SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATURE GENERAL MEETING EIGHTH DAY June 8, 2010 MEETING HELD AT THE WILLIAM H. ROGERS LEGISLATURE BUILDING IN THE ROSE Y. CARACAPPA LEGISLATIVE AUDITORIUM 725 VETERANS MEMORIAL HIGHWAY SMITHTOWN, NEW YORK Verbatim Minutes Taken By: Alison Mahoney, Lucia Braaten & Donna Catalano *Court Reporters* Verbatim Transcript Prepared By: Alison Mahoney, Lucia Braaten, Donna Catalano & Kimberly Castiglione - Legislative Secretary (*The following testimony was taken & transcribed by Alison Mahoney - Court Reporter*) (*The meeting was called to order at 9:29 A.M.*) P.O. LINDSAY: Okay. Mr. Clerk, call the roll. MR. LAUBE: Good morning, Legislator Lindsay. (*Roll Called by Mr. Laube - Clerk*) LEG. ROMAINE: (Not present). LEG. SCHNEIDERMAN: (Not present). LEG. BROWNING: Here. LEG. MURATORE: (Not present). LEG. LOSQUADRO: Present. LEG. EDDINGTON: Here. LEG. MONTANO: Here. LEG. CILMI: Here. LEG. BARRAGA: Here. LEG. KENNEDY: Here. LEG. NOWICK: (Not present). LEG. HORSLEY: Here. LEG. NOWICK: Yes, what? Here. LEG. GREGORY: Here. LEG. STERN: Here. LEG. D'AMARO: Here. LEG. COOPER: Here. D.P.O. VILORIA-FISHER: Here. P.O. LINDSAY: Here. MR. LAUBE: Fifteen. LEG. SCHNEIDERMAN: Tim, I didn't hear you call me. MR. LAUBE: I did. Legislator Schneiderman? LEG. SCHNEIDERMAN: Here. MR. LAUBE: Sixteen. P.O. LINDSAY: Okay. Could everyone rise for a salute to the flag led by Legislator Horsley. Salutation Okay. If you could remain standing, Legislator Horsley will introduce our visiting Clergy. LEG. HORSLEY: Good morning, everybody. I am welcoming Reverend Lee Gangaware, the Pastor of Grace -- United Methodist Church on Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst. Reverend Lee, as he is more commonly called, Gangaware hales from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and attended Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He was ordained Elder in 1976. Pastor Lee is interested in contemporary war-ship styles as well as traditional services. Pastor Lee has served at Grace United Methodist Church in Lindenhurst since February of 2007. He is married to his beloved wife Polly, and Polly is here, and is proud father of twin daughters, Hannah and Elizabeth, and the Grandfather of Julianna. He also has one foster daughter who has five children. In addition to ministering in his parish and spending time with his family, Pastor Lee enjoys spending time singing in the choir and playing the saxophone. Pastor Lee? Welcome. PASTOR LEE: Thank you very much. Thank you. May we be at prayer, please? All mighty God, you rule all the peoples of the Earth, inspire the minds of all women and men to whom you have committed the responsibility of government and leadership in the nations of the world. Give to them the vision of truth and justice that by their counsel, all nations and peoples may work together. Give to the people of our country zeal for justice and strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will. Forgive our shortcomings, purify our hearts to see and love the truth. We pray all these things through our God who loves us all. Amen. ("Amen" said in unison) LEG. HORSLEY: Thank you very much, Pastor. P.O. LINDSAY: Thank you, Legislator and Reverend. If everyone would remain standing for a moment of silence for Army Lieutenant Joseph Theinert serving in the 71st Calvary Regiment of the U.S. army, gave his life in a truck bombing in Kandahar, Afghanistan recently. The Lieutenant was a Shelter Island resident. Also, for former Chairman of the Smithtown Republican Committee from 1969 to '79, Nicholas Barbado who died recently at the age of 87. And as always, let us also remember all those men and women who put themselves in harm's way every day to protect our country. Moment of Silence Observed Good morning, everyone, fellow colleagues. We have quite a long agenda before us today. First we have a series of proclamations. First Legislator Browning, if you go for the purpose of presenting a proclamation. LEG. BROWNING: Good morning. Oh, I forgot to push the button. Okay, good morning. I would like to present to you today the William Floyd Rugby Team. If they can all -- and believe it or not, this is not all of them. Come on up and make some space. Okay. And while they're moving forward, rugby is the second most popular sport in the world. It is the origin of American football and it's a sport that is up and coming here in the United States, and it's another option for our young people with very little cost to the players. Rugby is scheduled to be in the next