MAYORAL CANDIDATES (from left) Otis Jennings, Steve Kimatian and Stephanie Miner attend a debate Oct. 29 at the Everson Museum.

“If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody,” said the nation’s original political junkie, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, “come sit next to me.”

Negative campaigning “sells” - up to a point. But pure negativity curdles politics. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Today, the very facts seem in contention, with critics occupying parallel universes. Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten worries that “we’re perilously close to the point at which we stop even talking past each other and the language of our politics dissolves.”

Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, seemed gripped by that same concern at a gathering at Henninger High School Sunday afternoon sponsored by ACTS - Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse. After committing himself to completing an overhaul of national health insurance, he begged his listeners not to be fooled by scary claims and erroneous “facts,” and to keep others from being frightened or fooled.

This Election Day, citizens will be picking Syracuse’s mayor, common councilors, school board members, county legislators and other local leaders. To the north, residents of the sprawling 23rd Congressional District will be selecting the only new member of the House.

In contrast to the generally positive tone of most local election contests, the North Country race has been a negative shoutfest, amplified by national party funds. When Republican Dede Scozzafava withdrew over the weekend and endorsed her Democratic opponent, Bill Owens, instead of Conservative Doug Hoffman, the conservative blogosphere erupted with charges of “traitor,” “enemy of the state” and “incoherent buffoon.” One blogger observed that “all liberals are amoral.”

Sunday’s ACTS meeting at Henninger was refreshingly different. The coalition of 36 urban and suburban church and community groups packed the auditorium. The mood inside was upbeat: Cheers erupted as members carried their affiliation signs across the front of the auditorium.

There was praise from the podium for elected officials who collaborated on efforts with ACTS over the past year, such as reducing the number of uninsured children. Task force leaders laid out their agendas and respectfully asked mayoral candidates to sign on. One by one, Republican Steve Kimatian, Democrat Stephanie Miner and Conservative Otis Jennings promised to work to bring a supermarket to the South Side, expand job opportunities and end racial profiling.

Sunday’s meeting may not have drawn clear distinctions - the campaigns should have done that long ago. The ACTS approach doesn’t signal an end to negative campaigning. Far from it: Those leaving the meeting found fliers on their windshields promoting one candidate and asking: “Are you sick and tired of being neglected, ignored and disrespected?”

But the positive, collaborative tone of Sunday’s meeting provided a reason to vote today: to commit with public officials and community advocates to achieving worthy goals together.

LISA PARLATO, who opposes the use of arrest reports by prospective employers and land´lords, attends a county legislative committee meeting on the issue Tuesday.

However, the utility of information from the Criminal History Arrest Incident Reporting System, or CHAIRS, drops off fast in the hands of an area landlord or employer.

For one thing, the database doesn’t include out-of-county arrest records. For another, the database is not routinely updated. Was the case dismissed? Was there a guilty plea? A conviction or acquittal? Did a judge seal the case?

The fact is, employers and landlords have no business considering arrest records of prospective employees or tenants. State human rights law affirmed that point for employers just this year. The rationale is clear: In our legal system, you are innocent until proven guilty.

Yet in Onondaga County, many employers and landlords demand CHAIRS reports, which at $10 a pop earns the county up to $40,000 per year. “It’s become ingrained,” says Patricia Warth, an attorney advocate with the Center for Community Alternatives. “Employers say, ‘You will not be interviewed unless you have a CHAIRS report.’”

Warth says reports fail both because they are overinclusive - telling of arrests that may be moot - and underinclusive, because they don’t tell the whole story, and only cover arrests in Onondaga County. She said one client had felony arrests in Florida and Maine and a federal conviction that carried a 10-year prison sentence - but a clean CHAIRS report.

Sheriff Kevin Walsh acknowledges CHAIRS has shortcomings, but says it’s an affordable alternative to state criminal background checks that cost $50. He says his department will update the database if the individual supplies proof.

That offer wouldn’t have helped Lisa Parlato. When the retired state trooper recently volunteered as a mentor in the Syracuse school district, her “background check” turned up a shoplifting arrest at Shoppingtown in 1976. A judge disposed of that case promptly and ordered it sealed, but that data never made it into CHAIRS, and the town of DeWitt can’t find the records.

Parlato, who lives in Canastota, eventually talked her way into the school mentoring position. She also decided to go public last month, when the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse called for an end to the sale of CHAIRS reports and their use by employers and landlords. “I have resources to continue and knowledge of the system,” Parlato said at the meeting. “But think of those not so blessed as I am.”

