[A letter to the Chairman of the Dutchess County Legislature Public Works and Capital Projects Committee.]

Dear Committee Chairman Hutchings and others:

SCARY STUFF I heard yesterday - We need to comply with Local Law. No. 3 of 1986 more than just on paper - especially when we apply for grants for our records which currently are obtained under false pretenses by presenting in grant applications that Dutchess County has a Records Management Adisory Board when in reality such a board only exists on paper - We Need an Active Records Management Advisory Board with a County Historian and an accredited County Archivist and we need it NOW.
Let us not neglect our records and our history for the sake of a Medical Examiners Office and a MORGUE at 170 Washington Street.

In 2006 Donald Miller our current Records Management Officer and Director of Purchasing publicly stated at a legislature meeting that the Records Management Advisory Board had never met - and I doubt to date it has either. Do not purchase a "Pig in a Poke" when this building has needed a roof for years and over the years the taxpayers of Dutchess County have paid for one via lease payments to the landlord for this currently leased property - but in the meantime our records are in jeopardy and we'll be paying for a roof in addition to the building down the road.

The medical examiner presented a convincing case for why she needs more space. In the opinion of this writer such may very well be the case but now is not the time for the county to purchase this property, for this purpose - let alone continue to house our records in it under current conditions and without an active records management advisory board with an eye to future needs for our records - current and historical. I've done my homework and still am. My request is that you all do the same. Facts reveal the County Exec. currently renewed the lease for 170 Washington Street for five years through April 30, 2015 - It's about time the landlord replaced the roof and DPW stopped putting band-aids on it after having leased this property for 15+ years already. Think about just who the County will really be enriching here.

Shine your light on this one by obtaining FACTS & with critical informed thinking and questions - your constituents, our records and our history deserve nothing less. Nick Johnson's answers to Chairman Hutchings questions yesterday were far too vague.

What I heard! Partial Abstract of VAB recording from Dutchess County Legislature Public Works and Capital Projects Committe Meeting August 30, 2010 - 4:30 PM To discuss a resolution: Public Works and Capital Projects Committee - Discuss a Bond Resolution . . . .Authorizing the issuance of $4,328,458 Serial Bonds of the County of Dutchess,… New York to pay a portion of the cost of Acquisition of a Parcel of Land and the building there on located at 170 Washington Street and construction of an Addition thereto, in and for said County. [This is where the County Records Management Center is and the County's historical records are - The addition is for a Medical Examiners Office and Yes a MORGUE.]

The Question and Answer period as it pertains to records held at the Records Center

Legislator Hutchings [Chairman of the Dutchess County Legislature Public Works and Capital Pojects] asks:

That building - the rest of the entire building is used for the records that are our records - - they take up that entire 18,000 sq. feet?

I believe this is Roman Yasiejko replying - speaker did not identify himself:

I don’t know if all the rolling files are occupied with boxes. I know we have about 40,000 boxes in there.. When we designed it we had room for expansion - yes the entire building is intended to house records.

Leg. Hutchings Asks:

Are they paper records? Microfiche? Michael?

Michael [Michael who is speaking from the background] replys:

[Ginny thinks who the person Leg. Hutchings addresses as Michael is actually Charles Traver, Commissioner of Public works - Gerry must have been thinking of Charlie Traver as Michael Murphy, past DPW Commissioner .]

Paper records!

Leg. Hutchings:

Can they be reduced? Michael

Michael:

[Ginny thinks who the person Leg. Hutchings addresses as Michael is actually Charles Traver, Dutchess County Commissioner of Public works and it is Charles Traver who replies - Gerry must have been thinking of Charlie Traver as Michael Murphy, past DPW Commissioner .]

The cost is prohibitive.

Leg. Hutchings:

How long do we have to keep those records?

Nicholas Johnson [Assistant to Donald Miller, our Dutchess Co. Records Mgmnt Office] takes to the microphone:

Records have to be kept for seven years after a person dies. So records can be kept for a long time. These are records from Social Services, DA’ Office, from Probation and many other departments.

We have some 40,000 boxes - we have space for abt. 3 or 4,000 more - we throw away about a 1,000 to 1,500 boxes a year - end up with a plus of about a 1,000 boxes a year -we think we have space for about 3 more years - it depends on activity.

There is also records at that locations from various towns, old deeds and that stuff from the County Clerks that’s being digitized. The rules of engagement for paper records is mandated by the state court system since they will not allow us to digitize. [You might want to ask the County Clerk just what is being digitized and what is not and what records -especially historical ones have never been even microfilmed, let alone digitized or planned to be digitized.]

On top of that - the cost of digitizing the records would be absolutely prohibitive.

As Johnny Carson would say - Just how prohibitive is it? and just what is the STUFF you throw away each year NICK?

Dutchess County Local Law No. 3 of 1986 - currently ignored and to the best of my knowledge has been since its inception:

http://www.ginnyflies.com/dclocallaw1986_3.html

Virginia Buechele's Dutchess County, NY Historical Records Page