Written on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 1:50pm by Alan Bedenko | 12 Comments

Mr. Ranzenhofer to the Principal's Office

A press release from Citizen Action of New York:

BUFFALO, NY – Citizen Action of New York has released a report card for the Erie County Legislature, studying the attendance records of legislators from the past four years. CANY focused on committee meetings instead of full legislature sessions in order to get a better sense of how engaged Legislators are in the work they do to discuss and study various initiatives and issues.

“The Committee meetings are the ones in which legislators are supposed to roll up their sleeves and look at all sides of each issue. We have been registering concern about the level of accountability and transparency in Erie County government for years, and we believe that working families deserve to know how their representatives are doing,” said Jim Anderson, the Western New York chair of CANY.

The report revealed generally high levels of attendance by the vast majority of legislators, especially those that were elected on reform platforms over the last three years. Highlights from the report include:

  • Michael Ranzenhofer missed more committee meetings than any other sitting legislator in Erie County. Legislator Ranzenhofer currently serves on the Community Enrichment Committee and served on two other committees over the last four years as well, and he missed 14 of the committee meetings listed on the County website between 2004 and 2007. The meetings covered matters such as reviewing the county’s policy on take home vehicles for political appointees and ensuring the protection of community resources like libraries, parks and health centers. Mr. Ranzenhofer receives a D from Citizen Action for his poor attendance record.
  • Three legislators, Grant, Mazur and Rath, had a perfect committee attendance record from 2004 to 2007 (based on records available on the Erie County website; some meetings are not available). All three receive an A+.
  • Only four legislators missed more than 5 meetings, and one of them serves as a reservist.

    • Anderson added, “Mr. Ranzenhofer’s truancy record during a time of extreme challenges for the county is troubling to us, particularly as he runs for the State Senate where he will immediately be faced with balancing yet another budget during a time of financial hardship – and this time with far greater consequences for his constituents and the citizens of New York,” said Jim Anderson, head of Citizen Action WNY.

    Apart from Barbara Miller-Williams, who is a reservist, the next-lowest grade for a legislator is Tim Kennedy, who gets a B. If Ranzenhofer can’t be bothered to show up to 92 Franklin Street, how are we to expect him to show up in Albany?

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    12 Comments

    1. Chris Smith says:
      October 28, 2008 at 2:16 pm

      If Ranzenhofer can’t be bothered to show up to 92 Franklin Street, how are we to expect him to show up in Albany?

      Because the Albany job pays more? /dunno

      This election is the classic choice between a lump of shit and a kick in the balls. WNY Political FAIL

    2. Ward says:
      October 28, 2008 at 2:24 pm

      Who is Citizen Action of New York?

      From their site:
      “We have individual members and are a coalition of labor, senior citizen, women’s, student, tenant and community organizations that works with community activists for social and economic justice.”

      If you guessed their Director and that of ACORN have each other on speed dial, you’d be right.
      Another quote from the site: “Citizen Action, ACORN, UFT, NYSUT, CFE and other statewide organizations created the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the coalition that led the campaign, in 2000. AQE was created to provide an organizing campaign to complement the lawsuit initiated by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity in 1993.”

    3. pirate's code says:
      October 28, 2008 at 2:36 pm

      BP — When did CANY put that release out? I can’t find it on their web site, but then my Commodore 64 is having intertube issues. Is there another spot to read the entire report?

    4. Chris Smith says:
      October 28, 2008 at 2:46 pm

      Did CANY and ACORN falsify Ranzenhofer’s attendance records at Erie County Legislature meetings? KTHXBAI@!#

    5. Ward says:
      October 28, 2008 at 3:11 pm

      CANY may be citing correct figures, although there’s no indication from them what percentage of meetings he missed (14 in three years). But, if showing up and voting is your criterion, then Obama’s 55% Senate voting attendance spells FAIL. KTHXFKU.

    6. Buffalopundit says:
      October 28, 2008 at 3:17 pm

      @Ward:

      As of September 9, 2008 McCain has missed 408 out of Senate 639 votes cast in the current Congress, or 63.8%, the worst Senate attendance record of the current 110th Congress (Jan 2007 – Dec 2008).

