENATOR BALBONI: Correct. 6 SENATOR PATERSON: Okay. If the 7 Senator would yield for a question. 8 SENATOR BALBONI: Of course, Mr. 9 President. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 Senator, do you yield for a question? 12 SENATOR BALBONI: Yes, I do. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: He 14 does. 15 SENATOR PATERSON: If we take, 16 for example -- I can think of other examples, 17 but the best example - 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 19 Excuse me, Senator. Can we have some order in 20 the house, please? 21 Thank you. 22 SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you, Mr. 23 President. 24 If we took, for example, the 25 Rodney King case because we're all familiar with 1 it, my memory of the Rodney King case was that 2 this individual was not at that point arrested. 3 He was not in handcuffs and actually we passed a 4 bill earlier this session that was introduced by 5 Senator Volker increasing the penalties for 6 resisting arrest. 7 So the argument could be made 8 that during the point that Rodney King was 9 subdued and even though he was assaulted, the 10 argument could be made that he was resisting 11 arrest. Isn't that correct, Senator? 12 SENATOR BALBONI: Well, any 13 argument could be made, Senator, but a question 14 back to you, if I might. Would Rodney King have 15 been precluded from bringing a civil liability 16 lawsuit under my bill? 17 SENATOR PATERSON: I -- Mr. 18 President. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 Senator Paterson. 21 SENATOR PATERSON: I would 22 suggest that Rodney King would be precluded 23 because his actions would have been taking place 24 prior to the time that he was arrested. So, 25 therefore, it was still in furtherance of his 1 fleeing from the scene of the crime. 2 SENATOR BALBONI: Well, actually, 3 that's -- I would disagree with that result. 4 First of all, he could bring a 1983 federal 5 civil rights action and by the way, he did. He 6 did not file a state -- California state Supreme 7 Court action or -- I forget what they call the 8 trial courts there. He chose to go to 1983 9 civil rights case and that is the case that 10 caused all the media attention. 11 So he had his civil rights and he 12 would maintain his civil rights under my law 13 because we affect state law. In fact, it is 14 somewhat of a pointed debate among trial 15 attorneys that if an attorney were to bring as a 16 plaintiff's attorney a state cause of action in 17 this type of situation involving the police, 18 that it would be legal malpractice because the 19 remedies under the federal system are so much 20 more superior. 21 So that is why I find somewhat 22 specious the argument that under a police 23 brutality situation, which I think has factual 24 inappropriateness to it, but nonetheless from a 25 legal standpoint that it is even something that 1 you should consider because the federal law is 2 so much superior in its application to the 3 situation. 4 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. President, 5 if the Senator would continue to yield. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 7 Yes, I believe he does. Could we also have some 8 order in the house? Can we please take the 9 conversations outside so we can try to expedite 10 this debate. 11 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. President. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 13 Senator Paterson. 14 SENATOR PATERSON: The issue that 15 I'm raising doesn't necessarily relate to the 16 forum, because I would suggest that if the civil 17 actions in the state are so inferior to that of 18 the federal action, that that action would be a 19 reason not even to make any attempt legally to 20 preclude them. 21 The point that I'm just trying to 22 make is that the conduct of the individual and 23 whether or not there's culpable conduct is 24 certainly enough at issue as it was in the 25 Rodney King case such that no one was actually 1 convicted criminally. So what I'm saying is 2 that I think the problem is -- if I were just 3 going to give my personal opinion, I think the 4 problem is that we're looking at the civil 5 recovery as being a windfall and certainly 6 anyone who's engaging in culpable conduct who 7 got a dime out of it as a result of some civil 8 action would really be diminishing the value of 9 our courts and their integrity. So I agree with 10 you on that point, Senator Balboni. 11 What I'm sort of suggesting to 12 you is that in many of these cases where you 13 have a situation where someone becomes disabled 14 or can't walk again, that there are times -- at 15 times hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of 16 bills that I think would wind up getting paid by 17 the taxpayer where they should actually be paid 18 by the party that caused it if it can be 19 established that the party went beyond the scope 20 that was necessary to detain the individual. 21 SENATOR BALBONI: I'm sorry. I 22 didn't catch the question on that. 23 SENATOR PATERSON: Neither did I, 24 Senator. My question is what do you think about 25 that? 1 SENATOR BALBONI: Right now under 2 the law today it is very unlikely that someone 3 who would participate in a criminal act and 4 would be injured in the course of the commission 5 of that act could recover from injuries before 6 any jury decision. 