Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Members of the Erie County Legislature called on Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Monday to end the COVID-19 state of emergency that has been in place in Erie County for nearly two years.
Legislators submitted two resolutions on Monday both seeking to end the state of emergency and restore power to the Erie County Legislature. The first one, which is the preferred option of the Minority Caucus, directs the County Executive to end the state of emergency immediately. The second would direct the Legislature to vote individually on mandates the County Executive wishes to extend.
The resolutions will be proposed at the next session of the Erie County Legislature on Thursday, Feb. 3 at 12 p.m. EST.
One of the members of the Erie County Legislature leading the charge in this effort is Minority Leader Joe Lorigo. He is asking Poloncarz to "hand the keys back to the Legislature and return to a system of checks and balances."
While Lorigo is hoping to restore some order in Erie County, he believes now is the proper time for Poloncarz's emergency powers to be removed, and allow for all parties to get back to the table and work on a resolution to the COVID-19 pandemic together.
"We're now two years into the pandemic. It's no longer an emergency," Lorigo said on Tuesday. "It's something that we're living with, it's something that people in the community are living with, and they're adapting to."
Lorigo believes that Poloncarz's tactics to try and combat COVID-19 in Erie County have not worked to this point.
"If you compare Erie County to Monroe County just down the [I-90], the demographics are virtually the same as Erie County, our COVID positivity rate is 60% higher than Monroe County and our death rate is 108% higher than Monroe County," Lorigo said. "The difference is that Monroe County had a robust rapid testing program where any Monroe County resident could have access to a rapid test if they wanted it. My colleagues and I in the Minority Caucus put forward a resolution that directed the County Executive to purchase rapid tests back in December before the Omicron surge hit. The County Executive and my colleagues across the aisle and the Democratic majority rejected that proposal, and you can see the results.
"If they would have accepted our proposal to buy rapid tests and use those as a tool to help stop the spread of COVID, we would have literally saved Erie County lives. Instead, the county executive refused to come to the table, refused to work with anybody in the Legislature, and only wanted to follow his own policies. As a result, more people died than needed."
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, Lorigo says his party in Legislature was willing to give Poloncarz the benefit of the doubt. Sine then, he believes the evidence is clear that the "one man rule" approach that Poloncarz has taken is not panning out.
"We need to restore the Legislative process. That's not only in the Erie County Charter, but in the New York State Constitution," Lorigo said. "We, as Legislators, are elected to represent approximately 90,000 people across our Legislative districts. Those people want us at the table. Those people deserve the representation that they voted for, and we should give that to them rather than let one man make every single decision."
Just how bad has the relationship gotten between Poloncarz and the Republican members of the Erie County Legislature?
According to Lorigo, the County Executive shows no willingness to work with anybody but himself. He says things have gotten so bad, Poloncarz refuses to provide his cell phone number to any Republican member, they're not authorized to email him, and they've been told "call his receptionist like anybody else" if they wish to speak with him.
"That's not how government is supposed to work. That's not a spirit of cooperation. It's not a spirit of bipartisanship. It's not in the spirit of doing what's best for the people we represent," Lorigo said. "It is simply in the spirit of Mark Poloncarz wants to do everything he possibly can to maintain his sole control over the situation, despite what's good for public health, despite what's good for democracy and despite what his constituents are calling for.
"I think you have Mark Poloncarz, whose arrogance and refusal to accept when he's wrong, rules the day. He likes having that control. He likes being the one making those decisions. And I think you have a Democratic majority in the Legislature that's unwilling to come to the table and do their jobs. Rather than take stances, rather than make votes on the policies that affect Erie County residents, they're content to sit behind in the shadows and let Mark Poloncarz run the show for them. That way they don't have to be held accountable to their constituents, and they can simply blame anything that their constituents don't like on what the County Executive is doing. That's not the proper way to govern."
On the other side of the card, Democratic members of the Erie County Legislature believe the emergency powers bestowed upon Poloncarz allow him to utilize departments in the county to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on a daily basis.
"What we have seen throughout the pandemic - the importance of vaccine clinics popping up in different parts of our community based on need, testing sites popping up sometimes in very short notice based on data and outbreaks; recently, the county has distributed tests for our test-to-stay program at schools. We just distributed at-home testing kits to our libraries. Those executive powers have allowed our County Executive to fight this pandemic on a daily basis when, often times, if he did not have those executive powers, we could be waiting weeks for the legislature to meet," said Chair of Health and Human Services, Lisa Chimera.
"We've had Dr. [Gale] Burstein come to Health and Human Services and give us updates on the state of the county and where we are as a pandemic, and I think we will continue to have those. I do think that we will, at some point, be reaching a time where we are not going to have mask mandates. The County Executive will no longer need emergency powers. I don't think we're at that time quite yet."
Chimera acknowledges the County Legislature has exercised oversight when it has been needed in times Poloncarz utilizes any power that need to go through the Legislature. Given that COVID-19 is still very much prevalent in the county, which includes an average of eight people dying every day, Chimera believes that the county is still in crisis mode.
"I think that Erie County, as a whole, has done whatever has been possible to fight this pandemic," she said. "This was all new to everyone, so I think that the utilization of data, looking at data by ZIP codes when it first started, identifying communities most in need and making sure they have the resources necessary. I think the weekly update that our county receives from our Health Commissioner and our County Executive has been very beneficial.
"One of the things that has been I think extremely important for our residents in Erie County is to get updated information quickly, and where they can access resources quickly. I think that Erie County has done a very good job in doing that."
It is expected that Poloncarz will speak on Tuesday to provide his weekly COVID-19 briefing for Erie County along with the County Health Commissioner.