BUFFALO (WBEN) - On Wednesday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz didn't mince words when asked by he hasn't gone before the County Legislature with an update on stadium negotiations with the Bills despite a resolution passed last month demanding he do so.
“The Legislature can't force me to do anything," he said.
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Legislator Joe Lorigo, took to social media following the county executive's comments:
Legislator Kevin Hardwick is running for Erie County Comptroller, and he hopes the Legislature will have more involvement in the process, as any stadium deal would rank among the most expensive in the history of the county.
"I think 'his comments' were unfortunate," said Hardwick. "The purpose of the resolution is to try to get a dialogue going before a deal was thrown on the desk saying, 'here it is, and we'd like you to approve it,'" said Hardwick. "I think that if the Legislature has a general idea - it doesn't have to be specifics - of what the county is looking for, I think we can advise the county executive as to what we would like to see, and I think there should be that dialogue going, and I was hoping that resolution would accommodate that dialogue."
Former Erie County legislator and current comptroller candidate Lynne Dixon echoed the sentiments expressed by Hardwick, saying legislators should have more say in the process.
"We're talking about a public investment of upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars," said Dixon. "Despite the county executive being the negotiator of the stadium and lease for the county, it really is the Legislature that actually takes the vote to approve the terms.
"I know when I was in the County Legislature last go round when we were voting on the lease, we weren't even given the language of the lease agreement until the day of the vote," Dixon continued. "There was no public input allowed because of the timeline the county executive put us on, and it was a mess."
