----- Original Message -----

From: "Ginny" < ginny243@optonline.net >

To: < repcon35@aol.com >; < bradkendall@optonline.net >

Cc: < saland@senate.state.ny.us >; < dhs@mail.nysed.gov >; < RECMGMT@mail.nysed.gov >; < millerj@assembly.state.ny.us >; < nyshrab@mail.nysed.gov >

Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 11:40 AM

Subject: Fwd: Assistance [blaming vs. leading - History & Records Management]

FYI - The following was faxed to Congresswoman Sue Kelly's Fishkill Office,
May 27, 2005.
--------------------------------
Dear Congresswoman Kelly,

It has been suggested to me that I contact you regarding the following
matter.

The following is a letter to the Editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal that was
submitted to the Journal by me and published in the May 20, 2005 issue of
the Journal.  This letter in general explains the issue at hand. More
Background on this matter can be found at my website
http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/Acres/2843/ .

I understand that you were a teacher yourself, and as such I thought that
perhaps there was some way you could help regarding these matters.  I'm of
the opinion that you must feel as I do regarding the importance of
preserving our history and the importance of same for the education of
future generations.

Thank You in advance for any assistance you can offer.  Your service to your
constituents is greatly appreciated.  Thank you for your service.

Sincerely,
Virginia Buechele
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
845-452-6417

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Urgent steps needed to save county records

After more than 12 years of vacancy, this county's adopted 2005 budget
finally included funding for the office of county historian.

In the closing paragraphs of his 2005 State of the County address, county
Executive William Steinhaus said, "As a final lift to the spirits of local
historians and others passionate about history, I am so pleased this year to
be able to take a step to connect our past, our present and our future."

To date, our county executive has failed to present a qualified historian
candidate to the legislature for approval. Other issues continually push our
county's history aside.

Our county records management center is in deplorable condition and cannot
accept records for storage, servicing and preservation. Department heads
must store records in their offices. Poorhouse records dating back to the
1870s are with the commissioner of Social Services; county "ancient
documents" dating back to 1755 are with the county clerk. Our historical
records are orphans.

This county needs a historian, archives and an archivist. This county needs
to immediately address the condition of our records management facility and
insure the servicing and preservation of county records now and in the
future in order to comply with our county charter and Local Law No. 3 of
1986.

Exactly when will our executive take those steps he was so pleased about in
January "to lift the spirits of local historians and others passionate about
history"?

Virginia A. Buechele, Poughkeepsie

[Mail to P O. Box 243, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569 (845) 452-6417]
--------------------------------------
[Accusations - one of those other pertinent issues that drives our History
aside - our County Executive needs to "lead" and follow through on his own
words to "connect our past, our present and our future."]

Thursday, May 26, 2005
Steinhaus: 2 lawmakers owe favors to state
Bias claim aimed at jail plan
By Anthony Farmer
Poughkeepsie Journal

The county Legislature's top two Republicans are backing a
multimillion-dollar jail expansion plan because one works for a state
senator and the other's wife was appointed to a state job by the governor,
Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus said Wednesday.

Majority Leader Noreen Reilly, R-Hyde Park, and Chairman Brad Kendall,
R-Dover, are not acting in the best interest of the county because they are
beholden to the state, Steinhaus alleged during a meeting with the
Poughkeepsie Journal editorial board Wednesday.

Reilly works in the Poughkeepsie district office of state Sen. Steve Saland,
R-Poughkeepsie. Kendall's wife, Barbara, was appointed by Gov. George Pataki
to head the state Greenway Conservancy in 2001 and now works for the state
Department of Environmental Conservation.

Earlier this year, Steinhaus, a Republican, vetoed a plan, approved by the
Legislature's Republican majority, to spend $560,000 on designing a jail
expansion. The state said the county needs to more than double the size of
the jail by adding at least 300 beds and Steinhaus said such a project is
too costly.

Pair 'drive this project'

He noted legislators have yet to take any further action on expanding the
jail and said there's not enough support to do so. Reilly and Kendall are
the two trying to "drive this project," he said.

"She is Steve Saland's insurance policy, a well-paid insurance policy,"
Steinhaus said.

"Her paycheck is with the state Legislature," he added. "She's compromised."

