WSKG: How important is the working relationship between the county legislature and the county executive? What will you do to address conflict and keep the county residents informed of progress or challenges in the county and Legislative District 5?
A: The current executive has blocked and bypassed the legislature in many ways, to the point that county department heads are not allowed to talk to legislators. This makes no sense to me. Legislators need to have complete information so that they can make the best choices when they vote. Otherwise they are voting in the dark. At the very least, the executive and department heads should routinely appear at legislature meetings to explain the resolutions being voted on. I often wonder if someday the Chemung County would be better served with a county manager system.
As to informing the public, a primary job of any legislator is to make sure the residents of their district know what the government is going to do before they do it. Give people a chance to have input, keep open the lines of communication. This could be done with a variety of methods such as social media, email newsletter, website posts or even public forums.
No comments:
Post a Comment