Members of the Chautauqua County Legislature are sworn into office (January 2, 2024)
Five new members and 14 returning members were swore into the Chautauqua County Legislature at its reorganizational meeting Tuesday.
The City of Jamestown has two new representatives with Republican Phil Landy being sworn in to represent District 9 and Democrat Fred Larson now representing District 12.
Other new representatives include Republicans Dalton Anthony and Fred Johnson; and Democrat Marcus Buchanan.
District 8 Legislator Pierre Chagnon was unanimously approved to serve another term as Chair of the Legislature. He has been the chair since 2020.
Chagnon said he was honored to continue in the position, “In this role, I will continue to adhere to high moral standards and do my very best to demonstrate servant leadership. And I fully embrace the parable that St. Luke shared with us, ‘To everyone whom much has been given, much will be required. And from the one to whom much has been entrusted even more will be demanded.'”
Jamestown District 11 Legislator and Republican Dave Wilfong has been elected Majority Leader of the Chautauqua County Legislature.
Wilfong succeeds Legislator Tom Harmon in the role. Republicans hold a 14-seat super majority on the Legislature.
Wilfong said he believes he was chosen for the role because he “gets along well with others and can work with both sides of the aisle.” He said economic development, especially the new shovel ready site in Ripley, will be something the Legislature will be working on this year, “I tell you right now that’s going to be a big, big ticket item for us. I can see us working together as a group, both Republicans and Democrats, to move us forward. So, I think it’s going to be a very positive thing. But as we are all aware, believe me, there’s always something around the corner for the county at that level. I think we were criticized last year for the fund balance that we kept. I think with the rate of inflation and the problems that we see with our economy this fall I think we’ll be happy we’ve got that little nest egg.”
Wilfong said he looks forward to county legislators being able to work more with the City of Jamestown now with Republican Kim Ecklund in as Mayor, “It’s very important because there are some of the things that we could actually let the city know that’s coming. One was the tipping fee at the landfill, the workmen’s comp.. it just seemed when they were talking the figures kind of fell out of the air and we had known about those for awhile. And that type of liaison, we’ve got to bring that back. Like I said, the Teresi administration was much more open.”
Wilfong said County Legislators had a good relationship with the City under former Mayor Sam Teresi, including quarterly meetings. However, he said under Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s administration, legislators didn’t come because “they weren’t welcome.”
That’s because Republican legislators aren’t interested in governing.