Regular Session - January 9, 1995
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8 ALBANY, NEW YORK
9 January 9, 1995
10 3:00 p.m.
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13 REGULAR SESSION
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17 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR BETSY McCAUGHEY, President
18 STEPHEN F. SLOAN, Secretary
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 THE PRESIDENT: The Senate will
3 come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and repeat with me the Pledge of
6 Allegiance.
7 (The Senate joined in the Pledge
8 of Allegiance to the Flag.)
9 In the absence of clergy, may we
10 bow our heads in a moment of silence.
11 (There was a moment of silence.)
12 The reading of the Journal,
13 please.
14 THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
15 Friday, January 6th. The Senate met pursuant to
16 adjournment, Senator Hoblock in the Chair upon
17 designation of the Temporary President. The
18 Journal of Thursday, January 5th, was read and
19 approved. On motion, Senate adjourned.
20 THE PRESIDENT: The order of
21 business -
22 Hearing no objection, the Journal
23 stands approved as read.
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1 The order of business:
2 Presentation of petitions.
3 Messages from the Assembly.
4 Messages from the Governor.
5 Reports of standing committees.
6 Reports of select committees.
7 Communications and reports from
8 state officers.
9 Motions and resolutions.
10 I would like to recognize Senator
11 Bruno.
12 SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President.
13 I offer up the following Finance Committee
14 assignments and ask that they be filed in the
15 Journal.
16 THE PRESIDENT: Secretary will
17 read.
18 THE SECRETARY: By Senator
19 Bruno: The following members of the New York
20 State Senate are hereby appointed as members of
21 the Senate Finance Committee for the purpose of
22 considering the nomination of Alexander F.
23 Treadwell as Secretary of State at a meeting to
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1 be held on Monday, January 9th, 1995, in the
2 Majority Conference Room 332. These are
3 temporary assignments by the Majority Leader in
4 consultation with the Minority Leader for the
5 purpose of considering the nomination.
6 Majority members: Senators
7 Stafford (Chairman), Marchi, Goodman, Present,
8 Levy, Johnson, Trunzo, Bruno, Velella, Volker,
9 Tully, Padavan, LaValle, Daly and Skelos.
10 Minority members: Galiber
11 (Ranking), Gold, Leichter, Gonzalez, Mendez,
12 Stachowski, Montgomery, Oppenheimer, Jones,
13 Hoffmann and Nanula.
14 THE PRESIDENT: I would like to
15 recognize Senator Stafford.
16 SENATOR STAFFORD: Thank you,
17 Madam President. We will please have a meeting
18 of the Committee on Finance in Room 332.
19 THE PRESIDENT: There will be an
20 immediate meeting of the Senate Finance
21 Committee in Room 332.
22 I'd like to recognize Senator
23 Bruno.
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1 SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President.
2 May I suggest that the Senate stand at ease
3 awaiting the report of the Finance Committee,
4 and I have an estimation it will be about ten
5 minutes.
6 THE PRESIDENT: The Senate shall
7 stand at ease.
8 (Whereupon, at 3:04 p.m., the
9 Senate was at ease.)
10 (Whereupon, at 3:14 p.m., Senate
11 reconvened.)
12 SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President.
13 Can we return to reports of standing committees?
14 THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
15 SENATOR BRUNO: I believe there
16 is a report there at the desk.
17 THE PRESIDENT: Secretary will
18 read the report of the Finance Committee,
19 please.
20 THE SECRETARY: Senator Stafford,
21 from the Committee on Finance, reports the
22 nomination of Alexander F. Treadwell of Westport
23 to serve as Secretary of State.
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1 THE PRESIDENT: I would like to
2 recognize Senator Stafford to move the
3 nomination.
4 SENATOR STAFFORD: Thank you,
5 Madam President.
6 Madam President. Our first
7 nomination to appear before the Finance
8 Committee and to be acted upon here in the
9 Senate in this new administration is one that
10 certainly pleases me, and I'm so proud to rise
11 and move the confirmation.
