The Chautauqua County Legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee won’t hold its regularly scheduled meeting this week.

There is apparently nothing for legislators to do.

We find it hard to believe that, absent delegated work from the County Executive’s office, there is nothing regarding planning or economic development activities for legislators to do. Quite the opposite, the lack of agenda items is an opportune time for county legislators to discuss any number of topics.

Among them: how effective do legislators think the bed tax spending not reserved for lakes and waterways has been; are there emerging sectors that can be targeted for large-scale economic development given the Jamestown area’s emerging clean energy manufacturing segment, can the county provide any additional help in dealing with the issues businesses are facing with workforce issues and state mandates, are there underused parcels in Dunkirk and Jamestown that should be identified as potential industrial parks or shovel ready sites. There are likely more things legislators could discuss in a meeting where there are no predetermined discussion points, especially if the legislators are engaged in their committee work.

We’ve made the point in recent weeks that special committees aren’t necessary because the legislature has standing committees that are supposed to provide oversight of matters like economic development or Child Protective Services. We stand by that point. But if the legislature’s standing committees only meet when there are agenda items provided by the executive branch, it calls into question just how active county legislators want to be in providing direction and oversight.

Remember, it was just in February that legislators agreed to give themselves a $5,700 pay increase starting in 2026. For that money there should be no canceled meetings due to a lack of agenda items. More money and less work is a pretty nice gig. How many of our readers have had that happen in recent memory?