We are teaming with our friends at www.enoughmandates.com on an exciting but quick-turnaround-action-needed initiative called Mayday for Mandate Relief!

Please contact your county government officials and ask them to support this initiative.  Here are some suggestions for how to best do this:

• Email your request first; then follow up with a phone call if necessary.
• Some counties have a Board of Supervisors – for these counties, address your email to the Chair of the Board of Supervisors and cc: the other supervisors.
• Other counties have a Legislature and a County Executive.  For these counties, address your email to the Chair of the Legislature and the County Executive, and cc: the other legislators.
• If the Board/Legislature is very large, you don’t have to include every one on the email – include whoever you can.
• You can find these email addresses on the county government webpage.  Some are listed below.
• Suggested text for your email is as follows:

Supervisor ______, (or ___________, County Executive and _____, Chair of the Legislature)

I would like to express my support for the Mayday for Mandate Relief initiative that has been introduced by EnoughMandates.com and has been endorsed by NYSAC. I believe that one of the biggest obstacles to achieving significant mandate relief in NY State is the fact that the public is, in general, not aware of what unfunded/underfunded mandates are or how our local communities are being affected by them.

There are two main objectives to the Mayday for Mandate Relief initiative: (1) to raise public awareness about the problem and (2) to issue a resolution calling on the Mandate Relief Council to take swift action in submitting a package of Mandate Relief proposals to Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature to be voted on by our State Representatives during the 2012 State Legislative Session. NYSAC sent a draft resolution to this effect to all 62 counties (attached to this message). An example of the type of presentation that might be presented at a town hall meeting is also attached.

I think this is a great opportunity for _______ County to educate its residents about this issue. I hope that we will take advantage of this opportunity and participate in this initiative!

Thanks!
<<your name>>

The two attachments mentioned above are below:  download them and attach them to the email:

• Mandate Relief resolution – this can be customized by the county to be more specific to their concerns).
• Template presentation for a town hall meeting – this is available for the county to customized for their specific issues and needs

Questions may be directed to Mark Westcott at info@enoughmandates.com / 518-894-6811 or Lisa Donovan at lisa@stopnymandates.com / 518-424-5816.

Please spread the word about this initiative.  This is something we all can do!  Whatever county you live in, contact your County Board of Supervisors or County Legislature and ask them to support this initiative.  Let us know what kind of response you get!

**** By the way, encourage your county to videotape the town meeting or press conference – we would like to post as many of these as possible so that they are available for future use!  ****

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Email addresses for some counties:  (I will add counties as requested; if your county is not on this list and you need help finding the email addresses, please contact Lisa at lisa@stopnymandates.com.)

• Albany County
• Albany County Executive Dan McCoy  County_Executive@albanycounty.com
• Albany County Legislature Chair Shawn Morse shawn.morse@albanycounty.com
• Schenectady County
• Schenectady County Legislature Chair Judith Dagostino, legislature@schenectadycounty.com (This email address is for the whole legislature, not just the chair)
• Schenectady County Executive:  I can’t find any reference to this position in Schenectady County.  Perhaps they don’t have a county executive?