Please accept this letter as a contribution to the dialogue posted by state Sen. Martins regarding New York State grants and the on-going problems associated with their payment.
On behalf of JSK Public Safety Consulting we submit our perspective.
JSK is currently New York’s largest fire grant writing firm representing over 100 fire and EMS agencies in five states. Of those agencies, 78 are located on Long Island, and many of them within the 7th NYS Senatorial District.
In fact, we represent the grant related interests of every member of the both the 1st and 8th Fire Battalions with the exception of one each.
During the 2012 Federal Fire Act cycle alone, we returned $2.7 million in federal funding to Nassau and Suffolk County’s volunteer fire service. Let’s be clear, we are paid for writing and administering grant awards. It is in our best interest to see grants finally paid.
Obviously any discussion of grants is of great interest to us and we appreciate the opportunity to comment.
But Martins implying that he has “discovered” this funding is disingenuous at best and misinformed at the least. We currently have over 319 e-mails spanning from 2009 through as late as today struggling to recover these promised yet withheld funds.
We surmise the timing of this story to be a poorly veiled attempt at a preemptive deflection in the face of mounting hostility from awardees as the true history of this saga comes more and more to light.
The assertion that Martins has, “found $15 million in grant funding” is similar to saying Columbus found America while the Indians were living here already. In both cases, although they believed they had made a great discovery, many knew all along.
Let’s begin by separating state grants into two generic categories: DASNY and NYS Senate.
This represents grants identified by the Legislature and by either the state Dept. of State (Office of Counterterrorism) or the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. Almost all of the New York State Senate Legislative Initiatives (member items) in the Senate’s 7th District have been paid to volunteer fire departments over the last four years.
Many volunteer fire departments throughout Nassau and Suffolk County have been promised awards but have not received them.
In the case of DASNY awards, the picture is much bleaker.
For instance, many of Sen. Johnson’s awards have been paid to departments on the southern tier of the Senate District such as East Williston, Mineola, and Mineola Volunteer Ambulance, while many in areas to the north have not been, such as the Great Neck Vigilant’s Fire Company.
Promising and not delivering grants makes it almost impossible for administrators to set costs and establish budgets. Will purchasing an item promised under a grant jeopardize funding, or will remaining in non-compliance jeopardize firefighter’s safety but prove financially prudent? These are the choices they face.
The rate of payment has remained ridiculously slow. For instance, my oldest son entered Mineola Middle School, graduated, and is now in the High School in the time span of when Johnson’s DASNY grants were awarded until today.
In the example of a local federal Fire Act grant, we were able to write the application, receive an award, request payment, and close the New Hyde Park Fire District AFGP award all within nine months. Further, the amount of the New Hyde Park rescue truck award was twice the amount of the DASNY award.
This is not to place the blame on the foot of Martins. There are many forces at work including the fact that Martins is a freshman senator in a house still relying heavily on seniority.
And the majority of the house is more divided now than at any point in New York history with three voting blocs as opposed to the traditional two.
The slim co-majority held by New York Republicans and Reformed Democrats is the slimmest in either party’s history. The senator’s contention that he did not sponsor these grants is valid.
But when our staff discussed these issues we were told we “didn’t understand the politics” involved. Well, you’re right.
We don’t understand the politics involved in dispersing the people’s money to local governments after providing for these funds in the state budget. We do understand the politics of not funding five fire department projects since 2009, but funding one for the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire District after a member faced Martins in the last election.
We applaud Martins repeated comments that he will not appear with a grant presentation check. Although noble, the fact remains that he doesn’t have access to any grant funding to print on those big checks at his disposal.
Senators. Caemmerer, Tully, Balboni, and especially Johnson lavished huge grants to community groups recognizing that this oddly constructed district relied heavily on lavishly providing state funding to local organizations. Johnson made big promises, but left his successor holding the bill.
Regardless, the contention that Johnson took all of the Senate files with him, be it the case or not, is largely insignificant. The sponsor’s role after the state budget is passed is largely one of assistance.
All contract data is exchanged between the state agency and the grantee. Whether the sponsor had access to those records or not is of no consequence.
These online DASNY applications can be accessed at any time by the grantor, or the grantee.
We currently have 23 certified return receipts for packets of documentation sent, and re-sent from 2009 to today.
But most disturbing is the letter from Judith Kennedy, director of administration, dated May 29, 2013, from the New York State Department of State. It states that New York is prohibited from paying New York State legislative grants at the direction of the NYS Senate. “Previously sponsored member item contracts could not be processed based on the direction of the Senate Finance Committee.”
This is direct support to previous communications from the Department of State, which also states the Senate is the body preventing payment.
Of particular frustration is the requirement of a notarized signature on the grant paperwork. The state honors this signature and certification for about 18 months but holds the documents for 19, thus requiring a re-start to the entire process. Or the requirement that volunteer fire departments locate and provide New York State Workers Compensation certificates to the state.
Every volunteer firefighter in New York State is both automatically and mandated to be covered by the New York State Volunteer Firefighters Benefit Law (Workers Comp). This requirement is just another delaying tactic to discourage volunteers from dedicating the item necessary to produce this duplicative documentation.
Can’t somebody in New York State walk across the hall and get a copy of the VFBL?
October has always been the traditional period of time for elected officials to release their local grant awards. The irony here is now that Gov. Cuomo has vetoed pork barrel spending.
Legislators are lauding their efforts to produce grants written and obtained by their predecessors, while somehow magically knocking them simultaneously in the process. Well, they can’t have it both ways. Are the grants good or are they bad? They can’t champion their fiscal restraint from member items, and then take credit for getting their predecessors grants paid. This is illogical.
Funding grant programs is good government. It improves firefighter safety, enhances services, and keeps local taxes down. Items purchased through grants support local venders, contractors and equipment suppliers.
Unfortunately, being in the private sector, I don’t have a staff to continually respond to letters to the editor, so let’s re-visit this topic in 90 days and assess the progress for the following agencies with outstanding New York State DASNY promised funding:
1 – The Great Neck Vigilant Fire Company, fire training tower repair: $100,000.
2 – The East Williston FD, communications room: $50,000.
3 – The New Hyde Park FD, driveway project: $50,000.
4 – The Bellerose Terrace FD: $50,000 and $100,000 for fire fighting equipment
5 – The Floral Park Center FD, generator and diesel exhaust : $100,000.
6 – The South Floral Park Fire District, firefighting equipment: $100,000.
The above randomly identified projects were provided to JSK on 10/12/10 by Sen. Johnson and prepared by the New York State Senate Fiscal Integrity Unit. For the sake of my clients, my business interest, and the community, let us all join together to finish these projects once and for all.
Kevin Mulrooney
Williston Park
