Editorials
Downsizing, one size does not fit all
By Lee Chowaniec
Jun 7, 2009, 17:53

Activist Kevin Gaughan was successful in energizing a base of West Seneca residents that turned out during a small vote to downsize the Town Board from five to three members. The total savings for taxpayers in West Seneca would be about $88,000 a year, if the full cost of health insurance is counted.

Vincent J. Graber who has been a Councilmember on the board for 12 years will lose his seat as of January 1, 2010. Graber was quoted in today’s Buffalo News as saying the vote was one cast as “an indictment against politicians”. Actually it was a vote cast to cut government size and to reduce the associated costs. A step in the right direction, cost savings, a display of voter power? It may be all of that, but fails to address the big savings that could be had by Gaughan and his supporters appearing at Town and Village meetings to challenge budget expenditures.

And, I fail to see the logic in Gaughan’s downsizing process. He gets the Village of Depew (population of 17,000) and the Village of Lancaster (population of 12,000) to downsize from seven to five member boards. Gaughan and village board members are pleased as punch and say what good boys are we. Gaughan appears before the Lancaster Town Board and makes a presentation on downsizing their government and gets a cold shoulder.

Gaughan and the media never make mention that the Town of Lancaster population, including the Villages of Lancaster and Depew (within the Town of Lancaster), is approximtely 45,000 and has a total of 15 board members. But he chooses to target West Seneca with like population and a five member board.

The News stated that some people say the time has come to eliminate villages. Some of us have been saying this for years, but some village residents have been led to believe it is in their best interests to maintain their autonomy and the personal services they receive that would not be provided by the towns they would be absorbed into.

Blasdell residents will vote Wednesday on whether the village should study the issue. The Village of North Collins already is well on its way down that path. People in Williamsville soon may vote on whether to dissolve their village. That’s a good thing. Villages have served their intended purpose and it’s time for them to go.

Cutting size of local governments from seven to five members is appropriate when such governments are small in size and when growth has subsided. Abolishing villages when residents are of the mind to is appropriate. But true cost savings will not be realized unless residents take an active interest in their governments and attend board meetings to see how their money is being spent.

The cost savings resulting from board downsizing pale in comparison to the savings that could be had by eliminating program abuses and irresponsible spending practices taking place in many local governments. Such as:

• Lifetime health benefits for part time elected officials
• Stipends in compensation for having an outside source for health care; oft times up to half the cost of the yearly municipal health care premium cost
• Municipal employee salary structures that exceed like job descriptions in the private sector
• Municipal health care benefits (dental and eye care included) and retirement programs that most of us never had or ever will have
• Take come vehicles – for elected officials, SRO officers, police and others
• Police being driven to and from work in police cars and then getting an annual stipend to compensate in case their trip to or from work would be delayed because of a call in
• Spending on programs that are not affordable in today’s economy but are sure-fire vote getters

Less than a handful of residents spoke on the 2009 Lancaster budget last fall. West Seneca residents supporting the downsizing were quoted as saying they wanted any kind of government change, and here they were given an opportunity to speak out and vote for less government. Unfortunately many of the same voters who want change at any cost will keep voting the same bozos back into office and never appear at board meetings to demand a more fiscally responsible government.

Come on Mr. Gaughan, you’re just scratching the belly of the whale. Pealing the layer away will not expose the rotten core!





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