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SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATURE GENERAL MEETING ELEVENTH DAY AUGUST 4, 2009 MEETING HELD AT THE WILLIAM H. ROGERS LEGISLATURE BUILDING IN THE ROSE Y. CARACAPPA LEGISLATIVE AUDITORIUM 725 VETERANS MEMORIAL HIGHWAY SMITHTOWN, NEW YORK Minutes Taken By: Alison Mahoney & Lucia Braaten - Court Stenographers Minutes Transcribed By: Alison Mahoney, Lucia Braaten & Kimberly Castiglione ((*The meeting was called to order at 4:09 P.M.*) (*The following was taken & transcribed by Alison Mahoney - Court Stenographer*) P.O. LINDSAY: Could I have all Legislators to the horseshoe, please? Okay. Mr. Clerk, are we ready? Roll call. MR. LAUBE: Good afternoon. (*Roll Called by Mr. Laube - Clerk of the Legislature*) LEG. ROMAINE: Present. LEG. SCHNEIDERMAN: Present. LEG. BROWNING: Here. LEG. BEEDENBENDER: Here. LEG. LOSQUADRO: (Not present). LEG. EDDINGTON: Here. LEG. MONTANO: Present. LEG. ALDEN: Here. LEG. BARRAGA: Here. LEG. KENNEDY: Here. LEG. NOWICK: Here. LEG. HORSLEY: Here. LEG. GREGORY: Here. LEG. STERN: Here. 2 LEG. D'AMARO: Here. LEG. COOPER: Here. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Present. P.O. LINDSAY: Here. MR. LAUBE: Seventeen (Not Present: Legislator Losquadro). P.O. LINDSAY: Okay. Welcome back, everybody, from our summer respite. We have a night meeting, which I know everybody enjoys, and we're going to start with the Pledge here. If everybody could rise. And tonight I have two very special people here that are going to assist me with the Pledge. The first one, I guess most of the time that I've been in the Legislature, for eight and a half years, unfortunately, after the visiting clergy says his prayer, I always ask everybody to remember in their thoughts and their prayers our young men and young women that are defending our freedom overseas and that you would remember them in your thoughts and your prayers and bring them back to us safe and sound, bring our sons and daughters back to us. Tonight I have the answer to my prayers. My nephew is with us tonight, Sergeant Robert Hommel, who just got out of the service in May, he served four years active duty in the 101st Airborne and he served 18 months in Iraq and he's back to us safe and sound, and for that I give praise. Applause So Bob, would you come and lead us in the Pledge? Salutation Thank you, Robert. Wait a minute. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Robert? P.O. LINDSAY: We have a proclamation for you for your service to our country and to our County as one of our Suffolk County Legislature's Home Town Heroes, Bobby is a Bohemia boy and he did us proud, I'm very proud of him and I'm sure everybody else is. And I would encourage my fellow Legislators, as our sons and daughters come home, bring them here so we can honor them and thank them for their service to our country. SERGEANT HOMMEL: Thank you. Applause If you could remain standing. Before Legislator Viloria-Fisher introduces our visiting Clergy, we also have another honored guest with us tonight, it's Judy Montemurro who has a beautiful voice, an angelic voice, and she is going to play "God Bless America" for us. 3 "God Bless America" Performed by Judy Montemurro Applause P.O. LINDSAY: Although Judy and Bobby have two totally different jobs -- Judy is the Music Director at Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Holbrook and Bobby is a soldier -- but they do have one thing in common; for the last couple of years they faced death almost every day. Judy is a cancer survivor that just went through a tremendous battle with cancer and beat it. Applause Both of them, with those fears over their head, did their jobs, day-in and day-out and they're both home town heroes. Thank you. Applause We have a proc for you, too, Judy. If you would come forward. On behalf of the Suffolk County Legislature, I'd like to present you with the Suffolk County Legislature Home Town Hero Award. Thank you. You're welcome. Applause And with that, I would like to turn over the mike to Legislator Viloria-Fisher to introduce our visiting Clergy. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Today's Clergy is Elizabeth Braddon who is the Pastor of the Stony Brook Community Church. She's been the Pastor of the church since July, 2007. She has served churches throughout the New York Annual Conference in both New York and Connecticut prior to coming to Stony Brook. Reverend Braddon describes her arrival at Stony Brook as coming home. She grew up in Babylon and I introduced her to Legislator Horsley earlier and I think they had some people in common that they knew. LEG. HORSLEY: Many. