The sponsors of a parental responsibility law under consideration by the Albany County Legislature are withdrawing their bill after weeks of community pushback.
The law was a response to a particularly violent Independence Day Weekend in 2025 that saw nine people injured and a teenager killed, and its withdrawal comes as Gloversville and Canajoharie are mulling their own youth violence prevention measures.
Albany County's proposed Local Law F would've required parents or guardians of youth who committed serious crimes to attend a mandatory parenting class for up to five hours. Parents who failed to show up could've been required to complete community service hours. The program would've been overseen by the Department of Probation.
Frank Mauriello, the Republican minority leader in the County Legislature and a sponsor of Local Law F, said the bill would've acted as a backstop for kids in both urban and suburban areas who weren't helped enough by early intervention measures.
"Youth crime will eventually lead to adult crime, and we have to be very good mentors for our youth. We have to bring them up so they understand what's right and what's wrong, and I think everyone needs to be responsible citizens in our society," Mauriello said. "We're lacking in that area where we have parents that are not keeping an eye on their children and not raising them properly. And we were here to help with this. We weren't here to punish them."
The decision by Mauriello and the bill's other sponsors — two more Republicans and one Democrat — to withdraw the bill comes after months of community pushback.
Most recently, more than a dozen people spoke out against the bill at a public hearing on Tuesday. Some acknowledged what they saw as good intentions, but no one spoke in favor of the bill.
Critics say the proposal did nothing to address the root causes of youth crime or poverty, punished parents for their children’s actions and put a burden on parents who might already be struggling to make ends meet.
"If Albany County is serious about creating legislation around parents and children, then that legislation needs to include support, not just punishment," Anaya Davis, a youth organizer with the nonprofit We Are Revolutionary, said at the hearing Tuesday. "It should include mental health support, financial assistance, parenting classes and education on how to raise and support children through each stage of their lives."
Mauriello, who is also running for State Assembly in the 110th District, says he and the bill's other sponsors were able to win over attendees at two neighborhood meetings who were largely skeptical of the bill at first. But the criticism at Tuesday's hearing — and at others before it — was too much.
"Unfortunately, what's happened is other people with agendas came along and they just wanted to kill this bill no matter what," Mauriello said. "So the emotions are running really high, and there's so much misinformation, disinformation about this out there that it's just — at this point you had to just withdraw it and just let the waters calm a little bit because people's emotions were just running too high."
Mark Robinson, one of the bill's sponsors, blames his fellow Democrats in the County Legislature for the bill's failure. Democrats hold 30 of the legislature's 39 seats, so at least 11 Democrats would've had to vote for the bill if all Republicans supported it.
"This was a wake up bill. It was a call for all county, city and state governments to really listen in and see the cries of the community. Someone is dropping the ball somewhere," Robinson said. "Why this bill was tabled? Because if this bill would have made the floor, it would never have passed. Because so many of my Democratic colleagues out the gate was saying, 'no, no, no, no, no, no' without even engaging in the conversation."
Robinson and Mauriello said they're not giving up on curbing youth violence. They want to take some time away from the issue to let cooler heads prevail, but they said they've started a conversation.
Robinson says he's considering drafting a measure to make sure nonprofits and government organizations are efficiently spending funds meant to address youth crime and other issues. And he's also introducing a bill in the Albany Common Council, where he's also a member.
"Bills are coming. Bills are on the table," Robinson said. "Right now, I got a teenage support hour bill on the city. All the concerns that was mentioned over these last couple of town halls and dialog and conversations, you know, hopefully is addressed in this bill."