7 I have tried these cases. I 8 tried a case in 19... I'm trying to think of the 9 year -- 1991 where an officer shot an individual 10 four times in the stomach as a result of a 11 police engagement. The individual had a knife 12 in their hand and lunged at the police officer. 13 The individual was convicted of menacing. The 14 individual then turned around and then sued the 15 county of Nassau where I was a deputy county 16 attorney for $2.7 million, alleging that he now 17 was paralyzed below the waist. 18 We went to verdict, a month long 19 trial and the jury came back and said, of course 20 you're not liable, county of Nassau. There's no 21 basis for this. It's the same result after a 22 month of trial, and I know that if we could have 23 taken their culpable conduct in the commission 24 of that act, that we could have precluded that 25 entire trial. Same result. 1 That's what we're trying to do 2 here. It would still be for judicial decision. 3 It would still be for judicial consideration. 4 This bill would merely go back to the principles 5 enunciated once again in Barker versus Kallash 6 and bring 1975 contributory negligence. Simply 7 put, if it wasn't unconstitutional back then and 8 if it wasn't a burden to the taxpayers back 9 then, then why would it be a burden on the 10 taxpayers now? 11 SENATOR PATERSON: One final 12 quick question. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 14 Senator Balboni, do you continue to yield? He 15 yields, Senator. 16 SENATOR PATERSON: Senator 17 Balboni, if we went back to the standard that we 18 had before 1975, I believe the controlling case 19 in that area was actually held prior to the 20th 20 Century. I think it was a 1895 case. What was 21 the name of that case? 22 SENATOR BALBONI: You mean Riggs 23 versus Palmer? 24 SENATOR PATERSON: There it is. 25 Thank you, Mr. President. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 Read the last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This 4 act shall take effect immediately. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Call the roll. 7 (The Secretary called the roll.) 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 9 Please announce the results. 10 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in 11 the negative on Calendar Number 833 are Senators 12 Connor, Dollinger, Gold, Lachman, Leichter, 13 Markowitz, Montgomery, Paterson, Sampson, 14 Santiago, Stavisky and Waldon. Ayes 48, nays 15 12. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 17 bill is passed. 18 SENATOR WALDON: Mr. President. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 Senator Waldon, why do you rise in that strange 21 place? 22 SENATOR WALDON: I'm a strange 23 person, Mr. President. 24 I was out of the chamber on other 25 Senate business when the house dealt with 1 Calendar, I believe it's 335, and I would 2 respectfully request that without objection, I 3 be recorded in the negative on Calendar 335. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 5 Without objection, Senator Waldon will be 6 recorded in the negative on Calendar Number 335. 7 Senator Breslin, why do you 8 rise? 9 SENATOR BRESLIN: I request to be 10 recorded in the negative on 335 as well, with 11 unanimous consent. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 13 With unanimous consent, we'll do that, sir. 14 Senator Dollinger. 15 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr. 16 President, may I have unanimous consent to be 17 recorded in the negative on Calendar Numbers 18 1377 and 1378. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 Without objection, Senator Dollinger will be 21 recorded in the negative on 177 and Calendar 22 Number 178, only if he promises never to hit the 23 microphone again. 137? 24 SENATOR DOLLINGER: 1377 and 25 1378, Mr. President. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 1377 and 1378. 3 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Mr. 4 President. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Senator Montgomery, why do you rise? 7 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes. Mr. 8 President, I would like unanimous consent to be 9 recorded in the negative on Calendar 756. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 Senator Montgomery, without objection, will be 12 recorded in the negative on Calendar Number 13 756. 14 The Secretary will read. 15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16 879, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 4417-D, an 17 act to amend the Insurance Law, in relation to 18 risk-based capital requirements. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 Read the last section. 21 THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This 22 act shall take effect immediately. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 24 Call the roll. 25 (The Secretary called the roll.) 1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 60. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 3 bill is passed. 4 Senator Dollinger. 5 SENATOR DOLLINGER: May I have 6 unanimous consent to be recorded in the negative 7 on Calendar Number 335. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: If 9 we can finish the roll call, Senator, we'll do 10 that. The bill is passed. 11 Without objection, Senator 12 Dollinger you will be recorded in the negative 13 on Calendar Number 335. Thank you. 14 Senator Velella. 