Summer Olympics. The William Floyd Rugby Team is not a school sport, it's a club, and they're affiliated with the Metropolitan/New York Rugby Football Union which includes New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut. And I don't know, is Ali Nazir here, Legislative Aide to Legislator Kennedy? Okay, he's back here. He is a Director with the Union. The William Floyd team has approximately 50 members, a men's team and a women's team. This year the men's team consisted of 9th through 12th grade high school kids and some college freshman. They had a friendly match with the Stony Brook freshman team and they beat team them 31-0, so they're very impressive. Just think what they can do in a couple of more years. The men's team was undefeated this year, making them the Under 19 Division Champions and the Long Island Champions. The woman's team are also, this year, the Under 19 Long Island champions. The Captain of the men's team is Raul Rodriguez; where are you? Put your hand up. Raul is a senior in the William Floyd High School. And the Captain of the girls team is Eva Bouchard; where are you, Eva? MS. BOUCHARD: Right here. LEG. BROWNING: There you are, okay. And I have to tell you, I barely recognize some of them this morning, the girls especially, because I usually don't see them like this. (*Laughter*) I have to say, Chad Herth is the coach of the women's team and Mark Richter coach of the men's team. However, together, you know, they work together for the overall success of the program. The success of the William Floyd team would also not be possible without the direction and these outstanding coaches who not only put their time and effort with no stipends, but they also contributed their personal funds for the team with no reimbursement. So they, I can tell you, are extremely dedicated. Chad is a retired New York City Police Officer and Mark is a teacher in the William Floyd High School. So with that, I have certificates. And I want to say congratulations to each and every one of them, they did a phenomenal job. I've been to the games. My son, who is not a sports kid, music kid, decided he wanted to learn to play rugby and he is absolutely in love with the sport. So it's amazing what the sport of rugby does with these kids. I will like to -- like I said, I do have certificates for each and every one of you. Congratulations, you are a phenomenal bunch of kids. They don't look at themselves as a team, they look at themselves as a family. So if the two parents of these kids would like to come over -- do you have any words you'd like to say? MR. HERTH: Sure. LEG. BROWNING: You have to hold the button, or I'll hold the button for you. MR. HERTH: Again, thank you for having us here. This program started approximately seven years ago at my dining room table during Christmas holiday. My son asked his best friend, Joe {Foss} at the time, "Do you care to be a hooker?" He answered, "As long as I can wear heels." The William Floyd Rugby Club was started at that point. I think Kate mentioned before that this is the second most popular sport in the world, it is the fastest growing sport in the United States. As of evidence, you can only point to NBC holding the Sevens Championship for collegiate teams over the weekend. I mean, if you didn't see that, you missed out. We're also going to be part of MSG Varsity Sports, they've come down and actually critiqued, looked at this team, photographed it and apparently we're going to be on television some time in the future, I'm looking forward to it. LEG. BROWNING: You want to mention the girls? MR. HERTH: The girls, they're a Division I side. These girls, we have seven members, no less than seven members. Have made them Met Union Select-sides. They were also invited to our national tournament, so a big hand for them as well. Both sides work tirelessly. They're hard working kids, both on the field and academically, we're very proud of that. And we're looking forward to quite a few of them going on and playing in college and hopefully coming back to help the club. So, listen, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Applause LEG. BROWNING: Mark? MR. RICHTER: Thank you once again. I'll make this real quick. I just want to say that we strictly do this voluntarily and we do it for the kids and the community as a whole and we'd love to see this grow and continue to grow on Long Island and in New York and the whole metropolitan union. The camaraderie that we have, the fitness that it brings and the whole overall family is just a wonderful thing for these kids.