Tioga County Issues

 It is indeed ironic that the same day the Comptroller's assessment of the county's misdeeds in the case of Howland Brothers was accepted into the record, the legislators voted 6-3 to abandon the County Manager position. Mike Roberts had it right when he said, "The county made a mistake." To their credit, the Town boards of Candor and Richford also understood the importance of qualified oversight.  

 Even a quick perusal of the Hevesi document makes one conclude that we "got took" by a sharp operator, and that individuals then employed by the county were likely complicit. This malfeasance took place, within the committee system before we had a manager. 

 We are told that constituent's desires to eliminate a layer of government coupled with a natural desire not to see money wasted moved the Legislators to take this unfortunate action. The problem is, when the people (constituents) are uninformed or worse, misinformed they make poor choices. Did you know, for instance, that at least a couple of the legislators do not attend meetings of the committees to which they have been assigned? That one of the Legislators has not attended a single meeting of his own committee? That because business still needs to be done, the Chairman was required to round up this Legislator and meet with the affected department head, thus circumventing the committee process? That there had not been a department head meeting at all, as of the April regular meeting? (These are typically at least a monthly occurrence in most large businesses and governments). It is one thing to operate without a manager, it is quite another to think the county will operate itself.

 On the subject of misinformation: Robert Rulli was not the first County Manager. We only ever had one. It was John Byrne.

 On the subject of conflicts of interest, our new County Attorney is still on the board of Tioga State Bank as well as employed by the IDA, although he has informed the IDA of his intention to leave.

 On the subject of important issues that might escape your attention, the Tioga County Legislature on May 9th expects to vote to extend the transit contract with T-Tran for as long as another two years. This despite the fact that the previous, and only, attempt at bidding the contract was so flawed that only the incumbent company bid. If you, too, think that a million-dollar-a-year operation might serve us better, you might contact your legislators and attend that meeting.

 The Millennium pipeline does not warrant any tax breaks. You need to attend that meeting as well.   

Mark J Trabucco 
Formerly (2001-2005) Tioga County Legislator .