New Requirements for Brookhaven ZBA

The Town of Brookhaven has issued new requirements for its Board of Zoning Appeals members (Town Code at Chapter 85).

Now, members of the ZBA must: 

• Attend a minimum of 4 seminars/courses of certified education training in both planning and ethics with a minimum of 2 seminars in each area; & 

• Attend all public meetings with no greater than 4 absences from such meetings being permitted within each year.

If a current board member fails to comply with these new requirements, they may be removed from the board following a public hearing. 

Based on these new requirements, the Brookhaven ZBA is becoming a much more professional administrative body. 

Do you think other towns, villages, and cities should follow suit?

Educating those who make important decisions about our communities is definitely something that we can support. Do you? 

You Just Can't Say "Made in USA" on Products Anymore

The FTC has finalized a new "Made in USA" rule, which sets forth that labels may not contain unqualified "Made in USA" claims unless: 

1. Final assembly or processing of product occurs in the US;
2. All significant processing that goes into the product occurs in the US; or
3. All or virtually all ingredients or components of the product are made and sourced in the US.

Clearly, the FTC is attempting to crack down on enterprises who falsely claim products are made in the US. Is that you?

Think, Amazon retailers - do you even know if your product comports with the rule? 

Should you fail to meet the criteria listed above, the FTC has the power to seek civil penalties of up to $43,280 per violation - wow!

Will these penalties motivate you to immediately confirm that you qualify before advertising "Made in USA"? 

Will large internet based enterprises scale back on selling/distributing certain products in order to ensure compliance with this new rule? 

The Neverending Assault on Landlord's $ Continues with New Bill on Governor's Desk

Landlords are about to be capped on key reproduction fees in NYS. 

You may be saying whoopdeedoo, but it's not that simple. 

The cap is 110% of the actual cost of reproduction. However, the cap doesn't apply for the 4th time the tenant needs the keys in a calendar year. 

The real question is what happened the second and third time the tenant needed a new key. Why are they constantly losing their keys? Do you lose your house keys FOUR times in a year? 

Here is a question - does this new key reproduction cap also cap the shipping and handling of the new keys? Think about it. Now a landlord needs to stop their day, drive to a local hardware shop, wait about 20 minutes for the line and the key to be made, drive back to their office, and deliver the key for virtually fifty cents. This is nuts. 

Maybe the legislature should realize that landlords never wanted to make money on key reproduction in the first place. Instead, they charged a lot to motivate their tenants to STOP LOSING KEYS. 

Read the new law, section 235-i of the Real Property Law, here. 

Governor Cuomo should not to sign this stupid law. 

If he does, lawyers need to draft leases with shipping and handling fees for keys, but it's unclear if such fees will be upheld in court when the litigation ensues on the topic. 

Do you think landlords should be able to charge fees for shipping and handling of key reproduction?

Airplane Lost Your Bag??? - Get $$ Under New DOT Proposed Rule

The US Department of Transportation is proposing a rule that requires airlines to refund checked baggage fees if they don't deliver the bag in a timely manner. 

That's a start for sure... How about requiring them to pay for all the items that you had to purchase while you didn't have your stuff on your trip???

Make your voice heard - comment on this proposed rule by filing out this form until 9/20/2021. 

Filing a Discrimination Complaint with the NYS Division of Human Rights Just Got Easier

As of July 16, 2021, discrimination victims need not have their discrimination complaints notarized before filing them with the NYS Division of Human Rights, per a change to Executive Law 297(1). 

This applies to both victims of employment discrimination and housing discrimination.

According to the laws justification, the notarization requirement "discourage[d] people from filing complaints" and the Division nonetheless received over 6,000 complaints annually. 

How many complaints will the Division receive now? 

Do you think that this new law makes sense? 

Does it matter if a document is notarized? 

Shouldn't preventing discrimination be as easy as pie?