12 Now, I have to make it very clear
13 from the outset Westport is in the 45th Senator
14 ial District, and our nominee, Sandy Treadwell,
15 is from Westport, New York.
16 Sandy Treadwell will make the
17 kind of Secretary of State that he has been in
18 anything that he has done. This is a very
19 important position. We can think of various
20 industries concerned, real estate, regulating
21 cemeteries, we can go on and on, corporations.
22 But I share with you, when Sandy Treadwell
23 decides he is going to do a job, again, there is
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1 no one who does it in a more dedicated manner
2 and who does it as well. He really believes in
3 this system of government, the American system,
4 and he has been involved in it for years,
5 voluntarily. He didn't have to do it; and when
6 he has been county chairman of a political
7 organization or has represented the entire state
8 as a vice chairman, he is one, if he is asked to
9 do it, will be anywhere in this state, and this
10 is the way he will be, I know, when he is
11 Secretary of State.
12 I would share with you that I
13 think in this day and age too many of us think
14 that anyone who is kind and considerate and has
15 a true concern, we think that maybe that is
16 somebody that isn't real, but with Sandy
17 Treadwell it is real. He has been an author -
18 or he is an author. He has written one of the
19 foremost books on marathon running and, as I
20 say, he has been successful in anything that
21 he's done.
22 In my opinion -- and it's
23 coincidental that he is a constituent, but in my
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1 opinion, the Governor could not appoint a finer
2 individual. He has served his country in the
3 military with one of our fellow Senators who
4 will speak in a moment. He is one who, as I
5 say, is always there if one needs him.
6 Mr. President, I move the
7 confirmation and, at the end of the proceeding
8 would be pleased to introduce Sandy, his family,
9 and his colleagues with him.
10 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
11 Senator Stafford. If you would like to speak on
12 the nomination, please raise your hand.
13 Senator Goodman.
14 SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. President.
15 This is -- Madam President, excuse me. Force of
16 habit. I'm told there's a fine that's been
17 instituted, Madam President, and in honor of you
18 I shall pay it happily.
19 Madam President. It is my
20 special privilege and pleasure to speak today on
21 behalf of this very distinguished nominee for
22 the Secretary of State's position.
23 I have known Sandy Treadwell for
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1 a great number of years and have observed him
2 over time in a variety of situations and would
3 like to say to you that, in my judgment, we
4 could not have made a finer or more appropriate
5 choice for the position of Secretary of State.
6 This is, in the language of the vernacular, a
7 class act.
8 My colleagues, this is an
9 individual who comes to us with superb
10 educational credentials and a number of very
11 practical involvements in his career, including
12 even an unpublished book which he says in his
13 resume is entitled Wasp, "a comic novel which is
14 uncomically yet unpublished." There is nothing
15 comical about this man, however.
16 I had the pleasure of seeing him
17 under a variety of circumstances even outside
18 the City of New York. I refer to the fact that
19 from time to time in the summer, when on
20 vacation, he can be found in Jackson Hole,
21 Wyoming, where he's indistinguishable from your
22 average American 6'4" cowboy walking in cowboy
23 boots and Levis.
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1 I would particularly like to
2 bring to your attention the fact that under the
3 transition procedures which the Governor
4 adopted, I had the privilege of serving on his
5 transition team. The position of Secretary of
6 State is one which may find under its aegis a
7 consolidated series of new responsibilities of
8 the greatest significance that at the moment
9 remain speculative; but since that possibility
10 exists, this already august post takes on even
11 greater importance than it has in the past.
12 For those of you who have good
13 memories, you will recall that such disting
14 uished Republicans as Carolyn Simon and John
15 Lomenzo have occupied the post of Secretary of
16 State; and I can only say that stemming from
17 that tradition, we have a fine public servant to
18 approve this afternoon. I urge your affirmative
19 vote with the greatest of enthusiasm and wish
20 the nominee the very best and success unlimited
21 in the future.
