Hamburg forum airs differences on savings from downsizing boards
Hamburg residents were offered three different perspectives on downsizing during a forum Thursday in Frontier Middle School.
The event was held in advance of a Nov. 17 referendum on reducing the size of the Town Board to three from five members.
About 50 people attending the forum heard presentations by downsizing activist Kevin Gaughan; Kathryn A. Foster, an assistant professor of planning in the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture; and Craig R. Bucki, an attorney with Phillips Lytle who has written articles on regionalism.
Supervisor Steven J. Walters and the Town Board agreed to Gaughan’s challenge to hold at least two forums before the referendum so residents would be able to pose questions about the proposal.
“We have said from the beginning that we don’t want to debate. We wanted an informational setting where we could present information to the public,” Walters said Thursday, after one resident asked why he and other elected town officials had not made presentations.
“Each of the speakers noted that this is an extremely important decision for the residents of this community. To have a debate turns this into more of a sport than presenting information,” Walters added.
Gaughan and Foster presented conflicting figures on the annual savings if all municipal boards in Erie County eliminated two seats each.
Gaughan cited a possible savings of $2.4 million, while Foster said the savings would be closer to $1.1 million, or roughly one-tenth of one percent of the approximately $1 billion cost of running all the town and village governments in the county.
When John Godzuk, of Chapman Parkway, asked each panelist how many private sector jobs they thought the county might realize by eliminating two members from each of its municipal boards, their answers varied.
“Zero,” Bucki said.
Foster compared the concept to tightening a family’s budget by eliminating a child.
But Gaughan insisted that the symbolism itself could be meaningful.
“I think that any entrepreneur that looks at a community . . . and sees citizens take one step — any step, a small step — so they can try to do something to reign in costs will be heartened by the effort,” Gaughan said.
The upcoming Hamburg vote follows successful downsizing referendums Gaughan has spearheaded in West Seneca, Evans, Orchard Park and Alden.
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