Outrages & Insights

Some days I think it's hopeless

A read of the morning paper has me thinking today that we should post signs at all access points into Western New York that read "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

Consider:

Officials in Orchard Park are balking at plans for an affordable senior housing complex in their town because  -- gasp! -- some of the residents might not be from Orchard Park.

I mean, we can't let the riff-raff in from Hamburg or East Aurora. And perish the thought that some of "those people" might venture out from an inner-ring suburb or -- double gasp!! -- the city.

Town Council Member Nan Ackerman, part of the political crowd that tried to suppress voter turnout in the recent referendum to downsize the board only to complain about low turnout is among the NIMBY crowd. Speaking of the senior complex, she said:

"We were hoping it would be for our own residents and not a lot of other people ... We felt, if we were serving our own people, that was one thing. If we're serving the needs of the greater community, we need to go where those needs are."

Nan, who exactly are "your people"?

Ah, scratch that. I don't think we want to know.

Then we have Erie County Attorney Cheryl Green.

Not content to keep out the U.S. Justice Department as it attempts to scrutinize conditions at the county prison and holding center, she has told the state Commission of Corrections that it can't interview staff or inmates about an escape earlier this month from the holding center unless a county attorney is present or a video camera is rolling.

Speaking from my nearly 30 years of reporting experience, I can tell you that the best way to keep people quiet is by insisting that their boss be entitled to know every word they say. 

Then again, that's probably the point in this matter.

This latest stunt by the Collins administration is part of its MO of ignoring any power or authority that it does not control itself. Be it the county comptroller, the County Legislature, the control board, the Justice Department or the Department of Corrections, Chris Collins and Co. appear to see no authority that it feels obligated to recognize or respect.

Finally, we have yet another mindless pronouncement from one of the guys entrusted to make wise use of public dollars to develop the inner-harbor.

A while back, Jordan Levy, chairman of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., was quoted as justifying the project and its huge public subsidies on the grounds "if you built it, they will come."

Never mind that the development history of this community runs contrary to that. Witness the parking lots that surround HSBC Arena and whatever they're calling Pilot Field.

Now we have Tom Dee, president of the development corporation, declaring: "If you're for Buffalo, you're for this project.

Donn Esmonde takes it from here:

Not really.

There are people who are heart and soul behind Buffalo who have reservations about this project, for good reasons.

We are trying to create a retail-heavy district where none exists. A few blocks away, Main Street is an ode to empty storefronts. Bass Pro ups the long-term ante by requiring four new, nearby parking ramps. It is not clear how much money Bass Pro is putting on the table, or how many millions of taxpayer dollars are needed to bring it. Bass Pro has a heady track record for luring customers. But the more stores it builds … and it has two within a two-hour drive … the less of an attraction each one becomes.

I haven't formed an opinion about the merits of the Bass Pro project. But I've got to cringe when someone in a position of authority wraps himself in the flag, so to speak, and pulls out a set of pompoms when perhaps a calculator might be more in order.

As Donn put it:

There are arguments to be made for and against this thing. But reservations about Bass Pro equals anti-Buffalo? Sorry, that does not play in a town riddled with self-inflicted wounds.

 Indeed. The City of No Illusions needs leaders, not cheerleaders.

 

 

Gaughan planning referendums to dissolve villages

For those grousing that Kevin Gaughan's push to downsize town councils from five to three members is small potatoes, consider this:

With his consolidation move gaining traction with successful downsizing referendums in the towns of West Seneca, Evans, Orchard Park and Alden, Gaughan said he's going to launch a grassroots effort next year to start dissolving villages.

In an e-mail he sent me Tuesday, Gaughan said:

Beyond town downsizing, I've made no secret that my end goal is to dissolve all 16 village governments.  You may recall that I first proposed this in July 2008, eliciting the blowback from a gaggle of village mayors and some Albany lobbyist they flew in. 

One of the purposes of my spending hundreds of hours in conversation with folks in towns that include villages (Angola in Evans; Orchard Park village in Orchard Park; Alden village in Alden; Williamsville in Amherst), is to build a coalition of support and volunteers for Phase II of my effort, the circulation of petitions to let people decide if they want village government to continue. I think I've made good progress in this regard.
 
My plan is to begin the first village petitioning in March of next year, forcing the first village dissolution vote in May of next year.

In a follow-up phone conversation on Tuesday, Gaughan told me he plans to start in Williamsville, in part because so many village residents there have signed up as volunteers on his Web site.

"As it stands now, it will be Williamsville," he said. "It's going to be our West Seneca. It will be the first one to vote."

