Responding to Last Week’s Minority Report
It is politics as usual for the Rensselaer County Legislature Majority members that represent Troy. In keeping true to form, these Legislators seem content to play “Gotcha Politics” instead of focusing on issues that are important to the residents of Rensselaer County.
The latest example of their gamesmanship was their Minority report printed in this publication, titled, “Rensselaer County GOP Majority Lied to Public on Social Media.” Let’s take a look at this accusation and the facts behind it.
After two COVID-19 vaccines were authorized for use, Governor Cuomo delayed approving the distribution of them throughout New York State. The Governor then created another obstruction by changing the methods in which counties, like Rensselaer, have trained to administer vaccines through Points of Distributions (PODS). The Governor also required residents to apply through New York State by telephone or through a website, both systems that experienced serious technical difficulties.
“The Legislature Majority introduced a resolution titled, “Resolution Calling on New York State to End the Obstructions and Accelerate the Delivery of the Potentially Life-Saving Vaccines to Rensselaer County.” This was in response to residents of our County that were desperately waiting for vaccines. Our County was ready to administer them through the POD that was established at Hudson Valley Community College, all we needed was the vaccine,” said Chairman Michael Stammel.
The Legislature Minority was unhappy with three words, “End the Obstructions.” They did not want to offend Governor Cuomo who clearly created obstructions to the efficient delivery of the vaccines. Those three words were removed in the spirit of bipartisanship, and the resolution was passed 19-0. After the meeting, Legislature Majority Twitter page mistakenly published the original version of the resolution, not the one that was amended minutes before the meeting.
“The Minority chose to call us liars and accused us of intentional deception. It simply is not true. Instead of celebrating the fact that we are working together for all of our residents, they want to score cheap political points. It is not a time for playing ‘Gotcha,’ it is a time to deliver results,” said Legislator Bruce Patire-Eagle Bridge, “A few days after we passed the resolution, we received 1,500 doses that we quickly administered in 3 days, now we need NYS to deliver more.”