As far as the budge goes, I feel that the buck stops with the Supervisor. He is the full-time Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for the Town. The Councilmembers are part-time servants who attend meetings as assigned and attend to residents’ concerns. Now that there are only two Councilmembers, the available resource is further diluted and I am sure that the two Councilmembers are working more than 15-20 hours/week just doing what they can for the residents. It is unfair to indicate that the two Councilmembers should also be responsible for oversight of budgets and departments – that is the Supervisor’s full-time job.
Kevin Gaughan rolled into Town four years ago and convinced Wally Piotrowski and some residents that staff is not needed to run the Town - trim staff and cut costs. This has been Wally’s mission for the past four years – focusing on cutting staff and budgets. Unfortunately, Kevin Gaughan has not been around to see the fruits of his labor. Fruit dead on the vine.
I feel that the departmental and staffing cuts were far too deep, leaving the Town in a vulnerable position. Vulnerable as in not being able to properly support the Town’s 44,711 residents – not to mention the businesses trying to make a go of here.
While I am all for cutting waste in government, I feel that these deep departmental cuts exhibit an unbalanced approach to Town management. It is my opinion that there should be more of a focus on growing the commercial base in Town. Increased commercial growth will help balance the budget. This is by far the harder thing to do, and most likely why it hasn't been done.
Right now we have many areas of blight in Town – mostly adjacent to the Buffalo City line at Seneca Street and in the Seneca/Ridge Road corridor. In addition to the many empty storefronts, we are beginning to see some vacant houses in Town. This is a bad sign for us as we will soon see increased crime in those areas. Unfortunately, the Walmart project seems to be dead, but there is still plenty of opportunity along the Slade Ave. and Seneca/Ridge Rd. corridor.
Supervisor Piotrowski has dismissed the Comprehensive Plan out of hand and has done nothing to address the obsolete zoning maps and code in the Town. Without such a guideline or a Town Planner, we are continuing to put ourselves in a position to constantly have to react to developers’ grand schemes as opposed to presenting a thoughtful plan with realistic goals for growth that can be achieved over time.
Sorry to say, but developers are opportunists – and the Town is ripe for the picking with our weak zoning code currently in place. For far too long, people like Bryan Young and the dreaded Ralph Lorigo have been able to take full advantage of our zoning shortcomings by promoting projects that benefit them and their clients, but not the Townspeople, and there’s not a damned thing we can do about it.
The Town Board recently took a giant step in the right direction by moving toward the proper staffing of the Code Enforcement Office which is responsible for assisting in the permitting process for residents and business owners who wish to improve their property. The Code Enforcement office is also charged with addressing the Town’s trashy look. It will take a while to achieve, but they are working toward that goal.
Unfortunately, Supervisor Piotrowski is critical of Ms. Meegan and Mr. Clarke’s efforts to improve the Town as he evidently feels that the increased staffing of the Code Enforcement Office is a waste of taxpayer money. I ask this – what is the value of a piece of property which is adjacent to a vacant, run-down lot? What does that do for your tax base? I say we try to improve the look of the Town and increase our tax base, not destroy it through nickel and dime tactics and poorly conceived cuts.
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