The Onondaga County Legislature Tuesday approved measures limiting the county executive to serve three four-year terms and giving the legislature the ability to appoint legislators in the case of a vacancy.
The measures would change the county charter and require the county executive to sign off on the changes and a majority vote of Onondaga County voters. If the county executive vetoes either measure, the legislature could still move the changes to a referendum with a two-thirds vote of the legislature.
Any potential referendum would be held during the November general election.
County Executive Ryan McMahon has expressed displeasure with the process of the charter changes. He argued in a statement the legislature and public did not have enough time to consider the changes.
McMahon will review the charter changes, wrote Sayles.
“Good governance is not about how fast we can change the rules,” wrote Justin Sayles, a spokesperson for McMahon, in a press statement. “It is about a process that invites discussion, public engagement, and meaningful input on major changes to the structure of government.
During a comment period, Legislator Gregg Eriksen responded to these concerns by pointing out that his local law was two pages long.
The charter changes passed mostly along party lines. Democratic Legislator Charles Garland broke with his party to vote against allowing the legislature to fill vacancies.
Garland called his vote “common sense,” explaining his worry that the legislature would not be able to come to an agreement for a new appointee if the law were to pass. It would leave certain residents without representation in the legislature, he said.
“Right now, one person is able to make that change,” Garland said. If the whole legislature is tasked with making the decision, there would be a risk of “gridlock,” he said.
Republican legislators also argued that allowing the legislature to fill its own vacancies would not separate powers enough. Democrats argued that it would.
“Right now, we are saying that the county executive should not be able to appoint people to a body that keeps him in check,” said Eriksen.
Republicans complaints about the term limits revolved around the fact that the county comptroller was not also listed in the law. The legislature can only term limit itself, the county executive, and the comptroller, as other top positions are under New York State jurisdiction. The legislature previously term limited itself.
Republicans accused the Democrats of partisanship over the term limits proposal because Comptroller Marty Masterpole is a Democrat, and McMahon is a Republican.
To counter this concern, Democrats placed an additional local law limiting the term of the comptroller on legislators’ desks shortly before the meeting. That law will be voted on in July. Republicans still opposed limiting how many terms the county executive can serve, saying they wanted the two term limits to be in the same law.
Ken Bush, who last year proposed legislation which would limit the terms of legislators, the executive and the comptrollers, refused to vote in favor of term limits for the county executive alone.
“I’m eliminating arguments,” said Hernandez. “What is the next argument going to be in July when we limit the comptroller?”
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