Friday, February 1, 2013

Here & There Column 1-29-13


Folks Want Board Of Supervisors

  With Sullivan County's unemployment rate now reaching 10 percent and the county legislature raising taxes by nine percent its time to circulate petitions demanding a vote for bringing back the Board of Supervisors as the counties governing body.
  While getting out to the various events I attend I have found Sullivan County residents voicing total  support for returning county government back to the former Board of Supervisors.
  There just is not very much support for the present county legislature and few support a change from an appointed manager to an elected executive.
  The County legislature and the suggestion of adding an elected executive is nothing more then adding one layer of government on top of another layer that just cost too much for taxpayers of Sullivan County to handle.
  We like what we hear from Sullivan County Legislator Cindy Kurpil Gieger who feels the county is moving toward new goals of fiscal accountability and oversight of residents tax dollars.
  In a brief conversation with Cindy recently we saw a dedicated truthful new political figure who wants to turn away from the present status quo and the good old boy form of government we have seen for so many years.
  She has made it very clear that the executive form of government is just another layer of government and that it could be very costly.
  Under a County Board of Supervisors (BOS) she would serve well as an elected board chairman because she is advocating that she  would "like to see us improve the foundation of government."
  That foundation so many residents of the county have told us is the return to the Board of Supervisors which is the body that supervises the operation of county government in a number of counties in New York State (NYS). 
  A Board of Supervisors in NYS has legislative, executive and quasi-judicial powers. In NYS the BOS is made up and composed of the various town supervisors from across the county. Some BOS after the 1960's assigned each member a proportional vote based on the population that supervisor represented. 
  Some of these boards have allowed county voters to elect a full-time county manager or county executive. 
  A petition signed by a large portion of county residents could go far in demanding a vote on returning county government to a Board of Supervisors.

                                                                 
 

                          

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