Reilly said she was "highly offended" when told of Steinhaus' statements and
said her work in Saland's office does not compromise her independence as a
county lawmaker. Reilly is paid $28,650 as Saland's district coordinator.

"Anyone who knows me, knows that is not the case," Reilly said. "It's
disingenuous what he's doing."

The jail is currently only allowed to hold up to 257 inmates because of the
county's failure to move forward on expansion plans.

Previously, the county had received state permission to exceed its capacity
and squeeze in about 300 inmates a day by placing beds in classrooms and
other common areas. The state Commission of Correction refused to extend
those waivers last month, putting the official capacity at 257 inmates as of
May 1.

The additional inmates now have to be housed at facilities in other
counties - which is projected to cost $3.8 million next year, Kendall said.

The 300-cell addition the state has called for is projected to cost $60
million to $70 million, not including financing costs. The cost of running
such a facility has been projected to be about $13 million a year, Steinhaus
said.

The state commission stepped up pressure last fall on the county to expand
the jail and rejected a county plan, favored by Kendall and Reilly, that
would have been half the size of what the state wanted.

Kendall said he was disappointed by Steinhaus' accusations.

"Because he can't argue the facts he chooses to engage in personal attacks,"
Kendall said.

Kendall said all leaders, including Steinhaus, need to work toward a common
solution on overcoming the state's call for a 300-bed expansion.

"Dutchess County needs to come to an agreement amongst the principles of
what it's position is," he said. "You sit down and have a rational
discussion with them, as opposed to arguing it out in the papers and
engaging in personal attacks."

Steinhaus has repeatedly blamed state legislators for not acting to remove
state parole violators from the county jail and for not calling off the
state Commission of Correction, which has been pressuring the county to
expand the facility.

He also took a shot at Saland Wednesday.

"I congratulate Steve for his political acumen for his ability to hire
Noreen, his insurance policy," Steinhaus said.

Saland dismissed Steinhaus' allegations. Reilly does great work and he's
pleased to have her on his staff, he said.

"If the county executive wants to stoop to picking on a hard-working widow,
who works two jobs to support herself and her daughter, I find that shameful
and reprehensible," Saland said. "He should recognize that he is, like the
rest of us, a mere mortal and not a king.

"He'd rather blame than lead," he added.

Anthony Farmer can be reached at apfarmer@poughkeepsiejournal.com
-------------------------------------------
bcc:
Noreen Reilly, Dutchess County Legislature
Brad Kendall, Dutchess County Legislature
NY Senator Stephen Saland
NY Assemblyman Joel Miller
New York State Historical Records Advisory Board
Documentary Heritage Program, NY State Dept. of Education
Records Management Services, New York State Archives

Dear County Executive Steinhaus and Members of the Legislature:

I am just passing this along for your information - You might want to refer to this if you need assistance in filling the County Historian Position - "An understanding of the past is as vital to a community as other services provided by government."

Local Government Historian Guidelines
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/services/srvguidelines.html

Including but not limited to:
Duties and Functions
Qualifications
Recommendations for filling the position!

Source: New York State Museum Website
The NYS Museum is a program of: The University Of the State of New York /
New York State Education Department / Office of Cultural Education
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Introduction

The State Historian provides guidance, direction, and training to the network of Local Government Historians in New York State pursuant to section 57.13 of Arts and Cultural Affairs Law.

The network of Local Government Historians consists of:
* 5 Burough Historians in Greater New York City
* 12 Community Historians (in community districts of the Borough of Manhattan)
* 57 County Historians
* 61 City Historians
* 938 Town Historians
* 567 Village Historians
Total: 1,640 jurisdictions

Duties and Functions:

The work of the Local Government Historian falls into four broad categories. Where the historian places emphasis will largely be a matter of personal interest and inclination as well as reflect the priorities and interests of the historian's appointing authority.

1. Research and Writing

The first, and primary, responsibility of the Local Government Historian is interpretation of the past. This will involve research and writing on aspects of the history of one's jurisdiction and may include scholarly monographs and articles as well as writing for a more general public audience in magazines and newspapers. Professor Judith M. Wellman noted:

The best local historians have upheld high standards of gathering and evaluating evidence, making thoughtful and appropriate generalizations, writing well-organized and readable narratives, and sharing their work with others through the most appropriate mediums.

