Erie County Charter Review Commission

[dtwarren]

an Open Letter:

January 15, 2006

Hon. Arthur Eve, Chairman
Erie County Charter Review Commission
c/o Erie County Legislature
92 Franklin Street
Buffalo, New York 14202

Dear Chairman Eve:

Thank you for the opportunity to be heard before your commission on December 6, 2005. At the conclusion of my comments you requested that I submit them in writing for the record and consideration. As I stated at the hearing I believe it is important that when the voters are presented with the changes selected by the Legislature for their consideration that they be given the option to also vote to repeal the Charter and go back to the standard form of county government through a board of supervisors. Below are some changes to the Erie County Charter and some others that came to me since the public hearing.

• The Charter should be amended to require the annual budget be adopted prior to October 31 of each year. This will allow the voters to properly assess their elected leaders’ performance so that they may cast their vote. On several occasions in this county’s history the voters were told various things regarding the budget and their taxes just to learn after Election Day that it was not as represented. This needs to be changed.


• The Charter should not be amended to alter the requirement of a 2/3 vote requirement to raise or renew sales taxes and fees. If anything it should be amended to require a majority vote of the county voters to raise or renew the sales tax or fees. This would not inhibit the power of the legislature to raise revenue that it deems is needed to properly run government, but to give the people the choice of where that revenue is to come from because if the sales tax/fee raises/renewals are defeated the revenue would come from property taxes as currently provided in the Charter.


• The Charter should be amended to require that the revenue and expenditure estimates are reasonable and not too speculative and that they also meet generally accepted accounting principles. Either an independent budget office should be created to review the budget and certify that this requirement is met or this function could be given to the Comptroller. The Charter should also require this certification prior to the legislature voting on the tentative budget.


• The Charter should be amended to require a four year financial plan as is currently required by the ECFSA Act.


• The term of office for the legislators should be extended from 2 to 4 years with a two consecutive term limit.


• The Office of County Executive should be abolished and replaced with an appointed county manager that will have the same powers and duties as a Chairman of a Board of Supervisors as set forth in County Law § 450.


• The Office of County Attorney should be changed from an appointed position to an elected position with a term of office being four years. In recent past the close relationship between the Offices of County Attorney and County Executive has hindered objective evaluation of situations which is unacceptable (i.e. the BOI overpayment issue)


• The Charter should be amended to provide that every 10 years the following question shall be presented to the voters of the county. “Should a Charter Review Commission be convened for the purposes of reviewing the provisions of the County Charter?” If a majority of voters vote in favor of this question a Charter Review Commission shall be empanelled by a specified method.


As one can see if the first four items were in place last year we would not have had the debacle that took place. I look forward to participating in this process in the future as I am sure more suggestions will come to mind.

[Cgoodsp466]

The term of office for the legislators should be extended from 2 to 4 years with a two consecutive term limit.

I like the term limits,but I dont want these A Holes in office for four years.Two years is long enouigh to see the way a mans Jib is cut.


__________________

Politicians are All A Holes

[dtwarren]

With two year terms as soon as they get in they start campaigning for the next election. With four years perhaps they may actually get down to making the real hard decisions and acting on them.

[GeorgeB]

With two year terms as soon as they get in they start campaigning for the next election. With four years perhaps they may actually get down to making the real hard decisions and acting on them.

I agree with DT. It seems to me that decisions are made in pre-election season that may not otherwise be made if there was less of a chance of backlash in the election.

I would like to see the terms extended to 4 years, if for nothing else than to lengthen the amount of time they have to conduct actual business instead of jockeying(sp?) for positive coverage in the media. I also am in favor of implementing a two consecutive term limit.

Will it make a difference? I don't know. But it seems to me that it's worth trying.

[therising]

Originally posted by dtwarren
With two year terms as soon as they get in they start campaigning for the next election. With four years perhaps they may actually get down to making the real hard decisions and acting on them.

Agree.

[woodstock]

Originally posted by dtwarren

Hon. Arthur Eve, Chairman
Erie County Charter Review Commission
c/o Erie County Legislature
92 Franklin Street
Buffalo, New York 14202

why arent ppl reviewing the charter and writing to this address with ideas of what items in the charter need to be looked at?

good going dtwarren for being an individual making a diffrence. in my opinion, it doesnt take a meeting at JO's office for ppl to do things that get noticed in govt. i wrote a govt level resolution that is currently statused at:

Your e-mail has been forwarded to our Division of State Services for attention.

no matter what happens after that, at least its recognized at a new york state level and that says more than just sitting back and complaining on any message board. you did good dtwarren, congradulations. you are one for admiration.

[Cgoodsp466]

Originally posted by dtwarren
With two year terms as soon as they get in they start campaigning for the next election. With four years perhaps they may actually get down to making the real hard decisions and acting on them.

Your right the bastards will have four years to hire their friends.
If you think 4 years will add integrityto their personality you live in a dream world. I wish it was that easy.