Cortland County Legislature Highlights
April 24, 2025 meeting
The full legislative summary can be found here. Below are some highlights.
60 Day Hiring Pause
The County passed a 60 day hiring pause (page 26) until June 30, 2025 since the county is facing “significant financial pressures due to unfunded state mandates, rising operational costs, and other fiscal constraints.” When asked how much money this pause will save the county, neither Laurie Leonard, personnel officer, or Rob Corpora, county administrator, could provide an amount.
The measure, though, doesn’t call to use this period of time to conduct a thorough review of all open positions and to assess which positions should be filled, left vacant, or to assess where the responsibilities of multiple positions could be combined into new or with current positions. This assessment would likely have been a good use of the 60 day pause since it’s unclear if just 60 days will make a significant impact on the budget. (Legislator Linda Jones did call for a full desk audit and voted against the measure, as did Legislator Reed Cleeland.)
The Legislature carved out exceptions, permitting the hiring of the 1) Director of the Office for Aging; 2) Seasonal workers; and 3) up to 4 new Corrections Officers.
Legislator Beau Harbin proposed an amendment to also make an exception for up to 4 new staff for the Department of Social Services (DSS) but that amendment failed to pass.
The amendment that did pass permits additional exceptions to the hiring pause that would be approved by the Chair of the Legislature and the Chair of the applicable Standing Committee. There was conversation that the amendment to carve out 4 DSS positions was unnecessary because the amendment that did pass would cover it. However, there is no guarantee that the Chair and Committee Chair would make an exception for DSS caseworkers — or any other position.
Getting it Right
Kudos to the legislature on passing the below 3 meaures:
Establishing a Poet Laureate: As an idea brought forward by Nancy Dafoe, the legislature voted to establish a Cortland County Poet Laureate position, which will be an unpaid position to “serve as a ceremonial and educational representative for poetry and literary arts.” We need art to enrich our personal and community life, so I’m pleased to see this initiative move foward.
No Designated Employee Smoking Areas: The Legislature amended the current tobacco and cannabis policy that had allowed for smoking in designated areas for County employees and excluded those areas. For the health and well-being of all, many public places are moving toward no smoking both inside and outside on the grounds, so it is good to see the county making this change as well.
Demanding an Independent Audit of NYSEG and National Grid Billing Practices: New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) and National Grid have near monopolies on providing gas and electric service in NY. NYSEG customers especially in the past few years have been hit with astronomical bills, inaccurate bills, and poor customer service (see, for example, article from Sullivan County and NYSEG fined for not meeting standards). Kudos to the Legislature for adding their voice on this state-wide issue and demanding an independent audit from the Public Services Commission and other state agencies to protect consumers.
Where They Missed the Mark: A Formal Proclamation Policy
Proclamations are the official recognition of an event or person by the county, like recognizing “Child Abuse Prevention Month.” And I can appreciate the need to establish a uniform policy for such proclamations. The proposed process was to “ensure fairness, transparency and efficiency in granting such recognition” and should not be for “divisive political issues, personal, business or political endorsements.” [Full policy found here, page 12]
Yes, of course, the proclamations should not be for personal, business or political endorsements. But what is a “divisive political issue”? Who gets to decide what is divisive? According to the policy, the Chair of the Legislature, Kevin Fitch, would determine eligibility and retain the sole discretion to “approve, modify or deny any request.”
If one person retains discretion to approve, deny, or modify any request —AND the proclamations do not require a vote of the full Legislature — how does this policy ensure fairness and transparency? If proclamations are meant to celebrate and recognize events in the County and should be “aligned with the values and mission of Cortland County,” we should all be concerned that one person gets to decide what our values are.
Recently, in the City of Cortland, two Common Council members (Democrat Troy Beckwith and Republican Wayne Schutt) voted (page 6) to deny the permit application of the Cortland LGBTQ Center for the Pride Festival. The permit was ultimately approved, but at least their dissent was public and on the record.
During the privilege of the floor, I proposed that proclamations should be reviewed by both the Majority (Republican) and Minority (Democrat) Leaders to determine eligibility. Whenever there was disagreement on eligibility, or if there was a possibility of denial, the request should come to a full legislative vote and each legislator would have their vote on the record. This suggestion was not considered.
When the proposal came to a vote, only Legislator Beau Harbin said that the legislature will “keep an eye on this” and if proclamations were being denied, bring it back up. The policy passed unanimously as written.
To their credit, the Legislature issued proclamations in recognition of African American History Month in February 2025 and Women’s History Month in March 2025. However, Cortland is not immune to the hateful censorship or denial of truth that is happening at the federal level. If what we value and recognize in Cortland County begins to shift, there is no guarantee this policy will ever be put back on the Government Operations Committee agenda and come back for a vote. This was a missed opportunity to create a truly fair and transparent process now.