Green Party Calls for Consolidating Governmental Functions within a Federated Model of Metro Government

In response to the Consensus Commission's proposal for metropolitan government, the Green Party issued a statement today rejecting the Commission's metropolitan government proposal and offering its own “federated model” for metropolitan government as more democratic and more acceptable to city and town residents alike.

“This would be the consolidation of segregation,” Howie Hawkins, the Green Party county chair and author of the statement, said of the Commission's proposed structure for metropolitan government.

The Green Party of Onondaga County calls on the sitting Common Council members, and all declared candidates in this election year, to spare no time in declaring support and enacting policy that would unequivocally establish Syracuse as a sanctuary city. Although Mayor Miner has publicly, during her State of the City address, made her support for Syracuse as a Sanctuary City be known, Syracuse is not listed on common sanctuary maps or databases due to no actionable policy on the matter.

Unlike the jurisdiction of Onondaga County where a July 2014 County Sheriff's Office Decision indicates Onondaga County Justice Center Jail will not honor any U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainer without a signed warrant, the City of Syracuse lacks any formal policy that would limit cooperation between city law enforcement and immigration authorities (limited detainer policies in which cooperation with federal authorities is not a blanket order but pertains to court orders for criminal offenses and not profiling for immigration status as civil crimes).

The city should not cooperate in enforcing a federal “papers please” law that will put us in the shameful company of countries with repressive internal passport systems, including the civil war Confederate States of America, apartheid South Africa, the former Soviet Union, and today's China, Iraq, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Just as our city honors the 1851 Jerry Rescue in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law, today the city should defend and honor the right of all of us, documented or not, to be free to move about without law officers demanding that we show our resident status papers.

Meanwhile, GPOC members will continue to work as members of the CNY Solidarity Coalition to protect and educate about items such as ICE prohibited enforcement activities at “sensitive locations” (2011 ICE memorandum policy number 10029.2) including:

• schools (including pre-schools, primary schools, secondary schools, post-secondary schools up to and including colleges and universities, and other institutions of learning such as vocational or trade schools);
• hospitals;
• churches, synagogues, mosques or other institutions of worship, such as buildings rented for the purpose of religious services;
• the site of a funeral, wedding, or other public religious ceremony; and
• a site during the occurrence of a public demonstration, such as a march, rally or parade.

Besides abiding by the the Fourth Amendment, which means you can’t be searched without probable cause or held against your will without a warrant from the court signed by a judge, we call on city officials to provide for voting by resident aliens in local elections. This practice has historic precedent in states across the nation, including New York between 1776-1804. As a refugee resettlement city, and since citizenship has not in all cases been made a condition precedent to the enjoyment of the right of suffrage, individuals of special humanitarian concern being granted entrance into our country through resettlement in Syracuse shall be further ensured safe haven through the right to vote in political elections.

Lastly, The Green Party of Onondaga County reiterates its belief that “the surest path to ensuring public safety involves a strategic approach to building strong neighborhoods and healthy communities where police work together with residents to assess neighborhood problems and craft responses…. with integrated neighborhoods where people who are actively engaged in civic life work, socialize and recreate together applies directly to increasing public safety”(GPOC Platform, Section 5, Public Safety & Criminal Justice, Introduction). NYS Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has just published “Guidance Concerning Local Authority Participation In Immigration Enforcement And Model Sanctuary Provisions” which provides model language for becoming a sanctuary jurisdiction - so there is no reason to delay.

The Green Party of Onondaga County Executive Committee

Howie Hawkins, Chair

Caleb Duncan, Secretary, State Committee Member

Frank Cetera, Treasurer, State Committee Member

Ursula Rozum, State Committee Member

Mary House, State Committee Member

maureen Curtin, State Committee Member

You are invited to join us on Sunday, January 8th for a Presentation and Political Update On Health Care Politics In The Age Of Trump. The presentation is being put on by The Green Party of Onondaga County. The presentation will be followed by our Monthly Green Party Onondaga County Coordinating meeting.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Program: 6:30-7pm,

Coordinating Meeting: 7pm-8:30pm

2013 E. Genesee St. Syracuse, New York 13210

Presentation and Political Update On Health Care Politics In The Age Of Trump
and Green Party County Organizing Meeting

This presentation is very important because Trump has said Health care will be one of the first things that he will be taking on once he is in office. So if you want to learn how to organize against the attacks on public healthcare and organize FOR a healthcare system that guarantees healthcare for all, please join us!

