CAGNY PRESENTATION   September 8, 2007

A little about No Saugerties Casino

            From the beginning, had the advantage of a core of Saugertesians who had been involved in fighting a county wide dump on the same location as the proposed casino – the famous Winston Farm. These people were activists with experience in citizens’ actions AND as a result we went on the offensive –catching the casino people off guard.

            Had a number of politically connected and politically involved people in that initial group. –

Had the support of two key local people – the Town Supervisor and the Village mayor.

            Initial group tried to inform themselves –visited Ledyard and Turning Stone AND met with local officials in the towns surrounding these casinos.

NSC Mobilized quickly, informed and activated local community.  (We had a mass meeting – May 31, 2005 – with speakers and mobilization plans – volunteer for committees, contribute time to specific projects, donating money, have skills or experiences that might be useful, asked for ideas for ways to stop the casino.)

             Ten Committees:  Fund Raising, Technical, Legal, Storefront, Communication/PR, Alternatives Uses for the Winston Farm, Precedents, Coalition-building, and Lobbying  (one other committee – alternative sites – don’t think that ever went anywhere).

            Lobbying overlapped many of these:
                        Storefront – form of lobbying – educating and enlisting the public
                        Communications/PR  developing products we could use in lobbying
                        Coalition Building  – a form of lobbying by reaching out to other organizations for their support – but ALSO entailed an obligation to help them by mutually or financially supporting other law suits, sending out publicity to support their causes (whether it was as close as our friends in Sullivan County or Upstate Citizens for Equality – illegal gambling @ Turning Stone) 

            LOBBY COMMITTEE

            At first we floundered because our task seemed so immense (reaching out to local, county, state and federal officials) and we had no focus.

            When I took over the chairmanship (I had originally signed on to the committee as a volunteer because of my Union background in lobbying.), I tried to get us on track.  Created a “Target and Chores: Actions to Take Now (Aug 2005).

            Gave lobbying committee members: Telephone Tree I created, list of resources—names, addresses and telephone numbers of newspapers and radio stations, AND booklets produced by Ulster County listing everything political that we might need.

            Also clarified the role of the lobbying committee and the communications committee.

      Decided to identify targets for our lobbying efforts and then plan ways to implement those goals. E.g.  influence a particular politician – If we need to send out a letter, we will draft a model. This letter would then either go to the Steering Committee for them to send out as an official letter from the organization and/or we might ask the communication committee to start a letter writing campaign targeting this individual.

SPECIFIC ACTIONS OF LOBBYING COMMITTEE

1. Letters to the Editor:  Educate the public and influence public opinion in Saugerties and throughout Ulster County.  Note: Many I wrote and gave to friends to send in to the papers in their name.

2. Monitoring local radio ‘TALK” shows and called in.  One day a week, our Town Supervisor was the host of a local show, but on another day – there was a pro-casino host.  In addition to asking Committee members to monitor the stations and be proactive, I asked a friend (not on the committee)  who always listened to these programs to call me IMMEDIATELY if he heard anything negative or if there was an appropriate time to push our agenda. 

3.  Local elected officials (Four Saugerties legislators to the Ulster County Legislature).

            a. Assigned a committee person to be the laison with a specific legislator and also had one committee member who was a personal friend
                of another legislator out of our district to contact and connect with him. 

b. Had a meeting of the Lobbying Committee with our four legislators (who were already in our court BUT….

            c. Additionally had a dialog (at first by mail and then in a meeting with the Lobbying Committee of a legislator who had talked positively
                about the benefits of a casino – but supposedly was on our side.  He was involved with a Traffic Impact Study  for the Special
                Committee to Study Casino Gambling in Ulster County. and had basically concluded that a casino was a given and was merely 
                 questioning  where to site it.   WE “EDUCATED HIM”.

4. Education
            School Superintendent  – visited him
            School Boards  – letter to them (Skips)
            PTA’s  – visited them
            Teachers Union –
                        Local – worked with them – Passed a resolution against the casino
                        State --
                                    a. State resolution (by Sullivan County representative) pro casino (had expired)
                                    b.       Tried to get state org to take a stand against
                                           DISCONCERTING

5. Unions
            Disconcerting.  Tried to get concurrence of the fact that there was no Indian casino in the US with unionized workers.  RAN INTO A BRICK WALL. – everyone passing the buck.

6. Local Police Chiefs – After initial letter, met with him and Ulster County Under Sheriff. Both had visited Turning Stone and were impressed.

