County Legislature Vice Chairman William Darden, D-Hillcrest, announced today that he would not seek election to the 95th Assembly District against incumbent Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern.

“I thought about it for a period of time. I had supporters over there and I truly treasure their support,” Darden said this afternoon.

Even though he knows it’s cliche, Darden said he honestly likes what he’s doing on the Legislature.

Still, he said, a run for the Assembly is “not out of the future.”

Jaffee had been facing as many as five challengers from within her own party.  Of them, only one, Ramapo Town Clerk Chris Sampson, has decided to run. The others were Darden, Suffern Mayor John Keegan and former Legislators David Fried and Patrick Withers.

The Republicans are expected to run a candidate against Jaffee, who is finishing out her first term. The district includes Orangetown and parts of Ramapo.

Ramapo Town Clerk Chris Sampson has formally announced that he will challenge Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, in the Democratic primary for Jaffee’s seat this fall.

Sampson was one of several area Democrats who said this winter they were interested in the seat. The others were County Legislature Vice Chairman William Darden, Suffern Mayor John Keegan, and former Legislators Patrick Withers and David Fried.

Jaffee and Rockland’s other state representatives are up for re-election in November. Jaffee is completing her first term.

The county’s Democratic convention is coming up in the next few weeks. We’ll be checking in with the four stragglers soon. Stay tuned.

After enduring several accusations of political patronage and wrongdoing, former Legislator David Fried very quietly started his job as Sheriff James Kralik’s public safety advocate on Monday.

The $65,000-a-year position, new this year, was created by Sheriff James Kralik, a Republican, to go after grant money and build community relations. Kralik has said since the position was first discussed last year the Fried, a Democrat, was one of the candidates he was considering.

Clarkstown Police Detective Sgt. Tim O’Neill, who unsuccessfully challenged Kralik for the sheriff seat last year, charged over the summer that Kralik was going to give the job to Fried in exchange for Fried leaving the Legislature to make way for newly elected Legislator Jacques Michel, one of Kralik’s deputies. Kralik, Fried and Michel have denied any involvement in any sort of job-swapping plot.

Fried said he supplied Kralik with a resume and about 20 references. He was also called in for an interview twice. “When it comes to public safety, it’s based upon qualifications … an not on politics,â€? Fried said yesterday.

The County Legislature at last night’s meeting honored four of its members who won’t be returning next year: Legislators Patrick Withers, D-Suffern, Bruce Levine, D-Montebello, David Fried, D-Spring Valley, and Theodore Dusanenko, R-Valley Cottage.

While the contributions of Levine, Withers and Fried were appropriately noted, the farewell was notably geared toward Dusanenko, also fondly referred to as “Teddy” and “The Dus.”  As Chairwoman Harriet Cornell, D-West Nyack, said his name, the Legislature and audience responded by giving him a standing ovation, upon which Teddy waved and took a deep breath.

He also left the meeting with a lot more stuff than he came in with. In addition to the Legislature’s certificate and portrait, given to all four outgoing members, Dusanenko was also given a certificate of mert from Clarkstown — he was a supervisor there in the 1980s —  plaques from the county Democratic Party and the county Solid Waste Management Authority and the 2007 Ramapo Freedom Award for excellence in community service.

Dusanenko was first elected to the Legislature in 1969 and has served since save for a four year break in the late 1980s when he ran for county supervisor. (NOTE: That should read county executive, not county supervisor.) Fried was elected in 2003. Levine was first elected in 1985 and served for 10 years, including as chairman, and was re-elected in a mid-term election last year. Withers was appointed in January.

The new Legislature, with 12 returning members and four new faces, will be sworn in Jan. 3.

Legislators David Fried, Ian Schoenberger, Philip Soskin, Bruce Levine Patrick Withers and Vice Chairman William Darden, all Democrats from Ramapo, have issued a press release stating that they are planning to draft legislation that would call on County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef to investigate whether the county could acquire the New York Country Club in New Hempstead.

But Donald Tracy, the New City lawyer of country club owner Joe Cho, said today that his client has already signed a contract with S & G Golden Estates and that he was amused by all the recent political attention paid to the property.

The only way the county could get the 165-acre property now is through condemnation, he said.

“It makes good political rhetoric, for the constituents,” he said of the legislators’ push, “but it’s highly impractical.”

The Rockland Conference of Mayors last week voted to ask the county to buy, or acquire the property through condemnation.

“It sounds ridiculous,” Tracy said.

