Nicole Watts, District 9 County Legislator, hosts Syracuse's Northside Issues Forum on Housing Monday, February 16, 2026, at North Side Learning Center. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

The Onondaga County Legislature will on Tuesday attempt to authorize itself to sue the Board of Elections, the latest in the saga of County Executive Ryan McMahon’s accidental signing of a bill approving a referendum on his own term limits.   

If the legislature ultimately votes to sue the Board of Elections — which would require a majority vote of the 17 legislators — the suit could lead to a request by the legislature for a judge to review whether Board of Elections Commissioner Kevin Ryan can prevent the term limits bill from being put on the November ballot. 

Potential litigation could also lead to a judge reviewing McMahon’s adoption of the bill or his attempt to override his adoption of the bill with a later veto. 

The lawsuit could be filed as an Article 78 proceeding, a form of lawsuit that allows for the challenge of decisions by public officials. 

The drafted item, which appears on the legislature’s agenda, would also authorize the legislature to retain counsel and take “any and all actions necessary” to see the process through. 

“Ultimately, the legislature had to weigh the potential financial consequences of litigation against the precedent that would be set if they don’t clarify these legal ambiguities,” said Ruthnie Angrand, a spokesperson for the legislature. 

The saga started when McMahon sent to legislature clerks a signed adoption letter rather than his veto. He did later transmit the veto. Legislature clerks delivered the adoption to the Board of Elections. The legislation would allow county residents to vote in a referendum on term limits for the county executive and comptroller. 

One elections commissioner, Dustin Czarny, accepted the law. The other, Kevin Ryan, said that because he knew that the county executive had intended to veto it, he could not accept it. 

This litigation could attempt to answer the question of whether the adoption or the veto should have been delivered to the Board of Elections. If the legislature were to win its court case, the courts could compel Ryan to agree to put the referendum on the ballot. 

“The path forward cannot leave our local laws, our legal procedures, and our voters in ambiguity,” said Legislature Chair Nicole Watts in a statement. “Offering paths that do not resolve these issues do not move us forward.”

Ryan, a lawyer himself, said that he believes he has a stronger legal case than the county legislature does. 

“There’s no guarantee of success in any proceeding because you can never tell what a judge or jury will do,” said Ryan. “With that being said, I feel comfortable in my position in this.” 

When the clerks delivered the legislation to the board, they attached with it a memorandum from the legislature’s retained counsel, Underberg & Kessler. The firm has provided legal justification to the legislature pushing back against the county executive several times since the legislature retained the firm in April.

Czarny has been assigned a lawyer by the county’s Law Department. The legislature’s decision to sue will not impact his own choice whether to sue Ryan, he said. Czarny believes Ryan is not allowed to make decisions about the validity of laws once they are handed to the Board of Elections. 

“We may have more chairs at the table, but I don’t think it’s going to make any difference about whether I go for it or not,” Czarny said. 

Czarny is likely to decide whether he will sue on Wednesday. 

The county’s law department cannot represent any party in this debate — because it represents the county executive’s office and the legislature, it has conflicts in the case. The law department is expecting to be about $500,000 over budget on outside lawyers. 

The bill in question passed in the legislature with 10 votes. Nine of 10 Democrats in the legislature voted in favor of a three term limit. Legislator Charles Garland, a Democrat, voted against it while Legislator Ken Bush, a Republican, voted for it. 

A second bill proposed a four term limit. That vote narrowly failed to pass the legislature, with almost a full reversal of the three term bill. Legislator Dan Romeo, a Democrat, voted in favor of both bills. 

In his veto memorandum, McMahon said that the conversation had been rushed, and that the four term bill was more bipartisan. 

As the possibility of litigation loomed, McMahon proposed what he called a “path forward” which would put both term limit options on the ballot in 2027.

Angrand pointed out that when this possibility had been asked about during the June’s Ways and Means meeting, Ryan Ockenden, the deputy county attorney for the legislature had said the following: 

“We would have competing ballot propositions and if both pass you’re competing. I think we should all know better than to get into that position.”

The resolution on whether to sue the county will be brought forward by Watts and Majority Leader Nodesia Hernandez. To pass, it will need 9 of the 17 possible votes. 

Legislator Charles Garland said that while he would like to see term limits on the ballot, he would like to avoid litigation at all costs. He said he would like to see a compromise. 

“It’s always interesting to see what hill somebody is going to plant their flag on,” said Garland. “Not every battle is meant to be fought.” He pointed to other expensive problems — housing, crime, food insecurity, and air quality — that taxpayer money could be spent on. 

Angrand said that only the courts could answer the question of how to navigate this. By transmitting the adoption document, the legislature had done what the county charter required, she said. 

Angrand was concerned about the legislature’s ability to legislate “cleanly without guidance from the courts,” she said. 

“There have been ideas pitched that are beginning to set this precedent of creatively legislating outside of the confines of the charter,” Angrand said, “and I think that’s a slippery slope.”

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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...