Tuesday April 30, 2024 
On Being “Business Friendly”
First of all, let us be clear that issuing a permit without complying with the law is not just an “oh, whoopsie” like spilling a glass of Merlot on somebody’s brand new white shag carpet.
It is a Class E felony in violation of Section 175.40 of the Penal Law, “Issuing a false certificate,” which section states that “A person is guilty of issuing a false certificate when, being a public servant authorized by law to make or issue official certificates or other official written instruments, and with intent to defraud, deceive or injure another person, he issues such an instrument, or makes the same with intent that it be issued, knowing that it contains a false statement or false information,” something NYS Asst. AG Kathleen Liston Morrison was forced to admit under oath in Albany County Supreme Court before Judge Robert Williams after my second Article 78 alleging false issuance by the DEC when she admitted in an affidavit to the Court that the DEC did not bother to follow a single law, rule, or regulation, and thus, she was forced to concede her client, the DEC, was guilty as charged.
In this case of Barnes Road, the Court overturning the Planning Board would seem to constitute prima facie evidence of false issuance, and that thought takes those of us with memories longer than a TWEET on TWITTER to the 1980’s, when we were reading in the Advertiser and Independent about Sand Lake and Poestenkill being “welcome developer” towns.
So we are talking about nothing at all new here.
In fact, if we go back to the 15 March 1989 Axelrod Report at p.4, we see as follows concerning the essential elements of a “welcome developer” town, those being a blatant disregard for rule of law and stifling dissent, to wit:
“Realty Subdivision plans were frequently approved after 1977 which did not meet the requirements of the County Sanitary Code.”
Felonies stacked upon felonies, which were then laundered through the Sand Lake PB.
“Welcome Developers,” indeed!
Paul Plante, Poestenkill