Jenn Profenna, a spokeswoman with the county executive’s office, said today that Vanderhoef had not received any details from the Legislature.

I spoke with Legislator David Fried today. I had called him about a proposed law, totally not remembering that he was in Israel with five Rockland officers to learn about anti-terrorism planning.

You could barely hear him over the noise in the background (were they practicing right there?) But  Fried said they’d already been to visit a power plant and had met with the national police commander in Jerusalem.

“It’s great,” he said. “I’ve been learning a lot.”

Tomorrow, he said, they will visit with special police forces who handle situations like border control.

The group, which arrived last week, will be home on Monday. Fried said there were several other Americans in the group, from Illinois, California and Texas among other states.

While the county is picking up the officers’ travel expenses, Fried is paying his own way.

UPDATE!

The Rockland County Legislature passed a bill tonight, 14 to 3, that requires businesses to keep standardized purchase logs of methamphetamine ingredients, including pseudoephedrine, and make those logs available for review by the Sheriff’s Department.
Federal law already requires retailers to maintain logs for two years with information such as the buyer’s name and address.
Legislators Patrick Moroney, R-Pearl River, Douglas Jobson, R-Stony Point and Minority Leader Gerold Bierker, C-Bardonia, voted against the bill.
It now goes to County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef who has 30 days to sign it.
The legislature did not vote to override Vanderhoef’s vetoes on two other meth-related items.
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Absolutely, according to one legislator who is pushing the Meth Shield Act that will go to public hearing at tonight’s County Legislature meeting.

The bill, sponsored by Legislator David Fried, D-Spring Valley, would require businesses to keep purchase logs of methamphetamine ingredients pseudoephedrine and ephedrine and make those logs available for review by the Sheriff’s Department.

The public hearing will be held at 8 p.m. tonight in the Legislature chambers at 11 New Hempstead Road in New City.

Rockland County does not have a meth problem, but Fried has said that it would be ignorant to believe the county is immune. The county has just one person certified by federal Drug Enforcement Administration to enter and seize clandestine meth labs.

Meth ingredients and laboratory necessities can be legally purchased, which is what makes this drug so dangerous and easy to get a hold of.

The Legislature approved two other resolutions involving education on meth ingredients and manufacturing, but those measures have been vetoed by County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, who has said there’s no money in this year’s budget for the distribution program.

The Legislature voted, but failed, to override one of those resolutions last month. The override vote for the other two are scheduled for tonight.

Legislator David Fried, D-Spring Valley, announced today that he would not seek re-election this fall.

Fried, said he didn’t have any firm plans for the future, but that he’s interested in continuing his public service in non-elected ways.

Among his considerations are a non-profit organization to financially support emergency first-responders and heavy involvement with a 2008 presidential campaign — though he wouldn’t say whose.

At 28, Fried is the county’s youngest Legislator. He was first elected in 2003 on the Independence Party line, defeated Democratic candidate Demeza Delhomme.

Before his time on the Legislature, Fried worked there as a part-time employee. He has also worked with members of Congress and as an unpaid aid to former President Clinton.

Jacques Michel, a registered Democrat, has already secured the Republican nomination in Fried’s District 13. He said today that he’ll be looking for the Democratic nomination at tomorrow’s nominating convention.

No secret handshake necessary.

The Rockland County Legislature is hopping on the ban-the-”N”-word bandwagon. The Legislature’s Multi-Services Committee has on its agenda a resolution, introduced by Vice Chairman William Darden, D-Hillcrest, to “symbolically” ban the use of the “N” word as well as all derogatory words referencing race, ethnicity and religious practice.

It’s certainly not a new idea, especially in this area. Last month Nyack village trustees and the Westchester County Board of Legislators passed a resolution calling for an end to the word’s use. Earlier this month the New York City Council also adopted a nonbinding resolution that prohibits the use of that word.

The Multi-Services Committee, which meets at 6 p.m. tomorrow in New City, will also tackle a proposal to ban smoking in a vehicle with children under the age of 18. That resolution, sponsored by Legislator Connie Coker, D-South Nyack, aims to prevent damage caused by secondhand smoke.

They will also discuss a proposal by Legislator David Fried, D-Spring Valley, that would direct County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef to create a telephone and e-mail hotline to report businesses that sell alcohol and tobacco to minors.

If the committee votes to pass all these items through, the full Legislature will vote on them at an upcoming meeting. The law against smoking in vehicles with children would require a public hearing.