MAYVILLE — Former Chautauqua County Election Commissioner Norm Green announces that he is indeed running for county executive.

“Leadership by the current county executive has been lacking this year. The missteps have been many, including the decision to discontinue reporting COVID stats on weekends during the height of the pandemic when the public was so anxious. The failure in the handling of Covid outbreaks, particularly at the Wells Ice Cream facility in Dunkirk, was also of concern and show the lack of basic yet fundamental public reporting for our citizens,” Green said.

“It’s time to reboot Chautauqua County government and put much-needed new management in place. Our county workforce is absolutely outstanding. It’s past time to start listening to the rank and file county workers to figure out the best way to make government work for the people.

“The people of our county were depending on stats and our county abandoned us on weekends. Government didn’t even answer the phone for much of the time during normal working hours during the Covid outbreak when citizen calls were made to the county Health Department. A taped announcement referring citizens to the county website wasn’t good government or good leadership. Citizens were paying taxes to be able to get a live phone call answer so they could feel safe.

“I also worry that the documented failures in safeguarding our past budget surpluses makes me wonder how we can have trust in the current county government regarding the spending of nearly $25 million dollars heading our way from the federal American Rescue Plan. Only a few Republican legislators have stood up to not always well thought out spending proposals by the executive,” concluded Green.

Green is a U.S. Army veteran. He worked nearly 20 years in retail management with the now closed Brand Names Sales in Olean, Dunkirk and Jamestown. Most recently, Green has served over 20 years as co-director of the County Board of Elections where the department has had a mostly flat budget since 2009. His past elected office was two terms on the Ellicott Town Council, where he co-led a reduction in taxes for the four years he served. Green, a former Fredonia Village resident, circulated a petition in the 1970’s that led to a Fredonia task force that studied a coterminous Fredonia-Pomfret town and village government.

He was also a 1980s one-term part-time appointee of Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to the Chautauqua County Alcohol and Beverage Control Board.

Green said it is his intention during the campaign to release plans on taxes, economic development, a new prosperity, job creation, managing and delivering county services, how to shrink government costs while increasing services with no union labor jobs being cut, and reversing the recent government decisions that have driven the county into poverty, making it one of the poorest counties in all of upstate New York.

More information about Green can be found at RebootChq.com