Confronts cold realities with whatever it takes

Updated: 12/31/08 10:01 AM

By Matthew Spina
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Chris Collins promised a business approach to government. In his first year as Erie County executive, he found value in old-style politics, too.

Collins, like other county executives, mayors and town supervisors, has come to believe that part of his success depends on helping elect friends to supplant his enemies, or at least his obstacles. He has little patience for those who stand in his way.

He’s trolling for candidates who will “do the right job for the taxpayer” so he can run them against certain county legislators in 2009. He also has tired of County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz, a pebble in his shoe, and wants an opponent for him as well.

Collins this summer asked Legislator Kathy Konst to run against Poloncarz when the comptroller seeks reelection in 2009. Konst said Collins told her that if she beat Poloncarz in the Democratic primary, he could arrange that there would be no Republican opposition for her in November. Konst turned him down.

The county executive confirmed the story during a recent interview. He said he wasn’t trying to take out Poloncarz as his potential rival for county executive in 2011; he said he was trying to replace a comptroller who constantly complains.

“The comptroller has not worked well with me. He has been crying to the skies that the sky is falling; let’s not pull any punches,” Collins said. “Kathy Konst was — and I say that in the past tense — someone I could work with, if nothing else.”

As for the Legislature, he said he once thought he could work with its Democratic majority but then learned its members “are representing the unions, they are representing special interests, they are political to the extreme.”

“I can’t do my job as effectively as I might do it with a cooperative Legislature,” he said.

Collins once said that Erie County needs a chief executive, not a chief politician. But the job has its cold realities.

“If you hire me to run Disney, I am going to find out how you make movies,” he said. “In this case, I know I am in a political job. I’m not naive to that.”

At the close of Collins’ first year, county government remains at war with itself, just like in the old days— executive vs. Legislature, executive vs. comptroller, elected officials vs. state-appointed control board.

“I have played fair,” Poloncarz said. “I look at issues, I don’t look at things on a black-and-white, political party matter. I’m fairly confident that if Mr. Collins wants a yes man in the comptroller’s office, I think the people will rebuke that.”

A string of business-minded people interviewed about Collins’ first year remarked that his business-world style has clashed with traditional government. While Collins’ voters welcomed a leader who would rock the boat, Erie County has not functioned more smoothly because of it.

“I think he is operating in a very challenging economic environment. But basically, I am a little disappointed,” said Paul Ciminelli, a local developer who talks with Collins. “I thought county government would actually be functioning better than it is right now, in terms of the county executive and the County Legislature or the control board. The relationship seems to be strained on several levels.”

Andrew J. Rudnick is president and chief executive of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which, among other things, keeps watch on state and local governments for its business members.

“I think it’s been tougher than he expected,” Rudnick said of Collins. “I think the transition from being a private-sector business owner to a public-sector leader isn’t a straight line for everybody. As the year wore on, a lot of the conditions that he thought were going to be in place when he ran in 2007 changed in 2008, not just for him, but for everybody: the economy for all and New York State’s finances in particular.”

The year began with a triumph. Collins steered the three Republican legislators to the Democratic splinter group intending to re-elect Lynn M. Marinelli as chairwoman. Together they created a loose majority Collins could deal with.

It was a fragile coalition, however, and the divided Democratic majority gradually united against him. Marinelli now has the votes to remain as chairwoman next year without Collins’ help.

Relations with the control board also are tense, not just with Collins but with most of the government’s elected leaders.

“I think he is struggling with the difference between private industry and the public sector,” said control board Chairman Robert M. Glaser, managing director of a local accounting firm. “Consensus-building is different in the public sector. The number of people you need to bring to the table to get something accomplished is greater.”

Collins can usually count on support from the Legislature’s three Republicans. But even the Republicans have noticed his style.

“The County Legislature, I don’t think they have ever come across anyone like Chris Collins,” said Republican Minority Leader John J. Mills of Orchard Park, who also is a successful business owner.

“He is a quick learner and a very bright man. I think most people would agree with that,” Mills said. “I just think he goes about it a little differently, because he comes directly from the private sector. Government experience means you have to work things out with the other side of the aisle. I think that is a foreign thing for him.”

Collins does not let disputes distract him. The demands of his job have not sapped his energy. He knows what he will focus on in Year Two: economic development and reforming the process for supporting cultural organizations.

On the latter, he wants recipients to view their county dollars as the last dollars in the door — the money spent not to heat the building, but to expand their offerings, solidify their finances and wean themselves from county aid.

As for economic development, Collins says taxpayers will hear a lot from him.

“My new focus, and you will hear it in my State of the County on Jan. 29th, that’s our tentative date, is going to be economic development,” he said. “. . . I did say early on, and it is as true today as it was a year ago, that we are going to grow or die.”

What will Collins do? “Call it quarterbacking,” he said. He sees county government as the logical player in advocating for the numerous job-creation efforts and projects under way. He figures that as county executive, he’s a logical spokesman for the agenda.

“This is something I love, and my focus on growing the population — that means jobs, that means opportunities for our kids — that’s where I am going to be spending a huge amount of my energy over the next 12 months,” he said.

That seems to be fine with the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which has coordinated the agenda for years.

“We need all the help we can get,” said Rudnick, when told of Collins’ plan for his second year. “Advocating together for a common agenda would make it more likely that the items in that agenda would be successful. I welcome that.”

Similarly, Mayor Byron W. Brown says he wants to work with Collins to create jobs, since “the city is a major economic engine of opportunity for the entire county.” Brown says he and Collins disagree on issues but work through them.

Brown, more than most people, knows the pressures placed on a government’s top executive in the first year. Like Collins, he has sought to change the legislative branch he deals with through the voting booth.

“If you have not been in public office, and if you haven’t dealt with the public pressures and the demands, and the different entities that are always trying to drive issues in different ways, it can be a different shock to the system,” Brown said.

“I think in spite of those tremendous challenges that he has dealt with, he is responding well.”