What’s so grand about grand jury duty?

I value jury duty as an absolutely important component of our criminal and civil judicial systems.

In a nation founded on liberty and justice it’s critical to have a panel of citizens determine the outcomes of one’s personal or financial well-being. Otherwise, it would be dangerous and unjust to always vest too much power in one person, a judge, to determine the fates of the parties involved. The opinion of one can be swayed by personal beliefs, stereotypes, ignorance, sympathy and, in extreme cases, kickbacks. That absolute and often times flawed power is cast aside by a body of jurors who have to, as a group, overcome those individual flaws to come to a consensus.

Twice I’ve gone through the jury selection process, once missing a day of work, another time missing a week. I didn’t fret too much about it because, as a guy who walks around with the Constitution in his back pocket, I value what I as a citizen can do to protect and ensure justice.

I also value when that belief comes around to serve me.

A couple of years ago my company was embroiled in a civil lawsuit. The incredibly stressful trial lasted two weeks. Had we been found liable for the injuries that our product was alleged to have caused the company would have likely gone out of business. Fortunately, the jury saw that improper and unsafe use of the product led to the chain of events. I was thankful for the jury system because it saw what was right and wrong and in turn saved our 45-year legacy and the jobs of more than 200 people.

Despite my belief in all the grandeur and almost sacred importance of this civic obligation I know it can also become an agonizing and financially-harmful burden to the juror if taken in excess.

In the previous examples, jury duty was manageable. A day. A week. A couple of weeks. Those are reasonable expectations when it comes to saving a life or business, ensuring fairness, punishing those who deserve it and making the injured and aggrieved whole.  

But, when it comes to grand jury service those expectations are exceeded to the point of becoming completely unreasonable.

I’m seeing it secondhand.

I work with a young man who was recently selected for federal grand jury in Buffalo. He has to report once a week…for 12 months…and they could tack on an additional 6 months. And, by the way, he’s getting off easy: It should be 18 months with a 6-month permissible extension.

Think about that.

At a minimum he will lose 50 days of pay (I’m assuming a break for the holidays). As much as someone would love to be a nice guy, no employer can be expected to grant someone 50 days of pay for no work above and beyond the paid days off given in a healthy benefits package. So, he will have to cover his lost income with a $50 per diem from the feds or by sprinkling his paid-time-off benefits through his service, which cuts back on his vacations. So, depending on what he does he will lose somewhere between 15% and 20% of his income this year. A fifth of his earnings disappear to satisfy the courts.

Virtually everyone on that 23-person jury are in the same boat. They’re losing money. Their employers are losing them. If they are a caregiver their families are losing them. It’s not fair to the jurors unless, of course, they work for the federal government as they are paid their full salary (go figure).

It’s definitely a system in need of reform. Shorter stints would ensure that jurors aren’t financially hurt, employers have their employees and frustrated participants won’t become careless with their duties and hateful of the court system that may one day be needed to help them. 

Getting reform is not easy, though.  

The main body of federal grand jury law goes back to Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure adopted by order of the Supreme Court in 1944 and then approved by Congress in 1946. 

It may seem unusual that the rules are promulgated by the Supreme Court since it’s the judicial body, not a legislative one. But, it can because of statutory authority unfortunately granted by Congress under the Rules Enabling Act of 1934.

While Congress has the power to reject the Court's proposals, modify them, or enact rules or amendments on its own, it has rarely rejected the Court's proposed amendments, though it has occasionally passed its own.

So, it’s somewhat of an uphill battle.

Would Congress be interested enough in the financial well-being of good citizens to lord over the Supreme Court?

Would the unelected and unaccountable Supreme Court listen to the common man and amend their rules?

The answer to both is probably “no”.

But, it’s worth a try, especially when one considers that a third of the House are lawyers and half the Senate is. They should know full well the complaints that people have with the judicial system and understand the value it brings to citizens when it’s administered justly…justly for the parties involved and the jurors. 

From the 20 January 2020 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

You are a part of the local tourism industry

Every summer my family and I spend a week in the Adirondacks. Every time we go I am impressed by how every business and resident goes out of their way to treat visitors like gold. I guess we are gold to them…a precious commodity because the entire economy within the Adirondacks is based on some form of tourism. They do this because, of course, they love our money but also because they truly love where they live.

Now, compare that to what takes place in Niagara County.

I often get the sense that tourists get the short shrift here from too many of our residents. Despite more than three-quarters of billion dollars spent annually on tourism activities in the county, some locals look at tourists with disdain -- they are using “our” parks and roads or there are “too many” Canadian license plates at our malls.

That’s silly and self-defeating. Every person living and working here should follow the lead of our fellow New Yorkers and show exuberance not only for our visitors but also for the incredible assets we have here.

Without them, our economy would tank. 16,000 workers are employed in tourism and hospitality in Niagara County. Maybe your neighbor is one of them. Maybe you are. Their/our livelihoods are dependent on people visiting Niagara Falls, the Gorge, the Erie Canal, the Wine Trail, and our world-class fisheries.

