10 APRIL 20 - APRIL 26, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Locals allege cold shoulder from pol
BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
MMCGOLDRICK@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Almost 50 days.
That’s how long one constituent
says she’s been waiting
on answers from her state senator.
On Tuesday, February 27, Bay Ridge
resident and co-founder of grassroots
politico group Fight Back Bay Ridge
(FBBR) Mallory McMahon said she
phoned State Senator Marty Golden’s
Brooklyn office to ask about a flyer
being circulated by the Alliance for
Quality (AQE), which FBBR was helping
distribute, blasting the longtime
pol for “blocking funding” owed to
New York City public schools as a
result of the 12-year-old Campaign
for Fiscal Equity (CFE) settlement.
The flyer, which urged constituents
to call Golden and “demand that he
prioritize our children’s education,”
prompted McMahon to do just that,
she said. She was promptly referred
to the pol’s Albany office, at which
point, McMahon told this paper, a
“friendly” staffer pretended not to
know about the flyers. “It became
pretty apparent that he did,” she said,
“or at the very least he was Googling
around while we were talking.”
The staffer, she said, then pointed her
to Golden’s tweets from the day before.
"Delivering for Education is Delivering
Opportunities," the pol, who has represented
the 22nd senate district since
2003, tweeted. "Never underestimate a
desperate person. You never know how
far they will go to get what they want.
There are those who are completely
misrepresenting my record on delivering
for our children."
"When I was first elected to the
Senate my first priority was to create
seating in our schools because
our students were learning not in
classrooms but in trailers parked in
playgrounds," his tweets read on. "By
investing in our schools, all boats will
rise with the tide. For example, since
2011, I have delivered $4,607,000 in
aid dedicated to public and non-public
schools in our local communities."
McMahon said that when she asked
if those tweets were considered an
official statement, the staffer said
yes but couldn’t provide specifics
on the CFE funding. McMahon was
promised a call-back.
Two days later and still no call,
McMahon said she picked up the
phone again, at which point she
said she reached an intern and was,
again, promised a call-back that didn't
happen.
To no avail, McMahon said she
kept calling. On Friday, March 2,
McMahon said, she got a hold
of another staffer who’d
claimed this wasn’t
his area of expertise
but helped as best
he could. “He was
actually very
nice,” she told
this paper. “He
gave me some
information that
I’d already had
access to – but he
didn’t know that – and
told me that Golden
has always fought
for school funding in
other areas than this
specific lawsuit. I said,
‘Great, but I’m really just asking about
this specific lawsuit.’”
Again, McMahon said she was
promised a call-back. “I said, ‘This is
the third time I’ve been promised a
call-back. Can you ask Marty himself
to call me back?’” The staffer, McMahon
went on, making no guarantees,
said he’d ask and referred McMahon
to Golden’s scheduler Meg Brown.
“I thought, ‘This is great,’” McMahon
recalled, “because at this point I
was starting to feel ignored.”
She contacted Brown immediately,
requesting a meeting for herself, her
friend, Courtney Scott, and a local
high schooler also interested in the
CFE funding. “I received an answer on
March 9 telling me he was very busy
with budget negotiations but that she
would schedule a meeting with me for
the week of April 9,” McMahon said.
“I would’ve loved to meet with him
before budget negotiations but I was
willing to take anything. I wasn’t going
to let go of my opportunity.”
With three busy schedules on the
line – four including the senator’s –
McMahon felt it best to nail down a
tentative date. “Meg said she couldn’t
nail down a date this far in advance
but scheduled us tentatively for the
11th or 13th at 1 p.m.,” McMahon said.
And so, the trio held the two dates until,
on April 2, the first of the two was
canned, McMahon said. The same
thing happened to the second date
on April 11, she went on. “I received
an email, which read in its entirety,
‘Friday isn’t working either. I will be
in touch to explore some other dates.’”
At this point, McMahon said, she
replied asking for some suggestions,
but was told that Golden would be
in Albany all week and that
the remainder of his days
would be “jammed” in
the district. Brown,
McMahon stressed,
apologized for the
inconvenience,
but still wasn’t
rescheduling.
“If he’s in the
district, it’s a 30-minute
meeting. I don’t
understand why he
can’t make time for this,”
McMahon told this paper.
“We’re not asking
him for a seven-course
dinner.”
McMahon said she
replied once more, reminding Brown
of the trio’s tough schedules, and
saying that the three were starting
to feel like they were “getting the
runaround.”
“If he’s in the district, what is his
priority?” she asked this paper.
Brown’s response, McMahon
said, was that she could not promise
a meeting by the end of the month
and that Golden was busy “meeting
with many constituents and local
organizations.”
“I am a constituent,” she said. "The
only thing I can read into this is,
‘Well, he’s not meeting with you.’”
"I'm not out here to be a thorn in Marty
Golden's side," Scott said, "but it feels
just a little absurd that it would take
two months to schedule a 30-minute
meeting with your elected representative,
and have it fall through for no
other reason than that he's meeting
with constituents...which we are."
The two have continued to follow
up but, as of Tuesday, April 17, said
McMahon, neither she nor Scott had
heard back. The most recent response,
she said, was a forward to McMahon
of an email sent to someone else that
"answers her questions," (though she
never provided Brown with specifics
Qs — just that she wanted to discuss
the suit), a response she's taking as a
red flag that she may never meet with
the senator.
“No one is pretending that this isn’t
a nuanced, complicated issue which
is part of the reason we want to meet
with him in person in the first place,”
McMahon contended, stressing that,
while Scott has received a “vague,"
"somewhat inaccurate" response to
the question from Golden himself via
email, this is something that would
pan out better in person.
"The idea of trying to play that out
over several months when I can just
go in and meet in person with him for
30 minutes is a clumsy way of moving
forward," Scott said. "I understand politicians
are busy but others have made
time to meet with me so I'm not sure
why Golden is in a different category."
“I don’t understand why it’s more in
their interest to spend so much time
dodging us rather than to schedule a
30-minute meeting,” McMahon went
on, stressing also that, in the 15 or
so years since she’s been contacting
Golden’s office, she’s “never gotten a
satisfactory response.
“They’re probably saying, ‘Why
would we give this woman who’s been a
thorn in his side any time with the senator?'"
she said. “But that’s your job. I’m
a constituent. You don’t have to agree
with me, you don’t even have to like me,
but you do have to make the time for me
and you certainly don’t have the right to
give me the runaround.”
“We care about education and about
educational inequity,” McMahon
concluded. “We want him to prove
us wrong. We want him to look at us
and say, ‘This is what I’ve done.’ For
all we know, Marty has done right for
the district. I’m only looking at the
numbers in front of me, and I want
schools to get their fair share. Maybe
we’ll end up agreeing on something.”
At the end of the day, McMahon
said, “I’ve got better things to do
than call his office once a day,” adding
that, “this wouldn’t even be an issue
if someone on his staff could’ve properly
answered my question.”
"I'm just not buying what they're
selling," added Scott.
The CFE lawsuit alleged that the
state was failing to provide New York
City public school students with "a
sound basic education" guaranteed
in the state Constitution. In 2006,
the state's Court of Appeals ruled
that this was the case, but payment
of $1.9 billion in foundation aid, including
$40 million to local District
20 schools, has been languishing.
Golden’s office declined to comment
on any of McMahon and Scott's
claims.
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/file
photo
State Senator Marty
Golden
link