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Many people in common. And congratulations to Reverend Braddon who was just married two weeks ago. Congratulations. REVEREND BRADDON: Thank you. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: She is an active member of the United Methodist Church. She serves as representative to the Connectional Table, the main coordinating body of the denomination, and as a member of the Board of Ordained Ministry in New York Annual Conference, theologically and politically. She would describe herself as progressive with a strong concern for ministry with the poor, human rights, peace and for a church that openly celebrates the gifts of all persons. And just as a side note, she's also a member of the Board of Directors of the Setauket Civic Association. She has many interests, she's a wonderful addition to our Three Village Community. Please welcome Dr. Elizabeth Braddon. I mean Reverend Elizabeth Braddon. 4 Applause REVEREND BRADDON: Was that a PhD you just gave me? It's wonderful to be here and I thank you for inviting me. And now if it is in your tradition, will you join me in prayer. Holy God, our prayers today come out of many traditions and many understandings of your nature. We call upon your presence as the County Legislature begins its meeting this afternoon. Bring down your spirit upon each of us, instill us with the wisdom to follow your will and establish goodness and mercy in your land. We are all the privileged gathered here and as such are called the responsibility for those whose voices have been muffled. As the powerful, may we remember the weak; as the educated, may we place high value on the right of quality education for all; as the rich, we are called to a generosity that reaches to the poorest; as lawmakers, we call to the highest ideals of justice seeking; as stewards of this County's resources, decide carefully how they will be used; and as politicians, never be so bound by party lines that the value of dialogue gets lost. Now, oh God, we give thanks for the dedication of these persons who have given their time and their talents to serve the rest of us. We commend our decision to move beyond self-interest and take on civic duties and responsibilities. So bless them, bless their families, bless their communities, bless our County as we all seek a wholesome and nurturing place to live out your will for the sake of all people. Amen. "Amen" said in unison P.O. LINDSAY: And before we sit down, as we do at every meeting, let us remember all those men and women who put themselves in harm's way every day to protect our country and that may our sons and daughters come back to us. With that, please be seated. I would be remiss if -- Judy's husband is with her as well as Bobby's Aunt and Dad; so thank you for joining us and thank you for your help. Okay. We have proclamations and first is -- Legislator Losquadro, you have a proc; no? D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Oh, actually, yes, you do, with me; it's for the Sachem School District. P.O. LINDSAY: Legislator Viloria-Fisher and Losquadro have a shared proc D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Thank you. Is the mike on? Got it. Okay, I didn't have it up far enough. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Legislator Losquadro and I are both Commissioners of the Soil & Water District and I would like to ask Paul TeNyenhuis to join us as well? I thought I saw -- LEG. LOSQUADRO: Actually tough to miss. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: I know, I had seen him earlier. Each year the district participates in an Envirothon which involves students from all over New York State. This year our students from Sachem High School, Sachem North High School, did very, very well. We're very proud of their performance. They came in very high levels in several different categories; correct, Tedd? And today we're here to congratulate them and to offer a proclamation to the team. You're from the high -- 5 MS. FROST: From the district. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: You're Sharon. Where's the high school? Come on up, please. Applause I'd like Paul just to tell you the categories because he's better at knowing what they did, or -- MR. TeNYENHUIS: Sharon has them. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Sharon has them, okay. Sharon? Sharon is on staff. MS. FROST: The team won Suffolk County at the Long Island Envirothon and moved on to the State level which was held in May and they did excellent on the State level, they came in 3rd for Oral Presentation -- and girls, correct me if I'm wrong -- and 6th overall. Is there anything else I should add? UNKNOWN AUDIENCE MEMBER: First in Aquatics.

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