Voters venting via downsizing referendums

I'll agree with those who say downsizing town councils from five to three members doesn't do a whole lot to cut costs or the size of local government. But I think that argument misses the point, as Sandy Tan's story today underscores.

"I realize this has such a small impact on what we're doing, but we're hoping for a snowball effect," said the lifelong Alden resident, who struggled with her decision. "We have to do something, even if we start small."

... Voter Raymond R. Rebmann used those exact words to describe his desire for a trickle-up effect.

"We need to send elected officials a message, and we need to start somewhere," he said, referring to Tuesday's town vote. "This is what we have control over."

Yes, indeed, voters -- taxpayers -- are fed up and whacking a couple of politicians is the avenue open to them. The fact the pols are going out of their way to thwart the downsizing movement, as Donn Esmonde documented in his column the other day has only added fuel to the fire.

We have recently seen board members in four towns place a variety of rocks and roadblocks between people and democracy. The dirty secret: The more town officials try to stop this, and the sleazier their tactics get, the more people who may turn against them.

Donn goes on to document the tactics used by our "defenders" of smalltown democracy:

The towns change; the tactics stay the same:

• Open only a few polling places—or, in Orchard Park and Alden, just one.

• Limit voting hours, so people cannot stop on their way to work or after dinner.

• Find a ridiculous technicality that —despite the extra expense to taxpayers and inconvenience to voters—supposedly prevents the downsizing vote from taking place on the same day as a primary or general election, when large numbers of people come out.

The theory behind the voter-suppression tactics is that folks with direct connection to town government—and their friends and family—are sure to show up, while everybody else might be inclined to say the heck with it.

• Pass out unsigned fliers that play to people’s fears. One leaflet in Orchard Park claimed that the downsizing movement could “lead to regional schools [and] . . . the elimination of [the] police department.”

What’s next, swine flu and socialism?

This is not going to go away anytime soon, as Donn noted in another recent column.

I guess it now is official. This is not an accident or an aberration. It is a movement.

First, West Seneca and Evans. Now, Orchard Park. Voters there Wednesday, by a nearly 2-1 ratio, approved a measure to downsize the Town Board from five members to three. If folks in an upscale bedroom community are this fed up with government, the minirevolution seems unstoppable.

Kevin Gaughan is not some Tinker Bell sprinkling fairy dust in people’s eyes. The civic activist who is driving the downsizing train has clearly tapped into a current of communal frustration. The ire is fed by decades of decline and the failure of elected officials—many of them molded by political machines—to do much about it. In town after town, people are grateful for the chance to make even a marginal change.

Where does the "movement" go from here?

We'll no doubt see more referendums to downsize town councils. At some point, however, someone is going to decide to add meat to those bones.

The politicians could take the initiative and start negotiating agreements to consolidate services to save costs.

Villages could be folded into towns via referendums, and a change in state law that takes effect next year will make it much easier to put that issue to voters.

The there is the sacred cow of education. At some point, someone could very well challenge the status quo that sees 27 schools districts in Erie County -- plus two BOCES districts. 

The Town of Cheektowaga has four school districts operating within its boundaries. If someone gets it in their head that the town board ought to be downsized from its current seven members, including the supervisor, then what could or should be done with 24 school board members?

Pigeon is just a part of our political problems

Buffalo has four major centers of political power. The piece Bob McCarthy and Mike Beebe did Sunday on the failure of the district attorney to prosecute Steve Pigeon got me thinking about how well this community is being served by those in power.

Let's take a look, starting with the aforementioned Steve Pigeon and his sugar daddy, Tom Golisano.

As Bob and Mike's story Monday details, Pigeon has been the focus of scrutiny for some time - not that anyone has pulled the trigger on a prosecution.

Matt Spina laid out the details a few months back with regards to Pigeon's questionable use of political action committees.

Then the state Board of Elections referred the results of its review of Responsible New York's actions during the elections late year to the Albany County District Attorney.

Now, revelation that the former head of the Erie County DA's public integrity unit wanted to prosecute Pigeon is going to put pressure on Sedita to name a special prosecutor. 

Then there is the central role Golisano and Pigeon played in the Senate coup earlier this year that result in, among other things, Pigeon landing a $150,000-a-year job as Pedro Espada's counsel.

Enough said.

Let's move onto Erie County Executive Chris Collins, the major player in the Erie County GOP.

Two things strike me.

First is the belligerent manner in which Collins, his county attorney, Cheryl Green, and Sheriff Tim Howard, a fellow Republican, are responding to findings that the county prison and holding center are violating the rights of prisoners, among other nasty things. Rather than fixing the problems, Collins and Co. have dug in their heels.

