Cortland County Legislature Basics
A Primer
The Cortland County Legislature is comprised of 17 elected members representing all municipalities in the county. You can view the Legislative and Election District Map to view where you live and figure out which legislator represents you. You can view this website to get the email address of your legislator to contact them.
Regular meetings of the full legislature are held the 4th Thursday of every month at 6:00 pm in the 3rd floor board room of the County Office Building. (Except for the month of July where legislators voted to give themselves a month off…)
Agendas and agenda packets are provided ahead of each meeting and can be quite lengthy and often confusing. All business that the legislature votes on comes in the form of resolutions, with several “WHEREAS…” clauses that set the premise and then “RESOLVED” clauses that explain the action. All documents are posted online in the meeting portal site — along with summary, minutes, and a video recording of the meetings.
Agenda items for the meetings either come through the Chair of the Legislature, currently Republican Kevin Fitch (LD8), or one of the standing committees of the legislature:
Agriculture, Planning and Environmental Committee
Finance and Administration Committee
Public Works Committee
Health and Human Services Committee
Judiciary and Public Safety Committee
Government Operations Committee
Republicans currently hold the majority in the county legislature — 10 Republicans to 7 Democrats — so hold the Chair and Majority Leader positions.