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New York State — The primaries are over in the Empire State. The unofficial outcome, the final vote including write-ins, is not yet certified, however.
New York state’s Republican Party primary for governor was national news when Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino, a real estate mogul from Buffalo, handily beat Republican Party stalwart Rick Lazio, who last lost in a U.S. Senate race to Hillary Clinton.
In the Conservative primary, Lazio beat little-known Ralph Lorigo, so he remains in the governor’s race in November.
Using his own money to fund his campaign, Paladino took more than 60 percent of the Republican vote and will face Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo in November. Before the primary, it was commonly assumed that now-Attorney General Cuomo would become New York’s next governor, but Paladino’s win and energetic base adds uncertainty at a time when many voters are disgusted with Albany politics.
Greg Edwards won in the Republican lieutenant governor’s primary, where he was Lazio’s running mate. The confusing result is that Edwards cannot appear on the ballot with Paladino as a Republican and with Lazio as the Conservative candidate. Under New York’s election laws this outcome is unacceptable. A solution has not yet been discovered. Tom Ognibene, Paladino’s running mate, lost to Edwards but will still appear on the ballot on the Tax Payer Party line that Paladino created, which had no primary.
The closest race on Tuesday was for the Democratic Party’s nomination for New York state attorney general, the jumping-off spot for Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo. Eric Schneiderman, a Harvard law school graduate who was elected to the state Senate in 1998 from Manhattan, and Kathleen Rice from Nassau battled each other and three other candidates. In Dutchess County, Schneiderman beat Rice by less than 100 votes, and won the state-wide race with only 34 percent of votes cast.
The winner of the nastiest primary was Greg Ball, who beat Mary Beth Murphy not only in the Republican primary but also as a write-in candidate for the Conservative Party in New York’s Senate District 40. Mike Kaplowitz, the unchallenged Democratic nominee, was hoping that Ball and Murphy would both appear on the ballot. No such luck.
In Dutchess County, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed senator by Gov. David Patterson to take Hillary Clinton’s place when she became secretary of state, ran against little-known Gail Goode and received 83 percent of the county’s votes compared to 76 percent statewide. Gillibrand will face Republican Joseph DioGuardi, who defeated David Malpass by 16,778 votes.
Republican Jay Townsend from Cornwall-on-Hudson beat Gary Bentsen by 12 percentage points to secure the difficult right to run against Senate fixture Democrat Chuck Schumer, who has already amassed a campaign war chest of more than $23 million.
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.