MAYORAL CANDIDATE SHAYNE GALLO PRESS RELEASE JULY 1, 2011 SHARING SERVICES TO PROTECT OUR QUALITY OF LIFE I started

my campaign for Mayor standing before the Kings Inn Hotel on Broadway speaking about the need to address quality of life issues in our city. It is my goal to create a positive climate where our residents can feel safe and secure and our businesses can thrive and grow. We all need to understand that the children in midtown and throughout the city must be able to play safely in their front yards and in their neighborhood parks. Today, I release details of my plan to restore safety to the streets of our city by utilizing existing city services to their fullest while creating a cooperative relationship between city, county, state and school district officials. The Mayor and Police Chief have taken positive steps to address public safety issues by using operation impact grants to assign police officers to walk the streets of midtown Kingston. As Mayor I will continue these programs and seek additional grant funding to support a visible police presence on the streets of Kingston. I will also seek federal grant funding for after school programs and community groups to ensure that our children have a safe place to go after school. Our Fire Chief has diligently enforced code violations throughout midtown. As Mayor, I will support and expand these efforts. We also need to focus our attention on those juveniles who commit crimes. Many of these juveniles come from homes that lack adequate supervision and structure. When our juveniles are properly supervised and attending school as required by the Education Law, they are not roaming the streets of the city committing crimes and creating nuisance in our neighborhoods. Our police officers are mandated by law to report suspicions of neglect or abuse. The failure to provide adequate guardianship and supervision or the failure to ensure regular school attendance constitutes neglect. When our officers have reason to believe that a child is not being adequately supervised or is not attending school regularly, that officer must file a report with Child Protective Services. As Mayor, I will develop and enforce procedures to ensure that every suspected case of inadequate guardianship or educational neglect is reported by our police officers and investigated by Child Protective Services. As Mayor I will develop and enforce procedures where every incident of truancy is documented and reported to the Kingston School District and the County Attorney. As Mayor I will develop and enforce procedures whereby our officers know which of our juveniles are subject to probation supervision. When our

officers learn of violations of probation by juveniles, those violations will be documented and promptly reported to the Department of Probation and the County Attorney. Our dedicated police officers face safety issues every day in our community related to juvenile crime and truancy. They report frustration with the lack of cooperation and communication between various county agencies. These agencies each have an important role in resolving the issues facing our city. As Mayor I will ensure that our officers know that when they report conduct to the School District, Social Services or Probation, that those reports will be properly investigated and action will be taken. As Mayor I will create a joint task force with representatives from the Kingston Police Department, Social Services, County Attorney, Kingston School District, Probation and Mental Health to address public safety issues which arise when our juveniles are unsupervised, truant and beyond the control of lawful authority. These agencies have overlapping responsibilities regarding issues of truancy, inadequate supervision and guardianship and juvenile behavioral issues. All too often, these agencies are operating on parallel paths regarding individual families and children. The lack of communication results in the duplication of services and unnecessary expense. When information is not shared between agencies, opportunity for productive action is lost. Representatives from these agencies must be encouraged to share information about individuals in the community. Often our police officers are unaware that a child who is causing trouble on the street is already subject to an order of probation supervision, a social services order of supervision or a school district behavior contract. When responding to a complaint regarding an individual, our police officers need to know if that individual is already before a Judge for similar or related conduct. Currently there is no formal system for exchanging this type of information. As Mayor, I will put such a system in place and insure that through communication of necessary information between agencies, we are fully prepared to address incidents in our community. Other candidates are speaking of quality of life issues such as fixing our sidewalks, banning smoking in our parks, and moving our fireworks festivities to July 4th. Still other candidates are being photographed trimming hedges in midtown. These are all important quality of life issues. It is my position that these issues cannot be addressed until we restore a sense of safety in our community. Restoring safety to our streets will be my primary goal if elected Mayor. My years of legal experience in Family Court and as Assistant Corporation Council have given me a working knowledge of the various involved agencies and the scope of their duties and responsibilities. With this

knowledge, I will be able to develop and enforce a comprehensive plan to share government services to ensure that our citizens feel safe in their homes and in the community and that their children can safely play in our neighborhoods and our parks. Without this basic sense of safety, there can be no quality of life.