Reply With QuoteCONSOLIDATE! How many fire departments need.
The hot topic this late winter/early spring will be Kevin Gaughan's wish to start the abolishment of Villages within WNY. An article written in today's Buffalo News gives all Village Residents something to ponder. See below:
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/931221.html
Villages warned of petitions’ unintended consequences
By Barbara O’Brien
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
January 22, 2010, 7:07 AM
Many local village leaders expect petitions to land on their desks March 22 — the day after a state law goes into effect that makes it easier to dissolve villages.
And they have a word of caution for residents: Be careful what you wish for.
The general counsel of the New York Conference of Mayors said the number of government bodies usually increases after a village is dissolved, because special districts are created.
“Every time you dissolve a village, you create three to eight special districts,” Wade Beltramo told about 100 Erie County village officials this week at a meeting in Orchard Park High School.
If the village is dissolved into the town, special districts may be created for services such as sewer and water, fire protection and sidewalk plowing.
Each village offers different services, Beltramo said, and if there are savings in one municipality, there may not be in another.
“Every town and every village is different,” he said.
The Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act, which was signed into law last year, allows local government entities to be abolished more easily by their governing body or citizens. It changes the number of signatures required on petitions for dissolution from 33 percent of the residents to 10 percent.
Once the petitions are filed and deemed valid, a referendum must be conducted. If dissolving the village or other entity is approved, then the village must create a plan that determines how the dissolution would take place. After the plan is adopted, if residents do not like the plan, petitions signed by 25 percent of the residents could cancel it.
Beltramo told the village officials that while they may come up with a dissolution plan, the town has to carry out many of the directives and that the town is not bound by the village plan. The town also is not bound to take on any village employees, he said.
Depew Village Attorney Anthony M. Nosek said that town and village officials have different constituencies.
“Unless you can eliminate a service, unless something disappears, everything that saves a village a dime costs the town a dime,” Nosek said.
He said that developing a plan may be beyond difficult.
“It may well be impossible,” he said.
Village officials also wonder who will pay for the creation of the plan, which could run into tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.
Beltramo urged village officials to educate residents on the law and its ramifications. “You need to be leading on this issue,” he said.
Beltramo said the Conference of Mayors has suggested some amendments to the law, including allowing the democratically elected board to approve or disapprove the dissolution after receiving the study on the proposal.
bobrien@buffnews.com
CONSOLIDATE! How many fire departments need.
I can't take it anymore!!! When will Erie County wake up??
First dissolving the Villages is not the answer to solving all problems. Services still need to be delivered.
If you REALLY want to see consolidation and save money you need to make some tough choices. The true key is to lower the cost of services across the board at village AND town level. Why can't we share town/village highway services to save money? Maybe we could share equipment and manpower? If you say no, why not? Lets be honest our highway departments have down time periodically. This is not a dig at our workers it is just the nature of the work, busy times and slow times. But lets use the down time on one side help the other. I could care less if a town plow or village plow services my street, just get it plowed! We can work together without dissolving our Town Highway or Village DPW.
In many cases villages are more fiscally responsible than town government. Look across both the town and village budget lines. Go ahead and compare in proportion and you will see the village is the bigger bang for the buck.
Another forbidden topic to think about, police departments. If consolidation is what we REALLY want then we need to look at the larger piture. Why do we need town police departments? Many metropolitan areas across our nation use their sheriffs department. We can easily get police services at a MUCH lower cost to the Town. Scare tactics will certainly squash this idea. I challenge fellow residents to look at your tax bill and see what you are paying for police protection. You will see it is one of our largest expenditures, wouldn't it be nice not to have such a large tax burden? Does it really matter what name is on the police car? Maybe we should look at why Clarence, Elma, Grand Island, Alden and other growing suburbs do not have their own police force. Perhaps it is because they are smarter than us. Perhaps we could consider a hiring freeze and fill any vacancies with a supplement of sheriffs or troopers. Controversial? You bet!! Can it work? Yes. Are other towns in the area looking at it? YES!
Villages are not the problem, delivery of services at all levels is where the savings are!!! We can still have Villages and Towns we just need to be smarter about how we run our business. Be careful what you wish for because you just may get it. Dissolving a village just means more layers of government through special districts.
I can assure you that if our village is dissolved the next one is the crosshair is the dissolution of towns. Think about it.
The village of East Aurora residents have spoken and it was AGAINST the man who is for dissolution. I as a fellow Orchard Park village resident, applaud them!
http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/03/1...-mayor-in.html
Village Trustee Allan A. Kasprzak won a tight race for mayor in Tuesday's village election.
East Aurora elects new mayor in tight race
By Karen Robinson
News Staff Reporter
Updated: March 17, 2010, 1:17 am /
Published: March 17, 2010, 8:36 am
East Aurora has a new mayor — a Buffalo police officer who campaigned hard against the idea of dissolving village government.
Village Trustee Allan A. Kasprzak, who often butted heads with Mayor Clark W. Crook over the last few months over Crook's push for dissolution, won a tight race in Tuesday's village election, topping Crook by 46 votes. Kasprzak, who has served on the Village Board for two years, received 701 votes to Crook's 655.
In Village Board results, former Trustee Patrick Shea, who served from 2003-05, was the top vote-getter in the trustee race, with 679 votes, followed by incumbent Ernest Scheer, with 667 votes, and newcomer Randy West, a village Planning Commission member for eight years, with 665 votes.
Losing his bid for re-election was Patrick McDonnell, a 10-year board veteran, who logged the fewest votes with 623. Also losing was David Foley, with 635 votes, who was closely aligned with Crook, and works for him at Synergy Global Solutions in Amherst.
