Published: July 04, 2008 12:17 pm      

REGIONALISM: Consolidation guru looks to Niagara

For the past decade, regionalism guru Kevin Gaughan has been trying to get Erie County government to slim down and cut spending.

This month, the Buffalo attorney finishes a “Smaller Government Tour,” visiting every town and village in Erie County to try and talk them into downsizing and sharing services with other local governments.

On July 9, he plans to present the results of his year-long road show. Then, after he rests up for a few days, he plans to turn his attention to Niagara County.

“I've had probably at least half a dozen invitations from various community and business leaders in Niagara County to discuss the cost of government and how it can be reformed and reimagined,” he said.

Below, he talks with Niagara Living about his government taming recommendations. More information is available at thecost.org.

QUESTION: How did you get started on this whole regionalism thing?

ANSWER: I practiced law on Wall Street for a while, always intending to return here. In the early 1980s it was obvious this great Western New York region was in peril if not dying, and I just started to do a little research on the relationship between local government and local economy. I remember in 1997, the embryonic stage of the Internet, I came across a word I'd never heard before called regionalism.

I did what my father taught me. He said if you really wanted to understand something, you couldn't just read about it, you had to see it, feel it, touch it. So I went to communities considered regionalism success stories, including Portland, Oregon, Chattanooga, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky. ... After several weeks in Portland meeting government leaders and community leaders, I had this idea that rather than try to convey what I had learned, it would be terrific if I brought them all here.

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Q: That’s when you gathered everybody at Chautauqua, right?

A: It was a four-day conference that attracted over 3,500 people. It was described as the best collection of local government minds ever assembled ... it started a decade-long community-wide discussion on how we can improve local government here, and we're still having that discussion.

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Q: You did a study, too. What was that about?

A: The study, which took me a year to do, is chock full of statistics no one can argue with. It shows a clear relationship between too much government and too little growth. My study revealed that Erie County has 439 politicians, which means we have more politicians representing (us) than represent the entire nation in the U.S. Congress, where there are only 435 congressmen. We've got them beat by four. Turns out 439 is more than 10 times the number of politicians than any other like-sized community in America.

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Q: Ouch. That’s a lot. So, what did you decide to do about that?

A: Once I published the study, I had a little epiphany. It was about 4 o’clock in the morning and — because I'm the bachelor poster child — I had nothing else to think about, so I was thinking about government. I thought that the best way to share the findings was ... to go right before the town boards and every village trustee and give them the facts and urge them to make changes. And that’s what the tour is about. I remember I got up and stood in bed and said, “Wait a minute!” I may have hit my head on the ceiling. Oh, God, that’s so bad.

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Q: When I think of the work that you’re doing, I always imagine you like one of those guys in the tri-cornered hats who wrote our Constitution in Philly. Do you feel like that some days?

A: Your are going to think this is really, horribly pathetic, but I keep a couple of things next to my bed. One is the federal Census, and the other is a copy of the Federalist Papers ... It’s the story of how the Constitution was adopted. In Federalist Paper No. 27, James Madison muses that of all the titles in America and all the elected positions, the most prestigious title is what he called Citizen Patriot, and ever since I read that as a teen I thought that some day I would like to do something that would given me that title. I'd like to think this work goes some way in achieving that.

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Q: Clearly, you are very passionate about regionalism. It kind of seems like that word and your destiny are intertwined.

A: The Buffalo-Niagara region in 1996 has lost 30 percent of the people between 18 and 34, and that's the highest percentage loss of any region in America. That was the impetus when I picked up the New York Times and read those figures of 2005 census ... Frankly, I thought that someone somewhere had to do something to stop this exodus of young people. And that’s the truth. They don't leave because they want to or because they don't like it here, they leave because they have to for lack of opportunity and when they leave, with them they take our future.

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Q: So, you tried to tell people this in your regionalism presentation. Some of the town boards weren’t very nice to you. Didn’t one guy in Blasdell say you couldn’t use the words “consolidation” or “dissolution” or he’d throw you out.

A: Yes. I wrote about that in my blog (laughs). But of all the unsettling lessons I've learned, they're far outweighed by the experience of meeting and speaking with and listening to Western New York citizens. We're the most resilient, hopeful and generous people in America. There’s no question, and that’s the truth.

Contact editor Michele DeLucaat 693-1000, ext. 157.