SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — At a September 5 meeting, the Sullivan County Legislature deferred a referendum on a change to the current system of legislative terms, citing complications over New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new law that requires legislative elections on even years.

In a 3-6 vote, the legislature shot down a measure that would have allowed voters on November 5 to decide if the Sullivan County Legislature should switch to staggered terms for the legislators. Currently, the county charter requires that all nine legislator seats be put up for vote every four years.

Hochul’s bill, signed in December 2023, requires town and county elections that used to be held on odd years to be held on even years—at the same time as state and national elections. 

This affects Sullivan County legislative election cycles. The next legislative election would have otherwise been set for November 2027. 

The even-year-elections law made the proposal of staggered terms more complicated. The Sullivan County measure would have asked voters to approve a change to the charter stipulating that in November 2027, four positions would be up for vote for a three-year term (January 2028 to December 2030), and five positions would be up for vote for a five-year term (January 2028 to December 2032). 

After those terms run out, all nine positions would revert to four-year terms, thus staggering legislators’ terms.

Thomas Cawley, deputy county attorney and county parliamentarian, said, “I know there’s a lot of consternation about the five-year term, but understand I had no choice—because the only other option, if I have to assume that even [-year election] law [applies]… is to stagger three, five; or three, one.” 

Those were the choices available, he said. “That’s why I drafted it the way I drafted it.”

A lawsuit by Oneida County to overturn the election-year requirement introduces more uncertainty. Cawley said that even if Oneida wins the suit, it’s likely the state will appeal the decision; he said the whole process might be more than a year. 

Depending on when and if the election-year requirement is held up in court, Sullivan County might have needed to go through the process of proposing staggered terms to voters for the second time if election years need to change again. 

Cawley said, “I think they overreached and they are stepping on local autonomy and Home Rule authority.”

Hochul said the bill was passed to increase voter participation in local elections by having them at the same time as state and national and prevent voter fatigue.

Stephen J. Acquario, the executive director and general counsel of the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC), urged the governor not to sign the bill into law. A letter from NYSAC said, “NYSAC officials believe that if county executive candidates had to run in even-numbered years, those contests would be drowned out by the public and media focus on national and statewide elections on the same ballots.”

Chair of the legislature Nadia Rajsz supported including the staggered-terms question on the ballot in November, saying that the decision should be up to the voters, but she added that “the state law is interfering.” She also said that the legislature would revisit staggered terms “when there is a clear decision, and the state has a clear direction” in election year requirements.

District 1 legislator Matthew McPhillips and District 3 legislator Brian McPhillips also voted for the measure.

Read about the proposal here:

https://riverreporter.com/stories/sullivan-moves-to-stagger-legislator-elections,160623?