Bob Freeman, the state’s open government watchdog, offers another reason to abandon such use of CHAIRS reports: Arrest reports and case dispositions are public records. The Onondaga County Clerk’s Office confirmed all case dispositions are available for the cost of copying the documents.

ACTS is right, and its campaign has spurred county officials to look into the matter. CHAIRS has a place in police work. But as a tool for landlords and employers, it simultaneously reveals too much - and too little.

Syracuse Post-Standard

By Bambi Rodriguez

I was born and raised in Syracuse. My mother suffered from addiction and left my siblings and me in my father’s care; my father followed suit and left us, too. I was 1 years old. Since then, it hasn’t been easy. I have dreaded the day - Thursday - when my children, Joel and Daniel, will have to live without their father by their side.

Thursday my husband, Freddy Rodriguez, will voluntarily leave the United States and go back to his country of origin (Honduras). In 2003, Freddy crossed the border into Arizona. He had decided to risk his life and walk across the dessert with the sole purpose to help his impoverished family and his ailing mother.

We met shortly after that and fell in love. Two years later, we had Joel in Syracuse. Joel was 1 year old when Freddy went out for pizza one night but did not return. The police had stopped him because of his skin color, had asked him for his immigration status and had called immigration authorities to detain him. I did not know about his whereabouts for three full days. I was eight months pregnant with Daniel. I was terrified.

Freddy spent two months in jail before fellow church members and friends helped us raise $5,000 to bail him out. The day he was released was one of the happiest days of our lives. This, however, did not last long. For the following two and a half years we have prayed and hoped for a miracle for Freddy to receive documented status and be able to stay with my children and me.

On Jan. 11, the immigration judge gave Freddy 60 days to leave the country. He had originally given us 30 days, but there was no way we could arrange child care. Freddy has been my only family and support, taking care of the kids during my night shift at work. Now, I don’t know how we will make it.

Joel, who is almost 4 years old now, is very worried that Daddy will go away and never come back. He had his first loss five months ago when we had to give away his dog. He says: “Daddy, I don’t want you to go; can I come with you?”

His brother Daniel is almost 3 years old, and it’s time to potty-train him, but we will have to wait because we were advised that this trauma would just be too overwhelming for him.

Freddy and I shared our story at the Public Action Meeting the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) Nov. 1 at Henninger High School. We thank the 1,200 people gathered at the ACTS meeting for their overwhelming support. We also thank U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei for the commitment he made to support our family and families like ours.

More importantly, we understand that any bill for comprehensive immigration reform will have to first come out of the U.S. Senate. We pray that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, with courageous leadership, will continue to champion comprehensive immigration reform and that he will continue to be strong on keeping families like ours together. We also hope that Schumer can meet with us and ACTS before March 4 here in Syracuse - in Upstate New York.

Next week, Freddy will leave for Honduras, and our family will be torn apart. Our family and community prayer is that Freddy will be allowed to come back through the proper channels as soon as possible and that our family will be reunited and together once again.

Bambi Rodriguez lives in Liverpool.

See video.

The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse sponsored the vigil. Their message — to call on Senator Charles Schumer to support comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Many members of the Alliance say that too many immigrants are trapped in a system that makes it difficult to obtain lawful status as American citizens.

“We’re here because so many of us in our community are really broken-hearted in the way that families are being separated. Children from their parents, spouses and partners from their beloved,” said Plymouth Church Reverend Craig Schaub.

Reform legislation will be introduced into the U.S. Senate in the coming weeks.

• Post-Standard
• News 10

A community activist group called on U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer to give immigrant families equal rights and protection under the federal laws.

(Protesters today hold a vigil calling for immigration reform outside the federal building in Syracuse. It was organized by the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse. David Lassman / The Post-Standard)

The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) held a prayer vigil on at noon Monday . Huddled in the courtyard of the James M. Hanley Federal Building, people raised signs, sang songs and shared testimonies that carried the same message: every person deserves equal rights .

Amid a chorus of “We Shall Overcome,” protesters passed around ACTS postcards and a copy of the 14th amendment that they plan to mail to Schumer.

The vigil is one way to tell stories but also build a relationship with the senator, said Craig Schaub, ACTS member and pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church.

People at the vigil also called on Schumer to reform homeland security laws and policies.