22 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
23 Senator Goodman.
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1 I would like to recognize Senator
2 Lack.
3 SENATOR LACK: Thank you, Madam
4 President.
5 It's a pleasure to rise to second
6 the nomination of Sandy Treadwell. I probably
7 can take two honors. I'm probably the last
8 person who ever heard him called Alexander. And
9 I think probably -- certainly the only person
10 here who knew him the last time he was paid by
11 the United States government or any government.
12 We were both buck privates in the United States
13 Army at basic training in Fort Dix. I noticed
14 you're sitting next to a Marine. You could
15 explain to him what we went through.
16 We called him Sandy. The drill
17 sergeant called him Alexander, particularly when
18 he wasn't doing anything right, but that was
19 very, very rarely, of course. It was to our awe
20 that we watched him go through the five-mile
21 runs. I know where the book came from. He
22 always seemed to finish first and the rest of us
23 were last, and I'm certainly glad that he came
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1 in first, as it were, for Secretary of State.
2 It's been 25 years since we were
3 both wearing green fatigues. You've survived
4 the experience of the last 25 years much better
5 than I, as I relatively look at each of us.
6 But I certainly welcome you
7 aboard as our Secretary of State. It's even
8 more fitting, I must tell you, from this side of
9 the aisle, my colleagues, since this is our
10 first confirmation that we look up to the east
11 gallery for our confirmations; and so on behalf
12 of the entire Majority, Sandy, welcome.
13 And we look forward to serving
14 with you as Secretary as State; and surely I,
15 and all my colleagues, anything we can do to
16 assist you, we're only too happy to do so.
17 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
18 Senator Lack.
19 Senator Leichter.
20 SENATOR LEICHTER: Madam
21 President. May I say, first time I rise and
22 address you, and it's a pleasure.
23 I have the exceedingly good
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1 fortune to have a vacation home in Wadhams which
2 is located in the Town of Westport which is
3 located in the 45th Senatorial District; and, of
4 course, the nominee comes from the Town of
5 Westport, as Senator Stafford pointedly reminded
6 us.
7 I don't believe I have had the
8 pleasure of meeting Mr. Treadwell, although we
9 may have bumped into each other at Ernie's or
10 Everybody's, the local grocery store. But
11 coming from Westport, I knew he had to be good
12 people, because everybody from Westport really
13 is. But, nevertheless, I thought I would check
14 with some of my neighbors, what they could tell
15 me about Sandy Treadwell; and I will just pass
16 on to you the comments of one Bob Lopez, who
17 used to be the Democratic chair of Essex County,
18 and he said you couldn't have a better person, a
19 nicer person, an abler person.
20 And as you look at the resume of
21 Sandy Treadwell, you will see how he has served
22 the Westport and the North Country community in
23 a number of important voluntary organizations.
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1 He is held in the highest respect. I had the
2 pleasure of hearing him at the meeting of the
3 Finance Committee and certainly had the feeling
4 that I think he is going to be an outstanding
5 Secretary of State.
6 So it's my pleasure, Madam
7 President, to second the nomination.
8 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
9 Senator Oppenheimer.
10 SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Thank you,
11 Madam President.
12 We did meet, earlier, with Sandy
13 Treadwell -- the Finance Committee -- and at
14 that time, I asked a question which I think is
15 of concern to a lot of us who have coastal
16 communities; and that was, how does Sandy
17 Treadwell feel about the Coastal Zone Management
18 Program and the local waterfront revitalization
19 programs that result from that? And in most of
20 my communities it's a very vital and important
21 interest, because the technical assistance that
22 we have received from CZM has been very
23 beneficial to all my communities and absolutely
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1 essential in going through the consistency
2 review process.
3 And I was very pleased and happy
4 to report -- and I know that all of those with
5 coastal communities will feel likewise -- that
6 Sandy Treadwell feels that this is an important
7 program and that he will continue to support it,
8 and I am very delighted to hear that, and very
9 delighted to welcome Sandy Treadwell as our
10 Secretary of State, if approved, which I think
11 will happen.
12 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
13 Does any other member wish to be
14 heard on the nomination?