Our governments – and, in turn our pocketbooks -- are also in need of tourism dollars. Niagara County tourism generates more than $50 million in local sales tax, helping to reduce the tax burden of local property owners by nearly $800 per household. I don’t know about you, but I pay enough in property taxes (inarguably too much) and I wouldn’t want to dish out another $800.

It’s up to every one of us to make sure local tourism flourishes. When it does, so do we.

There are any number of ways that Niagara County residents can further improve the Niagara brand. For the sake of column space, here are three simple ways to start:

Spread the word: Why do you live here? Why do you love it here? There has to be reasons; share them with those visiting and those who could visit. As an example, when I court potential clients they receive not only my company brochure but they also get a visitor’s guide that I created encouraging them to enjoy Niagara County when they pay me a visit. Similarly, it seems like every single business in Inlet and Old Forge in the Adirondacks has a rack of tourism brochures in their doorway. When is the last time you saw that in Niagara County outside of the Falls? Those racks should be just as ubiquitous here.

Sell the area: In the Adirondacks, a lot of cross-selling takes place. Retailers and restaurants heavily use and re-market local products and services. That doesn’t happen here. As an example, look at wines. It’s a rare Niagara County restaurant that has a good selection of wines from our great wine trail. Most don’t carry any and, if they do, it might be one or two wines. If they carried more they’d support local farms and wineries…and themselves. They’d encourage non-resident diners to visit the trail and, in turn, create repeat business for that restaurant when the travelers return.

Treat everyone like a new and welcome visitor: In the Adirondacks service sector employees treat every customer (tourists or locals alike) like it’s their first of many visits to the establishment or the Park in general. In doing so there’s a palpable positive energy that’s infectious and makes outsiders feel welcome and loved. Happy people spend money! I don’t really see that here. A waitress in Lewiston might treat someone like a Lewistonian, not knowing the person hails from across the country. By doing so she fails to properly market the experience at her restaurant and in her community. In a tourism mecca like this, you never know who your customers might be. Consider one fine summer day in Olcott when I counted six different languages being spoken. That’s who we want visiting us again and again and being encouraged to do things – that’s economic development at the grassroots level.

I could go on and on about this subject, but I hope you get the gist. By living here, in a world-renowned area, we all have a vested interest in the utilization of those resources and the betterment of our economy. It’s time Niagara County residents realized we are all in the tourism industry together.  

From the 13 January 2020 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Local forests are losing their stories

The Erie Canal towpath was once the interstate for itinerant workers — hoboes, if you will — who traveled from town to town in search of their next farming or handyman gig. While doing so, they frequently stopped over on my family’s farm, which butts up to the canal. It was an attractive spot to set up camp because of the fresh water they could drink from a brook that runs through our woods, the same brook from which they ignited gas for cooking (there is a good reason it’s called “Gas”port).

While there, they often killed time by carving their names and other things in the bark of the beech trees that are common in our woods. The smooth gray bark, so easy to cut with a pocketknife, has always been quite inviting to amateur artisans, not to mention young lovers who wanted their names forever inscribed in Mother Nature for all the world to see. The hoboes, the lovers, and anyone else interested in making a statement left their calling cards on the beeches — old-fashioned graffiti that remains to this day.

Those trees tell stories.

On the trees that were cut when they were mature and thus slower to grow, I can still make out dates from the early 1930s. Some of the handiwork, less legible as the tree grew, obviously came from much earlier times. There are names; some of them belonged to the hoboes, while others I recognize as locals who probably carved the tree when they were in their teens and 20s. Now, they are in their senior years and their arboreal artwork has aged less dramatically than they.

Two beeches show the efforts of my family. One has neatly cut into its bark two words: “Ray Confer.” My grandfather did that when he purchased the farm in 1955 at 33 years of age. He has since passed, so that tree has always offered a comforting portal to a time gone by. The other tree in question displays my dad’s boast of having hunted his first squirrel. He likely carved that when he was just 12 years old. That tree is like a trophy, one as impressive as the deer heads on his wall.

Sadly, all of these trees will, quite soon, no longer be able to tell their stories. About a dozen years ago, beech bark disease reared its ugly head on the Niagara Frontier in volume, bringing with it its deadly one-two punch. First, an insect attacks the bark. Then, the wounds left by the insects are infiltrated by a fungus. It doesn’t take long for the once-beautiful bark to crack then fracture completely, falling off the tree. The malnourished beech topples over within a couple of years of its first symptoms.

It won’t take long for the disease to take its toll on local forests, wiping out one of our most abundant trees and our best storytellers. Every year, more and more of them topple within our woodlots.

It’s disheartening to think that the trees that should have outlived me won’t, taking with them the interesting connection I have to my family and the dozens of hardworking men who made their way across the region in hopes of overcoming the economic realities of their time.

Not one to let memories — better yet, history — die so pitifully, over the past few years I’ve taken photographs of the various trees and their carvings that remain. If you have a stand of beeches, especially one along the towpath or the rail line, you should take the time to do so, too, to familiarize yourself with the people who once called your fair community “home,” be it for years or just a few nights.

By capturing the images on film we can maintain the carvings for the ages, just as their artists had intended.

From the 06 January 2020 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News