Kasprzak, who entered the race because of Crook's push for dissolution, was at Tantalus Restaurant not far from Village Hall when the results were announced just before 10 p.m. Tuesday.
"I took a gamble and stepped up here because of what I believed in," Kasprzak said in an interview.
"I think people are happy the Village of East Aurora exists," Kasprzak said.
"I am surprised," Kasprzak added. "I had a feeling the race was going to be a race. ... This is a brand-new venture for me, but I feel confident I can do it."
Crook, who with his family waited for an hour at Village Hall for the results to be announced, called the election "a great, great victory for democracy and our village."
"I am so proud of this village, and I can't say more than that," he said.
"We relied on the people's sense of duty and obligation to vote for a very important issue," said West referring to the debate over dissolution. "This was a very positive step for the preservation of East Aurora."
In North Collins, 35-year-old newcomer Paul Carozzi was the top vote-getter in a three-way race for two four-year terms on the Village Board.
Carozzi, running for public office for the first time, received 152 votes. Incumbents Jennie Alessi and Beverly Boltz garnered 106 and 76, respectively.
Boltz and Alessi both voted against putting a village dissolution question on the ballot. Carozzi said he was not sure whether dissolving the village is a good idea but says the study that was done needs to be more widely disseminated.
Every other village election in Erie County was uncontested.
• In Alden, Robert F. Woods was unopposed for a four-year term as village justice.
• Farnham voters elected Virginia Schilling and Jere Hoisington to four-year term on the Village Board.
• Hamburg Mayor Thomas Moses; Trustees Mark Colmerauer and Thomas Tallman; and Justice Andrew Fleming all were elected to four year terms.
• Orchard Park Trustee Stephen Bray was elected to a one-year term on the Village Board.
• Springville voters elected William Krebs to a four-year term as mayor and Gerald Lohrey and Terry Skelton to four-year terms on the Village Board.
News Staff Reporter Dale Anderson contributed to this report.
krobinson@buffnews.com
I see they voted for someone but I don't see a vote count for a dissolution or not.The village of East Aurora residents have spoken and it was AGAINST the man who is for dissolution. I as a fellow Orchard Park village resident, applaud them!
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WNYResident:
I don't think that resolution is up for vote yet but it appears they voted out the current mayor who was for dissolution.
Why are we so nostalgic for the village mayor and council along w/associated staff? That and some special badge that you live in a "village".
Originally Posted by CSense
Its the "identity" thing. oh, and the representation thing....so with 400 elected officials for WNY looking out for our best interest this place should be Beverly Hills.
The main purpose of Government in NY is to employ people,, as soon as you cut that weed by the roots, then the problem would be solved. I am including pensions that should go as well. We don't need them to attract candidates in this day and age.
Do not forget School Districts need to be dissolved, as well. The cost of administration is 4 times of the municipal government employees. Let us implement real change. I am an advocate of merging, dissolving and reducing any governments or school districts.
People living in the Amherst Central School District have over and over again stated through election results that we are very happy with our schools and school district. We aren't interested in merging with any others.
Only the school districts will consolidate with another school district, I don't anticipate this happening anytime soon.
I hear people stating all the time that we have too much government but they all want the other person to cut their rep. If abolishing the villages reduces the amount of pensions in the future GREAT>
reduces the number getting tax payer paid health benefits GREAT.
reduces two highway departments GREAT
reduces two sewer districts GREAT
reduces two water districts.etc etc
and don't give me that special district bull.
the village water can be connected to the county just like the towns are same with the sewer. the town highway department can figure out how to drive a sidewalk plow. and if the village businesses want flower pots on every post let them pay for them and hire someone to water the plants.Why do we need a town super and a mayor.
And yes I would like to see a county police department and a county school district. both would consolidate the central offices but keep open most of the police stations. one big district might just give the tax payer a big enough base to fight the state wide union teachers union better.
We have to cut the size of government. removing the villages gets rid of one layer. next come all the services that we allowed to be created when this area was growing and had many manufacturing jobs to pay the bills. those jobs are gone so we have to cut services until this area once again becomes wealthy enough to pay for them.
we cant just raise more taxes to solve every problem Reagan's cuts caused the economy to grow for over twenty years until taxes once again killed it. its time for drastic cuts again.
Cut everything 10% or more and you have my vote
One good thing about growing old is your secrets are safe with your friends they can't remember them either
Good points.
Villages generally provide more services to residents than towns. Where the villages/towns are providing equal or about equal services, consolidation makes sense (think Williamsville/Amherst or Depew/Lancaster/Cheektowaga). However, where the village provides more services than the town, there's not going to be any savings, and maybe much more in costs (think North Collins or Springville/Concord). The towns are NOT going to pick up the cost of village water or sewer systems when most of the town uses wells and septic systems. Town are NOT going to pay for municipal garbage pickup or sidewalks or street lights when a village in a rural town disbands. Either the services will disappear or residents in the former village will pick up the tab through special district assessments.
Oh, yeah, and towns don't pick up village debts, either. That's another special assessment for residents in the former village.
Having BOTH towns & villages are a waste, duplication of services & just MORE layers of gov't. Sure most politicians don't want this as there would be less patronage jobs for them to dole out to their "minions", I've visited local area governments, where the town & village were in the SAME building, doing the SAME things, just feet apart from one another?! How ludicrous is this? Even Buffalo & Erie County being separate are a waste of tax dollars, they both have community development agencies, inspections, police forces, purchasing, etc. Go METRO, combine & save.........
And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15
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