Onondaga County Board of Elections Commissioners Kevin Ryan, a Republican, and Dustin Czarny, a Democrat, have each been assigned lawyers in preparation for legal action over a controversial term limits bill. Credit: Laura Robertson | Central Current

Editor’s note: This is breaking news and will be updated with more information.

Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny on Wednesday sued his Republican counterpart over the latter’s effort to keep off the ballot a referendum on term limits for the county executive and comptroller. 

Czarny felt filing the request was necessary in an “unprecedented” situation, he said. The power to determine the validity of a law is not provided to New York elections commissioners, he said. 

If one commissioner could prevent a resolution from reaching the ballot using those undefined powers, it would set a precedent with significant potential ramifications, he believes. 

 “That precedent extends far beyond this single resolution and raises significant questions about the balance of authority established by New York Election Law,” said Czarny.

Ryan declined to comment on the pending litigation but said that he did not feel Czarny presented a legal argument that gave Czarny standing to sue.

“Rather than wait for the county legislature to figure out how it wants to proceed or maybe even find out whether cooler heads can prevail, my counterpart took it upon himself to sprint the courthouse door, to file his own lawsuit, to get the jump on things,” said Ryan, “and I don’t think that’s anything more than a publicity stunt.”

Czarny’s lawsuit comes one day after the Onondaga County Legislature approved its own ability to file a lawsuit over a law allowing the public to vote on whether the county executive and county comptroller should be subject to a three-term limit. 

The fight over term limits came to a head after County Executive Ryan McMahon accidentally signed the law. He meant to veto it. McMahon later attempted to veto the law, but the legislature clerks delivered the initially received adoption to the board of elections. 

There are two elections commissioners in Onondaga County: one Democrat, Czarny, and one Republican, Ryan. Both have to agree to put a referendum on a ballot. 

While Czarny accepted the bill that the clerks delivered, Ryan rejected it, citing the county executive’s intended veto and effectively blocking the referendum. 

Both situations — the attempted veto of an accidentally signed law and the refusal to add a referendum to the ballot on that basis — appear to be unprecedented. 

Ryan has repeatedly said he believes that he has taken the correct legal action and has in the past said criticisms of his response were based on “novel legal theory.” Ryan is a lawyer and has consulted with Republicans at the New York State Board of Elections as well as his own lawyers, he said. 

“I recognize that my counterpart sincerely believes his position is the correct one, and I do not question his good faith,” said Czarny. “We simply disagree about the responsibilities assigned to election commissioners under the law. When bipartisan Boards of Elections reach an impasse on a matter of legal authority, the courts are the appropriate and only neutral arbiter.”

The legal battle could be expensive, as both elections commissioners are represented by the outside counsel paid for by the county. That county was already projecting to be $500,000 over budget in spending on outside lawyers before the fight began. 

Czarny said he understands concerns about the cost to taxpayers but that the legal questions at hand left the request for a review as the best option to obtain a “timely and definitive” answer. 

“This action is not about whether term limits are good policy or bad policy. It is about ensuring that each governmental body fulfills the responsibilities assigned to it under the law,” Czarny said. “My goal is to obtain clarity from the court regarding the proper role of the Board of Elections and, if the court determines the resolution belongs on the ballot, to ensure that the voters—not election administrators—have the opportunity to decide this question in November.”

Read more of Central Current’s coverage

Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...