They'd rather fight than fix.

Then there is the county executive's dalliance with the local Tea Party movement, as detailed by the Buffalo Geek and the Buffalo Pundit.

In short, the Tea Party crowd has endorsed the so-called Collins Four, which are challenging incumbent Democrats on the County Legislature, in addition to seeking the open seat created when Collins hired Kathy Konst and commissioner of environment and planning.

I don't necessarily have a problem with all of the Tea Party folks. But their crowd includes some real wing nuts, as both the the Geek and Pundit note. Their posts are well worth the read.

Next up: Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

In a word - actually two words - "One Sunset."

Or many words. As in FBI investigations into the One Sunset deal and the mayor's role in the police department's decision to let Leonard Stokes walk after officers were prepared to arrest him on charges of possessing a stolen handicapped parking permit.

As in the investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel into, at a minimum, the arm-twisting of city employees via e-mail to work on Brown's election campaign.

As in the review by the state Department of Housing and Community Renewal into allegations by a Cleveland developer that Brown and Co. essentially tried to impose an outfit headed by one of the mayor's favored preachers as a condition of doing business with the city.

And while Brian Davis made his own bed that has resulted in an investigation by the State Police and DA, what was he doing on stage at Brown's re-election party on primary night?

Then came news Sunday that Brown and Collins are deep-sixing the deal to have the county run city parks, one of the few concrete consolidation arrangements the region's two largest governments have in place.

True, the county wasn't doing such a great job with some of the non-Olmsted parks.

But the mayor's comments about the Olmsted Conservancy's future role are making some folks nervous. Let's face it, dumping the conservancy, which practically everyone agrees has done a good job, would open up a lot of patronage jobs for the mayor, and we know what makes his administration tick.

Finally, there is the Erie County Democratic Party.

It's done just a fine job in the city, where Democrats hold all the elected positions, hasn't i?

It couldn't see its way to endorse either Brown or Mickey Kearns. Not exactly decisive. Common Council elections come around in two years and remind me again who is indispensable on that body? Is there a Gene Fahey or David Rutecki among them? I didn't think so.

On the state front, the Dems are the party that has given us senators like Bill Stachowski and Antoine Thompson, their ying to the GOP's yang of Dale Volker and George Maziarz.

Stachowski, Thompson, Volker, Maziarz. Isn't that shorthand for "Pack the car honey, we're moving to North Carolina!"

I don't see things changing unless and until "none of the above" step up.

And by "none of the above," I mean people who are genuinely interested in good government. People who don't want to be buddies with the party bosses and check-writing business interests and public employee unions. People who want to step beyond ideology and self-interest and get about the business of fixing this community.

Hello. Is anybody out there?
 

Chris Collins isn't acting like a businessman

Maybe this is a time for Chris Collins to run county government like a business.

I assume that Collins does a cost-benefit analysis when considering options when he's got a problem to solve at one of his businesses.

Well, he's got one with the county right now - conditions and treatment of prisoners at the Erie County Holding Center. But I'm not seeing any numbers getting crunched to weigh costs and benefits.

Reports Matt Spina:

Behind the scenes, (Erie County Sheriff Timothy) Howard and County Executive Chris Collins are discussing a new multimillion-dollar downtown lockup — a quasi-jail that would take on the role the Holding Center plays in holding defendants awaiting arraignment and let Howard avoid a strict set of rules.

Inside a lockup, the sheriff need not give bedding, showers, toothbrushes and similar items to inmates who have not yet seen a judge. But the Holding Center is a jail under state law and must meet higher standards in the care of inmates.

The State Commission of Correction lawsuit was fueled largely by the Holding Center's failure to consistently provide items of personal hygiene to people detained there for several hours or in some cases days as they await their first court appearance.

What's it going to take to give prisoners blankets and tooth brushes? Not much.

What's the cost to tear down 134 West Eagle Street, a musty county-owned building still in use, to put up a new lockup? An estimated $3 million.

The cost of construction of a new lockup facility? Nothing has been calculated - or, if it has, no one is sharing a number - but the cost certainly would involve millions and millions and millions of dollars.

So, Collins and Howard want to spend millions to avoid spending thousands.

While that doesn't make sense financially, it is in keeping with the county executive's MO of "I'll play by my own rules." His leadership style at times resembles the human embodiment of a "Don't Tread On Me" flag.

Thus, if Collins has to spend money -- our money -- to avoid being told what to do, well, that's what he'll do if he can get the County Legislature to sign off.

