West Seneca may upsize local gov't

WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WIVB) - With many municipalities considering downsizing their local government, West Seneca might do just the opposite.

What does this mean for the people who live in the town?

There was a lot of attention on downsizing government a few years ago, but now a much quieter up-sizing movement has made it to the ballot in November so West Seneca voters can decide for themselves.

It was just over three years ago, that West Seneca residents voted by a 2 to1 margin, to reduce the size of their town board from 5 to 3 members. Now, a resident named Dan Warren has managed to get a referendum on the November ballot asking West Seneca residents to up-size the counsel back to 5 members.

West Seneca petitioner Dan Warren says, "I mean, I was very outspoken against the downsizing in the first place, and basically what I have seen since then kind of confirms what I said would happen in the first place."

Warren says the three remaining Board members are getting bogged down by the day to day tasks and not able to spend any time on revamping the Town's Zoning code and dealing with changes in the sewer system.

In order to reflect at least 5% of the West Seneca voters, Warren needed to collect 907 signatures, but he only came up with 700 by the deadline of September 7th.

The Town Board allowed it to go the voters in November anyway.

When News 4's George Richert asked downsizing advocate Kevin Gaughan if they would've let it slide if he had fallen 200 signatures short, he responds with, "something tells me no."

Gaughan was the driving force behind downsizing the board to three in the first place.

Town officials say they let the up-sizing referendum slide because it was only a matter of time before Dan achieved 900 signatures, and then it would have had to become a special election costing taxpayers more money.

He plans to go door to door in West Seneca again. "If West Seneca wants to do this, and they vote in favor of it, we think that's a good thing."

Gaughan managed to convince 10 municipalities to downsize their governments, but now West Seneca isn't the only town ready to re-vote the issue.

Another town is taking a re-vote. Alden voters will decide in November whether to go back up to a five member board.