The 3-minute people have their moment

Story and photos by Larry Austin
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, June 21, 2007

Tom Christy

There was no time limit on speakers at Government 2.0, a meeting Monday night in Lockport City Hall on FAIR Government.

Sponsored by the Wheatfield Business Association and broadcast live on LCTV, the Fiscal Accountability, Integrity Responsible Government meeting was intended to discuss the future direction of government by bringing government and citizens together and, according to a planning document by FAIR, “to foster a better understanding of – and plan for – the future of local government.”

The unrestricted speaking opportunity was good news to the 50 attendees of the meeting, many of whom attend meetings of the Niagara County Legislature and criticize the Legislature during the public comment portion of the meeting that precedes legislators’ actions. There, members of the public are restricted to a three-minute time limit in which to express views.

“There’s no three minute rule here, brother,” meeting moderator Tom Christy told Donald Hobel of Wheatfield during the FAIR meeting.

FAIR Government was founded by Christy, popular cable access television show host, in part, to gather government data and provide educational assistance to the general public.

Wheatfield was the first town government to post its town budget on the FAIR site last year. North Tonawanda Board of Education President Scott Schultz, a candidate for the county Legislature, said NT will be the first high school to post its budget with FAIR.

The county Legislature was a frequent target of criticism during the Government 2.0 meeting, which lasted 90 minutes. Meanwhile, four legislators in attendance were far outnumbered by their upcoming opponents, several of whom took to the microphone to blast the legislature. Among the complaints:

RoseMary Warren.

•Sanborn resident RoseMary Warren cited the practice of legislators campaigning for election under the banner of one party and then caucusing with another once elected.

•Hobel said the county’s Industrial Development Agency is not representative government. The Legislature is run as a private club, he said later.

•Candidate for legislature, Robert LaBarbara, said an effort to move the public comment portion of the county meeting to the end of the night is “an effort to omit public input.” LaBarbara claimed that the legislature always votes in direct opposition to the opinions voiced in public comment, a fact he called “troubling.” He also criticized the restraint of the legislature’s majority caucus over the minority.

Robert LaBarbara

•Ken Hamilton of Niagara Falls said that of the 63 counties in New York, those with committee forms of government such as Niagara County are not in debt. He added that the county has the same population as the city of Syracuse, but, unlike Syracuse, has nine school districts and 13 governments.

The problem is that, today, everyone is a politician, he said. The county needs to rid itself of partisan politics and consolidate layers of government.

•Legislator Dennis Virtuoso of the 4th district in Niagara Falls, said he would “fight to the death” in opposition to a plan to have the public speak at the end of the meeting instead of in the beginning.

The Three Minutemen and women had their Lexington and Concord recently, when Chairman of the Legislature, Clyde Burmaster, cleared the legislature’s meeting room of spectators after a 15-second round of applause. He later readmitted the public. Virtuoso said he was “totally embarrassed” after that episode.

•Scott Leffler, a radio talk show host, said the real frustration is that though four legislators were at the FAIR meeting, 15 were not. Those legislators received a vote of no confidence from him.

“Where are the other 15?” he asked. “They claim they want to hear from us.”

•Margie Swan, who Christy called the “inventor” of the three-minute public speaking portion of the legislature meeting, said she’s never seen the county government as bad as it is now. When the public speaks to the legislature, “It’s like we are nobody” to the legislators, Swan said.

Swan would like the public to speak at the beginning of the meeting before the legislature hands out citations and awards, 85 percent of which, she said, are politically motived.

After the meeting, FAIR-goer JoAnn Maziarz-Dicky, sister of state Sen. George Maziarz, said she disliked the legislature’s habit of caucusing in the middle of a meeting. Caucus at the beginning or end, “but don’t take a half an hour to 45 minutes and have the people sit there and go in the back. ...”

“It’s supposed to be an open form of government,” Swan said.

Edwina Luksch would prefer the legislators would respond to the public speakers at the meeting.

“I think that’s why a lot of people feel there’s a lack of respect because there’s no two-way dialogue,” Luksch said.

Christy said the purpose of the meeting was to increase the dialogue, but he didn’t know why many representatives did not attend.

“The frustration is that every time I’ve ever gone to a public meeting in Albany or here, every government official says, ‘I wish the public would participate more. I wish the public would get more involved,’ ” Christy said. “I would say the public turned out and the legislators didn’t.”

Interested persons may write FAIR Government at P.O. Box 402, Buffalo, NY 14223; or e-mail aim1986@mac.com..