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Opinion

County’s latest goal tough to measure

The OBSERVER’s View

After weeks of debate and discussion, points and counterpoints, the Chautauqua County Legislature has decided that the number one economic development goal for county government is sustainable disposable income growth. It sounds like a good goal. No one is against the idea of increasing disposable income for county residents. Certainly no one would say they are against such a goal in an election year. The problem is few know what the heck the legislature means with this goal. Wouldn’t it be simpler to use household income growth as the goal rather than disposable income growth? ...

Making proper call on robot teacher

The OBSERVER’s View

The state Education Department was right to ask the Salamanca City Central School District to pause its plan to launch a pilot program featuring a Realbotix educational robot and digital avatar in its high school STEAM program during the upcoming school year. There are a lot of unanswered questions that should be answered before this newest bit of technology is used in local classrooms. Concerns raised by parents and educators prompted Betty Rosa, state education commissioner, to send a letter to Salamanca school district officials requesting the pause. The pause prompted the New York ...

County needs responsible rules before costs grow

Commentary

Chautauqua County has already encountered a warning about poorly governed artificial intelligence. The OBSERVER reported that the county Law Department sought another paralegal after AI-assisted Freedom of Information Law requests contributed to a sharp increase in workload. This problem deserves more than another staff position. It calls for a practical system that preserves public access while reducing avoidable work. Generative AI makes it easy to produce broad, repetitive requests in seconds. A resident can ask a chatbot for every possible document related to a topic, copy the ...

Don’t cancel village version of Must See TV

Commentary

The OBSERVER headline of a Thursday, July 23, 2023 article by M.J.Stafford declares that Fredonia officials debate filmed workshops. In the article he quoted Trustee Paul Wandel as stating that “ I think the reasoning for the concerns for having on camera, there were some sensitive areas of information that we didn’t want publicized.” A village trustee stating as recorded on camera, that as an elected official, he was discussing matters of public concern that he/they didn’t want publicized. Obviously confidential information should not be discussed publicly at village board ...

Power can be dangerous in wrong hands

Commentary

The information here comes from books written by legitimate historians along with reputable news media and/or internet sources. The first amendment of our Constitution allows me to express these facts and opinions. Adolf Hitler was born to a relatively poor family in Austria-Hungary. After moving to Germany, he enlisted in the Bavarian Army at the outset of World War I, ultimately rising to the rank of Gefreiter, which is comparable to a Lance Corporal (above Private, below Corporal). He served as Regimental Message Runner, often in the trenches. An exploding shell damaged his left leg, ...

Time to speak up on quieting village residents

Commentary

A resolution was adopted by the Board of Trustees of the village of Fredonia on June 23 prohibiting village citizens from publicly addressing their elected representatives at Village Board meetings. The resolution was approved by Mayor Michael Ferguson and Trustees Paul Wandel and Ben Brauchler. Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony and Trustee Christine Cruz Keefe voted against the resolution. Allowing village residents to publicly address their elected is a long tradition over many years permitted by previous Village Boards. It allows for a candid give and take between the resident and the ...