LITTLE VALLEY — The reappointment of Cattaraugus County’s director of Economic Development, Planning and Tourism has been put on hold over a possible restructuring of the department.
Howard VanRensselaer, R-Randolph, chairman of County Legislature’s Development and Agriculture Committee, put the hold on the resolution reappointing Crystal Abers Wednesday, pending a review of the department by the committee.
County lawmakers discussed the reappointment resolution, sponsored by VanRensselaer and Vice Chairman John Padlo, D-Olean, during an executive session of the Development and Agriculture Committee.
VanRensselaer declined to discuss the issues that were discussed during the executive session.
“The next step is we are going to have some work sessions with the committee to discuss economic development,” Van Rensselaer said in a telephone interview Thursday.
A possible restructuring of the department — to which the 2017 budget allocated $1.5 million — is among the issues the committee will discuss in the work sessions, VanRensselaer said.
“Where it’s going from there, I don’t know,” VanRensselaer said. “We didn’t realize this was coming up. We were caught off guard.”
There is plenty of time to address the issue of Abers’ reappointment, he said. Her current four-year appointment doesn’t expire until Dec. 31.
“Legislators just want a chance to discuss this,” VanRensselaer said. “I don’t know what they are aiming at. I think (the department) is going well.”
VanRensselaer said he thought appointments should be addressed later in the year, and expects the resolution to reappoint Abers will be brought up in September.
Legislator Joseph Snyder, R-Ischua, who was critical of the county’s economic development efforts during a Development and Agriculture Committee meeting last month, said the executive session Wednesday was “a continuation of that dialogue.”
He also declined to say what was discussed during the executive session.
“We as a County Legislature are not talking about the issue of economic development,” Snyder said, adding he isn’t sure the “good folks in the department who are working hard” are “being directed correctly” by the Development and Agriculture Committee.
“We have a legislative-level problem in our economic development efforts,” Snyder said. “I think we need to be refocused.”
He said he is worried the four-year-term appointment “locks us into what we are already doing.”
“We put a lot of time and effort into economic development, but we are losing ground,” Snyder said. “We need to try something different. We need to try to find a better path forward that is going to improve our situation. We are not having those discussions in the committee.”
Snyder agreed with VanRensselaer that these issues are better addressed in work sessions instead of twice monthly in relatively short committee meetings.
“We as a group are responsible for directing economic development efforts which are not getting the results we want,” Snyder said. “We’ve got some really good attributes: Inexpensive housing, great scenery and lots of clean air and water.”
By focusing on certain goals, Snyder said legislators may conclude that a reorganization of the department is needed. He added another possibility is breaking it into two departments with one focusing strictly on economic development.
Last month, Snyder commented that more than 600 jobs have been lost in Olean in the past two years.
“We see kids moving away because there are no jobs,” Snyder said. “Let’s throw out some ideas and get a conversation going.
