Buffalo News
County Manager Idea Is Revived Using Deputy Executive's Post
By MATTHEW SPINA
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
7/22/2006
The idea to have a professional manager run Erie County government has been revived by a clutch of lawmakers, Republicans and dissident Democrats, who want to put the suggestion before voters in November.
Most county lawmakers last week discarded a special panel's suggestion to transfer many of a county executive's powers to an appointed, nonpartisan county manager. Critics claimed the change would expand the county bureaucracy and cost taxpayers more money.
So the new suggestion focuses on the post of deputy county executive, whose occupants have been expected to run the government's daily affairs so the county executive can focus on the bigger picture.
The proposal would require that future deputies be certified as professional managers by the International City-County Management Association and adhere to its code of ethics that demands nonpartisanship.
The twist neutralizes the argument that a county manager would make the government more costly. It's a middle ground that also has been suggested by lawyer Alan Bedenko, speaking for a group called the Western New York Coalition for Progress.
The legislators who advocate the change said they want to rid the government of as many political concerns as possible, and they believe one way is through certified professional management.
"We heard the arguments of the other side," said Barry A. Weinstein of Amherst, who leads the Legislature's three Republicans and is one of the proposal's five sponsors. "We tried to adapt this, to provide professional management to county government. We will see what happens."
The other sponsors are Republicans John J. Mills of Orchard Park and Michael H. Ranzenhofer of Amherst, and Democrats Kathy Konst of Lancaster and Cynthia Locklear of West Seneca.
Konst and Locklear often break from the 12-member Democratic caucus on reform issues and did so again last week when the county-manager proposal from a special Charter Revision Commission was rebuffed by the remaining 10 Democrats.
Soon after, some commission members helped the five lawmakers who supported the county manager proposal transfer many of its features to the post of deputy county executive.
Lawmakers last week did approve several Charter Revision Commission suggestions designed to prevent another financial meltdown, one of which lets comptrollers declare a deficit and trigger corrective action, which only a county executive can do now.
Lawmakers also OK'd their own proposal to make the Office of Labor Relations its own free-standing department and let the Legislature approve a county executive's director of labor relations. Labor unions in the future could persuade the Legislature to reject a director they don't like.
All of the changes have been drafted into a measure to be voted on Thursday and sent to County Executive Joel A. Giambra. If approved, the changes that alter the powers of elected officials will be put to voters in November.
The five legislators who described their proposal regarding the deputy county executive hope their idea can also go before the voters.
Said Konst: "We are going to try to do some persuasion . . . to get the eight votes that we need."
e-mail: mspina@buffnews.com
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