      The second-worst Senate attendance record is held by Tim Johnson (D-SD), who suffered a brain hemorrhage on Dec. 13, 2006 and spent several months recovering. Johnson has missed 311 votes, or 48.7%.

      I’m pleased to see you’ll be voting for the Senator with the better attendance record, Illinois Senator Barack Obama. KTHXHAHAHA

    7. Russell says:
      October 28, 2008 at 3:40 pm

      Wow, you’d think your side was drastically behind in the polls with all the pety, lame crap you keep bringing up in these elections. First it’s empty seats behind the podium (with no context) and now it’s committee attendance records (with no context). Are these really the criteria you use when voting? Are you really this desperate?

    8. Buffalopundit says:
      October 28, 2008 at 3:46 pm

      Ranz either did or didn’t show up for committee meetings. What additional “context” could you possibly need, except for the fact that he’s the only legislator with a score less than a “B”. And as for the anticipated “it’s partisan” argument, note that Ed Rath gets an A+, and John Mills gets an A-.

      2004-2007 Missed Committee Meetings
      Grade
      2008 Missed Committee Meetings:

      Ranzenhofer
      14
      D
      3

      Miller Williams
      9
      (reservist)
      17

      Kennedy
      8
      B
      4

      Kozub
      6
      B+
      3

      Maria Whyte
      5
      A-
      1

      Reynolds
      4
      A-
      6

      Mills
      4
      A-
      3

      Konst
      3
      A
      2

      Wwroblewski
      3
      A
      0

      Marinelli
      3
      A
      2

      Iannello
      2
      A
      1

      Loughran
      2
      A
      0

      Grant
      0
      A+
      1

      Mazur
      0
      A+
      0

      Rath
      0
      A+
      5

    9. Math Wizard says:
      October 28, 2008 at 4:09 pm

      If I am reading this right, and admittedly I am a bit confused, Rath should not have an A+ because it would be impossible for him to miss meetings when he wasn’t a Legislator.

    10. Timothy Domst says:
      October 28, 2008 at 4:12 pm

      I’m sure Mesi will dutifully show up to vote for exactly what NYSUT, UFT, and whatever other Dem boss tells him to, which is why they bring up this substanceless issue.

    11. Russell says:
      October 28, 2008 at 4:20 pm

      Yep, there’s one context problem, BP. The timeframe is not exactly equal. Even though it goes from 04-07 for all, not all were members from 04-07.

      Secondly, the statement by CANY does not claim this is all the committee meetings that took place. It only states these are the ones listed on the County website. Which county website? Is the list exhaustive?

      Thirdly, another context concern is how many committee meetings did each legislator have in that period? Like Ward pointed out, a listing of percentages of meetings missed would take care of this. What if Ranzenhofer had more meetings than most other legislators because of committee assignments? Perhaps his 14 misses make up less than 10% of all his meetings while Kozub’s 6 make up 20% of his.

      Do you see why context matters now? A little critical thinking and you can see there are all sorts of holes in this. Perhaps the full picture is the same as what they presented. Providing more context would have given us that information.

    12. Ward says:
      October 28, 2008 at 5:57 pm

      No, Pundit–I’m voting for Obama because Arab columnist, Mohamed Al-Menshawi, hails him as “the candidate with Muslim roots” and as the “harbinger of solidarity between Americans and the Muslim world.”

      And, if that weren’t enough to close the deal, Al-Jazeera’s Aala al-Bayoumi, notes: “Had it not been for Obama, Arabs would not even bother to follow the US presidential race.” What makes the difference is Obama’s “Islamic and African roots.”

      Marwan Bishara hails Obama’s “radical politics”: “For the US to vote in an African-American progressive liberal would certainly mark a departure from the hyper and violent conservatism of the Bush-McCain camp,” he writes. An Obama presidency “would be better for both the US and the Arab world.”

      “OBAMA! Inshallah!” Pundit, can you get me a ride to the poll on Nov. 2? Jesus H. Tap-dancin’ Christ, I have SEEN THE LIGHT!

     

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