Brennan resigns as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee

 

At last night's Standing Committee meeting of the Chemung County Legislature, the resignation of Joe Brennan as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee was accepted. 

Brennan gave no explanation for this move, except to say that he felt it was time for someone else to do the job after 7 1/2 years and that Scott Drake was willing to take over the role.

Brennan had used this position as committee chair and as a member of the legislature to attack his own Health Department at the height of the COVID / Delta variant outbreak last year. As I wrote in my letter to the editor in the Star-Gazette last fall:

County legislator Joe Brennan has proposed a resolution to block the Chemung County Health Department from offering incentives for the COVID-19 vaccine. It would also forbid the county from partnering with anyone who would offer a giveaway as an incentive to getting the vaccine. 

After being tabled in the September meeting, this resolution is expected to go to a vote at the next full meeting of the legislature. 

If successful, this would essentially be a vote of no-confidence for the Chemung County Health Department and an endorsement of the anti-vaccination propaganda Brennan has been promoting for months. The legislature would be knee-capping the efforts of its own health department to reach and educate the public.  

This comes in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 4.6 million people in the world, 662,000 people in the United States, and 54,000 in New York state. This includes dozens of our fellow residents of Chemung County. 

Throughout this crisis, the county health department has been working tirelessly to save our lives. They have conducted thousands of case investigations, tested thousands of residents, and administered thousands of vaccines.

The legislature should be thanking the health department, not hampering them.  

Before voting, the county legislators should be responsible enough to seek out the input of local experts. They can find experts in immunology, biology and science at local medical groups, regional universities and even at their own County Health Department or the Chemung County Board of Health. Or how about just asking their personal physician, someone they trust, what they think? Or perhaps it would be useful for the health department to explain its COVID response in a public forum?

To vote on this resolution without seeking expert input would be a disservice to the residents of Chemung County.

I encourage every resident of Chemung County, especially those with medical and scientific training, to contact your Chemung County legislator and let them know what you think. The full legislature meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 12 at the John H. Hazlett Building on Lake Street in Elmira. Our lives are at stake.

Ed Bond

Horseheads NY

Fortunately, when Brennan had tried to make this proposal to the full legislature, his motion failed to get a second, so it died on the spot. To have the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee so publicly against the health department was an outrageous situation that has hopefully been resolved with his resignation. 

Now we just need to remove him from the legislature entirely. You can do that by voting for me in November. 

Donate and volunteer:

www.edbond.com/elected/

 

Chemung County Issue -- Term Limits

 I used to be against term limits because I didn't see the point. "We already have term limits," I used to say as a young man. "It's called voting."

But my opinion on this has turned around. 

The system we have tends to favor incumbents, and sure, I can see the advantage to keeping someone in office if they are doing a good job. Just let them keep doing the job. But there is a cost for political entrenchment.

If the same person holds the same elected office for years, it means no one else is going to think running for office is possible. Why bother if X candidate always runs and always wins? 

That creates a disconnect. The average resident doesn't think about engaging with how the government works because someone else is always handling it. 

But term limits mean that eventually any resident could think to themselves, "Oh that seat is going to open next year. Who could step up? How about ... me?"

It means that more people could give serious though about whether they could do the job. They would find out more about how the government works and what is and is not possible. 

And that means that government is no longer some distant, mysterious thing, but something more accessible and understandable. 

Term limits also create a diversity of ideas on the legislature. We could be represented by a fluctuating group of people from all walks of life, any professional background or any kind of business. As that mix of representation changes over the years, it brings new ideas and perspectives to the job at hand. 

And that would be a healthy thing for democracy.

Chemung County Issues -- The Economy

 My approach has been to listen first, talk later. 

My door-to-door visits in this campaign have been about introducing myself to the voter and then asking what county issues they care about.

Many times, the voter has not really followed local issues. And I get it. It's hard for residents to stay on top of county issues because we really don't have the robust local news media that we used to. County government comes down to providing the services we all need with the resources we have available, as efficiently as possible. 

