9.15.17 – For 2nd Week, No Staff List from Felder, and No Comment on DACA

For a second week, Sen. Simcha Felder’s office has declined to provide constituents with an updated list of his staffers, without explanation.

The office has also yet to comment on Donald Trump’s DACA decision, or to offer any comment on whether Mr. Felder believes the 42,000 New Yorkers who applied for the laws’ protections should be permitted to continue living, working or studying in the state.

The staff list request: 

In an email written on 9.8.17, Avi Fertig, Sen. Felder’s communications director, told John V. Santore, an SD 17 constituent, that the office was “not in a position to address requests concerning specific personnel.” The comment came in response to Santore’s repeated requests for an updated list of Mr. Felder’s staffers, along with their titles, issue areas of responsibility, and email addresses. Mr. Fertig did not respond to a subsequent request for an explanation as to why the information was unavailable.

Santore sent three more emails requesting the information on 9.11, 9.13 and 9.14, and left a phone message requesting the information with a district office staffer on 9.12. None of his messages were returned.

In an email sent on 9.12, SD 17 constituent Naomi Rabeeya also requested a staff list, but did not receive a response.

DACA commentary:

In his emails on 9.11, 9. 13 and 9.14, and in his voicemail on 9.12, Santore also requested to learn if Mr. Felder believes the state’s DACA recipients should be allowed to stay in the state. No response was received.

Rabeeya requested in the information in her email on 9.12. Her message was not returned.

And on 9.14, SD 17 constituent Ellen Bilofsky called Mr. Felder’s office and requested the same information, after which she relayed the following conversation with a staffer:

A woman answered. I said “I’m one of the senator’s constituents and I’m calling about the DACA situation.” She asked me for my name, address, and telephone number; said “Someone will be in touch”; and hung up. I never got a chance to say anything about why I was calling or find out her name.

Related emails sent to Mr. Felder’s office:

Email #1, from Naomi Rabeeya: 

From: Naomi Rabeeya
Date: September 12, 2017
To: felder@nysenate.gov
Subject: Immigrants Rights / Staff Questions

Hello,

Please send a current staff list for Senator Felder’s Albany and Brooklyn that includes names, titles, areas of responsibility and email addresses.

Also, last week, I was told Senator Felder was a state senator and DACA is a nationwide issue in response to my question about what the Senator will do to protect/advocate the immigrants in his district.

This upset me very much. I explained that state and national politics are interrelated. Also, our district has about 132,000 residents not born in the United States and out of those 59,400 are not citizens of the United States. We cannot know how many of them are DACA registered, but DACA [or] not, it has become normalized behavior in society to attack immigrants. I asked what the Senator was doing to address this. I was then told to email the office.

I would hope as a leader, the Senator would openly and proudly defend his constituents and all immigrants. I did not think it would be a question I would have to ask leadership-to stand-up for what is right. Please advise.

Thank you
Naomi Rabeeya
Midwood, Brooklyn

Email #2, from John V. Santore: 

Dear Felder staffers,

I hope you had a good weekend!…I wanted to follow up on two matters from last week:

(1) I’d again like to request a current list of Mr. Felder’s staffers, along with their job titles, issue areas (the issues they focus on), and email addresses. As someone who wishes to continue engaging your office on issues that I believe matter to SD 17 and New York, it would be very helpful to know who is working for and advising Mr. Felder, and how to contact them. Additionally, since Mr. Felder’s staffers are public employees, I am under the assumption that their names, titles and email addresses are public information, and have not been told otherwise by your office.

As you can see below, last week, Avi told me that I should contact Secretary of the Senate Frank Patience for this information. That office directed me to an expense report listing salaries paid to people who worked for Mr. Felder, but the list has not been updated since the end of March. It is therefore not a current list of staffers. For this reason, I’m requesting the list from your office.

(2) Second, I’d like to know if Mr. Felder believes the approximately 42,000 New York State residents who applied for DACA’s protections should be permitted to continue living, working and studying in New York. I understand DACA is a federal policy, but obviously states can make the lives of immigrants easier or harder, and so understanding how state officials feel about immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, is very important to me as a constituent and voter.

As you know, I often post your office’s responses to my questions on feldertracker.wordpress.com. This blog exists to promote a public dialogue between Mr. Felder and his constituents. I will gladly post any responses your office provides to these and other questions, and would always prefer to hear Mr. Felder’s opinions and analysis of complex issues than to not hear it.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
John

– Posted by John V. Santore