15 SENATOR VELELLA: May we return 16 to reports of standing committees. I believe 17 there's a report of the Rules Committee at the 18 desk. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 Yes. We have a report of the Rules Committee at 21 the desk. 22 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 24 Before we do that, Senator Leichter. 25 SENATOR LEICHTER: Could you also 1 please record me in the negative on Calendar 2 335. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 4 Without objection, Senator, you will be recorded 5 in the negative on 335. 6 The Secretary will read the 7 report of the Rules Committee. 8 THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno, 9 from the Committee on Rules, reports the 10 following bills directly for third reading: 11 Senate Bill 317-C, by Senator 12 Skelos, an act to amend the Insurance Law; 13 2007-A, by Senator Skelos, an act 14 to amend the General Municipal Law; 15 3688-B, by Senator Maltese, an 16 act to amend at Administrative Code of the city 17 of New York; 18 4232, by Senator Farley, an act 19 to amend Section 23 of Chapter 171; 20 4321-A, by Senator Trunzo, an act 21 to amend the Education Law; 22 4640-A, by Senator Saland, an act 23 to amend the Family Court Act; 24 5386, by Senator Rath, an act to 25 amend the Penal Law; 1 5435-B, by Senator Maziarz, an 2 act to amend the Family Court Act; 3 5462-A, by Senator Stafford, an 4 act to amend the Civil Service Law; 5 5573-A, by Senator Spano, an act 6 to amend the General Municipal Law. 7 5949-A, by Senator Skelos, an act 8 to amend the Correction Law and the Executive 9 Law; 10 6201, by Senator Skelos, an act 11 to amend the Domestic Relations Law; 12 6284-B, by Senator Rath and 13 others, an act to amend the Real Property Tax 14 Law; 15 6549-B, by Senator DeFrancisco, 16 an act to amend the Parks, Recreation and 17 Historic Preservation Law; 18 6611, by Senator Nozzolio, an act 19 to amend the Executive Law; 20 6617-A, by Senator Skelos, an act 21 to amend the Public Service Law; 22 6680-A, by Senator Lack, an act 23 to amend the Insurance Law; 24 6699, by Senator Hoffmann, an act 25 to authorize James J. Parmley; 1 6737, by Senator Johnson, an act 2 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law; 3 6904, by Senator Skelos, an act 4 to amend Chapter 676 of the Laws of 1978; 5 6955-A, by Senator Velella, an 6 act to amend the Insurance Law; 7 6967-A, by Senator Holland, an 8 act to amend the Social Services Law; 9 7047, by Senator Velella, an act 10 to amend the General Business Law; 11 7065, by Senator Seward, an act 12 to amend the Real Property Tax Law; 13 7189, by Senator Leibell, an act 14 to amend the New York City Charter; 15 7270, by Senator Seward, an act 16 to amend the Tax Law; 17 7410, by Senator Padavan, an act 18 to amend the Retirement and Social Security Law; 19 7465, by Senator Skelos, an act 20 to amend the Business Corporation Law; 21 7474, by Senator Trunzo, an act 22 to amend the Local Finance Law; 23 7534, by Senator Smith and 24 others, an act to amend the Executive Law; 25 7548-A, by the Committee on 1 Rules, an act to amend the Administrative Code 2 of the city of New York; 3 7571, by Senator Holland, an act 4 to amend the Education Law; 5 7603, by Senator Nanula, an act 6 to amend the Local Finance Law; 7 7614, by Senator Balboni, an act 8 to permit the sale or lease; 9 7633, by Senator Alesi, an act to 10 amend the Local Finance Law; 11 7636, by Senator Farley, an act 12 to amend the Banking Law; 13 7637, by Senator Farley, an act 14 to amend the Banking Law; 15 7642, by Senator LaValle, an act 16 to amend Chapter 845; 17 7651, by Senator DeFrancisco, an 18 act to authorize the state; 19 7652, by the Committee on Rules, 20 an act to amend the Public Authorities Law; 21 7653, by Senator Velella, an act 22 to amend the Insurance Law; 23 7661, by the Committee on Rules, 24 an act to amend the Insurance Law; 25 7665, by Senators Fuschillo and 1 Libous, an act to amend the Highway Law; 2 7666, by Senator Johnson, an act 3 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law; 4 7672, by Senator Alesi, an act to 5 amend the Personal Property Law; 6 7678, by Senator Skelos, an act 7 to authorize the South Hempstead; 8 7687, by Senator Goodman, an act 9 to amend the Tax Law; 10 7690, by Senator Stafford, an act 11 to amend the Real Property Tax Law; 12 7694, by Senator Rath, an act to 13 amend the County Law; 14 7696, by Senator Rath, an act to 15 amend the County Law; 16 7700-A, by Senator Trunzo, an act 17 to amend the Criminal Procedure Law; 18 7714, by Senator Libous, an act 19 to amend the Public Authorities Law; 20 7719, by Senator Farley, an act 21 to amend the Banking Law; 22 7728, by the Committee on Rules, 23 an act to amend the Insurance Law. 24 All bills directly for third 25 reading. 1 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 2 move to accept the Rules report. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 4 motion on the floor is to accept the Rules 5 Report. All in favor signify by saying aye. 6 (Response of "Aye".) 7 Opposed, nay. 8 (There was no response.) 9 The report of the Rules Committee 10 is accepted. 11 Senator Skelos. 12 SENATOR SKELOS: Is there any 13 housekeeping at the desk? 