Roads, bridges, sewer, airport, sheriff, jail, health department, nursing facility, these are some of the issues that county legislators must grapple with. For a more complete list, go to the Chemung County government website. 

Many times, the voter wants to talk about the hot-button issues that county government has nothing to do with, such as abortion or gun control. I can talk about those things, but those are not part of the job of the county legislator.  

Over the next few months, I will be posting my thoughts on a variety of issues on this blog. So please check back in with me now and then. 

    THE ECONOMY

I'm an entrepreneur (laser-cutting and board games) and so I know about all the hoops you have to jump through to start a business. But for entrepreneurs, all the strife is worth it because we are driven to pursue our dreams.  This energy is a natural resource that Chemung County should be harnessing to reboot the economy. 

Rather than bending over backwards to bring in employers from out of the area, we should be invested in helping the residents of Chemung County who already love this area to pursue their dreams of building a business here. 

If we are to make a deal to bring a major employer into the county, that deal should include funding for entrepreneurial training for those employees who may get laid off when that company leaves. Actually, I would encourage anyone who gets loses a job to get into an entrepreneurial training program. You may not end up starting your own business, but by the end of the program you will better understand why a business succeeds or fails and when you do get another job, you will see the big picture much more clearly. The county can do a lot more to help entrepreneurs, and we are missing out on an opportunity to draw resources and energy to the county. 

Also, we need to end the animosity between Elmira and the rest of the county. Elmira is struggling, but it is also the heart of this county. If Elmira succeeds, the county succeeds. Creating jobs in Elmira will result in homebuyers in Horseheads, Big Flats and elsewhere in the county. Jobs in Elmira generates more customers for other local businesses.  

We also need to take a hard look back at the pandemic. COVID was a real and dangerous threat to all of us. We needed to take it seriously. But what more could we have done to help the small businesses struggling to get through it? There were some amazing examples of generosity and cooperation, such as small businesses getting to create pop-up stores inside larger businesses. Could we have done more?  What are the lessons we need to learn to be ready for the next crisis? 

Full Campaign video

Welcome to the Middle Party

 

When I looked at the numbers for Chemung County's 4th legislative district, the number that jumped out at me was the unaffiliated voters. Since the 2018 campaign, the number of Democrats had gone up by 94 voters and Republicans had gone up by 15 voters. 

The unaffiliated, those not registered to any party, had jumped by more than 200. The blanks, as they are called, now represent 24 percent of the district. By percentage, they are still behind the Democrats (27 percent) and the Republicans (41 percent), but they are the fastest growing group of voters in the district.

This is why I am pursuing an independent line on the ballot called the "Middle Party."

My guess is that this demographic shift reflects a general disillusionment. People are tired of the toxic  nature of politics. Or they just don't want to give their loyalty to one party or the other. They hold back on committing until they see how things play out. Sometimes they sit out the elections all together because they don't see a message or a candidate they can get behind. 

I totally get it. Politicians often forget the middle. Nowadays, the strategies seem to focus on the extremes. 

This is a problem I first blogged about back in 2010. This was before social media became as powerful as it is today, but I was worried about how conversations about politics and government had been moving from public forums to private email messages for loyal followers. This was the beginning of the abandonment of the middle. 

What I wrote then:

"Elections are won by persuading the voters in the middle, the undecideds. Getting out the party faithful is part of winning an election, and it demonstrates a political strength. However, the true test in politics is in making a thoughtful and resounding argument to the nation as a whole ... What do we need? We need a middle again."

And now here we are in a world dominated not only by social media but even more isolating platforms that create even more twisted versions of realities. Even with seemingly benign platforms like Facebook, people live within echo chambers that only reinforce your own beliefs and any opportunity to discuss or explore other points of view get quickly lost in flamewars and trolling. 

So many people withdraw from politics because of this toxic environment, but the result of sitting out elections is bad government. And I can't let that go on. 

So, I am asking you to join me in the middle. 

