Advertisement. Advertise with us

Capitol Attack, Riot Resolutions

Passed Routinely – Then, Oops!

County Rep. Rick Brockway, R-West Laurens, top row, center, brought a moment of levity – and truth – to today’s county board meeting.

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – After last month’s hour-long fiery debate at the county board meeting over resolutions expressing contrary views on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, both resolutions went through routinely at today’s meeting as part of the consent agenda.

Well, almost.

County Rep. Rick Brockway, on Zoom from his West Laurens home, answered a question his wife was relaying to him from a caller.

“We didn’t pull either of them,” replied Brockway.  “They didn’t pull theirs, so we didn’t pull ours.”

“Rick, you’re not on mute,” one of his fellow Zoom meeting participants called out.

“Dave told me not to object,” Brockway continued, an apparent reference to county board Chairman David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield.

“RICK, YOU’RE NOT ON MUTE,” all the Republican county representatives called out in unison.

Interviewed by phone later, Brockway said he wanted to remove Resolution 158 – proposed by Republicans, it objected to BOTH the Capitol attack and summertime riots in cities across the country –  from the consent agenda.

“I wanted to have a voice vote,” he said, so voters would know where each representative stood.

Resolution 159, proposed by county Rep. Andrew Stammel, D-Oneonta, decried ONLY the Capitol attack, not the riots.

Last month, county Rep. Danny Lapin, D-Oneonta, called it “false equivalency.”  But its sponsors, Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, and Dan Wilber, R-Burlington, didn’t budge.

In the end, both resolutions failed last month.

At this month’s meeting today, the consent agenda, which gangs routine resolutions to speed up approvals, passed unanimously with no comment – miraculously, it seemed – until Brockway’s interjection.

Posted

7 Comments

  1. Question:

    Where is there a problem?

    It seems pure common sense that if one had issue with what occurred on Jan 6, that they would also have issue of much greater damage, violence, threats, and death over this past summer.

    This article smacks moreso of exposing an embarrassing lack of mute…perhaps in hopes to garner anti-Republican fodder….than expressing the volume at issue: Has the violence, murder, arson and literal occupation of a city portion of any light in comparison to Jan 6…where only fractions, if any, had occurred.

    This article maintains little, if any, intellectual journalistic merit to the reader….unless a motive is desired. No?

  2. The real question might be why the County Board feels the need to weigh in on either the riots over the summer or the attack on January 6. None of the events would seem to be under their jurisdiction.

  3. Why is this an issue with the county board. Don’t they have enough to do running the county? This is not what they were elected for or paid to do.

  4. County officials should focus on county business. This nonsense and it is exactly that should be left to our elected “deplorables” in Albany and DC.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Articles

WHELAN: These Facts Correct: Guns Are Killing Us

LETTER from MARY ANNE WHELAN, MD These Facts Correct: Guns Are Killing Us To the Editor: In his most recent letters to the editor on the subject of gun regulation, Mr. Brockway seems to have the shoe on the wrong foot when it comes to factual statements, a particularly bad error for a blacksmith. In addition to his past claims that the Democratic presidential candidates all wanted to take your guns away, which he surely knew to be false – none of them had ever said any such thing – he has now decided that Kirsten Gillibrand wants to put…

Century Old Barn Finds New Home

One Man’s History, Another Man’s Treasure Century Old Barn Finds New Home By JOE TOPPE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com It was 1897, the same year Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” was published and a gold rush lured scores of prospectors to the Klondike. Here in Otsego County, Rick Brockway’s great-great grandfather Jesse was driving the final nails into his West Laurens’ dairy barn. Now, more than 50 years since the family used the barn for farming, only the structure’s frame is worth saving. “It’s been used as a family storage unit since 1970, but that is no longer economical,” Brockway said in…

Benton Is Planning Primary Challenge To Veteran Marietta

Benton Is Planning Primary Challenge To Veteran Marietta 2021 County Board Dispute Shaping Up By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – Democrat MacGuire Benton confirmed a few minutes ago he plans to challenge the dean of the county board Democrats, Andrew Marietta, for the Cooperstown/Town of Otsego seat in next June’s primary. “Primaries are the sign of a healthy democracy,” he said, adding he’s looking forward to “an exchange of ideas.”  He added, “It’s early, and I look forward to sharing my platform with District 8” when it is fully developed. For his part, Marietta, who has been…

Putting the Community Back Into the Newspaper

Now through March 30, new annual subscribers to “The Freeman’s Journal” and AllOtsego.com (or subscribers who have lapsed for two or more years) have an opportunity to help their choice of one of four Otsego County charitable organizations.

$5.00 of your subscription will be donated to the nonprofit of your choice:

Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, Cooperstown Food Pantry, Greater Oneonta Historical Society or Super Heroes Humane Society.