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 Yes, Senator. We have some housekeeping. Can 16 we go back to motions and substitutions. 17 SENATOR SKELOS: Please make the 18 substitutions. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 20 Secretary will read the substitutions. 21 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 22 if I could, I know sometimes when we bring up 23 the issue of housekeeping members think that the 24 session is over. That is not necessarily true 25 today. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: Let 2 all be warned that the session is not 3 necessarily over. 4 The Secretary will read the 5 substitutions. 6 THE SECRETARY: On page 22, 7 Senator Trunzo moves to discharge from the 8 Committee on Rules Assembly Bill 10683 and 9 substitute it for the identical Senate Bill 10 6952. 11 On page 26, Senator Trunzo moves 12 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 13 Assembly Bill 9977 and substitute it for the 14 identical Senate Bill 6598. 15 On page 26, Senator Skelos moves 16 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 17 Assembly Bill 10690 and substitute it for the 18 identical calendar Senate Bill 6615. 19 On page 27, Senator Trunzo moves 20 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 21 Assembly Bill 10710 and substitute it for the 22 identical Senate Bill 7236. 23 On page 30, Senator Trunzo moves 24 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 25 Assembly Bill 9637 and substitute it for the 1 identical Senate Bill 7099. 2 On page 33, Senator Marcellino 3 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 4 Assembly Bill 11124-A and substitute it for 5 identical Senate Bill 7402-A. 6 On page 39, Senator Volker moves 7 to discharge from the Committee on Rules 8 Assembly Bill 10766-B and substitute it for the 9 identical Senate Bill 6602-B. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 11 substitutions are ordered. 12 The Chair recognizes Senator 13 Meier for some motions. 14 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, on 15 behalf of Senator Seward, I wish to call up his 16 bill, Senate Print Number 3095-A, which is now 17 at the desk. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 19 Secretary will read. 20 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 21 Seward, Senate Print 3095-A, an act to amend the 22 Town Law, in relation to qualifications. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 24 Senator Meier. 25 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, I 1 now move to reconsider the vote by which this 2 bill was passed and ask that the bill be 3 restored to the order of third reading. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 5 Secretary will read the order on 6 reconsideration. 7 (The Secretary called the roll on 8 reconsideration.) 9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 60. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 11 bill is restored to third reading. 12 Senator Meier. 13 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, I 14 now move to discharge from the Committee on 15 Rules Assembly Print Number 10997-A and 16 substitute it for Senator Seward's identical 17 bill. The Senate Bill on first passage was 18 voted unanimously. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 20 substitution is so ordered. 21 The Secretary will read. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 378, by the Assembly Committee on Rules, 24 Assembly Print 10997-A, an act to amend the Town 25 Law. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 Senator Meier. 3 SENATOR MEIER: I now move that 4 the substituted Assembly bill have its third 5 reading at this time. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: So 7 ordered. Read the last section. 8 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 9 act shall take effect immediately. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 Call the roll. 12 (The Secretary called the roll.) 13 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 60. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 15 bill is passed. 16 SENATOR SEWARD: Mr. President. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 18 Senator Seward, why do you rise? 19 SENATOR SEWARD: Mr. President, I 20 would like to place a sponsor's star on Calendar 21 Number 1404, Senate Print Number 7065, which is 22 on the supplemental calendar. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 24 Calendar Number 1404 will be starred at the 25 request of the sponsor. 1 SENATOR SEWARD: Thank you. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 3 Senator Skelos. 4 SENATOR SKELOS: Is there any 5 other housekeeping at the desk? 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: No, 7 Senator. I believe we're clear. 8 SENATOR SKELOS: There being no 9 further business, I move we adjourn until 10 Wednesday, June 17th, at 10:00 a.m. and there 11 will be a Majority Conference in the Majority 12 Conference Room at 4:00 p.m. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: The 14 Senate will stand the adjourned until tomorrow, 15 at 10:00 a.m. and there will be an immediate - 16 or a 4:00 p.m. meeting of the Majority 17 Conference in the Majority Conference Room. 18 Meeting of the Majority Conference in the 19 Majority Conference Room at 4:00 p.m. The 20 Senate is adjourned. 21 (Whereupon, at 3:55 p.m., the 22 Senate adjourned.) 23 24 25