All your Allegany County Legislators that are finishing up their first term have been on a learning curve. From my point of view, the curve was real. Even with my Town Board and business experience, I learned a lot in the last four years. I think the other Freshman Legislators would agree.
The biggest part of the learning curve for me was the Annual Budget for Allegany County. There are a lot of moving parts to our budget and I will speak more about that in a future letter. Another lesson that I learned, and the focus of today’s letter, is the fact that much of our legislative time is consumed by making decisions that ensure the day-to-day county business is running smoothly. This is extremely important but not very exciting or flashy.
This is the necessary process that ensures that the Allegany County Government does not have to deal with avoidable emergencies. Again, not flashy and does not create headlines other than, perhaps, “Allegany County Government Continues to Run Smoothly.” This result, as you might imagine, is a team effort and I believe that our current Legislators make up a very effective team. The ones that are leaving at the end of this term will be missed.
Your Legislators are responsible for all funding and policy decisions, day in-day out. We are charged with providing oversight to ensure that the county runs smoothly and on schedule.
Each Legislator is assigned membership in standing legislative committees for more specific oversight in certain areas. I am a member of the Ways and Means Committee, The Public Safety Committee, The Human Services Committee and I am Chairman of the Personnel Committee. I am also the Vice-Chair of the Southern Tier Railroad Authority. With these responsibilities I have attended over 130 meetings in 2020 and many hours of back up work.
I honesty feel that I have made a difference in my first term. I, like the other Legislators, enjoy serving our district and our county. I would like to thank the citizens of Andover and Wellsville for placing your trust in me. After a period of “learning the ropes” I believe that I am more valuable to you that the first time that you entrusted me with this job.
I still stand for “Experience, Integrity and Common Sense” because I believe that there is not enough of that in government today.
I will close by saying “Thank You!” to Andover and Wellsville and ask for your support in the Primary Election on June 22nd and the General Election on November 3rd.
Steven Havey
Allegany County Legislator
District 4
Andover and Wellsville
In case you missed it, Read our Interview With Steven Havey
