The cost of public information: $2,500

MANTELLO

Turns out former Troy Council candidate Carmella Mantello can get an electronic copy of last fall’s election – for a paltry sum of $2,500.

(A letter from the Rensselaer County BOE commissioners to Mantello, and a letter from Mantello to County Executive Kathy Jimino can be seen below)

According to a letter signed by Rensselaer County Board of Elections Commissioners Ed McDonough and Larry Bugbee, the data Mantello requested from the nail-biter of an election was handed over to a vendor, Dominion Voting, which provided technical support to the BOE.

“This presents you with two options to access the information you requested: Retrieval of the electronic data via the county’s BOE technology support vendor, or obtaining the legally required court order, with no opposition from the county BOE, to allow for review of the paper ballots,” said the letter from the BOE.

According to the invoice from Dominion, the process to extract the images is “complicated” and would take 10 hours at $250 an hour.

Why the BOE did not keep a copy of the images, as Mantello said the 2010 Help America Vote Act requires, is anyone’s guess. And why it would take 10 hours at $250 an hour to burn the images on a CD is another guess. Seems to me - and the Times Union editorial writers - the information should not only be readily available at the BOE, but made available on its website to save people the trip should they want to look at the results.

MCDONOUGH and BUGBEE

Mantello, who came up short in her bid for an At Large Council seat by 65 votes, has been rattling trees from local officials to the state Attorney General. She recently received an opinion from Bob Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, which backed up her claim the electronic ballot images should be a public document. I’m not an attorney, but that seems like a no-brainer to me.

“The Board has an obligation to maintain these images so they are readily accessible for any member of the public, and not create the situation where it would cost an individual some $2,500 for this information,” Mantello wrote to County Executive Kathy Jimino. “This is clearly an attempt to hide this information from the public and not have the information readily available. “It would appear that there's an ongoing conspiracy at the County Board of Elections to conceal public information which should not be allowed to continue any further.”

The BOE in Putnam County was withholding similar information from a candidate down there but ended up giving it up as required by law.

As I previously wrote, I can see McDonough giving Mantello a hard time since he’s a Democrat and well, that’s just the way the game is played sometimes. But Bugbee – a Republican who Mantello states testified in court against allowing her to see the paper ballots – should help out a member of his own party despite who likes her or who doesn’t.

Another question that comes to mind is what is the BOE hiding and why don't they want Mantello to see the ballots?

BOE Letter

Dear County Executive Jimino, 

I received an email from you today, dated March 18, 2014, stating that 

you just spoke with the Chairman of the Legislature, Martin Reid, who informed you that the Board of Elections provided the information I was seeking in electronic format last week. 

Unfortunately, the information you were provided by the Chairman of the 

Legislature is incorrect. 

Subsequent to your email, I contacted Larry Bugbee, Republican Commissioner of Elections at the Rensselaer County Board. Per my request, Commissioner Bugbee emailed me the attached correspondence dated March 14, 2014 since it was only hard copy mailed. It is quite clear in the attached letter that the Rensselaer County Board of Elections has not provided me a copy of the electronic ballot images. 

I'm sure you are aware since 2010 the Help America Vote Act requires Boards of Elections to keep the digital images and a backup of these images as a record in any given election. Robert Freeman, Exec Director of the Comm on Open Government, has rendered an opinion that these images are available under a FOIL. It should be noted that I have been constructively denied this information for several months. 

Upon reading the letter I received today from the County Board of Elections it is obvious they continue to stonewall my efforts to receive the digital images which should be made available to me forthwith under the FOIL. 

The Board has an obligation to maintain these images so they are readily 

accessible for any member of the public, and not create the situation where it would cost an individual some $2500 for this information. This is clearly an attempt to hide this information from the public and not have the information readily available. I would submit county officials comply with the law, have it readily available, and send me the information request immediately as other counties, such as Putnam County recently did. It would appear that there's an ongoing conspiracy at the County Board of Elections to conceal public information which should not be allowed to continue any further. 

It should also be noted that Commissioner Bugbee gives the impression that my 

representative was given the opportunity to review any and all paper ballots. 

The only review of any paper ballots was during a random audit of 2 election 

districts and not a review of all paper ballots. In fact my request for review of all the paper ballots has been continually denied. In the correspondence Mr. Bugbee now states the board would not oppose a court ordered recount of the paper ballots. However, when I went to court and sought a recount in November, prior to the results being certified, Mr. Bugbee testified in opposition to my efforts. 

Carmella Mantello 

Jimino's sneaky raise

JIMINO

I read in the Times Union - and no other publication - that Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino is asking for a raise for herself and her deputy, Chris Meyer. Of course it wasn’t made public until after her budget presentation and, coincidentally, after November’s election.

Not that it mattered much in her own campaign because for the third straight election cycle the Democrats failed to find a candidate to run against her. Then why wait? You may ask. Why not just be up front about the whole raise thing if you truly think you deserve it?

Well, it was to protect the Republican legislators, some of whom actually had an opponent and had to run a race. God forbid they have to take a stand on something as controversial as a raise for an elected official while heading into an election.

I’m not going to weigh in on the size of the raises – Jimino’s salary would go from $112,000 to $121,300 while Meyer’s would jump from $87,751 to $98,700 – that’s up to the Legislature to decide. She is asking just like anyone would and the 19-member panel has to decide to grant them the first raise they’ve had in eight years. But, the sneakiness is … well … just, sneaky.

If you remember eight years ago, after the budget presentation and after election, Jimino and the Legislature gave everyone a raise including themselves, County Clerk Frank Merola, the majority spokesman Rich Crist and a slew of others in county government. The minority got a raise too, if for no other reason than to keep them quiet. It worked.

I’m convinced there is a grand conspiracy going on where the GOP get the towns in Rensselaer County and in turn the Democrats get Troy. And the organizational hierarchy of each party directs the machinations to act in line with that unwritten rule. The Republicans mentioned above all make a pretty decent buck and so does city Chair Jim Gordon – who works for the county – and there are a bunch of Democrats who make a decent buck in the city. Why rock the boat when to many people who control too many jobs are making out OK.

It could be a reason not a lot of Republicans made a lot of noise in the city this time around – or for the last few years actually - and Democrats in the towns are all but non-existent. Sure, every once in a while we get a maverick in Troy like former Mayor Harry Tutunjian and Carmella Mantello but by and large the city is Democratic. (As an aside, Tutunjian had four lines and still failed to come in the top six in his bid for the Legislature but it’s difficult to run for anything after serving eight years as mayor.)

Or, I could be over-analyzing the entire thing and it’s just the way the demographics are shaking out with Troy, like most cities, decidedly left of center while the towns maintain their right of center tradition.

Na, it’s more fun to over-analyze and make a conspiracy theory out of it.