In reaction to 2 alleged sexual attacks in Erie County involving the migrant neighborhood, in addition to a request from Monroe County for higher safety to care for the inflow of migrants, Gov. Kathy Hochul has referred to as up the National Guard.
Both county executives Mark Polancarz, of Erie, and Adam Bello, of Monroe, are Democrats.
A 3rd upstate Democrat, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, doesn’t really feel calling up the National Guard is the proper transfer.
“It’s not sending the right tone,” McCoy instructed Capital Tonight.
While many different counties throughout upstate have applied boundaries to migrants being bused from New York City, Albany County has welcomed them – to some degree.
Currently, Albany County is house to about 615 migrants from New York City. For a slightly small county of 320,000 other folks, that’s a heavy raise. But McCoy feels a duty.
“They have been on a long journey. And let’s face it, they’re human beings, they’re not cattle and they’ve been shipped around this country from one spot to the next, to the next, to the next,” he instructed Capital Tonight.
McCoy and Bello issued an identical government orders again in May. The goal of the orders was once to not halt the inflow migrants, in step with McCoy, however slightly to keep watch over the go with the flow.
“When we put together our executive order, state of emergency, it wasn’t to say no. It was to say we just want clear cut communications (regarding) the process,” he mentioned.
But McCoy mentioned he didn’t get it.
He’s been often annoyed with all ranges of presidency, in addition to with DocGo, the corporate employed by way of New York City to move asylum seekers and paintings with municipalities to seek out them housing.
Because of a chain of missteps and miscommunications, staffers from the county government’s place of business, the place of business of Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and 9 non-profits operating with migrants, not too long ago had a sit-down assembly with DocGo CEO Anthony Capone.
While McCoy seems hopeful that communique amongst those teams will support, he doesn’t appear constructive.
“He’s been a bad actor since the beginning of this,” mentioned McCoy of Capone. “If we got the information we needed at the beginning – who’s coming here, what languages do they speak, what age are they, where are they in the legal process?”
He persevered.
“Honestly, I was getting frustrated from the beginning because DocGo didn’t give us any of this stuff,” he mentioned.
DocGo did in the end supply one of the crucial paperwork and information McCoy has asked.
The corporate additionally supplied response to McCoy’s feedback:
“DocGo has always collaborated effectively with all stakeholders, and we’ll continue to bridge any communication or education gaps,” they said in a statement. “We hear the concerns voiced by Mr. McCoy, and will take this feedback into account. Additionally, we continue to welcome a constructive discussion with Mr. McCoy and his team. Our focus remains on solutions for operationalizing a highly complex situation against the backdrop of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Because buses of migrants from New York City can display up anytime, throwing a wrench into plans, McCoy had additionally reached out more than one occasions to the place of business of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
About a month in the past, McCoy, who heads up the National Association of Counties, together with a bipartisan crew of county executives from the New York State Association of Counties, traveled to New York City. They frolicked at probably the most town’s in-take facilities and had dinner with Adams.
The outreach wasn’t efficient.
“Six days later, we started getting buses,” McCoy mentioned with frustration.
McCoy is not easy management from the government.
“We need a plan from the federal government. We need resources. We need to treat it like a national disaster – not saying this is a disaster — but we need it (the disaster designation) in order to put all the agencies in place,” he mentioned.