We also hope you will join us for our Monthly County Coordinating Meeting. Learn about what the Green Party in Onondaga County is working on this year. From 2017 candidates to our sidewalk initiative. We also would love to hear from you! So please come and voice your concerns, opinions, or ideas.

If you would like to attend please RSVP at our GPNY events page. If you have any questions you can contact Mary House through email; [email protected] or on her cell; 315-243-7748.

Help us make local the focal in 2017 and build the movement by electing Greens to office.  Supporting Members are needed to do this.  Take advantage of your New Year's resolution to read more & our offer of a free copy of "Independent politics: The Green Party Strategy Debate" Edited by Howie Hawkins* for becoming a Supporting Member. 

Registered Greens sign up to pledge as Supporting Members at https://gpnys.nationbuilder.com/supporting_members. If you're not a registered Green you can still make a monthly recurring donation and get a copy of the book by visiting https://gpnys.nationbuilder.com/donate-recurring



For Dignity,

Frank Cetera, Treasurer, State Committee Representative

SyracuseGreens
http://syracusegreens.nationbuilder.com/

* (published in 2006 by Haymarket Books, Chicago,Illinois)

Get involved at our next organizing meeting on Sunday January 8th at 7 pm, 2013 East Genesee St, Top Floor.

Monday August 29 - We had a great turnout of about 15 people, and thank you to everyone who came. For those of you who could not make it, here is a quick summary of the meeting.  Howie Hawkins gave a great talk on his experience at the DNC, and GNC (Green National Convention), and what the future looks like for the Stein campaign. It seems that she drew a lot of support from Berners who were thrown under the bus by Bernie, and the Democratic Party. After Bernie backed Hillary and her nomination, Jill Stein saw one million dollars flow into her campaign overnight from donors.  Stein's speeches were great, and well attended.  Howie says that he thinks she is getting better at unscheduled talks or "stump" speeches. He said the GNC was fantastic with great media coverage, and the feeling at the whole convention was positive, and vibrant.

We went over volunteering opportunities for the month of September, and some fun events coming up.

• For the month of September, we will be holding phone bank parties on Tuesday and Thursday at the Green Party Office on E. Genesee St, or someone’s house in the city. You can also phone bank from home on a day that works for you, and if you are interested in that please contact me.
• We will also be doing standouts every Friday. After Standouts we will then head to a local coffee shop, or bar to catch up with each other. To see how everyone has been doing with outreach, and their feeling so far of the responses they have been receiving. What does the political climate look like in our area? Does Jill have a lot of support? Also we can brainstorm on upcoming events for the area.
• The Stein campaign also needs our help with a million calls for Jill. It is a phone banking initiative whose purpose is to contact, and recruit more phone banking volunteers to spread Jill’s message. I will be contacting everyone through email to let them know more about this.  
• We will be doing door knocking one Sunday in September, and we will ramp up door knocking for October.
• Two fun events we have coming up in the Syracuse area are; Labor Day outreach at the fair, and The Westcott Cultural Fair. Labor Day outreach will take place on Labor Day 9/5/16 by the main entrance of the fair. We will meet up at 9:00am by the main entrance. There will be literature, and signup sheets handed out to volunteers. We will canvass the people who are entering the fair from 9:15am to 12noon. We will have two point people to contact if you run into any trouble.. It is dollar day so admission is only a dollar! This is usually the busiest day of the fair so we really can reach a lot of people, and spread Jill’s message, and campaign. The Westcott Cultural Fair is also another fun event coming up in the area. It goes from 11:30am till 6pm. We will be marching in the parade so we want people to meet at the Westcott Community Center at 11:30am withy our green on! This is where the parade will start. We are looking for 100 people to march so spread the word! We also will have a booth, and will need people to fill shifts throughout the day. The shifts we need to cover are; booth set up, booth take down, people to staff the booth through the day, and people to hand out literature and engage passersby.

If any of these volunteer opportunities peak your interest please get in touch with me. Jill has a chance to win this. In order to do so we need people like you to get involved in the revolution.  We have some great contacts now in Weedsport, and the Utica area. We are looking forward to working more with our new volunteers, and hopefully get them set up to get volunteering started in their towns.

Reported by:

Mary House

Jill 2016 Volunteer Organizer, Onondaga County

[email protected]

315-243-7748