County Legislature urges governor to rescind order barring terminated COs from public service jobs

Orleans says HALT Act has made prisons less safe and should be repealed

Lynne Johnson and John Fitzak

ALBION – Orleans County legislators passed two resolutions on Thursday urging the governor to rescind an executive order barring terminated corrections officers in the prison strike from other public service jobs.

County legislators also said the HALT Act has made prisons less safe and should be repealed. Corrections officers went on strike for about three weeks, beginning Feb. 17, primarily due to their concerns with the HALT Act and how it limited discipline in the prison for inmates who are violent and don’t follow the rules.

Hochul on March 10 fired about 2,000 corrections officers after they refused to meet a deadline for reporting to work. She also prohibited them from taking other jobs with state and local governments.

John Fitzak, a retired corrections officer from the Orleans Correctional Facility, spoke during Thursday’s County Legislature meeting.

“The governor’s executive order does a disservice to the public by taking away a pool of highly qualified applicants from jobs we need filled,” Fitzak said. “It is mean-spirited, revengeful, and immoral and, as such, should be immediately repealed.”

Fitzak said the HALT Act “has failed miserably” and created an unsafe working conditions for the corrections officers.

“Those who passed this outrageous legislation would not listen to the corrections officers when they raised concerns.” Fitzak said. “It forced the corrections officers to take matters into their own hands and walk off the job to draw attention to their plight.”

Corrections officers also said prisons were severely understaffed and COs were forced to do mandatory overtime and many officers were routinely working 60 to 80 hours a week. That kept them away from their families too often, many of the COs said.

The governor fired 2,000 people for expressing their concerns, Fitzak said.

“But that punitive measure was not enough for the governor,” Fitzak said during Thursday’s Legislature meeting. “She then issued an executive order essentially banning these brave women and men from making a living elsewhere in government.”

County Legislature Chairwoman Lynne Johnson said the Legislature’s resolutions are a message to the correction officers to “say loudly and clearly that Orleans County supports you.”

Johnson said many county officials around the state believe Hochul’s order is illegal in banning corrections officers from working for the state and local governments.

Johnson said that executive order from the governor contrasts with the “Clean Slate Act” legislation signed by the governor that wipes the record clean for some criminals so they have a better chance of getting a job.

“The governor felt those folks had paid their debt to society and deserved a second chance,” Johnson said.

Hochul, however, is showing no compassion for the terminated corrections officers, who Hochul has brandished with “a scarlet letter,” Johnson said.

Orleans County and other local governments around the state have job openings and could use the correction officers “at a time when finding people is very challenging.” Several have applied for positions in Orleans County government, Johnson said.

Orleans County is working with New York State Association of Counties, county attorney Kathy Bogan and other counties to understand “this unprecedented, unnecessary and probably unlawful action by the governor and how we can move forward,” Johnson said. “To the corrections officer community, let me reiterate, we are with you.”

Copies of the county resolutions will be forwarded to Gov. Kathy Hochul. Assemblyman Steve Hawley, State Sen. Rob Ortt, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and the New York State Association of Counties.