ERIE COUNTY
Collins wants separate votes on Legislature size, terms
County Executive Chris Collins says he will veto a bill to shrink the Erie County Legislature from 15 members to 13 if it also doubles the length of a lawmaker’s term to four years without letting voters decide each change separately.
Both matters would have to pass muster with voters this November. But most lawmakers backing a downsized 13-member Legislature envision combining both changes into one yes-or-no question on the ballot.
The county executive called that “sneaky.” And in an interview Wednesday, he said that while the public would probably welcome a smaller Legislature, it should not have to accept four-year terms as a consequence.
He said voters should be able to continue electing their county legislator every two years, just as they now elect their state senators, Assembly members and members of the House.
“If they want a four-year term, I would let the voters decide that,” Collins said. “And I’m also sure that would be resoundingly defeated on its own.”
Others agree that each change should be posed separately.
“What we would like to see is two referendums, one with the downsizing issue and one with the four-year term. Let the voters make the decision,” said Clarence Lott of the East Side Political Network in Buffalo.
“. . . I believe it should be two separate issues,” said Martha Lamparelli, chairwoman of the special citizens commission that recently recommended an 11-member Legislature, with four-year terms, to adjust for Erie County’s population declines and to save hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
A clear majority (10) of county legislators bypassed the recommendation to shrink the Legislature by four members and appears willing to drop just two lawmakers, starting with the election of 2011.
However, the Legislature bloc easily embraced four-year terms, agreeing with the commission that four-year terms allow lawmakers to focus more on governing than on seeking re-election every other year.
Legislature Chairwoman Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, created the “21st Century Commission” and, with Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte, D-Buffalo, fashioned a law to create a 13-member Legislature with four-year terms.
They also gathered eight other Democrats to support it. The bill came together swiftly — after voters in West Seneca and Evans agreed June 3 to drop two members each from their town boards in a clear sampling of the public’s desire for fewer elected officials.
Eight other county legislators, all Democrats, have signed the Marinelli-Whyte bill, providing the two-thirds majority required to override a Collins veto. But the measure has yet to go through a public hearing.
“What I do know from my service in government: People expect you to get something done,” said Marinelli, explaining that to get something done she pushed for 13 members rather than the more tenuous 11-member Legislature.
But why combine both changes into one question on the ballot? Marinelli said she is trying to avoid voter confusion and too many referendums.
The Legislature has already voted to place another referendum on the November ballot: Whether to give county lawmakers the right to cancel contracts signed by a county executive when they might smack of cronyism or political favoritism.
To avoid confusion in 2006, the dozens of changes to the Erie County Charter that were urged by a review commission were approved in one question, she said.
Marinelli reasoned that four-year terms — served now by village trustees, town board members and city council members — serve the public well. Like longtime incumbents, political newcomers could spend less time raising campaign cash and might be more inclined to enter a race, she said.
Collins said he wants the two changes broken into separate questions even if the Legislature shrinks to 11 members, as called for in a bill introduced by Legislator Timothy M. Kennedy, D-Buffalo.
Meanwhile, the Legislature's three Republicans have revived their call for a nine-member Legislature with two-year terms, and the Republicans recommend term limits for all of the county's elected leaders.
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