Three volunteers to serve on Lake Luzerne library board

Giuliani order to pay $148 million in damages in verdict for two election workers

By Ken Tingley

It was our publisher, Rona Rahlf, who first suggested we invite citizen representatives to be part of our editorial board.

I suspect she hoped a regular person on the board would temper the occasional anger Mark Mahoney and I showed when freedom of information laws were violated.

I was skeptical that civilians on the board would work, but agreed to give it a try.

After inviting readers to apply, we typically got a dozen or so applicants for a three-month term. We asked applicants about their life experiences and their reasons for wanting to serve. We never asked about political beliefs. That was not part of the criteria. We wanted smart, informed people.

Some of the citizen reps were vocal, others reserved, but all were curious about the process. When their term was up, we gave board members the opportunity to write a guest essay about the experience. What was so gratifying in those early days was how impressed they were about the process for writing editorials. It wasn’t political. It wasn’t an ideology. It was a robust discussion about the issue of the day and what was the right way to approach it. And they had an equal say.

The citizen representatives became such an important part of the editorial board process, we extended the term to one year and then added more members to the board. At its height, the board included two citizen representatives serving a one-year term and rotating board members serving three-month terms.

It wasn’t unusual to have turn away several excellent candidates.

We often chose people based on their life experiences in an attempt to represent the diversity of readers we represented. We wanted regular working class folks to be represented as much as professionals with college degrees. We tried to balance the number of men and women and we wished more young people applied. The typical applicant was often retired and had a more flexible schedule.

That brings me to Ted Mirczak.

He was very interested in serving on the board a decade ago, and as a former vice president at RPI he had the credentials.

But Ted wasn’t selected. We usually didn’t see people apply a second time, but Ted did.

He wasn’t selected the second time either.

When he came back the next year and applied again, I remember saying to other board members at the newspaper we had to give Ted extra credit for his persistence alone.

We picked Ted the third time and he proved to be a great board member.

I heard from Ted last week.

Ted is from the town of Day which is part of the Rockwell Falls library district.

He had been reading this newsletter about the controversy at the Rockwell Falls Public Library that has left it closed an unable to reopen without a new board.

In an email, he repeated the words I wrote about the state Board of Regents needing to appoint new board members from the community:

The last seven months have been ugly in Lake Luzerne. I don’t know how they

recover without good people stepping forward. Strong people. I can’t imagine anyone

would want to put themselves into the middle of this controversy.

And if the town eventually does get a new library board, it will be of like-minded

individuals who probably do have an “agenda” and that’s when the books start

disappearing off shelves.

That struck a chord with Ted.

It sounded to me like he took it as a challenge.

He applied for one of the three slots on the library board.

He wrote that he standing up and saying he was willing to walk into the hornet’s nest; that there were “strong” people, “good people” willing to serve.

Here’s what Ted told me in his email.

“We have a new board – three of us were appointed by  the Regents on 11/12 rounding out the board to 5. I and two others from the community are ready to start work next week.  I think we are all `strong people’ and the only `agenda’ we have is to open the library and operate the board in a more professional manner.”

Margaret Hartley, a former Schenectady Gazette editor and someone I worked with briefly at The Post-Star when I first arrived in Glens Falls years ago, was appointed along with Rosemarie Gardner, who previously headed the English department at Lake George High school.

I’ve been speaking and writing about the role that commentary can have in community debate. This is a great example where a reader was spurred to action to help his community.

I suspect the others feel the same way.

  “I’m not saying it will be easy but it’s got to be done,” Ted said in his email to me, “and down the road we have to resist any attempts to take books off the shelves.”

That message was the most gratifying.

Ted then wrote: “Stay tuned – I want to prove you wrong.”

I’m hoping Ted will prove me wrong, too.

In fact, I’m pretty sure he will.

The new Rockwell Falls Library Board will meet on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to swear in the three new members. The public is invited to attend.

Giuliani verdict

I was sitting in a restaurant at the airport on Friday when I spied a breaking news alert on the television.

It appeared to say that a jury had awarded two election workers in Georgia $14.8 million, but as I peered at the television on the other end of the room, I realized it said $148 million.

That was a studding monetary award.

It reminded me of final scene in an old Paul Newman movie called “The Verdict.” At the end, the jury foreman stands up and says the jury has a question about how much it can award. He wants to know if the jury can award more than what the plaintiff asked for. The judge says they can. That’s the power of a jury. If the case confirms monstrously bad behavior, then it has the power to rectify that problem.

That appears to be what the jury was saying to Rudy Giuliani on Friday.

No place better to spend a rainy afternoon in New Orleans than at Devlin Fieldhouse.

Old-time basketball

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, we sought refuge in Tulane University’s Devlin Fieldhouse, a 4,100-seat old-time “gym” where Tulane battled Southern University.

It was a warm-up to seeing the Giants play the Saints in the Superdome on Sunday.

This is the way college basketball was meant to be played.

The fans were on top of the action, the players close and the competition was Division I level.

Choosing between the NBA Pelicans and the Green Wave of Tulane is no contest. I’d pick the Tulane experience every time. Can’t wait to come back for another game.