Buffalo Rising Online

Wow! This is great. I am amazed that he is making progress. Keep it going.

al-alo, I agree with you that this is just a start.

In any region there is always a little competition between government and industry; in Buffalo, the government won. We need to fix this.

hashma - You make good points and yet Kenmore is an example of what Gaughan defines as the "problem" because it has a village board.

Living in Kenmore, I know what an efficient government can be like. ...

Unless I'm missing something I don't think Gaughan's point makes much sense about "the cost". He complains that all elected officals and their staffs across Erie Co add up to $32 million. Yes that's a lot of money. But total budgets of all those entities is over 2 billion or so, correct? Or close to that.

So even if somehow his plan ever results in suppose a third of politicians and staffs going away - which is more than will ever happen but suppose it did... then we save 10 million/year spread across budgets of 2 billion which equals 2000 million... savings of about one half of 1 percent? What about the other 99.5%? The biggest parts of those are in public employee costs and entitlement payments, right? That's where most money is spent, but Gaughan like to focus public ire on elected officials, They deserve ire, but isn't the money they and their staffs are paid a symbolic sliver of pie while Gaughan ignores where "the COST" really is?

If anyone has a better estimate of total budgets in Erie Co, feel free to correct my guess but I think mine is probably in the ballpark. County govt is over a billion, Buffalo city plus schools must be up close to that, school districts, towns, etc.

Atwater - I agree with your approximate numbers, but do we scoff at saving 10 million? That money could be put to use in other areas where it is needed. It's almost like the coworker who complained about a small raise because taxes ate up part of it. Still a raise. And it's still 10 million needed elsewhere, or even back in the taxpayer's pocket!

Sorry, but I don't get the criticism of the man or his ideas. Downtowndweller - using your logic, we'd have Jerry Sullivan run the ball for the Bills, because he writes well about it. Any attempt to downsize government in our area should be met with unabashed cheering, not grousing about too little too late.

It's far too easy to get behind a keyboard and think your making a contribution. Anyone who's truly interested in seeing 'buffalo rise' would do well to see a layer or two of government cast aside. Give the guy credit, anyone in this day and age that sticks with a goal longer than a few days ( let alone ten years) should have a statue erected in honor of their perseverence.

Well said benfranklin.

Great job Kevin.....thank you for trying to improve our community. Please don't give up!

How much are you getting paid to this? Nothing? I don't believe it!

Remember that each politician comes with a bag full of pork and patronage. Getting rid of 90 politicos as a start probably equates to a few thousand other political hires down the line that can be trimmed.

Steel - No, his $32M estimate already accounts for the patronage staff. But I do agree with you that pork is one category of what should be cut, and I'd be impressed if Mr. Gaughan would do John McCain style publicly opposing of popular pork projects often championed in BR articles. Those budget savings would very quickly zoom past whatever savings are being pushed for here in this article.

Pauldub - You make a fair point and I don't mean to scoff, but again even $10M (say 0.5% of $2B if that's the right number) would result from a probably unrealistic reduction of one third of all politicians and staff. Reducing by a fifth would be about $6M (say 0.3%), or by an eighth about $4M (say 0.2%). The latter sounds most realistic, so it seems we're talking somethng like $4M which is about 0.2% of the relevant budget totals. Nice feel good story but the other 99.8% of local govt spending deserves much more focus and is where the real "cost" is. Like checking tire pressure for a car that's on fire.

OTOH, if % savings are really much greater than my guess, I'll quickly stand corrected. I never see percents said in his interviews (nor in Esmonde's gushing column) so for now guesses are all I have to judge this by. I don't oppose reducing politicians. I voted yes in referendum to shrink Buffalo common council. But I don't like to see anything overhyped and overpromised, and attention diverted from hugely bigger parts of the budgets. Mr. Gaughan, if you're reading this please correct the percents if what I guessed is wrong.

BRAVO Kevin! You're exhibiting the kind of activist leadership that is needed for real positive change.

The Legislature is the biggest hunk of government fat there is--full of unqualified blowhards and patronage. Make it happen!

