It's odd that this aspect of the Coroner/Medical Examiner controversy is not being discussed.
What the public is made to believe is that one of the County's ELECTED Coroners has not been doing his job properly, has caused problems because of it, and that this is why we need to go to a Medical Examiner system.
WHO IS THE DEFAULTING CORONER?
Is it not odd that for all the controversy we, the voters, do not know who this person is? That we, the voters, are being denied the opportunity to throw this person out of office ourselves? Usually no one pays attention to the coroner's election because there is no controversy. Well now there is.
We can debate the merits of Coroner vs Medical examiner all day. What we should not be debating is giving the public a say in this process .... but there is no debate. The decision which has been THE PUBLIC'S for generations is simply being taken from us by the Board of Legislators and the County Executive.
This needs to go to a referendum.
6 comments:
In Oneida County do we seriously expect our elected leaders to think as clearly as this little post by Strike? Do we seriously expect them to recognize that if an elected Coroner can fail to do a job, so can an appointed one? And, after decades of having a non democratic rule all of a sudden change stripes to one that informs and consults with the public? Do we really expect that to happen? Or, do we expect yet another high paying job or jobs going to political favorites or relatives to be created with much higher cost? Not too hard to judge direction; here we go again.
This will turn out to be another high priced fiasco just like the new 911 system, the airport boondoggle & others thanx to Picente's political games. Not to mention his meddling in the County Board of Elections which is supposed to be independent of the corruption which permeates this area. Picente is a product of the same corrupt political power structure in O.C. He's just continuing the tradition which brought himself into power.
The problem is not just Tony Picente, but also the county board of legislators. They approved Picentes plan with no concrete financial info. That is just plain bullshit. All of them are worthless. Eliminate the whole group and go back to a County Board of Supervisors. Get rid of a whole layer of useless politicians.
"Just trust Tony"
Onje hates to admit it in a way but it can no longer be argued that we need or are served by county government as currently structured. The county executive system has brought nothing of progress to the county. We are a shadow of our former self under it. Jobs have declined, population has declined, democracy has declined, productivity has declined.
No consolidation of any consquence has been achieved not has any departmental reform. The system is also rife with corruption in the broadest sense of the word; friend relatives and political cronies get jobs, business favorites get contracts and tax breaks. Taxes go up annually.
We can easily save the over $1 miilion a year the county executive office costs us. We are a tiny county with roads and law enforcement the biggest needs. The county executive effects either in any significant way. Since we have the EDGE, he does not effect economic development either.
I'd love to see the calendars of his staff and him. I'll bet that this bunch hardly works. There is really not much for them to do anyway. Do away with it and save the money!
When are we ever going to realize that the County elected officials believe that we are dummies? Distressingly, civic apathy is transforming “government by the people” as a fallacy. They think that we need them to make the difficult decisions that we cannot or will not make. Now we see government as totally disregarding the rights of the people. They will replace the entire corner system and even mandate what color the taxi cabs should be that operate within the Utica city limits. It’s as if we are living within the “People’s Republic of Oneida County, within the Socialist State of New York.” It may not be too long before Oneida County officials will be emulating the Socialist government of the City of New York and banning us from having a large soft drink with our lunch order. My heart breaks as I see that the more socialized government becomes, the more of our freedoms we discover slipping from our procession.
The problem is that "We the People"
can't organize ourselves and They know it. So They have no incentive to act on behalf of the people. The BS about commercial air service in 5 yrears is about when I will need it when I move. I still will have to drive to Syracuse to do so and we will still be talking about the same issues when I do. Why you may ask? The same people will be in charge .They may not be in the same jobs but shuffle the deck chairs. No airport, no chip plant, no jobs, We need a bio mass plant for all the BS we have heard for the past 30 years.
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