Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said, "There were lots of other people who were there from Western New York," in defense of his controversial decision to leave Erie County to observe Monday's Total Solar Eclipse in Ashtabula, Ohio.
In a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, Poloncarz flagged the fact that he left the county and traveled to Ohio to get a clear view of the celestial event.
Critics went after Poloncarz in comments, noting he held press conferences prior to the eclipse encouraging people to stay off the roads and for businesses to close.
"We never said you had to stay at home," Poloncarz said on Wednesday at a press event covered by WKBW-TV.
WBEN was not invited to cover the event, however WBEN was at a press event prior to the eclipse during which he did tell residents to watch the eclipse from home.
"We just said, if it's clear skies, the view that you have at your house will be no different than the view anywhere else. If it's cloudy, then you need to go somewhere else," Poloncarz said Wednesday.
There was no reference to "clear skies" as a barometer for the request to stay home in the previous comments.
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Poloncarz acknowledged the criticism and attributed it to politics.
"I know I'm getting criticized, this is something I've been looking forward to. I felt comfortable based on what was happening in our community, which was things weren't happening."
The county executive noted he was an avid astronomy enthusiast, and that the event was extremely meaningful to him. "Anybody who knows me knows I am so much into astronomy. I have my own telescope, I do my own Astro photography. And I didn't want to miss this. And I was concerned that it would, I would have actually left my house no matter what because it was either planning and being a Chestnut Ridge Park or Sprague Brook Park, because we had an event scheduled," explains Poloncarz.
"I didn't want to miss this," he said.
In response to Poloncarz's comments on Wednesday, the Erie County Legislature Republican Caucus issued the following statement:
"Today the County Executive told local media he never told people the best place for people to watch the solar eclipse was at home. He did. These comments were made at a highly publicized emergency preparedness event in the lead up to the solar eclipse. He also recommended businesses should close, so many of them did. This resulted in businesses losing money and people losing wages.
"Just take responsibility for once and say it was a bad decision to leave. You’re the County Executive. It doesn’t make you a horrible person, it doesn’t mean you should resign from office. But elected officials are held to different standards. And when mistakes are made, that should be acknowledged.
"Even if the million people you said were coming didn’t come, we still had dozens upon dozens of large mass-gathering events taking place in our community. In this community, we all are understandably sensitive to the security and public safety issues and concerns that can surround these types of events. You should have been here in case something did occur.
"The Executive has acted like he did nothing wrong, but when he stands at the podium to prepare us for the next emergency event and people tune out because they remember his 'do as I say, not as I do' approach this go-around, he’ll have nobody to blame but himself."