By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — Cattaraugus County lawmakers just made it more difficult to fill vacant positions when someone leaves a job, retires or is promoted.
The procedure for filling employee vacancies hasn’t changed since 2015, although legislators have directed department heads to slow the process to save money for the past couple of years.
A resolution to adopt the revised procedure for filling vacant positions was introduced at Wednesday’s meeting for immediate consideration without being reviewed by other committees.
It was sponsored by Legislature Vice Chairman Ginger Schroder, R-Farmersville, who chairs the Labor Relations Committee, and legislators Joseph Boberg and Brenda Hanson, R-Delevan; Laurie Hunt, R-Salamanca, and Robert Parker, R-Allegany.
The county employs around 1,200 workers, supervisors and department heads across a number of departments including the nursing homes, social services, public works and the Sheriff’s Office.
Previously, when a vacancy occurred, it was often considered an automatic backfill. Increased wages and fringe benefits have changed all that. The 2026 budget eliminated 84 positions, 22 of which were filled by county employees.
On the legislature floor, Schroder said the resolution just codifies “what we’ve been doing for the past year and a half.” If a position has been vacant for some time, it’s time “to ask the department head to justify the continued need for them.”
If a department head wishes to appeal the elimination of a position must do so in writing to the personnel officer, county administrator and chairman of the Labor Relations Committee.
The resolution was adopted unanimously.
Later, Schroder told the Olean Star that the process “is just a little more rigorous for the department heads.”
Not only will the request to backfill a position have to go through Human Resources, it will have to be approved by the county administrator, chairman of the overseeing committee and chairman of the Labor Relations Committee.
“If that budgeted backfill remains unfilled for a significant amount of time, the question I think we all need to be asking is, did they really need it?” She added, “
It’s more meant for fiscal accountability than anything else.”
Another resolution introduced by Schroder and Hanson for immediate consideration, urged state officials to “prioritize an affordable, reliable and transparent energy policy and to acknowledge that state mandates are the primary driver of rising energy costs.”
Hanson said New York electric costs are 10-12 cents higher than the national average. One reason is that the Public Service is too quick to approve requests for rate increases. In addition, state officials forced $630 million in grid infrastructure projects not related to reliability, but by climate act electrification goals, the state has restricted natural gas pipelines and denied permits for drilling in the Marcellus shale.
She said ratepayers “should be able to see exactly what portion of their monthly bill is a direct consequence of state climate policy.”
Chairman Andrew Burr, R-Gowanda, thanked Hanson and pointed out that it was not Republicans that voted for the disastrous Albany policies. “It is their (Democrats) policy, and hopefully the cost will start to show up in such a way that voters and politicians… will have no choice but to change course.”
All legislators were added as co-sponsors and the memorializing resolution passed unanimously.
Legislators also approved a list of tax title properties seized for nonpayment of back taxes to be sold to their former owners.
Another resolution transferred title of properties sold for nonpayment of back property taxes to high bidders of last week’s auction of tax title properties.
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