Poughkeepsie Journal

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Police get check from gay-marriage allies

Organizers pay $2,000 for service
By Gabriel J. Wasserman
Poughkeepsie Journal

NEW PALTZ -- Organizers of same-sex marriages in New Paltz have delivered $2,000 for police services associated with the controversial nuptials.

But the costs accrued by town police have surpassed $13,000, and reimbursement funds are not assured for many of the expenses.

''We just received the bills last night so we have to go through them still,'' said James Fallarino, a spokesman for the New Paltz Equality Initiative. ''We'd like to make another installment in the next few weeks.''

The initiative will not compensate police for dealing with anti-gay pickets by a Kansas church Sunday, Fallarino said.

''Rightly so,'' said George Campbell, chairman of the five-member commission that oversees funding for the 20-officer town police department.

It's the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, that's responsible for Sunday's police bills, Campbell said.

The group was demonstrating against ''Blacks, Jews, churches, whatever they could come up with,'' he said. ''They were really anti-everything except for them.''

No arrests

Approximately 100 police officers monitored Sunday's pickets and counter-demonstrations, town police Chief Ray Zappone said. No arrests or violence were reported.

State troopers and Ulster County sheriff's deputies were part of the multi-agency force, as were officers from the Town of Lloyd and the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Representatives from these agencies and town police had devised tactical-response plans in advance, using aerial photos of the village.

Some of these law-enforcement agencies also assisted at other occasions relating to New Paltz's same-sex marriages, which were launched Feb. 27 by Mayor Jason West. The Equality Initiative has not offered to pay any costs incurred by the other agencies.

Fallarino said the initiative is still deciding about some of the town police bills, such as those for crowd control at rallies and court appearances for the wedding officiants.

The initiative has coordinated dozens of same-sex weddings since March 5, when a state Supreme Court judge ordered West to stop performing them. New York State's marriage certification procedures, aimed at thwarting identity fraud, are available only to heterosexual couples.

West has pleaded not guilty to 24 counts of solemnizing unlicensed marriages. The charge is a misdemeanor.

The weddings, West's legal proceedings and related gatherings have drawn hundreds of spectators and international media attention.

Town police overtime has accrued for everything from directing traffic to delivering a summons to West.

Zappone said the total town police bill for services linked to same-sex marriages, including Sunday's activities, is about $13,350.

The department is budgeted for approximately $100,000 in 2004 overtime.

Additional charges

Other village and town offices also have incurred extra costs, for which the Equality Initiative has not offered to pay.

These include parking assistance by the village Department of Municipal Works and legal research performed by town Supervisor Don Wilen.

Individual or institutional donors can cover such costs at any time as long as their contributions are unsolicited by the government, municipal officials said.

Surplus donations to the initiative will help defray cell phone bills and other costs of administering the group's activities, which include political activism, Fallarino said.

Ministers, many from the Unitarian Universalist movement, are continuing to officiate at same-sex weddings in West's stead. Two Unitarians -- Kay Greenleaf, of Poughkeepsie, and Dawn Sangrey, of Bedford Hills, Westchester County -- were charged with the same misdemeanor as West.

Through its Web site, the Unitarian Universalist Association has been directing donations to the initiative.