Erie County Legislature Chairwoman Barbara Miller-Williams faces her first standoff, and it involves the former chairwoman and the legislative panel focused on county taxes and spending.

Miller-Williams, who became the chairwoman in a takeover egged on by County Executive Chris Collins, wants the chairwoman she deposed to lead the Finance and Management Committee.

But Legislator Lynn M. Marinelli refuses to serve as chairwoman of Finance and Management, or any committee.

"I respect the fact she gained the greatest number of votes to become the leader of the Legislature," Marinelli said of Miller-Williams. "She can lead it with the members who named her to that position."

Marinelli says someone from the new regime — the six Republicans and two Democrats who installed Miller-Williams — should take the post. Marinelli says she will serve only as a rank-and-file member of any committee Miller-Williams offers.

The Finance and Management Committee takes on weighty matters. It reviews the status of departmental budgets at midyear, and this year it will initiate the request to Albany to keep the county's sales tax rate at 8.75 cents on the dollar — the highest rate upstate and a huge reason Erie County has kept its head above water.

The committee this year will review a 2011 budget considered one of the county's most challenging since the red-green days of 2004-05. Members of the state-appointed control board wonder how Collins can balance next year's spending plan without raising taxes.

The committee also serves as a gatekeeper when county officials correct data on the tax rolls.

Despite Marinelli's stand, Miller-Williams says she will not appoint someone else. She expects Marinelli, the Legislature's most senior member, to gavel the committee into session as needed.

The two legislators snapped at each other during Thursday's Legislature session when Marinelli repeated that she will not lead Finance and Management.

"I have done the research," Miller-Williams said recently. "There is nothing to indicate that a legislator can decline.

"I have appointed legislators to chair the committees. If they choose not to chair, the onus is on them. Let them explain to Erie County residents and their constituents that they have chosen not to serve," Miller-Williams said.

"I don't see this as a constituency issue. I see this as an operations issue," Marinelli said. She said she told Miller-Williams in writing Jan. 8 that she will not head a committee. Miller-Williams still placed Marinelli in charge of Finance and Management when her first choice, Legislator Thomas J. Mazur, D-Cheektowaga, asked for another panel.

Both Miller-Williams, from Buffalo, and Marinelli, from the Town of Tonawanda, are Democrats. Since the Democrats hold a 9-6 majority in the Legislature, tradition holds that they head the committees. But nearly all Democrats willing to lead a committee already do so.

Marinelli said Miller-Williams has options. She could:

• Be chairwoman of the committee herself.

• Name one of the two Democratic legislators who backed her — Timothy M. Kennedy of Buffalo or Christina Wleklinski-Bove of West Seneca — to lead a second panel.

• Merge Finance and Management with another committee.

• Ignore tradition and give the post to one of the five Republicans or to the Independence Party legislator in their caucus, Lynne Dixon of Hamburg.

County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz calls the Finance and Management Committee the Legislature's most important. He says Miller-Williams should lead it herself rather than let it wither as a result of this year's regime change.

"The Finance and Management Committee is the one that touches everything because it deals with the budgets of all departments," Poloncarz said. "We certainly don't want to go back to where we were before the red-green budget fiasco, when we had a Legislature that was not taking an active role."

County lawmakers collect the same pay regardless of whether they lead committees — $42,588 a year. As Legislature chairwoman, Miller-Williams collects a $10,000 stipend. The Republican and Democratic conference leaders receive $5,000 stipends.

Others in the Marinelli faction refuse to lead committees. Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte, D-Buffalo, said she will not head the Government Affairs Committee, though she will serve as a member, because she was never consulted about the goals of the "reform coalition" now running the Legislature.

Most of the committees feature a "reform coalition" majority, to hold in check any chairman not among their bloc.

Legislator Betty Jean Grant, D-Buffalo, refused to head the Health and Human Services Committee because Miller-Williams removed her as chairwoman of the Community Enrichment Committee, the assignment that Grant wanted.

Grant asserts that Miller-Williams stripped her of the title because she accused Collins of freezing out certain cultural agencies — those serving urban Buffalo — as they seek county dollars.

Copyright 2010, The Buffalo News