Chris Martin’s bizarre letters to the editor in Friday’s Democrat & Chronicle and yesterday’s Suburban News reveal Martin’s profound ignorance of the law.
To put it simply, in his letters to the editor, Chris Martin shows that he is totally incapable of reading and understanding a simple 44 word sentence in the Open Meetings law.
And if Chris Martin ever tries to run for office again in Brockport, his opponent will jam his incredibly bizarre letters to the editor down his throat until they come out his ears, or somewhere else.
Chris Martin is a nice guy, but he has never been the brightest bulb in the chandelier. After reading his letters to the editor, you have to wonder if Martin is just plain stupid.
“Ordinarily he is insane, but he has lucid moments when he is only stupid.
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)
His two letters to the editor are identical, and in his letters Martin makes the ridiculous claim that, “The public officers law Article 7: Open Meetings Section 104 requires public notice of the time and place of a meeting at least 72 hours prior.”
But Section 104 of Article 7 doesn’t say that at all.
Instead it says that if a meeting is scheduled more than a week in advance (such a monthly Village Board Meeting), then public notice must be given at least 72 hours in advance.
In the very next sentence, the law then goes on to say that if a meeting is scheduled less than a week in advance, public notice must be given "to the extent practicable" at a reasonable time prior to the meeting.
Here is the full text of Section 104 of Public Officers Law, Article 7 Open Meetings Law. Read it yourself and make your own decision. Subsections 1 and 2 are the important sentences that martin misunderstood so badly.
Martin misinterpreted subsection 1 and totally ignored subsection 2.
§104. Public notice.
1. Public notice of the time and place of a meeting scheduled at least one week prior thereto shall be given to the news media and shall be conspicuously posted in one or more designated public locations at least seventy-two hours before such meeting.2. Public notice of the time and place of every other meeting shall be given, to the extent practicable, to the news media and shall be conspicuously posted in one or more designated public locations at a reasonable time prior thereto.
3. The public notice provided for by this section shall not be construed to require publication as a legal notice.
4. If videoconferencing is used to conduct a meeting, the public notice for the meeting shall inform the public that videoconferencing will be used, identify the locations for the meeting, and state that the public has the right to attend the meeting at any of the locations.
5. When a public body has the ability to do so, notice of the time and place of a meeting given in accordance with subdivision one or two of this section, shall also be conspicuously posted on the public body's internet website.
The full text of the Open Meetings Law is available online at the New York State Department of State’s website.
But if Martin couldn’t read it and understand it there, The New York State Department of State, Committee on Open Government provides a simple easy-to-read explanation on their Frequently Asked Questions website.
Here’s what the New York State Department of State, Committee on Open Government has to say about the public notice requirement of the Open Meetings Law.
Open Meeting Law FAQ
How do I know if a meeting is going to be held?
The Law requires that notice of the time and place of all meetings be given prior to every meeting. If a meeting is scheduled at least a week in advance, notice must be given to the public and the news media not less than 72 hours prior to the meeting. When a meeting is scheduled less than a week in advance, notice must be given to the public and the news media "to the extent practicable" at a reasonable time prior to the meeting. Notice to the public must be accomplished by posting in one or more designated public locations.
Too Bad Chris Martin never took the time to read it and get his facts straight.
There is a rumor in Brockport is that Martin plans to run for Village Trustee in the June election, and that he has told his friends that he will be the next mayor of Brockport.
But it seems highly unlikely that Brockport voters will reward Martin’s bizarre interpretation of the law.
If you use Chris Martin’s bizarre reasoning, The Village Board would have to wait 72 hours before calling any special meeting regardless of the circumstances.
According to Martin’s nonsensical reasoning, if a natural disaster struck Brockport, the Village Board would have to wait 72 hours before they could meet and declare a state of emergency. In the meantime, as fires burned out of control or the Erie Canal burst its banks, Martin would be writing another idiotic letter to the editor.
You have to feel sorry for Chris Martin, he tires hard, but he is simply not capable of understanding sentences with more than one or two phrases, or paragraphs with more than one sentence.
Maybe that is why he got his butt whipped last June when he ran for Trustee against Carol Hannan.
Moreover, no politician can survive a libel suit, and that is what Martin could be facing because of his ignorant statements to the D&C and the Suburban News.
Martin accused the members of the Village Board of violating a law they did not violate.
So you have to wonder if Chris Martin ever bothered to read the law at all, or if he just listened to somebody else’s BS and believed it
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