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SCHENECTADY
Fenced-goods law on city agenda
Delay in legislation blamed on police discipline focus
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    For months, legislation that the police say they need to stop the rise in burglaries and private party violence has been languishing in the Law Department.
    Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said he’s been so overwhelmed by the legal fights to discipline police that he hasn’t had time to craft legislation to help law enforcement.
    But with the discipline hearings now being sent to an arbitrator, Van Norden said legislation regarding the fencing of stolen goods will be next in line.
    Legislation to give police the authority to immediately break up private parties in commercial buildings is much further from completion.
    The trouble, Van Norden said, is that both pieces of legislation discussed by the City Council and Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett will not be effective. He’s spent much of his time trying to rewrite the legislation so that it would actually help police catch burglars and stop violence associated with private club parties.
FRUSTRATING DELAYS
    But City Councilman Gary Mc-Carthy, who chairs the public safety committee, is frustrated by the delays.
    “Right now, we don’t have a game plan,” he said. “It’s hard to sort things out. I want to try to get everyone working together.”
    Van Norden said everyone is working together — but that the city’s three attorneys have too much to do.
    “We don’t just slap words on a page,” he said. “We were kind of busy fighting the [police union]. All three of us. And we do allow people in this office to take vacation. So there were a lot of things we didn’t get to.”
    Van Norden, who was on vacation last week, now has a six-inchdeep stack of contracts and draft legislation on his desk. The pile includes a 20-page contract with American Tax Funding, which will give the city $6 million once the latest tax lien sale is approved and signed. The contract should have been approved last December, but delays in the state Legislature kept it from being done until this week. Now, the city needs that $6 million to avoid cash flow problems. ...........................>>>>.............>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01300