Spring Cleaning Idea for Governor Hochul and Attorney General James - Revisited

I present this article as an open letter to Governor Hochul and NYS Attorney General James…for their consideration….

Dear Governor Hochul and NYS Attorney General James,

Thank you for your many years of public service. As a person who is not affiliated with any political party and looks forward to voting politicians of both parties out of office for their self-serving and unethical behaviors…each November…I would like to offer these observations and possible solutions for you to consider. I submit this open letter to you in hopes that you will take some ACTION on these recommendations.

It is no wonder people have lost complete faith in our government system and legal system…as well as the very poor quality of candidates running for elected office (excluding the few that are still fighting the GOOD fight). Why should people bother voting in elections that have already been bought and paid for, or when good people do get elected, they get thrown into a corrupt system that is designed to prevent doing what is in the best interest of the public good...and instead designed to provide self-serving politicians and their associated support networks more of their unethical food for fodder?

With the outright level of grotesque corruption and unethical behavior within Cayuga County, NY government and legal system....is it any wonder why no alternative candidates (i.e. trustworthy and ethical candidates) want to run for office...or why people don't want to waste their time voting....except for the cronies of the corrupt politicians and the big wig donors…so they can influence institutions of higher education to set up "Title IX" and "DEI" policies and programs that can and will be used against them…for their own benefit? It’s not a big secret about what is going on in Cayuga County and a good first place to look is in the District Attorney’s office located at the Cayuga County Office Building, 160 Genesee Street, Auburn, NY.

How about using state and local government employees at every level (full-time, part-time, volunteer, etc.) and elected officials of Cayuga County, NY….as the sacrificial lambs as part of a pilot study…to demonstrate a process to identify and get a grip on the wide-spread corruption that is so prevalent among government employees and elected officials across the state…as well as showing them that you really do mean business about cleaning up this mess?

I would propose you you undertake the study below in order to achieve the following:

• Identify corruption and unethical behavior…as well as those who are supporting this corrupt system.
• Have these corrupt employees and politicians incarcerated and replace their positions with ethical employees instead. After a review of legal documents, there will unquestionably be the discovery of people who have been improperly incarcerated in the Cayuga County Jail System…and therefore…once they are released, those holding cells can be used for the corrupt employees and politicians….so they can meet their new roommates.
• Create internship opportunities for ethical legal professionals by having them participate in the pilot study below by earning credit towards their degrees or as continuing education credits for certifications.
• Pay for the pilot study through salary savings of the corrupt government employees and legal professionals who get incarcerated as a result of this study - please see below for details.
• Start the very slow process of giving the people of New York State some hope that things are heading in the right direction. Once people start seeing ore names in the paper of charges being filed for corrupt and unethical behavior, including legal professionals losing their licenses to practice law….then other people will start to feel more comfortable reporting unethical and illegal behavior as well.
• Perhaps encourage potential political candidates who truly seek to work together - regardless of political affiliation - to clean up NYS and start rebuilding…as opposed to those who seek to divide and feast upon their corrupt buffets that are occurring throughout the state. PS: Just drive a few hours to the North Country and you’ll have no shortage of findings there and this should be used as pilot #2.

PROPOSED PILOT STUDY USING CAYUGA COUNTY, NY AS A SACRIFICIAL LAMB

I would propose a 2025 Spring Cleaning Corruption Amnesty Program. Such an amnesty day would provide Cayuga County government employees and elected officials who may have "accidently" issued and filed legal documents with typographical / material errors…or conduced similar lower level mistakes (determined by the NYS Office of the Attorney General (OAG)…to come clean and move forward with a clean slate. However, as part of the deal, they would also provide any evidence they had of any illegal activity occurring with the departments they worked for or have done official government business within some capacity, including work with non-profit groups at any level.

This would not be too hard of a pilot program to implement using a 360 degree survey AND requiring completion by anyone in Cayuga County who is considered a paid NYS employee at any level (full-time, part-time, and official volunteers) as well as elected government officials and their appointees.? Give them one week to complete the survey once it’s been sent out, do a follow up with any remaining people who missed the initial deadline with a short amount of catch-up time in terms of days. After the final deadline passes, those employees and government officials who fail to respond, should have their paychecks withheld until the 360 degree survey is completed, as well as letting them know that payment of withheld funds is not retroactive even when they do complete the survey…but at least they will start getting a paycheck again.? Use the funds from the clowns’ paychecks who don't submit the 360 degree survey on time…and earmark that money to fund paying to have the survey conducted and analyzed.

Please note, for those academics who want to argue about the validity and pros and cons of a 360 degree survey…these tools can work for the intended purpose and by the time a debate occurs after a series of back and forth about why we should or should not use one…what is being proposed could have been completed and initial high-level data collected….to point the way for formal investigation. Please try to see through the weeds and look at the higher level of what such a survey could do….which is a simple, quick, and cost efficient way to gather a large amount of data in a short amount of time…which could then be used to prioritize where to spend in-depth time to investigate more fully. Pooling the aggregate data in such a way will quickly identify gaps and trends….as well as start connecting dots and patterns that may not otherwise have been seen in between the smoke and mirrors these corrupt and unethical individuals rely upon so heavily.

It would not be too hard to find an independent company who specializes in 360 degree surveys that could pull one together for Cayuga County in a short order...and in fact there is probably already an approved preferred vendor the NYS is using these 360 degree surveys for similar studies within human resource departments. If you are thinking right now….why not just do the whole state? Good question, but a pilot like this would be best to try on a small scale initially at the county level (Cayuga County), verify the question sets (most questions are already in place), and analyze the data first, then roll out to the rest of the state.

