“I support Speaker Heastie’s decision on changes to our conference procedure, although I believe it is deeply regrettable that this change was made necessary at all.
“The confidentiality of our conference meetings is sacrosanct. Providing members with the space to freely express their views and ask questions about various issues of legislative importance is a critical component of an effective system of representative democracy in New York State.
“It is a violation of collegial trust and our conference decorum to record these confidential discussions and to disseminate those recordings. Any member who knowingly violates this trust should not be part of the majority conference. Membership in a legislative conference is purely voluntary, and no legislator is under any obligation to join if they do not want to respect their colleagues.”
EDITOR'S NOTE:
We disagree with Assemblyman Dinowitz, and would like to know what our representatives in City Hall, Albany, and Washington are talking about. There is something called the Open Meetings Law, and there should be no secret meetings of elected officials.
One can only think that those elected officials have something to hide if they want to meet in secret. We are going into redistricting as is the case every ten years in Albany, and there should be no secret deals made on which district is eliminated, changed, or if another district is to be added.
Ten years ago there was talk of making the 15th Congressional District go from Harlem through Concourse Village and the 83rd Assembly District in the Bronx winding up in Mount Vernon. Thus creating a perfect district for Assemblyman Carl Heastie to run in. Since there were many other congressional district that were being made up like that by the state legislature a federal judge threw them out, and made up his own set of district lines keeping changes to a minimum. This time however New York State is expected to loose two congressional seats with its population loss to other states.
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