Local municipal leaders object to Cuomo’s shared services plan

By Sarah Hall

Editor

Two dozen Onondaga County mayors and town supervisors gathered last week to voice their objections to the shared services plan introduced in the 2017-18 New York state budget.

“It’s another mandate put down by the governor that we must deal with,” said Town of Camillus Supervisor Mary Ann Coogan, who also serves as president of the Onondaga County Supervisors’ Association.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal, passed April 10 as part of the state budget, requires counties to come up with a plan for consolidated services by Aug. 1. A draft plan has to be in place by Sept. 15, and it has to be adopted by Oct. 15. Coogan said that doesn’t give them enough time to do the job right.

“He has given us less than six weeks to put a plan together,” she said. “It took Consensus three years, and that plan is not truly in the final stages. To take this and bring it to the public for a vote is unfair, it’s unconscionable, and it’s absolutely shameful.”

Fayetteville Mayor Mark Olson, president of the Onondaga County Mayors’ Association, said the timeline was particularly unrealistic given the fact that the county executive had not yet convened a meeting of all of the county’s mayors and town supervisors to get the process started.

“Madison County met on May 9,” he said. “Herkimer County met on May 4. Rockland County met on May 2. Chautauqua plans to hold a meeting by the end of May. Erie County had a meeting had a meeting on May 7. Other counties have already gotten started…. This is not an attack on the county executive. This is the governor’s proposal, but there just isn’t enough time.”

Coogan said it would take at least a year to put together a proper plan for shared services.

“You can’t take it and expect major miracles to happen and expect government to change in three months,” she said. “It would be done wrong, and that would be a shame.”

Olson also objected to the fact that the governor’s proposal didn’t give municipalities any credit for existing shared services—many towns and villages share plowing, tax collection, assessment, dog control, comptroller and other services.

“We think this is a good initiative, because it has worked for us,” he said. “We want to share even more services, but we want to look in-depth at this, and we need more time to do that.”

Olson said the group of mayors and supervisors spoke not just for themselves, but for their constituents.

‘We represent the concerns of the people of Onondaga County,” he said. “They have concerns, too, and we’re just voicing those concerns as the closest local representative to the people.”

Who signed the letter and who didn’t?

The following local municipal leaders signed the letter to Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Gov. Andrew Cuomo:

• Wayne S. Amato, Town of Otisco supervisor
• Thomas P. Andino, Jr., Town of Onondaga supervisor
• Ron Benedetti, Village of Solvay mayor
• Ken Bush, Town of Elbridge supervisor
• Gary Butterfield, Village of North Syracuse mayor
• Richard A. Clarke, Village of Baldwinsville mayor
• Mary Ann Coogan, Town of Camillus supervisor
• John P. Curtin, Village of Marcellus mayor
• Martin Hubbard, Village of Skaneateles mayor
• Christopher Kozub, Town of Spafford supervisor
• James E. Lanning, Town of Skaneateles supervisor
• Stephanie A. Miner, City of Syracuse mayor
• Mark A. Nicotra, Town of Salina supervisor
• Mark Olson, Village of Fayetteville mayor
• Richard A. Platten, Village of Jordan mayor
• Karen R. Pollard, Town of Marcellus supervisor
• Joseph P. Saraceni, Town of Lysander supervisor
• Claude E. Sykes, Town of Van Buren supervisor
• Robert Tackman, Village of East Syracuse mayor
• Edwin Theobald, Town of Manlius supervisor
• Damian Ulatowski, Town of Clay supervisor
• Mark Venesky, Town of Cicero supervisor
• Gary C. White, Village of Liverpool mayor
• Paul Whorrall, Village of Manlius mayor

In Onondaga County, representatives from the following municipalities did not sign the letter: the towns of DeWitt, Fabius, LaFayette, Pompey and Tully and the villages of Camillus, Elbridge, Fabius, Minoa and Tully.