David Sweenie, who works with Syracuse’s Roman Catholic Diocese Spanish Apostolate, said he was once questioned by border patrol officers at the Oswego Harbor Festival.

“There’s no reason why immigrants should be treated in humiliating ways,” Sweenie, a Catholic deacon from Fulton. Sweenie also told the crowd about other cases where he believes people were not treated properly.

A representative from Schumer’s office also attended the vigil.

(David Lassman / The Post-Standard) Retired State Trooper Lisa Parlato attends a meeting of the Onondaga County Legislature's Public Safety Committee Tuesday. She was initially denied a job as a volunteer mentor in Syracuse schools because the county sheriff's background check turned up a 33-year-old arrest for shoplifting; the case was forever sealed by a judge.

Syracuse, NY - Lisa Parlato served 20 years as a New York state trooper. After she retired, she earned a bachelor’s degree in social work.

But the Syracuse school district initially denied Parlato’s request to volunteer as a mentor to pupils.

The reason: Her “background check” provided by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office revealed a black mark. It said she had been arrested for petit larceny - more than three decades ago, in 1976.

What the sheriff’s report did not say is that a judge ordered Parlato’s arrest record forever sealed from public view after she was accused of shoplifting at a DeWitt department store when she was 17.

Parlato’s case is one example of why community groups and even some law enforcement officials are trying to get the sheriff’s office to quit selling background checks for $10 apiece, an enterprise that brings in about $40,000 a year for the county.

Critics say the sheriff’s reports - which come from a countywide database that police officers consult when they respond to incidents in the field - are unreliable because they rarely show the disposition of charges.

“There are a variety of problems with this practice,” said senior parole officer Margaret Montfort, who spoke Tuesday at a meeting of the county Legislature’s public service committee, which is looking into the complaints.

Sheriff Kevin Walsh concedes that his background checks often do not contain court dispositions, but said his reports are a cheap alternative to the more accurate $50 criminal histories provided by a state agency. Walsh said his office will correct its criminal history report if the individual brings in proof that the case was dismissed or sealed.

“People have to take a little responsibility for themselves,” he said. “This is a community service more than anything else.”

The sheriff’s office sells criminal background checks only to individuals who request information about themselves. If the individual is involved with one of about 40 local nonprofit groups, the report is free, Walsh said.

Walsh said his office typically sells about 4,000 reports a year, and provides a smaller number for free.

Members of a faith-based community group, the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse, have asked Walsh to stop selling the reports because individuals may be coerced into providing them to landlords, employers or others.

New York state’s top expert on public records finds fault with the background checks on other grounds.

Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, said the sheriff has no business charging $10 for these records. Whether they are kept on paper or computer, arrest reports are public records that should be available - to anyone - for the cost of copying them, generally 25 cents per page, Freeman said.

“It’s public,” Freeman said. “We don’t have secret arrests in this country.”

But Freeman said it also is incumbent upon the sheriff’s office not to disclose records of cases that have been dismissed or sealed by a court.

Walsh said $10 “seemed like a reasonable amount” to charge.

The sheriff’s background checks come from the county’s so-called CHAIRS database - which stands for Criminal History Arrest Incident Reporting System.

The system was created to give police officers quick access to information about the criminal backgrounds of people they encounter. It incorporates data from most police agencies operating in Onondaga County, except the state police and Skaneateles police.

Walsh said CHAIRS reports have been provided to individuals ever since the system was created in the early 1980s. The Syracuse Police Department and other local police agencies also sell them, he said.

Walsh conceded that CHAIRS is not typically updated with court dispositions. If individuals bring proof their case was dismissed or otherwise sealed, the sheriff’s office will update their report, he said.

“We’ll correct it once they bring us proof that it’s been sealed, and we give them another one at no charge,” Walsh said. “So I don’t see it as a bad thing.”

That may be easier said than done, said Parlato, the former state trooper. She tried to get her 33-year-old case removed from CHAIRS, but DeWitt court officials could not find the records, she said.

Because of her background, Syracuse school officials eventually cleared her as a mentor, she said. Parlato is now working with a student at Beard Alternative School.

New York state law allows employers to ask about criminal convictions, but not arrests, said attorney Patricia Warth, of the nonprofit Center for Community Alternatives. But many local employers are in the habit of requesting CHAIRS reports from applicants, she said.

Selling the CHAIRS report encourages employers to break the law, Warth said.

