Remarks by Terry Clements
51 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
- Play at 1:16:08
“So presumably we have a contract right now together for you? Yes. How long is that contract?”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:16:14
“Five-year contract. So what is the status of our contract with them right now?”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:16:28
“Okay. And I assume there's an escalation, just to keep with my college questions, for every year that we're in that contract, there was probably an escalation. So it wasn't that it was a fixed cost for five years. So some of those costs are going to be duplicated on that. Yes. And lots of my other questions were already answered. This is a very sad and disturbing scenario. The presentation speaks very loudly for the need for change. And obviously, you know, we believe in you and believe in the need to get this done. I'm sorry that we're in this situation. I'm sorry in particular for the youth…”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:18:10
“I think the state sees that there's a lot less control over things that go on within the facility. So while we have been very engaged in Other counties, and I'll say maybe where the other facility is that's under contract, they're less hands-on. And so things within the facility, there's less control over. So if you have, I'll just give an example, staff sleeping through shift when kids should be being watched and you don't have someone attempting to hold that vendor accountable, THOSE INSTANCES CONTINUE TO ESCALATE AND INSTANCES HAPPEN, THINGS HAPPEN. SO I THINK THAT'S WHY THEY'VE BEEN…”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:26:29
“Well, you are legally required to have beds for youth to be able to go to. And there's a statewide bed shortage. We cannot secure beds across the state. When we were in trouble, when this was going on.”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:26:48
“It was extremely difficult. When I tell you extremely, and there were many youth that probably should not have been released by the courts, but there was no other option because beds could not be found, posing other significant safety issues within the county. It had to be closed because there was a mold issue within the facility. Other facilities then went over capacity to attempt to help us, as we have helped them in the past.”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:30:22
“Yeah, we that the state allows for certain, you know, if it's for public safety or whatever it is, it's not money that's going to come to us to be able to do other things. I mean, it makes sense. I mean, it makes sense to do intervention early on with children so they don't get to this point. But the reality is that money is not available to us. So, you know, and I understand. that potentially we could have less money available from the state. But at this point, at this time, because I kind of lived with this for like over four years. So this is something that really needs to be addressed.…”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:47:24
“Thank you. I'm so thrilled to see your continuing growth. A chart that looks like a smile, as I said, really made me smile to see the improvement in the enrollment. That's the best part of having a healthy and robust community college is seeing that people are taking advantage of a wonderful college. Is it possible, looking at the information on the satellite programs, can we get some a similar type of chart for those satellite programs so that we can kind of look at those numbers and understand where they fit in the overall picture.”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:48:10
“Yeah, no, I assume they're folded in. But if you could tell us what that breakdown looks like, that would be great. Sure.”
Committees · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 11:25
“Other than the transition into the... Before we get to that, we have a quick question.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 12:14
“Yeah, I did run some reports on the absentee ballots requested so far. And we, I also broke it down by county recognition and party for your reference. As of now, we have 18,117 absentee ballot requests in. We really haven't calculated the returns yet because it's just too soon. We just started mailing them out. But we will be generating those reports and distributing them on request. Based on each county-led district, Do you have the separate reports?”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 13:04
“So the first report that we're giving you is the option fee ballot request by county legislative district and by park. There are a total of 18,117 ballots requested, 11,714 of those are Democrat, 2,483 Republican, 151 conservative, 46 working family, and 6,206 non-party affiliated. Which is it? Non-party. No party.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 14:38
“There's also a report broken down by congressional district.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 16:58
“So the active voter report, IS ALSO BROKEN DOWN. YOU HAVE 640,000 REGISTERED ACTIVE VOTERS. 317,034 REGISTERED DEMOCRATS. 122,369 REGISTERED REPUBLICANS. 6957 CONSERVATIVES. IT'S WORKING FAMILY. AND THEN 191,874, NO PARTY, NOT A FELLOW. THAT REPORT YOU'RE HOLDING AS WELL. WE ALSO GAVE OUT A REPORT BROKEN DOWN BY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT FOR THE ABSENTEE BALLOTS. OF THE 18,117 ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUESTS THAT ARE IN HOUSE, 10,555 are in the 16th Congressional District. 7,562 in the 17th Congressional District. And in the 17th Congressional District. And the 16th, there are other counties involved.…”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 37:55
“Commissioner Nelson and I and the public and all of the elected officials in the state of New York are lucky to have an election system where two parties control the elections under the election law in the state of New York, and the checks and balances are at the highest level of any election operation compared to other states that don't have this system in place. The election law in New York City is very clear how to register people, when to inactivate, how many polling sites you need. There are guidelines in the operation of the election, conduct of the election, the election day…”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 47:02
“I've been to the Fisher Avenue Post Office. I think this is the third Postmaster they've had there in the last couple of years. And I found out that the business replied mail when it comes back. They only had one person handling that. And when she was on vacation, our mail was held back two weeks. So they processed the business before I met.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 47:30
“The United States Postal Service does not have the tracking capabilities that FedEx and UPS have. I don't think they ever will until they change their sorting and internal operations, because there's In any given week, on any different day, they process mail differently. Different machines, they may send it to Newark, they may send it to Hartford. Western's definitely goes to Newark and comes back, sort of, sometimes. So you can't put your finger on them any one day. And no one there can answer your questions. No one answers the phone. And it's a horror story. So, I mean, the long-term…”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 48:40
“Both mail gets handled better than that person.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 49:29
“What if they made a deal with FedEx or UPS? Yes.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 52:23
“I'd never experienced any issue with that. Our jurisdiction stops at the 100-foot mark. Anything within that you know, we take ownership, and we can call the police, we can call the local police, have people removed, county police, and we will, if we have to. But after the 100-foot marker, you know, our powers are limited.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 53:09
“We will be with the county police. They will be at the board. They will be driving us around. Yes. And if they're with us and we're at the location, they will take ownership based on our recommendation.”
Committees · Sep 29, 2026
- Play at 37:26
“During this period of time, we kept OCFS advised of all the struggles that we saw going on. Don't forget the building was closed in January and February. By the end of March, things were falling apart within the building where we saw this contractor could not meet the demands with the staffing level as much as we tried to support them. OCFS didn't meet with them, but our conversations with OCFS, they are very clear why they are the oversight and they have regulation. This is a county responsibility. The county has to solve this problem. So they let us know that this is our responsibility.…”
Committees · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 40:38
“The state actually reimburses us for those youth, and then that county has to pay back the state.”
Committees · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 42:13
“I'm sorry that I didn't understand that part.”
Committees · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 42:19
“So what's going to happen is that while it costs us more to operate the facility as the county, year prior it would have cost the county approximately 1.2 million dollars in the end prior to this year this sheet if we move forward operating it, it'll cost us about $2.4 million. So it'll be $1.2 million to the county additional. However, given the cost of what's currently going on with the vendor, we don't actually know where we're going to end up with them running. They're substantially over budget on overtime. We had to bring in an outside contractor as well at another 1.6. So while we knew…”
Committees · Sep 23, 2026