2. Teaching and Public Presentations

The second category of responsibilities also involves the interpretation of the history of his or her community through teaching and public presentations. The Local Government Historian may teach courses in local and regional history, serve as a resource to teachers especially in the fourth and seventh grade local history curriculum, serve as a content consultant to historical agency exhibit planners, speak and lecture to community groups, participate in radio talk shows, and otherwise disseminate knowledge of the history of their locality. In addition, the Local Government Historian may work directly with students and other individuals interested in the community's past.

3. Historic Preservation

The third category of activity for Local Government Historians is that of historic preservation. This embraces not only preservation of the built environment but also of the manuscripts and records that document a community's past, and the objects and artifacts that constitute a community's material culture.

The Local Government Historian is both an advocate for historic preservation and a resource to his or her appointing authority on questions relating to history and preservation. The Local Government Historian may be asked to prepare cultural resource surveys of areas scheduled for development, to identify historic structures and districts and to prepare nominations to the State and National Register of Historic Places, to develop and manage historic marker programs, and to answer questions regarding the historic significance of places and properties within his or her jurisdiction.

In addition, the Local Government Historian promotes and encourages the preservation of historic manuscripts and other records as well as artifacts by recommending appropriate repositories of historical materials, such as local government archives, local public libraries, or historical agency collections.

4. Organization, Advocacy, and Tourism Promotion

The final area of activity for Local Government Historians is that of organizer and advocate. Local Government Historians are often asked by their appointing authorities to support the local Tourism Promotion Agency or TPA. Heritage Tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry and depends for success on an accurate and attractive presentation of history. Successful efforts can have an important positive effect on local and regional economy.

Local Government Historians are also asked to organize and direct the commemoration of historical anniversaries and to participate in other civic or patriotic observations. To this the Local Government Historian must bring energy and knowledge of the past as well as a sense of good taste. Moreover, the Local Government Historian may be asked to act as a fund raiser or grant writer to provide resources for historical programs or to use their knowledge of local government to lobby for or introduce legislative initiatives to promote community history.

County Historians

The organizational function is especially important to County Historians who have the added responsibility of providing guidance and support to the municipal historians in their counties and of serving as a conduit of information between the State Historian in Albany and the local historians in their counties. The Local Historian Law reads:

It shall be the duty of the county historian to supervise the activities of the local historians in towns and villages within the county in performing the historical work recommended by the state historian...

County historians hold regular meeting for the local historians in their counties, sponsor in-service training sessions, monitor vacant jurisdictions, propose and carry out co-operative joint projects, and assist the work of their local historians wherever possible.

Public Access

The Local Government Historian is the officer of local government charged with responsibility for matters relating to a community's past. As a public officer access is important. This means a regular schedule of business hours that are publicly available. In a perfect world every Local Government Historian would be provided with office space in the business office of their jurisdiction. This is sometimes not the case. Local Government Historians are sometimes required to maintain offices in public libraries or on the premises of chartered historical agencies. Local Government Historians should not conduct business from their home. At a very minimum Local Government Historians must be provided with a maildrop at the village, town, or city hall or county office building, where they can be contacted at an official address.

Local Government Historians are mandated by statute to report annually to their appointing authority and to the State Historian.

It is appropriate also to clarify what Local Government Historians are not.

1. The Local Government Historian is not an antiquarian. The Local Government Historian should not just collect "facts" about their community without attempting to put this data into a larger historical framework. Nor should Local Government Historians seek to assemble collections. Collections of artifacts or documents should be referred to an appropriate repository, i.e. a museum, library or historical agency, equipped to catalogue, preserve and interpret such materials. Historians should especially eschew time-consuming activities like assembling scrapbooks of newspaper clippings. Clippings of newsprint will only survive for a few years and microfilm copies of newspapers are already preserved in several depositories in the state.

2. The Local Government Historian is not an archivist. Local Government Historians have long had to cope with the ambiguous wording of the Local Historians Law relating to archival responsibilities. Local Government Historians must keep in mind the distinction between records collection, preservation, and management, which is the responsibility of the Records Management Officer (most often the village, town, city or county clerk), and the historian's role as supporter and, most important, researcher and user of archival records. This ambiguity was clarified in 1988with the passage of the Local Government Records Law, which reads in part:

Each local government historian shall promote the establishment and improvement of programs for the management and preservation of local government records with enduring value for historical or other research; encourage the collection and preservation of non-governmental historical records by libraries, historical societies, and other repositories; and carry out and actively encourage research in such records in order to add to the knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the community's history.

