The Onondaga County Legislature on Tuesday voted to appoint twelve people to county boards, rankling legislature Democrats.  Three-quarters of the appointees were Republicans at a time when Democrats are set in January to take control of the county legislature. Democratic legislators alleged th at Republicans were rushing to fill board spots before then. Democrats argued Republicans did not go through proper process to make the appointments. In the past, board appointments have been voted on in the legislature’s Ways and Means committee meetings. This time, they weren’t.  The committee chair, Colleen Gunnip, wasn’t at the Nov. 20 committee meeting. Instead, Minority Leader Brian May substituted for Gunnip.  May called the choice not to vote on the appointments an “eleventh hour” decision. He said the agenda had been published late, and that a vote would have been meaningless because the committee wouldn’t have time to review the resumés. Even if the vote had been split, he said, it still would have come to the floor.  “I just didn’t think we were ready to vote,” May said. “We’ve been big at this legislature on process, on procedure, and to circumvent a part of that process right now seems upsetting,” said Democratic Legislator Maurice Brown.  In a Monday statement, legislature Minority Leader Nodesia Hernandez urged Chairman Tim Burtis not to make “lame duck” appointments in advance of the new democratic majority coming in.  “While these candidates may be qualified for board service, three-quarters of them are registered Republicans,” Hernandez wrote. “This calls into question what criteria were used in selecting them.” Burtis read the statement aloud at the legislature meeting, saying that he didn’t appreciate the “attack on [his] integrity and character.” He said that he had not rushed the appointments. He listed recent appointments to county boards which Democrats had unanimously voted to support. He also said he had never looked at the political parties of the candidates.  “Some of these appointments have been expired for quite some time, and I was working diligently with some help from the county executive to get these positions handled,” said Burtis.  Hernandez responded. She reiterated that it seemed Burtis was rushing the new appointments. She said that he hadn’t communicated with her about the appointments and added that there were many more appointments at once in this session than usual. She told him that it almost seemed that he was “making sure that you put anybody in place that can benefit yourself.” Legislator Dan Romeo apologized to candidates, saying that his vote would not reflect what he thought of them but rather the procedure. Legislator Kevin Meaker said he was sure they were qualified, and neither knew nor cared about their political party.  All appointments were approved 12-4. All Republicans voted in favor of the appointments, as did Democratic Legislator Charles Garland. The remaining Democrats voted against them. Legislator Mark Olson, a Republican, was absent.  Garland explained that he had initially planned to vote against the appointments out of principle, despite knowing some of the nominees as qualified and competent people. Ultimately, however, he decided that his vote in favor might win some goodwill heading into a new legislative session.  Below are the new appointees:  Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency:  Cydney Johnson, reappointed, term expiring May 31, 2027 Elizabeth Dreyfuss, reappointed, term expiring May 31, 2029 Mark Muthumbi, term expiring May 31, 2026 Alan Marzullo, term expiring May 31, 2026 Randy Wolken, term expiring May 31, 2028 Onondaga County Civic Development Corporation:  Christopher Daniel, reappointed, term expiring Oct. 6, 2027 Kimberly Townsend, reappointed, term expiring Oct. 6, 2028 Mitchell Latimer, reappointed, term expiring Oct. 6, 2028 Vincent Cioci, reappointed, term expiring Oct. 6, 2026 Virginia Biesiada O’Neill, reappointed, term expiring Oct. 6, 2027 Janice Herzog, term expiring Oct. 6, 2027 Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency Dan Kranz, reappointed, term expiring Dec. 31, 2026 The post Onondaga County Legislature Democrats, Republicans have spat over ‘lame duck’ appointments  appeared first on Central Current. ...read more read less