7.  Letters
            Pombo
                A.  Here our lobbying efforts were schizophrenic, reflecting his ambivalent stand
                        1. Letters to McCain and Pombo re their Committees discussing IGRA
                                “We Saugertesians need your help.  WE DO NOT WANT A CASINO IN SAUGERTIES. Please do not pass any enabling
                                legislation which would aid the Indians and their Casino development partners.”  Sept 2005
                        2. Letter to Pombo July 2006 (at request of CERA) supporting his bill,
                B. Contacting our Representatives re Pombo.

9.  E-MAIL LIST

            Who was on my Lobby ACTION TREE

Passed out at NSC general public meeting in Sept/Oct 2005

The Action Tree is the No Saugerties Casino Lobbying Committee outreach tool.  It alerts people when No Saugerties Casino needs either letters written, e-mails sent or telephone calls made.

If you would be willing to have your name added to the ACTION TREE of the Lobby Committee, please sign-up at our Lobby Table (we need your telephone number and e-mail address.)

Also, we need people from Ulster County Towns and Villages to lobby their Town Boards to pass anti-casino resolutions. If you have friends or neighbors who might be able to help, visit our Lobby Table.

            End Result – everyone and their mothers that I thought should be kept up-to-date.

            USES
                ACTION ALERTS
                EXHORTATION TO SEND LETTERS AND E-MAILS

            THIS LIST IS STILL BEING USED NOW IN SUPPORT OF SULLIVAN COUNTY AND OTHER CAGNY OR CAROL KELLY PROJECTS

9.  Research
            Brandon
            Follow the Money – tracking contributions to local/state/federal officials by Wilmot
            Fact Sheets – talk about shortly

 10.  LOBBYING TOWNS

            Somehow by the time I had gotten involved, there were approximately 12 towns that had independently passed NO CASINO resolutions (never inquired how ---but I am guessing it was the result of political contacts of our steering committee and our politically connected friends.

             Also our Saugerties legislators had managed to get a HOME RULE bill passed by our county legislature – stating that they would not vote affirmatively for a casino if the impacted town was opposed to said casino.

            Lobbying Committee’s goal – get all 24 Ulster County municipalities to sign on as against the casino
            Of the 12 remaining reluctant municipalities, 9 seemed to be “easy”
            The recalcitrant municipalities included Town of Ulster, Town of Warwarsing, and Village of Ellenville – all potential casino sites.
            By mid Oct. 2005 had made two presentations Town of Ulster and Village of NP and had one scheduled

END RESULTS

            By April 2007, we had 15 of the 24 municipalities with resolutions.  That represented 105,285 people or 59 ¼ % of the total population of Ulster County (177,749 people 2000 census figure)

            We had given our best shots with 6 other municipalities – who wouldn’t climb aboard.  We had not lobbied three:  The Village of Ellenville and the town of Warwarsing and Kingston.

STRATEGY AND COURSE OF ACTION
            (As we progressed became more sophisticated)For Volunteers

            High hopes of attracting Lobbying Committee members so that each of us would be responsible for only one, or two at the most, municipalities.  Unfortunately ended up with only two other committee members.

            Prepared “HOW TO SHEETS”

            My first Presentation
            Town of Ulster
                       1. Called and asked to be placed on agenda
                       2. Called and asked if I could bring items for them to copy for Town Board members (they duplicated copy of Aborn Report
                       3. Also Gave Aborn report to Police Chief
                           Packet for Town Board Members (will speak more about that)
                       4. Went with another committee member and made presentation
                       5. Made contact with dissatisfied locals who were at the meeting

                        FOLLOW-UP Special meeting with Town of Ulster people – SEEDING EFFORT
                                   diverse group:  From coalition building == several religious leaders and/or their congregation members, from the “activists”
                         whose contact I had made at the initial Town of Ulster meeting, other names we had come up with.

NEVER WENT ANYWHERE

         LATER PRESENTATIONS

Met with Supervisors first
           and where possible had contacts either meet with or speak to Supervisors before our meetings

Presentation
           Made presentations INTRODUCED by constituents of particular Town/Village

Packets
          More sophisticated  - contains Fact Sheets

DISCUSS FACT SHEETS

Follow-ups
            With supervisors
            With Board members
             Thanks to local contacts
      Still following up as recently as June 2007 with Telephone calls and e-mails with Supervisors

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

            Brainstorming and Socializing Party:  Very important.  Reestablish support for the organization, opportunity for thanking people, opportunity to brainstorm and socialize!!!!!

Cahill’s Assembly Bill