“Employers don’t understand that what they are doing is unlawful,” Warth said.

On the other hand, the report may provide false assurances to employers or others, said Paul DeFelice, a retired chief federal probation officer. Because it does not include information from the state police or other counties, a CHAIRS report could easily overlook serious crimes.

The sheriff’s background check form clearly states that “this search is of sheriff and associated police records and may not include information from other police agencies.”

“We never claimed it’s any more than what we tell people it is,” Walsh said. “It’s an Onondaga County record of arrests.”

County Legislator Richard Lesniak, R-Lysander, who chairs the public service committee, said he plans to discuss the issue with Walsh and the county executive’s office.

The state Division of Criminal Justice Services sells criminal histories to individuals, which are statewide and updated based on court dispositions. The division charges $50.

Walsh said if he stops providing the reports, individuals will have to pay $50 for background checks.

“That’s a more accurate record,” Walsh said. “It is, because they get the dispositions. However, you pay $50 for that.”

Tim Knauss can be reached at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.

As a result, many in our community have: visited immigrants detained in our local county jail and at the federal detainment center in Batavia, New York; helped raise and post bail for detained individuals; helped them connect with loved ones; sought legal counsel on their immigration court cases; traveled with them to immigration court in Buffalo; and offered spiritual and material support to families as they face fears and hardships. Many have worked to educate our community about the complex issue of immigration as well as to preserve the rights of all workers. We have stood in witness at the CNY Regional Transportation Center to call for an end to racial, ethnic, and religious profiling of people seeking to travel.

The Civil Rights for Immigrants Action Team has been building a coalition out of this network of organizations and congregations already active in accompanying immigrant families to seek justice. The Team has sought to learn from and bring together all these advocates.

In the year ahead, the Team will work to build understanding and community across the CNY region’s faith communities and organizations-around our common values of preserving families, raising public safety for all, and fighting for the rights of workers of all backgrounds. We will share our family stories of migration as we demand Comprehensive Immigration Reform that will offer quality job opportunities to all residents of our community-especially those who have been here for generations and seek a fair share.

We want our newly elected City of Syracuse leaders to commit to convening a dialogue that will result in concrete policies that address racial, ethnic, and religious profiling as well as policies that will prevent law enforcement officers from exceeding authority and collaborating with federal authorities on issues of immigration status. We want the Syracuse police to collect data on the background of those arrested for analysis in order to better address this issue.

We want Congressman Dan Maffei to co-sponsor the Child Citizen Protection Act (HR182) that will restore discretion to immigration judges hearing cases of parents of U.S. citizen children, and to fight to keep this provision in any Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

We want to acknowledge U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer for his commitment to introduce a Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill in 2010. We want both our U.S. Senators, who have co-sponsored the Reuniting Families Act (S1085), to continue to fight to preserve and strengthen our current family immigration system, especially for children and spouses of U.S. residents.

• Organizer hopes meeting brings grocery store to Syracuse’s South Side
• ACTS hosts Syracuse mayoral candidates
• Weatherization Politics
  
• On final Sunday of campaign, Syracuse mayoral candidates go to church, knock on doors, thank volunteers
• Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney agrees to look into sale of arrest records to landlords
• On Election Day, a reminder that it’s all about a better world
  

News Channel 3 (prior to event):

• ACTS Town Hall expects big draw on Sunday

News Channel 10:

• Thousands attend ACTS public meeting

The ACTS Economic Development & Jobs Task Force won yesterday (June 10, 2009) a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for the billion-dollar rehabilitation of Syracuse schools.

The Syracuse School Board unanimously passed a CBA that will provide training opportunities for Syracuse School students, and start a pipeline of trained young people for careers in the construction field. The Syracuse School System will be embarking on a ten year, billion-dollar rehabilitation of every school in Syracuse.

Juniors and Seniors from various Syracuse City Schools will shadow and observe what it takes to get a large project done – and how they can have a career. Working with the various building trades training programs to ensure that when the students graduate from high school, they will be prepared to become apprentices and eventually, journeymen and women.

A Community Benefits Agreement is a legally binding agreement between community groups and developers that lays out how the development will benefit the local community. Usual components are job quality and wage standards, job training, affordable housing, environmental standards, and other items that the community deems as needed for their community.

This CBA is a first step for our community. The next step is to have a CBA with a private developer that truly redefines economic development in our area and shows, as this agreement does, that we can all win when it comes to using public resources in economic development.