FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 8, 2006
Contact: PAUL PERILLIE, MAJORITY CAUCUS AIDE -- #(631) 854-4500

Environmental History Lesson
Learning From Their Predecessors’ Mistakes, New Legislature Approves Cooper Bill Ensuring Environmentalists and Historical Preservationists Voice on Council of Environmental Quality.

Yesterday, at its General Session, the Suffolk County Legislature came together and righted a wrong committed by last year’s Republican Majority. Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill championed by Majority Leader Jon Cooper (D-Huntington) that ensures environmentalists and historical preservationists will always have a voice on the all-important Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ).

Cooper’s bill (IR.1026) amends the County Charter by adding two seats to the nine-member body. One of the new members must have at least 5 years experience and affiliation with a recognized, not-for-profit environmental advocacy group. The historical preservationist’s seat can only be filled by a candidate whose resume clearly shows, according to the resolution, "a consistent, ongoing commitment to the preservation of historic buildings for a period of at least five consecutive years".

"In the past there have been no specific requirements to appoint somebody to the council. Often the seats were filled with political appointments," observes Dr. Lee Koppelman, Executive Director of the Long Island Regional Planning Board. As head of the Suffolk County Planning Commission in the seventies, Koppelman was one of the "founding fathers" of the Island’s planning movement who first came up with the idea of creating the CEQ. "I think to include specific requirements and qualifications for membership would strengthen the work of the CEQ," adds Dr. Koppelman.

Despite loud and repeated protests from environmentalists, public health advocates and good government groups, last August the then Republican-controlled majority in the Legislature dumped CEQ’s only independent environmentalist, Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of the nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment and an eminent environmentalist, Esposito was given the axe after Republicans claimed she had a conflict of interest because she registered as a lobbyist with the state in order to advocate on behalf of the environment. The Suffolk County Ethics Commission later issued a ruling that no such conflict existed.

"Regardless of who it is, requiring an environmentalist to serve on the CEQ is simply a good, common sense action," says Esposito. "This good government policy is designed to benefit the public by ensuring an environmentalist’s viewpoint on this important committee."

Of all the Legislature’s numerous advisory boards, panels and commissions, the CEQ is one of the most critical because it evaluates virtually every piece of legislation—particularly land sales (and purchases) associated with potential future development projects—before those resolutions are even considered by lawmakers. As such, the CEQ is the chief advisory agency to Suffolk County on all issues in which governmental activities will have any environmental and historical preservation impact.

"This is a great idea," says Huntington Town Historian Robert Hughes about Cooper’s bill. "The County has so many historical resources it owns that these additions to the council will put Suffolk in a better position to manage and preserve our past."

Since the County Charter does not give the County Executive veto power over legislative appointments, the integrity and legitimacy of the appointment process rests solely on the shoulders of the members of the Legislature.

"They say that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it," says Cooper. "I hope that today’s passage of this bill protects Suffolk from ever having to relive those days when stewardship of our natural resources and regional heritage took a backseat to political partisanship."