MEYER'S MUSINGS: Reduce Erie County Legislature’s
size from 15 members to seven
By: DANIEL MEYER
SUN EDITOR
As members of the Erie County Legislature prepare to revisit the various proposals that call for decreasing the number of legislators who represent the taxpayers of this region, I struggle with the obvious lack of vision being taken by the county’s leadership on this issue.
While there are four proposed laws slated to be discussed next week during a public hearing that will allow elected officials, other community stakeholders and residents to offer their opinions, I think the correct answer to downsize the 15-member Legislature is to reduce it to seven.
Erie County is now well below a million residents so I would say that there is no need for more than seven legislators. That reduction is proper and adequate and will help to generate some actual savings for taxpayers.
With the population loss the need for 15 legislators has become totally obsolete. The desire of big government and all the fancy patronage jobs that come with it is a thing of the past. The ability to reward campaign workers with full-time jobs is despicable and is a practice that helped to establish creative avenues to waste valuable taxpayer dollars on petty partisan political payback practices.
Legislature Lynn Marinelli of Tonawanda has already introduced a bill to reduce the size of the Legislature from 15 to 13, a motion that in my mind represents no substantial effort to welcome reform through real fundamental change. It’s shortsighted and doesn’t solve the obvious problems that plague this region.
Legislator Thomas Loughran of Amherst has proposed shrinking the Legislature from 15 to 11, an effort that I think is again nothing more than a going-through-the- motions type of downsizing. It’s a bit of an improvement over what Marinelli has proposed but doesn’t do enough to change what happens on a day-to-day basis on the fourth floor of Erie County Hall.
It should be noted that Marinelli and Loughran want to retain the practice of legislators serving two-year terms, a provision that I will address in just a moment.
Legislator Tim Kennedy of Buffalo wants to reduce the size of the Legislature from 15 members to 11 but he wants to increase the length of each term in office from two years to four. Again, Kennedy’s mindset is similar to Loughran’s in that a reduction in the number of legislators is made but it is simply not enough in terms of substantial reform that will result in an improvement to the way county government business is conducted on a daily basis.
Also expected to be discussed at the public hearing is a proposal by Republican legislators who want to reduce the size of the Legislature down to nine. While I applaud that plan, I still can’t comprehend why the idea of shrinking the Legislature’s size to seven legislators hasn’t been sponsored by one of the current 15 legislators.
For those who may have forgotten, the Legislature actually approved last year a motion to reduce itself to 13 members but that included lengthening the terms from two years to four. The proposal ended up being vetoed by County Executive Chris Collins because he was opposed to adding the two years to each legislator’s term. Because Collins’ veto was not overridden, voters never ended up weighing in on the downsizing decision in 2009.
As far as the two-year versus four-year debate goes, in the past I’ve expressed a desire to see the term length increase but now believe the two-year terms make the most sense when it comes to greater efficiency and improving the way the Legislature operates.
With all the talk of downsizing, dissolution and consolidation in various cities, towns and villages located throughout Western New York, the opportunity to show some leadership and help to set an important example rests before the Legislature. The Legislature should reduce itself in size to seven members and then establish a nonpartisan redistricting commission which would use 2010 census figures to create seven legislative districts.
Is it going to result in larger districts and perhaps some more work for our elected officials? Sure, but this makes sense because it saves cents, and it provides the chance for Democratic and Republican politicians to join forces to do something good for the residents of Erie County.
The opportunity for meaningful change awaits. Hopefully we can take the right steps to allow it to happen.
(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York, a consortium of weekly newspapers with a combined circulation of over 75,000 homes. E-mail comments to: meyersmusings@gmail.com. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)
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