1. The NY SAFE Act: County Clerks and County-State Relations
Christopher Kuwik - MPA Project
MPA Project Advisor: Laurie Buonanno, PhD Second Readers: Frank Ciaccia, MPA, Maria Garozzo Payne, MPA
Literature Review
Purpose Statement & Significance of Study
Themes Discovered After Data Analysis
Hyperpartisanship contributes, along with the longstanding cultural and political upstate/downstate divide, to the SAFE Act controversy. Intergovernmental theories provide context for understanding national-state and state-local relations. Furthermore, NYS’s governor has more power compared to governors in many other states, and the state executive’s considerable influence in Albany, combined with the message of necessity feature of the NYS legislative process, resulted in the SAFE Act’s swift passage through the NYS legislature. Unfunded mandates remain a contentious issue in state-local relations, vexing county administrators who are required to divert administrative resources to new programs or policies enacted in Albany, but often struggling to do so under another Albany mandate – the 2% property tax cap.
The primary purpose of this study is to explore the reactions of New York State (NYS) county clerks who have been required to implement the controversial SAFE Act gun control legislation. NYS county clerks had no voice in the enactment and implementation of what has become a deeply unpopular law among constituencies in many counties.
This study exemplifies the Janus-faced role of the NYS county clerk - whose tasks are decidedly administrative but based on elections rather than political appointment (the latter being the basis of staffing in other advanced industrialized democracies).
Underlying the Safe Act’s controversy is the intergovernmental tension inherent in the unitary relationship between state and county in NYS, which distinguishes it from the national-state federal relationship. Albany decides NYS laws, with counties serving as administrative “handmaidens” of the state. This unitary relationship becomes problematic when elected local government officials are tasked with implementing controversial state laws, and as this study illustrates, especially so when state leaders fail to consult county officials prior to major policy shifts.
Problems with Intergovernmental Communication
Lack of Consultation with the County Clerks
Lack of Funding to the Clerk’s Offices
Uncertainty about the Law and its Language
Design of Study
According to Creswell (2013) phenomenological research (the design selected for this study) “Is a design of inquiry coming from philosophy and psychology in which the researcher describes the lived experiences of individuals about a phenomenon as described by participants. This description culminates in the essence of the experiences for several individuals who have all experienced the phenomenon. This design has strong philosophical underpinnings and typically involves conducting interviews.” Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 county clerks across New York State. The researcher inquired: What was it like for the county clerks after the SAFE Act was passed? How did the SAFE Act affect their office administratively? What, if anything, do the county clerks feel should have been done differently, and what can we learn from this?
No Public Comments Before Passage
Results, Summary, and Conclusions
The lack of consultation around passage of The Safe Act has resulted in dissatisfaction among county clerks and many NYS residents. The SAFE Act has significantly increased workload in county clerks’ offices, and the lack of state funding to mitigate implementation costs has exacerbated these issues. This study’s findings support the contention of local officials that when Albany passes comprehensive legislation affecting multiple local government agencies (and their local constituencies), prior consultation and intergovernmental communication is essential. Laws should be written and passed “in sunshine” with unambiguous implementation guidance for local officials. The message of necessity should only be used for emergencies and not for (controversial) partisan issues. Furthermore, the current recertification phase of The SAFE Act has caused frustration among county clerks due to a continued lack of communication between government agencies collectively tasked with ensuring the law’s function.
The results of this investigation may assist NYS policy makers by demonstrating the adverse ramifications of passing a law as impactful as the The SAFE Act without consulting the local governmental bodies tasked with its implementation.
Sample Selection & Data Collection Methods
Convenience quota sampling was used to ensure the researcher had an urban, suburban, and rural mix. The goal was to have county clerks speak for themselves about the SAFE Act and its administrative impact on their offices. For data recording procedures, both the in-person interviews and telephone interviews were recorded using the researcher’s interview protocol, a tape recorder. The recordings were subsequently transcribed. The researcher occasionally wrote down quick notes as the interviews were in progress using an observational protocol, a journal. 
Data Analysis
The researcher analyzed the recordings, notes, and transcriptions from each interview. Data were then analyzed using thematic analysis, a form of qualitative analysis employed in the phenomenological tradition. The researcher read the transcriptions multiple times, highlighting interesting and important quotes from the county clerks. Coding was then performed to organize themes representing the most significant thoughts or ideas county clerks had in common.
References: Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.): SAGE Publications, Inc.