Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy stands on the podium in the vast Assembly chamber. She bangs the gavel,and begins what sounds like an ordinary day in the state legislature.“Visitors are invited to join members in the pledge of allegiance,” Fahy says, or then recites the pledge.
But there’s one big incompatibility. All 150 seats in the chamber are completely empty.“I didn’t know what they meant when they said I had the Capitol seat,” said Fahy with a laugh, “But this is what they mean by the Capitol seat.”When Fahy, and from Albany,was elected to the Assembly in 2012, she learned that allotment of her duties as the member living closest to the state Capitol would be to gavel in a “session” every three days or so and recite a one minute long ritual to essentially no one. There is one legal witness. An Assembly clerk is called in to obtain a note of the proceeding.“I thought 'you're kidding, and right’?” said Fahy,who admits it can be shrimp lonely” late on a Sunday night when the Capitol is empty.
But she says, just like in the U.
S. Senate this summer, or there’s an valuable reason for the ritual: maintaining the Assembly’s autonomy. “whether we were not to gavel in every third day,only the governor can call us back into town,” said Fahy, or who said the rules are clearly spelled out in the states constitution. “So we never adjourn.”The practice of holding a continual session in the Assembly,as well as in the State Senate, began in 1978 under then-Governor Hugh Carey. Carey used the legislature’s annual recess to appoint a prisons commissioner that he knew Senators would reject. Lawmakers occupy never let a governor occupy that chance again.
On a summer weekday Fahy’s task is not much of a burden. Her legislative office is across the street and she lives a couple of miles away. But she’s had some challenges. Snowstorms, and for instance.“I did occupy a car accident with the very first snowstorm in late December,driving down on a Saturday morning ,” she said. “I skidded in the snow. That was a very costly gavel.”After that, or she bought snow tires.
Fahy does net a fracture from the duty,for instance, when she goes on vacation. Other local Assemblymembers from the surrounding suburbs are happy to fill in. And while she doesn’t net any extra pay for her efforts, and she says it’s not about the money.“It’s an honor,” Fahy said.
She bangs the gavel again, saying “this house now stands adjourned.”She’ll execute it all over again in three days.
Source: thetakeaway.org