THE DEATH OF MEANINGFUL PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Today’s rural residents have no place in Tompkins County’s future.
This statement is based on more than two years of research and review, questions and public meetings concerning the most recent Agriculture and Comprehensive Plans of Lansing and Tompkins County, NY.
The amount of evidence that supports this conclusion is so great, that even in outline, it covers many pages. In this, and in following articles, I will present some of the evidence and research that support this viewpoint. A body of evidence that is still awaiting public review and discussion — and has so far been successfully suppressed by the interests that drafted these plans.
The Death of Public Participation in Tompkins County
From its very beginning, the Lansing Ag Plan deliberately excluded any meaningful participation by Lansing’s rural families [who comprise 95% of the proposed “Ag Zone” residents; and are the poorest, least represented and most economically depressed segment of the town’s population.]
The Lansing Ag Plan, although it is funded by the state, shaped by rich agribusinesses and controlled by Cornell through their powerful and federally connected Cooperative Extension, is always described as “local.”
The parties involved were so confident they were “untouchable” that they did not even bother to cover their tracks; in what amounts to a privatization of public policy.
The EPA’s “Public Participation Guide” states: “Public participation affords stakeholders (those that have an interest or stake in an issue, such as individuals, interest groups, communities) the opportunity to influence decisions that affect their lives.”
The county’s rural families have never been included as stakeholders in any planning decision; and are considered an obstruction by those who covet their land.
A Brief History
In response to my email expressing concerns with Lansing’s Proposed Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan and stating “This Summary gives the overall feeling that nobody else lives [or deserves to live] in North Lansing but farmers.” Cornell’s M***** R*** lead writer of the plan; inserted the phrase “You are right.”
I have reported this many times in communications with the people involved in Lansing Ag Plan’s formulation and approval, state and local politicians, boards and planners, and of course Cornell Cooperative Extension, and have never received even one response that repudiated or expressed any fault with this discriminatory policy statement.
Following M***** R***’s disclosure, and in light of the questionable and biased nature of the proposed Ag Plan, I sent a letter to Cornell Cooperative Extension [CCE] in December of 2015, along with a Title VI Environmental Justice form detailing seven major categories of complaint, including deceptive and false plan information, ignoring mandates for meaningful participation, incidents of CCE bias, and negative impacts of the plan on the rural community. This resulted in a meeting with CCE County Director K****** S********. The only outcome of this meeting, however, was his decision that further study of the Lansing Ag Plan was needed — there was no follow up to this meeting, and all subsequent attempts at communication went unacknowledged.
I then took all the previous information and sent it to the office of the state CCE Director C********** W*******, along with quotes from the CCE website declaring that their programs “build the capacity of New York State communities to engage in and direct their own futures.” The letter I received in response admitted no accountability or wrongdoing in their actions, and placed all responsibility solely on the Town of Lansing.
Similarly, Senator N******** responded that he did not have “authority or jurisdiction” and that the Ag Plan “falls under the control of a local municipal government,” and Senator G**********’s office agreed that it fell “under the jurisdiction of your local town government” and returned my correspondence.
In addition to the above, I have not been able to find one lawyer, or Tompkins County or New York State department, not one Cornell or Ithaca College professor, administrator or student activist group willing to help in this matter — even to the extent of writing a letter of protest. And at Ithaca College, the home of rural activist Janet Fitchen’s famous studies on rural poverty, a current professor wrote back excusing himself with “Janet worked in a simpler time.“
Local Lockstep
Local Lansing government and town officials, moving in lockstep with CCE, county and state agencies and politicians, have never once responded to questions about the lack of representation for the rural families living the Ag Plan area, or to the negative impact this plan would have on these families — and not one of the letters or emails sent to them has ever been acknowledged.
The Ag Plan’s “public meeting” was announced with minimum publicity, even though Town Board members knew that few rural families received the newspapers that posted the notices, and most rural residents did not have computers to track meetings, or even know how to use them.
The publicly staged Ag Plan meeting was no more than a small part of an ordinary Town Board meeting. Attendees could ask no questions, and were told that it was only as a favor they would be allowed to speak at all. Those wishing to speak were given two minutes each; after which the Town Board immediately approved the Lansing Ag Plan without comment or discussion.
Total public meeting time: 15 minutes.
Total respect for Lansing’s rural families: 0.
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By the time readers of the book have gotten a few pages into Part 2; the posters, games, and “humorous” pieces in Part 1 will be viewed in a different light.
These are no “A 2-page form to register a trailer!” type stories, but “The farm polluted our well, and I can’t afford to fix it or buy bottled water for our family!” situations.
And how do government agencies help them out?
They tell them to mix bottled water and the polluted well water together to be able to afford it. It may be safe to drink [if you’re not too old, or too young, and don’t have medical conditions.]
Or:
Shut down the well for safety; so they have no water at all.
In New York City: this would be outrageous! In rural New York: it’s not even a story.
