On February 14, 2018, the regular town board meeting was held at the Thurman Town Hall. During this meeting, Supervisor Cynthia Hyde stood and read a prepared statement. She does not allow other board members to do so, yet it is fine for her to. In this statement, she stated the following:
Councilwoman Seaman has always been treated rudely by Cynthia Hyde in the past and still is. Yes, Councilwoman Seaman did allow her time while in the Thurman Town hall to be recorded. This is not illegal, since she was one of the parties in the conversation.New York State law says:
New York is what is known as a "one party consent" state (it is a state by state issue - 11 states forbid one party consent recording (i.e. Florida, Massachusetts, etc., , but NY is not one of them) . That means that if one person to a conversation consents to its being recorded, then secretly recording the conversation is perfectly legal - even if the other person or persons are completely unaware that one party is surreptitiously recording the conversation. The means or technique used to record a conversation is immaterial - either by phone, in person wearing a concealed devise - it does not change the fact that it is legal so long as one party consents.
During this visit, Councilwoman Seaman was trying to get some documentation. You will hear that she first asked the Supervisors secretary, who told Councilwoman Seaman that the Supervisor could get that information for her. When she went to the Supervisor, she was met with hostility and the Supervisor was very rude to her and then went downstairs to the clerks office. After speaking to the clerk about Councilwoman Seaman, the Supervisor then went back up to her office, slamming her downstairs office door and locking it.
One has to ask, who was the one being rude? It doesn't take much common sense to figure that out. Here is the recorded conversation once again for you to listen to. It would appear that Cynthia Hyde is allowed to be rude, and no one should say a thing about that.
New York is what is known as a "one party consent" state (it is a state by state issue - 11 states forbid one party consent recording (i.e. Florida, Massachusetts, etc., , but NY is not one of them) . That means that if one person to a conversation consents to its being recorded, then secretly recording the conversation is perfectly legal - even if the other person or persons are completely unaware that one party is surreptitiously recording the conversation. The means or technique used to record a conversation is immaterial - either by phone, in person wearing a concealed devise - it does not change the fact that it is legal so long as one party consents.
During this visit, Councilwoman Seaman was trying to get some documentation. You will hear that she first asked the Supervisors secretary, who told Councilwoman Seaman that the Supervisor could get that information for her. When she went to the Supervisor, she was met with hostility and the Supervisor was very rude to her and then went downstairs to the clerks office. After speaking to the clerk about Councilwoman Seaman, the Supervisor then went back up to her office, slamming her downstairs office door and locking it.
One has to ask, who was the one being rude? It doesn't take much common sense to figure that out. Here is the recorded conversation once again for you to listen to. It would appear that Cynthia Hyde is allowed to be rude, and no one should say a thing about that.
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