There are a lot of Republicans on the Chautauqua County Legislature. In our view, none of those Republicans are as well qualified to lead the Audit and Control Committee as Charles Nazzaro, D-Jamestown.

Audit and Control is perhaps the most important committee on the legislature. All financial matters go through the committee. It takes the lead on the legislature’s review of the county budget as proposed by the county executive, gathers input from legislators and proposes changes that are then voted on by the entire legislature.

Nazzaro recently retired from UPMC Chautauqua where he served as the chief financial officer. He was employed by WCA for 34 years and also held the positions of director of finance and controller, director of reimbursement and senior accountant. He is an enrolled agent qualified to practice before the Internal Revenue Service and has passed the Certified Public Accountant examination. More importantly, Nazzaro has shown himself over the years as a legislator who doesn’t fall prey to party politics when casting votes on the legislature, casting votes that make sense for county residents and asking pointed questions of county programs before agreeing that money should be spent.

We give Pierre Chagnon, R-Bemus Point and new legislature chairman, credit for realizing that Nazzaro is the best legislator to run the Audit and Control Committee and appointing the Jamestown legislator to the post.

It would have been easy to have Nazzaro remain on the committee while a Republican with less knowledge and background in county matters led the committee. In this case, the easy path would not have been the best.