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GOP accused of playing politics with appointment of election commissioner

By Darryl McPherson

Dennis Virtuoso says GOP is playing politics over appointment of Democratic elections commissioner.
Niagara County Legislator, Paul Wojtaszek did not return a call seeking comment.

One would think that when it came to the insider games of politics, the insiders could at least agree about that. Not so in the Niagara County Legislature. When the appointment of Nancy Smith for Democratic elections commissioner came up, the Republicans were not prepared to accept it at face value.

"In the past , Democrats have put forth the name of an election commissioner and Democratic legislators have held it up or Republicans have put forth a name and Republican legislators have held it up, but it’s never been where the opposite party has held up the appointment of a Democratic commissioner. From what I understand by law, they can’t do that," said Jason Zona, a Democrat from the Fifth District.

His view was confirmed by Dennis Virtuoso, Sixth District Legislator. "They can hold it up for 30 days, after that, then the Democrats, whatever side it is, has the elections commissioner choice, their caucus can then elect them. The first vote is supposed to be the whole legislature voting on it. If it’s held up, they can only hold it up for 30 days. And after 30 days, it just goes to the caucus of the nominee. So after 30 days, Jason, myself and Owen [Steed, Fourth District Legislator] will appoint her."

Niagara County Democratic Party Chairman Nick Forster elaborated, "Under the election law, it goes in front of the full body of the county legislature for a total of 30 days. After the 30 days expires, the 31st day, it goes in front of just the membership that represents that elections commissioner, so on the 31st day it would just go in front of the Democrats."
Section 3-204 (4) of the New York State Election Law does indeed authorize such action, so the conundrum of who will be the Democratic election commissioner will be resolved in short order by the Democrats, which raises the question, why make an issue of this?

Zona offered his opinion. "I think they’re just playing politics right now. They’re being questioned on a lot of issues right now. Records storage facilities, refuse district issues, the resolution passed on the casinos, so there are a lot of things being questioned and they’re being challenged on, so they’re just lashing out at the Democrats right now."

Forster was harsher in his appraisal. "It’s the Dirty Dozen, the twelve GOP legislators. I think they’re drunk with authority...I think it’s politics at its worst."

The political intrigue continues onto to the consideration of where and how the County will store its voting machines. As Zona pointed out, "Two weeks ago, it was brought up in committee, they were getting ready to vote on it and the majority leader motioned to table it. Since then, we haven’t heard a thing. There’s going to be another Administration Committee meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 26th”
Zona said he’s not sure at this point whether or not it’s going to be brought up, being tabled yet and voted on or if it’s going to remain tabled. My opinion is, they never had any intent for putting this out to RFP [request for proposals], they were just going to renew the current deal.

Virtuoso shared that assessment. "Here we go again, the same scenario with the records storage, they never went out for an RFP, we don’t know if we’re doing the best thing for the taxpayers. I asked that question, I said why didn’t we go for an RFP and they just all kind of looked at each other," he chuckled. "We just had this scenario a month ago where they just carte blanche somebody without checking if it was the best deal or not, and then they turn around and do the exact same thing again. It’s like insanity, repeating the same thing over and over. So after I say that, Paul Wojtaszek voted to table it."
Stay tuned.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com

Nov 27 , 2012