Up to this point, the controversy involving the holding center downtown and county correctional facility in Alden has gained only partial traction with the public. Prisoner rights and all that, ya know. Doesn't play well with the county executive's neighors at Spaulding Lake, among other diggs.

But Collins and Howard are running the risk of this becoming a tax-and-spend issue that could get the attention of both the Bud Light  and Grand Marnier crowds.

I think the entire saga is getting weirder and weirder. County Attorney Cheryl Green blocking efforts by the U.S. Justice Department to inspect the holding center and jail and likening the feds to a bunch of granola-crunching prisoner rights advocates. Then Howard allowing actor Keanu Reeves to tour the holding center and correctional facility to scout for locations for an upcoming movie.

Like I said, weird. I mean, has someone dosed the water coolers at County Hall?

Another thing I've noted in the coverage is that the city is helping to foot the bill for all this, about $1 million a year. That gives Mayor Byron Brown leverage to demand changes. After all, some of the people being mistreated are his constituents, and it is being done partly on his dime.

The mayor said the other week that, of course, he wants people treated humanely. Perhaps he and/or the Common Council need to back that up with some meaningful action.

There's something happening here

Kevin Gaughan isn't a hockey player, but he scored a hat trick Wednesday when voters in Orchard Park voted two-to-one to downsize their town council from five to three members.

This is the third such referendum Gaughan has put on the ballot and won.

Voters turned out in force and had to wait in long lines for at least part of the day, possibly by design, according to one voter quoted in our story:

In general elections, Orchard Park has several polling sites. For this vote, though, there was only one … the basement of the municipal building.

"To have one place to vote, one spot with stairs down to it, didn't seem like encouragement to vote," said Lena Priamo, a recent retiree from the Orchard Park School District. "I thought they made it harder than they had to to vote."

One can debate if downsizing town boards is the best way to reduce the size and scope of local government. Gaughan tried a more ambitious approach and didn't find takers among the politicians. He's opted to take his case directly to the voters - and is gaining traction for what he hopes will eventually lead to bigger and better things.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the Buffalo Pundit and Buffalo Geek have noteworthy posts on the referendum.

Said the Geek:

... lack of leadership and a surplus of government obstinacy was evident today in Orchard Park. 

By selecting a special election date on a Wednesday between the primary and general elections, choosing only one polling place, putting that polling place in the basement of the municipal building, lack of signs or directions to the voting booth, selecting odd voting hours which didn’t allow for people to vote before 11AM and blocking the parking lot this morning with barricades and police to reduce “congestion” in the parking lot.  It was a mess. 

Local voter Rich Wilson said, “Honestly, I planned to vote ‘No’ on downsizing until I got down here today and saw all these shenanigans.  If the local council members are so opposed to this and will go to these lengths to block participation, maybe Gaughan’s got it right.”

A reader with the pen name DAVEH21 posted this comment today on The News story on BuffaloNews.com.

Typical government... Nancy Ackerman, who is on the Board that they were voting on to downsize, agreed that the vote should be held for limited hours (start at 11:00am - then people cannot vote on their way to work) at only one place and then has the audacity to state: "I'm sorry that so few people voted". "That's pathetic, in a town of 27,000 people, so few people could make this happen. This is apathy at its worst." No Nancy. The fact that you would expect 27,000 people to vote in a limited time frame at only one place is much worse. And you still don't understand why people want smaller governments in everything? It starts at the local level and works its way up. The movement is on... 

My hunch is that pols in other towns may start to take note of Gaughan's success and decide they would be better off if they offered voters change before voters do it themselves in the form of further downsizing.

So-called reformers gunshy about change

The defenders of the region's political status quo have gotten a boost from an unlikely source - the University at Buffalo's Regional Institute.

The institute has long noted the negative effects of the high cost of local government and is generally an advocate of reform. But you would not know it by reading the report it just released.

The report does not exactly come out and say Kevin Gaughan's efforts to get town voters to reduce the size of councils from five to three members is a bad idea. But it's not hard to read between the lines.

"Any cost savings would be negligible and must be weighed against disadvantages in representation and responsiveness," the report said.

Business First of Buffalo has this story on the report.

I caught up with Gaughan yesterday afternoon by phone just as he was reading the report. He was incredulous.

"The study shows a shocking lack of understanding of what is happening in town and village halls," he said.

'"Western New York is dying and the principal reason we are dying is because government costs too much. To suggest we should not reduce its size and cost is misguided."

He cited the findings of the comprehensive study he did several years back, starting with the number of elected officials we have here in Erie County -- 439.