15 Senator Bruno.
16 Oh, I'm sorry, Senator Mendez.
17 I'm so sorry.
18 SENATOR BRUNO: I defer to
19 Senator Olga Mendez.
20 SENATOR MENDEZ: Thank you,
21 Senator Bruno.
22 Apologies accepted, Madam
23 President.
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1 I, too, rise in support of the
2 nomination of Sandy Treadmill for Secretary of
3 State. I didn't meet the gentleman before
4 today's meeting. I was taken aback by his
5 magnificent sense of humor, which I think is a
6 very important element in living as well as most
7 necessary in politics.
8 But I also was impressed because
9 he stated a very clear vision of the vision that
10 Governor Pataki has publicly stated as to what
11 government should do for the residents of the
12 state, and I think that when any first executive
13 appoints a person to be a member of his or her
14 administration, they try to get people who
15 understand very clearly the vision that that
16 first executive do have in governing; and I
17 think that just on that alone, Mr. Treadmill is,
18 in fact, a very wise choice of the Governor.
19 I think also that on the personal
20 level, he is the nicest guy that I have met in a
21 long time and that is refreshing. So that we
22 are all welcoming him and looking forward to
23 work with him in the very, very near future.
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1 THE PRESIDENT: That's just
2 wonderful, Senator Mendez.
3 Senator Bruno.
4 SENATOR BRUNO: Thank you, Madam
5 President.
6 And I'm as pleased as I can be to
7 second and add my second to the nomination just
8 so aptly delivered by our Finance Chair, very
9 distinguished Finance Chair, and I don't believe
10 it's just a coincidence that our very first
11 confirmation comes from his district.
12 But let me just say to Sandy and
13 to the rest of you and to his family, Governor
14 George Pataki indicated that government would be
15 of service to the people, and there isn't a
16 better message that we can deliver to the public
17 than to be confirming Sandy Treadwell for
18 Secretary of State in New York State because
19 that office as much and maybe more than any
20 other delivers a public service, and Sandy will
21 personify public service. He will make us all
22 proud that he is there, and I'm proud to stand
23 before you and say these things.
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1 And, Sandy, I didn't realize you
2 were a marathon runner. I did know that you
3 were a little bit of a health nut, and that's
4 reflected in your appearance; and, as I
5 conclude, I want to share with my colleagues
6 that he will be a shining example of all of the
7 things that we should do to maintain our bearing
8 in good health in being of service to the
9 public, no smoking, no drinking, no carousing,
10 no nothing.
11 Sandy, we're happy to have you
12 here.
13 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
14 Senator Bruno.
15 All those in favor of the
16 nomination, please signify by saying aye.
17 (Response of "Aye.")
18 All those opposed, signify by
19 saying nay.
20 (There was no response.)
21 The ayes have it.
22 Alexander F. Treadwell is hereby
23 confirmed as the Secretary of State.
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1 (There was a standing ovation.)
2 It is our pleasure to welcome
3 Secretary Treadwell's family, and to make the
4 introductions, I defer to Senator Stafford.
5 SENATOR STAFFORD: Thank you,
6 Madam President. I'm sure you could have done
7 it much better.
8 Sandy's wife Libby is with us.
9 We're very pleased. His son Zack, the Marine
10 who he has been so loyal to and so loyal to him
11 and worked closely with.
12 And, behind, I should call them
13 all by name because they are constituents. So
14 I'd ask them to stand please, and we are very
15 pleased to have you also.
16 Congratulations, Sandy.
17 (Applause.)
18 Madam President. I shouldn't
19 point this out, but it's the beginning of the
20 year and I'm going to try to help Senator
21 Leichter. Wadhams is a suburb of Westport.
22 (Laughter.)
23 THE PRESIDENT: I would like to
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1 recognize Senator Bruno.
2 SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President.
3 There being no further business to come before
4 the Senate, we stand adjourned until tomorrow at
5 3:00 p.m. sharp.
6 THE PRESIDENT: The Senate stands
7 adjourned.
8 (Whereupon, at 3:31 p.m., the
9 Senate adjourned.)
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