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Public commenter urges accounting of Asteri conditions and taxpayer costs
Summary
During public comment, Zach Wynne presented photos and asked the legislature to quantify first‑responder and other taxpayer costs tied to the Asteri and to report how many of the original 39 residents died since moving in; the chair clarified Tompkins County has no financial stake or oversight in the Asteri.
At the start of the Aug. 19 meeting, public commenter Zach Wynne urged the Tompkins County Legislature to investigate conditions at the Asteri (a housing/conference facility referenced in local reporting) and to provide an accounting of taxpayer costs tied to first‑responder and court responses since the building opened.
Wynne said he provided photos to legislators that showed unsanitary conditions — "feces, a syringe, trash strewn floors" — and said he has documented "many" overdose deaths at the Asteri since it opened. Wynne asked the legislature to find out how many people who moved into the facility from the original cohort of 39 have died, noting that even four deaths would represent a 10% death rate over one year.
Chair responded to the public comment by clarifying that "Tompkins County does not have any financial stake in Asteri in any way. We have no oversight over Asteri. No connection at all." The chair asked the public not to conflate county finances with conditions at a facility over which the county has no authority.
Why it matters: Wynne framed his request as a public‑accountability item and asked for figures that would help the legislature weigh whether prior decisions (including tax abatement offered by the IDA, he said) are delivering intended outcomes. The chair's response drew a clear institutional boundary: the county has no fiscal responsibility or direct oversight of the Asteri, which limits what the legislature itself can immediately require.
Follow-up: The transcript records the request and the chair's institutional clarification; it does not record any formal motion to investigate by the legislature. Any follow-up action would require a separate motion and identification of the authority to obtain detailed operational or medical records.
