Make a Difference


In this blog I hope to be able to provide the latest County news and happenings.
Along the right hand side of the blog are links to My Views on specific county issues.
Also included are links to my email, other county, state and federal representatives, and some interesting pictures and postcards from the past.

We need to hold all of our County representatives accountable in these difficult economic times.
Please support and comment on this blog and together we can make Cortland County a better place to live.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Accountability

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as answerability, enforcement, responsibility, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving. As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in both the public and private (corporation) worlds.

Accountability is defined as "A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct" [1].

In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences."

I believe in accountability in all levels and forms of government. We must hold our leadership and ourselves accountable for their actions and decisions. We must ensure that communication is open, dialog is honest and that information is shared in order to best serve the people.

I am working with the Chairman and Legislative leaders to build and foster accountability with our County leadership. One example is ensuring that our Department Heads and Administration receive their annual reviews. In this way, we can offer and solicit feedbackwith regards to the efficient operation of the County, as well as share ideas on how the Departments can better function.

In addition, I have requested that the monthly Legislative Committee minutes be drafted and distributed to the Legislature prior to the Legislature monthly meeting. In this way the Legislators will have the ability to review the context of the meeting, the discussions on the agenda items and the votes tallied.

DMV / BOE Building Out to bid

The DMV / BOE Building located on River Street is out for bid. The project to construct the 7,200 square foot (+/-) facility to house the Department of Motor Vehicles and Board of Elections offices is scheduled to have bids due on Friday October 10, 2008 at 2:00pm.

A joint meeting of the Buildings and Grounds and Budget and Finance will be held to review the bids and make a recommendation to the entire Legislature.

The approximate value of the project is $1.2 - $1.5 million, the funding of which shall be from tobacco securitization funds. The result is no tax impact on Cortland County residents.