The NYS Gaming Facility Location Board announced the Details and Protocol for Public Comment Events today (August 21).  The email message with the Announcement, from Communications Director Lee Park , is copied in below.  As we posted recently, the “Public Comment Event” — public hearing — for selecting the Capital Region casino will be on Sept. 22, from 8 AM to 8PM, at the Holiday Inn Turf , 205 Wolf Road. Attendance at the Event is on a first-come-first-seated basis, but you will be able to watch it streamed and archived at the Gaming Commission website (www.gaming.ny.gov). Information on sending in your written comments is also given below.

Reserved Time Slots.  Note that you may request a 5-minute time slot for making a presentation to the Board at the September 9th event, and there will be five slots reserved per hour, with the remaining slots filled on a first-come basis by signing up the day of the event.  As you can see from the directions, you should reserve a slot as soon as possible, as people will be commenting on all four Capital Region applicants and there are only a total of 60 reserved slots:

Comment Segment Reservations:  Five time slots per hour will be held for speaking time reservations.  To reserve a segment for a public comment event, members of the public should email their name, organization (if applicable) and desired time request to the following email addresses, respective to each location:

September 22, Capital Region Event:                          CapitalRegion@gaming.ny.gov

Organizations or groups are asked to designate a representative to make one 5-minute presentation, with other members speaking as time permits.  Because of limited seating, those not wishing to speak are urged to watch the streamed version online.

update: As representative of Stop the Schenectady Casino, I (David Giacalone) have been given the 10:00 to 10:05 A.M. time slot at the Capital Region public comment event. I hope there will be other Opponents more persuasive than I at the Event.

Written Comments. The Board will accept, and seems to prefer, written comments by email [info@gaming.ny.gov], or you may submit them at the Public Comment Event or within 7 days after the event:

Written Submissions: In addition to oral statements, the Board will accept written submissions at the event and up to seven (7) days following the event.  Statements received beyond seven (7) days will not be included in the formal record. 

All submissions should clearly identify the submitter’s name, and affiliation, if any.

Click for a one-page Opposition handout outlining our reasons for opposing the Schenectady Casino.

The full announcement from the Board follows:

From: “Park, Lee (GAMING)” <Lee.Park@gaming.ny.gov>
Date: August 21, 2014 at 1:42:22 PM EDT
To: “Park, Lee (GAMING)” <Lee.Park@gaming.ny.gov>
Subject:

DETAILS AND PROTOCOL FOR PUBLIC COMMENT EVENTS

August 21, 2014

The Gaming Facility Location Board will host one Public Comment Event in each of the three eligible regions.

Purpose

The purpose of the Public Comment Events is to provide members of the public the opportunity to speak about any proposed project(s) within the applicable region.

Meeting Logistics

Time:  Each Public Comment Event will commence at 8:00 a.m. and conclude at 8:00 p.m.

Dates and Locations:

September 22:      Capital Region Public Comment Event

Holiday Inn Turf

205 Wolf Road

Albany, New York 12205

 

September 23      Catskills/Hudson Valley Public Comment Event

The Grandview

176 Rinaldi Boulevard

Poughkeepsie, New York 12601

 

September 24      Eastern Southern Tier Public Comment Event

Hotel Ithaca

222 South Cayuga Street

Ithaca, New York 14850

Seating:  Excepting limited reserved seating for members of the Board and the Board’s staff, seating at each event will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Capacity at any given time will be subject to posted building code occupancy restrictions for each space.

Remote access:  Each presentation will be streamed live and archived on the Gaming Commission’s web page (www.gaming.ny.gov).  Interested parties not wishing to speak are encouraged to watch the presentation via live stream in order to allow maximum occupancy for parties wishing to offer public comments.

Public Comments

Participation:  These public comment events are free, open to the public and do not require advance registration.

To allow diverse participation, the Board respectfully requests interested grassroots groups or formally constituted organizations designate a single representative to address the Board to avoid repetition.

Time permitting, additional members of such groups or organizations may address the Board on a first-come, first-served basis.

Length: To ensure fairness, individual comment segments will be limited to five (5) minutes each.

Comment Segment Reservations:  Five time slots per hour will be held for speaking time reservations.  To reserve a segment for a public comment event, members of the public should email their name, organization (if applicable) and desired time request to the following email addresses, respective to each location:

September 22, Capital Region Event:                            CapitalRegion@gaming.ny.gov

September 23, Catskills/Hudson Valley Event:           CatskillsHV@gaming.ny.gov

September 24, Eastern Southern Tier Event:  EasternST@gaming.ny.gov

All reservations will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis and may be requested from August 21 through close of business on September 19.

The balance of time slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, with sign-ups conducted at the meeting event location.

Equipment and visual aids: No attendees may utilize multimedia visual aids.  Informational posters and handouts are permitted.

Individuals making use of posters as part of their comment should submit a reduced-size copy of such if intended for inclusion in the formal written record.

Written Submissions: In addition to oral statements, the Board will accept written submissions at the event and up to seven (7) days following the event.  Statements received beyond seven (7) days will not be included in the formal record.

All submissions should clearly identify the submitter’s name, and affiliation, if any.

Decorum:  All attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to attendees, commentators and Board members.

Disruptions will not be tolerated.

Any person making offensive, insulting, threatening, intimidating or obscene remarks, or who becomes unruly during the Public Comment Event, will be requested to leave at the direction of any Board member. If necessary, the Board may request the assistance of law enforcement for the purpose of maintaining safety, order and decorum.