This initial pilot should be kept small to one county first….using Cayuga County, NY as the guinea pig...or more appropriately…the sacrificial lamb. Then upon completion and a review of the effectiveness as the questions (versus in-depth data analysis of the responses)...then roll the pilot out statewide over the next month.? By conducting such a pilot program, which then quickly gets rolled out across the state, the confidence of NYS residents can start being built back up again….through the concrete action of conducting these surveys. Then perhaps voters will start renewing their interest and paying attention to politics and hopefully getting out there and voting for candidates who will actually work for them and not the self-serving clowns that are currently running amok all over this state???

Dear Governor Hochul - for this simple idea with far-reaching impacts…how about just issuing an executive order and cutting through the bureaucratic red tape and make this happen by taking some ACTION on this as part of spring cleaning.? Seriously....do the elected clowns in Albany really need to debate whether having a 360 degree survey sent out to NYS employees and elected officials in Cayuga County should or shouldn’t be undertaken?? The normal question set used in a 360 degree survey will work perfectly fine and has research to back it up.? All that needs to be done is to add in three separate open-ended questions that specifically ask if people are aware of any corruption, unethical behavior, or other illegal activities within their organization or ones they have done business within some capacity.

None of this needs to be that complicated and none of this will take much time and there is likely a state approved vendor for this through a human resources contract....or just ask SUNY Albany or another SUNY college as they too would be set up for such a study and would have a large pool of researchers who could help out.? The withheld paychecks and penalties given to the clowns who think they can continue to ignore the laws of NYS should easily cover the costs of the survey and data analysis. As expected, a large number of corrupt government employees will likely quickly resign once they realize that accountability is the new word of the day. The short-term salary savings from their vacant position can be used to fund this executive order. Additionally, the resignation and/or incarceration of these corrupt individuals will by default....provide new job openings for ethical professionals who would like to get into government service....after the clowns have been sent away to Clown Town and the get to meet their new resident inmates.? There should be plenty of open jail cells available within Cayuga County after the improperly incarcerated inmates get to see their freedom again. This is really a simple solution that can be implemented fairly easily to start addressing to a complicated situation.?

Dear Governor....you have already shown this state you are more than capable of taking ACTION on multiple fronts.? Doing a pilot study through the implementation of a 360 degree survey on NYS government and elected officials in an effort to identify and root out corruption and unethical behavior - at the county level - using Cayuga County as the sacrificial lamb...should be a very easy target to achieve starting January 1, 2025.? Then after the results are reviewed in terms of if the questions were worded properly...then issue the 360 degree survey out to the rest of the state. A key component of this pilot program MUST include an accountability function through withhold paychecks (with no retroactive payback without formal appeal). If needed, please issue an executive order to allow for the short-term use of this level of accountability…but more importantly - follow through on taking ACTION using this method.? Once a few of these clowns start losing their paychecks...and hopefully a large number of them getting charged and several getting incarcerated….then there will be a tide that sweeps across NYS to wash it of corruption with just this first pass using this pilot study….and the tide will start to change for a reasonable election and turnout. Hopefully this will also have the side benefit of more honest public servants getting out there to see what their communities really need…and to work across aisles to actually get something accomplished for taxpayers…as opposed to more clowns getting elected…only to spend taxpayers time and money being spent barking at us on TV telling us everything that is wrong, but without providing any solutions other than to reelect them and their cronies, and to continue allowing special interests to drive legislation.

Thank you for your consideration of implementing this pilot program using Cayuga County, NY as the first sacrificial lamb as part of the 2025 Spring Cleaning Corruption Amnesty Program.

PS: How about rethinking bail reform as well after you clean house of some of this corruption…or at least reclassifying how corruption is legally defined such that the clowns who are wasting taxpayer dollars and time actually do get to go to jail, straight to jail, not able to pass go, and not collect their NYS retirement from their lifetime of corruption and unethical behavior. Start feeding some of these clowns to the inmates and you will see changes happening quickly.

PPS: How about actually making Domestic Violence as actual chargeable offense and better yet…make it two separate offenses:

• Physical Domestic Violence and Abuse
• Mental Domestic Violence and Abuse

Have the standard lowered slightly such that these abusers can at least get some charge against them instead of holding them to a standard that is currently suited for more violent criminals. These domestic violence abusers continue working the system to their advantage by flying just below law enforcement’s radar while continuing to fly in the face and attacking their domestic victims. Please feed these clowns to the inmates as well too.

PPPS: How about giving ethical inmates who help patrol the prisons and keeping clowns in order and in place some sort of extra credit or something. Create an incentive so the inmates can help control their own population and root out the same unethical breed that is among them. The majority of those inmates made mistakes in their past and want to move forward by serving their time in peace and then trying to move forward in their lives. If all else fails with the clowns, take them for a boat ride out in the Atlantic and feed them to the real sharks. Maybe that’s a bit extreme, but you get my point.

Dear Governor Hochul and NYS Attorney General James - please take some ACTION on this proposed pilot program using Cayuga County, NY as the first sacrificial lamb…it will be fun…trust me…I know from experience.

With Love and Peace,

-Jerry

Related article that serves as a Table of Contents for articles on Cayuga County: “The Morning After...(humor…but not really)”