2018

 Well, a lot has happened.

As you know, there is new leadership on the County Board for the first time in six years. Dave Bliss, from Middlefield, is now the Chair, and I am the Vice-Chair (which means only that I sit in the Chair when Dave can't be there).

If you're reading this blog, you probably know this, but humor me for a moment. In Europe (and probably in other places), countries often have many political parties on the nationial level – many more than the two which we have in the US - and so it is often the case that no political party wins a majority of the seats in the legislature. In this case, in order to govern (in other words, in order to pass legislation with a majority of votes), parties have to work together. Two or more parties end up coming to a set of agreements on policies and progress toward goals. This is known as a coalition government. Leadership in these countries has to focus on collaboration, compromise and diplomacy (which is necessary to keep the coalition together and functioning).

In most legislatures in America, there are two parties and one has the majority, and therefore governs. No compromise is necessary. But parties often have factions, which disagree about important issues, and therefore some initiatives need to be bipartisan. But for the most part, the majority rules.

This has been the case forever in Otsego County, until now. Republicans have maintained the majority on the County Board, for pretty much always. And that is true for 2018, as well – the Board is split 7-7, but the Republicans hold a slim weighted vote advantage.

However, the Board Republicans have split into two factions, for a number of reasons, and seem to be functioning as two different parties. After working closely with all the current Republicans for the last two years, it seemed that, from our standpoint, one faction was more progressive, and more aligned with our approach to County business, than the other. So the seven Democrats on the 2018 Board have allied with the faction headed by new Chair Dave Bliss, and have formed a coalition government.

As noted above, it will take compromise, collaboration and diplomacy to allow the coalition to work efficiently and maintain progress toward goals. So far, so good. Stay tuned. I'll talk more about specific projects and directions in future posts.