2 posts from July 2008

This was taken from an article in The Buffalo News.

Following a whirlwind eight-month tour of all 44 Erie County towns, villages and cities, citizen activist Kevin Gaughan today is proposing a drastic move — dissolving all 16 villages in the county.

Under his proposal, unveiled during a noon luncheon presentation at the Harbour Club downtown, Gaughan is proposing that each of the 16 village governments merge into its surrounding town by 2012.

"This reform will place us among those successful communities unburdened by overlapping governments, reduce taxes, free more public funds for service delivery, and most important, reconnect citizens with their communities," Gaughan states in his eight-page written report to the community.

In the report, titled "Ending the Age of Large Local Government," Gaughan zeroes in on the high costs county residents pay for their relatively oversized village governments.

The numbers show that the 16 villages account for some 9 percent of Erie County's population, but 23 percent of the elected officials throughout the county.

One example: the village of Orchard Park has 3,147 residents and six elected officials, according to Gaughan. For the city of Buffalo to have the same ratio of residents to elected officials, it would have to have 445 Common Council members. Instead, Buffalo has nine Common Council members.

Gaughan knows the opposition that will greet his proposal. Politicians will claim that village government is needed to create the loveliness of Orchard Park, Williamsville and East Aurora.

"But the same quality of life exists in places like Eggertsville, Wanakah and Snyder," Gaughan states in his report. "And while these locales maintain services and setting equal to villages, they are not incorporated governments that add to our tax burden."

A village, he added, is not a government.

"A village is an idea, a sense of place, a community."

During his tour of the county's 25 towns, 16 villages and three cities, Gaughan attended 150 town and village board meetings.

Witnessing those local meetings, formal affairs that follow Robert's Rules of order, is akin to traveling back to the age of horse-drawn carriages, gaslights and frock coats, Gaughan wrote.

"Local government is our nation's most intimate level of government," his report states. "In Erie County it is also the most remote. By holding meetings in which decisions are pre-agreed — and limiting citizen participation — politicians have broken citizen spirit sufficient to have them all but give up.

"Which makes repairing the system more difficult."

All I really have to say is I totally agree.

Well, to start this one off. @$%^$% to grass laws. I grant that you should take care of your lawn, I just don't see the point in mowing every dam week, wasting gas and water becuase it's constantly cut short.

Someone filed a complaint with the building inspector on my yard.

I'll admit that the first time I cut my lawn it was close to 12 inches tall, but both my lawn mowers were busted and I live paycheck to paycheck and did not have the money to take them to get fixed and lack the knowledge of engines to fix them myself. I have been cutting the lawn every TWO weeks since then.

I admit there were 4 weeds that were over 6 inches tall in the front yard. Which I cut down, problem solved right? Wrong. 5 days later I get another notice saying there grass,plant or weed growth over ten inches tall. So I go and stand out on my sidewalk and stare dumbfounded at my yard trying to find this supposed plant matter that is over 10 inches tall, there are the FLOWERS in the flower bed that are over 10 inches. To take care of any offending plant matter I proceded to set my lawnmover to the second lowest setting and mowed the lawn down to root burning short like all the #$%# neighbors do, weedwhacked for hours. The $%#% building inspector is due by the house today. If he finds  supposed plant matter over 10 inches tall, I'm calling it quits with the crap ass village I live in, and my girlfriend finially gets what she wants, me selling the house.

Why,am I on such a rant, you might be asking. Well it is because the house right next door to me has weeds between my gargae and his garage that are close to 5 feet tall and yet no notice to him to cut the lawn. Looks like I'm filing abunch of complaints. There a couple of those inflatable pools in yards on my street, which the crap ass village makes you get a $150 permit to have up. So make the call and say hey do these people have permit for the blowup pool. People want to be assholes, I can be a huge asshole.