Democratic candidates for Onondaga County Legislature are calling for tougher financial disclosures among elected officials and more accountability to the public. Among the four candidates proposing changes are Kevin Tees, running in the 14th District based in Clay, and Tim Rudd, running for the 15th District in Syracuse.
All four have listed five items they believe the county government can do differently.
For Tees, the most important proposal is one that would require all full committee meetings, which are held mostly during the day, to be recorded and put on the county’s website.
“Government should not be done in secret. We vote for public officials and we should know what they’re doing, what they are saying and determine where they are on issues that arise,” Tees says.
Some of the proposals are the requirement of additional reporting categories on financial disclosure forms and requiring elected officials to disclose campaign contributions from organizations or individuals that have county contracts.
“These are simple things that county government can do differently that are in the control of the county government. And filling out the disclosure you see the deficiencies. So as we are having new ideas, we think these are basic things the county can do to be more transparent,” Rudd says.
Candidates Susan Scheuerman and Lorene Dadey joined Rudd and Tees to support the proposals. All face Republican incumbents in November.