That's a lot of mouths to feed.

Moreover, it's a lot of people to get in the way of reform - and that's what most of them are doing.Their self-interest involves self-preservation, which is not necessarily in the public's interest.

I asked Gaughan the question that's been on my mind for a while about his downsizing effort:

Why are you pushing to reduce the size of town councils rather than the consolidation of towns and villages, where the potential costs savings are a lot greater?

His response: Despite years of efforts, consolidation, regionalism, whatever you want to call it, had failed to gain traction. There was a need for Plan B. And Plan B is to cut the size of town councils -- a plan, I might add, that is gaining traction. Voters have approved downsizing referendums in two towns and have put three others on the ballot, including Orchard Park.

"This is the long, first essential step," he said.

OK, I get the strategy. Start with the winnable fights and go from there.

I also get the Regional Institute. I'm not sure the genesis of its study, but its slant reinforces the feeling I came away with when I dealt with some of the institute's people a couple of years ago.

I had convened a meeting of a half-dozen UB-types, including someone from the institute, in an effort to build and analyze a database that would track all government grants, subsidies and tax breaks given to companies in Erie and Niagara counties.

After an initial show of interest, the institute decided against participating (and the whole project eventually went by the wayside). When I asked why the institute didn't want in, I was essentially told that they didn't want to be involved in a project that might make it uncomfortable for individual companies, that if I planned on naming names, well, they were out of here.

In other words, they're all for reform, so long as it doesn't upset anyone.

Chris Collins won't see the humor in this

I got a chuckle out of this -- and I think you will, too -- even if the county executive won't.

The University Heights Answer Lady, a blogger who reserves most of her wrath for the city and UB officials, has launched something she calls the Chris Collins Temper Tantrum Watch.

She says Collins governs in the belief "anger is a management tool," and I've got to admit, she may have a point.

The Answer Lady notes, among other things, the administration's stonewalling of Justice Department efforts to investigate inmate abuse at the county jail, the county executive's strong-arming of cultural groups by demanding seats on their boards in exchange for funding, and Collins' refusal to send staff to deal with county legislators on issues such as renewable energy.

As the Answer Lady says: "Check back often. No doubt, more tantrums coming soon."

Chris Collins plays politics with economic development

Getting Kathy Konst to take the job that includes responsibility for economic development may be a good political move by Chris Collins, but I fail to see how it advances the county executive's professed desire to bolster the local economy, which he has pegged as Job One for his administration this year.

I mean, is the county's top economic development position really a place for on-the-job training?

Read Konst's bio on the county Web site and you learn that her background, beyond politics, is largely in education, marketing and public relations. Oh, and she's big on family values.

Yeah, she's also head of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, but I think that doesn't count for much. Going from a town chamber to commissioner of environment and planning is kind of like jumping from AA-minor league ball to the major leagues. Usually, some seasoning is called for. 

Making the jump may be OK in a community that has a vibrant economy, but this is Buffalo. The place is beyond dysfunctional when it comes to economic development, and adding a player feeling her way along does not help. We're far removed from the days when a Rich Tobe occupied the job.

Beyond that, the move is so transparently political.

The timing of Konst's appointment, and therefore resignation from the County Legislature in an election year, leaves the Democrats in the lurch and improves the odds that the Republicans will pick up one of the seats that Collins is craving.

Yeah, all is fair in love, war and politics. But, given the county's executive desire to quarterback the region's economic recovery, I have to wonder why he's handing the ball off to a second-stringer.

All I can say is it's a good thing Chris Collins isn't political.

For another take, check out what the Buffalo Pundit has to say.

Renewed push for pension reform

The State Legislature turned its back on a proposal to reform the state pension system, but New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to revive the issue.

Here's the reform, in a nutshell, as conveyed by NY Public Payroll Watch:

The Tier 5 proposal would require civilian employees of both the city and state to work at least 30 years and be 62 years old to qualify for a half-pay pension.

Another provision, which does not apply to the state workforce, would require the city's uniformed employees, some of whom can now qualify for their pensions after 20 years' service and with no age requirement, to have to work 25 years and be at least 50 before they could collect.

In other words, public employees would have pension plans that more closely resemble taxpayers, or at least those who have pensions.

The public employee unions are howling, of course. But Bloomberg, who said the proposal would save NYC $7 billion over 20 years, is pressing ahead. He's looking for savings in the budget he released last week.

I wonder if Byron Brown, Chris Collins, Paul Dyster and company will lend their support. Pension costs, along with health insurance for retirees, are becoming bigger and bigger expenses for local governments.