I would have to disagree with hashma on describing the Village of Kenmore's government as efficient. I think a better word would be well serviced and this is due to the higher taxes payed by Kenmore village residents. Govt leaders should make it possible for Kenmore residents to continue to pay for their own police and trash. This model could be copied for other villages in the city as well. On another note I see Kenmore as just another city neighborhood. The density, walkability, city feel is present just as in the city rite across kenmore ave. Kenmore could become a new Elmwood Village or Hertel. Kenmore is a village just as much as the Elmwood village is and Lovejoy was and Allentown is and WIlliamsville is. I think Kenmore is in need of a renaissance as a new city district. The demise of the car dealerships on Deleware ave is the prime oppurtunity for our govt leaders to capitalize on this once in a lifetime oppurtunity to make sure smart urban mixed use developments are built on this prime land. These vast swaths of of land from the old Jim Doyle, to the vacant Walgreens to the Kane Doyle buildings and parking lots. These all should be built up to the sidewalk and have parking in the back. I think the possibility of a streetcar should be considered for Deleware avenue and elmwood also

Sorry for the rant on kenmore but it never gets brought up. I applaud Kevin for his efforts but true regionalism will only occur when issues such as schools, trash and police are left to local residents to foot the bill. The Buffalo school district and smaller more accountable neighborhood school districts and police depts. Theres no reason why the current city system cant be tweaked a bit to give more accountability to the local neighborhood residents as is found in villages like Kenmore without the expensive bureaucratic waste.

I do find the Kenmore police district to be a joke but i think people in kenmore like the fact that if u call the cops about literally anything there will be two cops at ur house in 3 mins as opposed to if u lived in the city you can wait for hours. The people in Kenmore pay for what they get and that is the bottom line. Itd be nice if a nice median could be achieved

Lets keep in mind that Kevin is not one of our elected leaders. He is not a politician.

And yet.........he works to help make our community better.

He did run for office and lost. Our bad. We elected a career politician instead. One that will probably bolt for Clintons state senate seat should she win. (not that i have a big issue with byron)

Prior to running for office he had been working towards improving our community for YEARS. Futhermore....all the politicians that we finally vote out of office....where do they go? Do they stick around and still work towards the things they believe in? Do they stay and try to help our community?

I don't see Masiello, Griffin, Gorski, Coumo, Grelik, ect. ect. ect. around still fighting for there community.

It's just hard for me to bash this guy.......it's like bashing a volunteer group for cleaning up trash on the east side.....complaining that they are missing the main problem.

Regionalism, consoldation, bouroughs, whatever you want to call it........it's time has come. How many more politicians do we have then indy? Crazy. We need to wake up.

The first sign of positive change was the election of Chris Collins as the new Erie County Executive--who overwhelmingly beat the muti-pension getting, Democratic Party lap dog, career politician Jim Keane.

However--there is still a lot of work to be done before the Nickel City and Region will find it's way back...with two fiscal control boards in place, a fat legislature filled with several incompetent career politicians, laughable state senators who don't do their homework, and the grand-daddy of them all running City Hall.

Gaughan--in his last run for Mayor--was, in the end a victim of 'the machine' and subsequent voter apathy. I think he could deliver a lot more at this stage as an activist and 'educator' for positive change.

I mostly agree with you BFLORome......

It's good to have him as an activist and educator........but he's been that for a decade! I'm unsure how many of us have been listening. The politicians certainly haven't been!

He would make a great county executive......where he could implement some of these ideas. I'm excited about Chris Collins. But what about Collins as County Manager (has exp running a business) and Gaughan as county exec (has great ideas)???

Chris Collins's transition team does not inspire hope. That first indication of his judgement is disappointing. I agree with Scooter's comment about Gaughan as a man of ideas; I wish he were the new county executive. I just don't see much vision in Chris Collins, other than his somewhat agrressive pride in being a businessman (we get the point already!) . We have a long line of sharp businesspeople who have made lousy leaders in this country. I wish him well, but I think he's going to go through a hell of an adjustment.

CUT THE FAT! CUT THE FAT!

I'll chime in about the Village of Kenmore. Out of the sixty or so properties I bought and sold in the area, a small single family house in the Village was the worst to deal with.

First, in the building department depending on which employee you talk to, you get a different story. The first electrician I dealt with tried to file a permit in the Village and was told to file in Town of Tonawanda which he did. After a lot of work was complete, the Village shut down the project and came up with these new requirements. The Village requires that ALL wiring in the house be replaced with new and they base that on any building permit issued on the property.

Second, try to SELL a property in Village without a new sump-pump system that discharges under the sidewalk and you'll know what I went through.

Third, in my opinion, ALL properties in the Village have or will have foundation problems. It's expensive work and needs a permit (from the Town).

Fourth, if your property has a lot of debris, you can't throw it out at the curb and you can't keep a dumpster in your driveway for more than 24 hours. The Village cites you for any debris or lingering dumpster.

Fifth, a Village tax is paid to shovel the sidewalks but we kept our own sidewalk clean.

Mayor Beaumont STILL has yet to return my phone calls and visits (it's been over 4 years).

On the bright side the assessment department was willing to hear my plea and did lower the assessed value of the home. The property was eventually sold and the new owner was happy with it. After losing a lot of time, money and effort I'm trying not to be negative, but want people to understand how my business dealings were handled there.