3. The Local Government Historian is not a genealogist. Local Government Historians receive numerous requests for genealogical research and information. The Local Government Historian must, therefore, clearly understand the distinction between genealogy (the narrow pursuit of an individual's lineage), and family or community history (the use of individual lives to illuminate historical situations). Historians in the course of their work may assemble valuable data on early residents of their community and may share portions of that data, if available, in response to genealogical requests. However they are not authorized to conduct genealogical research on demand. New York State Arts and Cultural Affairs Law states:

Neither Town Law nor any other statute authorizes a town to make expenditures for the benefit of individuals seeking information about their ancestry. . .The local historian's duties are defined in relation to the history of the political subdivision, in this case a town, and there is no authority to conduct research with respect to biographical or genealogical matters which are unrelated to the town's history.

Local historians have often found it expedient to keep on file a list of contract genealogists who may be contacted to provide such services.

4. The Local Government Historian is not part of an historical agency staff.

Many local historians are active members of their local historical society. However, the office of Local Government Historian is a demanding one. It should not be diluted by the appointment of one individual to be local historian and, at the same time, director of an historical agency. Moreover, a strong potential for conflict of interest exists in this practice. The director of an historical agency is primarily responsible to a board of trustees for the direction of a private membership organization. The local historian is a public officer obliged under the public officers law to provide equal service to all the citizens of his or her jurisdiction.

5. The Local Government Historian is not a partisan political functionary. Although the Local Government Historian is sometimes a political appointment, he or she must be above partisan politics in their writing and public presentations. The Local Government Historian is a professional historian who must adhere to professional standards in striving to produce objective and unbiased history. While it is not inappropriate for the Local Government Historian to write an institutional history of his or her local government, it is inappropriate to write a "puff piece" orapologia for a particular administration or political party, or to ignore the history of other groups. Furthermore, political campaigning, fund raising, or writing campaign literature is not part of the Local Government Historian's job.

Conclusion

The 1,640 local government historians in New York State constitute the largest and most impressive network of local government historians in the country. Such a network offers the potential for comparative community history across the entire state. Today's local government historians share the prestige of a position once held by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was the historian for the Town of Hyde Park while he was governor of New York. Local government historians play an important role in their community: by studying and interpreting a community's past, they also help shape present-day perceptions of that community. An understanding of the past is as vital to a community as other services provided by government.
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Qualifications: for the Appointment of Local Government Historians

The Office of the State Historian is frequently asked to provide guidance to local officials and search committees charged with the appointment of local government historians. While the ultimate responsibility for making such appointments rests with the localities, the following constitutes our recommendations on educational requirements that would qualify a person for appointment as a local government historian. We assert that no responsible local government would hire an unqualified highway engineer or coroner. The local government historian is a public office of equal importance and the appointment deserves to be taken equally seriously.

Qualifications

* A baccalaureate degree with a major concentration in American History or some related field is the minimum recommended qualification for a local government historian.

* For the position of County Historian, which carries with it additional leadership responsibilities as well as the need to comprehend the potentially more complex history of a larger geo-political entity, a Master of Arts degree with a major concentration in American History or some related field is the recommended minimum qualification.

* For historians of the five boroughs of New York City or of other cities with populations of over one million, the Ph.D. degree, with a major concentration in American Urban History or some related field is the minimum recommended qualification.

In filling these positions the Office of the State Historian recommends:

* A public announcement of the position.

* Creation of a search committee to conduct as wide a search as possible for interested and qualified candidates. In addition to members selected by the appointing authority, the search committee should include one of more academic historians drawn from the history departments of community colleges, colleges or universities in the region, representatives of local historical or preservation societies, and one or more local government historians from adjacent jurisdictions.

* For the appointment of municipal historians, the search committee ought to include the County Historian.

* For the appointment of borough or city historians it seems appropriate to advertise the position in The Chronicle of Higher Education, with the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and other professional forums, as well as local and major metropolitan newspapers, in order to attract well-qualified candidates.

------------------------------------------------
Virginia A. Buechele
P O Box 243
Pleasant Valley, NY 12569
(845) 452-6417