BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Monday we had a chance to hear from Chrissy Casilio who is the Republican candidate for Erie County Executive. So Tuesday we spoke with Mark Poloncarz, the current Democrat in the Rath Building who wants another four years in office.
It was 2012 when Poloncarz first took over as Erie County Executive. It seems like the phrase "unfinished business" applies for his candidacy to seek a fourth term. That is despite some political analysts who feel voters may want someone new after 12 years with him at the helm of county government.
So while he will reel off what he feels to be his accomplishments and fend off any criticism of his decisions and actions, amidst rumors that he might want to move on, he is now asking voters to let him stay through 2027.
"I think in some ways this is the best job anyone could have for a community. That you really have an ability to make a difference in our community. The projects, the investments we make will not only affect us today but tomorrow," Poloncarz said.
"I have to admit, after I was elected for the third time I didn't really think I was going to run for a fourth term. But I also didn't imagine what would happen in this past year - in the past term I should say. Many of the things that I wanted to implement during this past term just had to be put to the side because we had to focus on other things such as the COVID-19 pandemic and everything that's happened since then.
"So I have an opportunity now to get back and start doing those things again. like the continued work at the Renaissance Commerce Park (old Bethlehem Steel plant site), our investment in Live Well Erie on the Health and Human services side. Of course insuring that that Bills stadium gets done on time."
Poloncarz also touts what he says is the lowest property tax rate in modern history. That is even as his Republican opponent pushes the idea of a tax cut.
2 On Your Side's Ron Plants asked, "Do you feel that you could find more savings within your county government to try to look for any other ways to get tax relief?"
"Well - first off as you know we have reduced the tax rate substantially," Poloncarz replied.
Poloncarz says rising property value assessments cause some people to pay more and he must keep government services intact.
"Our mandated expenses make up about 90% of the overall budget. And the 10% is what the public wants - road work emergency services. So if you're gonna talk about a cut you have to be honest about it and say well here's what I would propose cutting to. Because you can't just say I'm gonna cut property taxes and everything's fine. That's what created the red green fiscal crisis."
A crisis for Poloncarz was COVID with decisions, questions, criticism.
He points out 3,100 Erie County residents still died even as he tried to deal with original projections of up to 6,500 deaths. And that prompted this discussion.
"It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback three years after the event with the knowledge we now have. I would just say that we acted in the best manner we possibly could and to protect as many people as we could. And I think as a result we did save hundreds probably thousands of lives based on the initial estimate," Poloncarz said.
"This is going to sound heartless but also though we really impacted our economy. Do you feel that some of your edicts were draconian in nature, that they really cut off business flow in the community and that impacted people's lives?" Plants asked.
"Well, I would note that what we did was really no different than what was done worldwide. It's not like I went above and beyond what was being done elsewhere. It was being done in New York state, it was being done in Pennsylvania, it was being done in Ohio. It was even being done in Florida."
"But other states though didn't. Let's face it - maybe not to the degree we saw here?"
"Yeah but we know that COVID was much more transmissible in a colder weather climate," Poloncarz replied.
Poloncarz says he will run again to accomplish more of his goals because his third term was beset by crisis situations like COVID, the May 14th mass shooting, and then the December Blizzard. So now we'll go back to that "generational storm" which tragically claimed 46 lives in the county.
We asked if he felt he did everything humanly possible during the storm.
"I think there was a question as to whether the public understood. Because when we issued the driving ban it happened before the blizzard conditions occurred. But one of the things that really bothered me is there were people who left their house on Saturday the 24th - because the storm started on the Friday - driving ban was in effect. People left their house on Saturday morning the 24th and died. I don't know what we could have done differently," he replied.
One thing he may do differently is a warning on the cell phones of county residents.
"I've talked about this - sending the equivalent of an Amber Alert to every cell phone in our community. We didn't do that. We should have done that."
Otherwise while proud of his stewardship of county government, we've seen outbursts.
"Sometimes you're perceived as being a bit arrogant - even though you may say that's confidence. What would you say to the person that has that perspective of you?" Plants asked.
"I think the kindler, gentler issue is a little bit of a...if you know me my friends, the people that know me, they know that there's two people. Although I wouldn't say there's two people because I'm the same person, but the job associated with county executive has to be taken seriously. Still there's a guy who likes to sit at home and read history books and there's a guy who likes to golf with his buddies," Poloncarz said.
"That means there are times you have to actually say this is wrong. What is being done by others is wrong. The actions that have been taken by members of my administration are wrong and that's why I replace them. Yeah - there's confidence. Anybody who runs for these offices have to feel confident in their ability to lead otherwise why would you run? Simple as that. But I think what people need to understand is often media gets us on our worst days. And because you're dealing with issues that you have to deal with in these jobs that are very difficult."