I am proud to be on the ballot for county legislature as a Democrat. When I was a journalist, I had been careful to not publicly declare for either party. After my career in journalism ended, I was free to go public with my preference. Looking at both parties in the best possible light, the strongest selling point of the Republican party had traditionally been fiscal responsibility. The strongest selling point for the Democratic party had been as advocates for the common person.

So, as a candidate, my approach is to be an advocate for the common person and to also be fiscally responsible. I am sure a Republican could have the same approach, but I will leave it to the voters to decide who makes the more believable case.

We all have our political biases, our slants. We may start from one party or the other, but as I said, the real test is -- or should be -- how your message plays to the middle. And the message I have for Democrats on the left is the same I have for Republicans on the right and to those of you in the middle. 

Of all the jobs on my resume, the one that is most relevant is my work as a newspaper reporter. I spent years writing about local government, watching the successes and failures, explaining to the public how the government is affecting your lives, interviewing government employees and elected leaders about what they are doing and why. I attended countless budget meetings and came away with a deep respect for legislators who made spending decisions, always keeping in mind that what they did would ultimately impact the amount of taxes that need to be raised and whether the tax rate for property owners would go up or down.

Chemung County government is not usually about the big national issues that most people pay attention to. It is about things like the roads, bridges, sheriff's department, jail, sewer district, health department and the nursing facility. It is about finding ways to provide the services we all need using the resources that are available, which are predominantly those tax dollars we all provide. I could not promise anyone that I will cut taxes, but I will do my level best to make sure our tax dollars are put to good use and are not wasted.

I may not have the solutions to all the problems facing the county, but I can tell you my approach to any problem. I learned this as a newspaper reporter: First, get the facts right. Next, listen to all sides before making any conclusions. Listen and respond to the residents about their concerns. Only if we can do these things can we hope to find solutions. 

If you like what I have to say, I ask you to join me in the middle. 

2022 campaign press release

Ed Bond
Candidate in Chemung County's
4th Legislature District

Ed Bond of Horseheads, an entrepreneur and game designer, announced April 7 he is running as a Democrat for county legislature in Chemung County's 4th District.

Bond and a group of volunteers spent the past month collecting more than 250 petition signatures from voters to qualify for the ballot. From his conversations with residents, he learned about their concerns about such issues as the fate of the Chemung County Nursing Facility, increases in sewer tax bills and possible term limits for elected officials.

This is his second campaign for the seat after an unsuccessful run in 2018.

Bond is also a former reporter for the Star-Gazette in Elmira who had spent 25 years in journalism as a writer, copy editor, page designer or journalism professor. After getting his master’s degree in journalism from Indiana University, his first full-time job was to cover the Steuben County Legislature and other local news for the Star-Gazette. That experience had been an invaluable education in public policy, Bond said.

"Facts matter," Bond said. "A legislator must get the facts right first. Then, listen to all sides before knowing they have the full story. Only then can you begin to work on solutions to problems."

He had met his wife, Amy, in the newsroom of the Star-Gazette, where she had been an editorial assistant. In 2001, they moved to Horseheads, where Amy had grown up, and Ed took a job as a copy editor at the Star-Gazette and occasionally wrote opinion pieces and columns for the paper.

“If you want to ensure openness in government, improved communication and have a representative willing to listen to people, elect a former reporter,” Bond said.

Bond is the owner of MetaDreams LLC, which produces board games and custom laser-cutting in Horseheads. For information about the campaign, go to www.edbond.com/elected/

Volunteering opportunities

There are at least two ways you can get involved, volunteer and make an impact on the 2022 election.

Right now, I am building a campaign team and this year we will need volunteers to help in areas including:

• Petitioning
• Fundraising
• Campaign mailers and post cards
• Sign Distribution 
• Phone calls

If you want to volunteer or know someone else who is interested, you can email me at edwardbondny@gmail.com and put "Campaign Volunteering" in the subject line.

Or, you could volunteer for the Chemung County Democratic Committee, which has a headquarters at 110 N. Main St. Go to their website at www.chemungdems.org for more info. 

Related links:

https://www.chemungdems.org/contact-us/

https://www.chemungdems.org/civic-education-center/