As women leaders in ErieCounty we are banding together to voice our concern about the leadership of County Executive Christopher Collins and the anti-woman, anti-children focus of his administration. In his first year in office, the CountyExecutive has made many decisions that hurt poor women and children in Western New York. These include:

* The CountyExecutive attempted to close two neighborhood health care centers that provide services to poor women and children. Then, when the CountyLegislature extended their funding, the administration ordered that they could no longer schedule new appointments, thus forcing them to close. They say that these patients can be served at SheehanHospital, Buffalo General and ECMC, but none of these are easily reached and none are designed to provide primary care services in the same efficient way.

* In closing the health care centers the administration also ended a teen pregnancy program that provided education and counseling to at-risk teenagers. The CountyExecutive was offered the opportunity to continue this program through Planned Parenthood, but refused to consider it.

* The administration ended the County’s participation in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program, transferring the implementation completely to Catholic Charities and sending the supervisory responsibility to OnondagaCounty. In the worst economic times since the Great Depression the administration chose to narrow outreach to poor families rather than expand it and symbolically washed the County’s hands of concern for its poorest citizens.  

* Despite repeated complaints of sexual harassment and even rape at the CountyJail the CountyExecutive has stonewalled a federal investigation of the jail’s conditions.

*Finally, the CountyExecutive abruptly ended daycare subsidies for more than 1100 of ErieCounty’s poorest children. The parents of these children are now scrambling to make other arrangements for their care. Some will stop working and return to welfare. Others will cobble together some kind of care. The children will miss out on three nutritious meals a day, plus a dependable, caring environment which models good relationship skills. Small business daycare providers, most of them women, are also at risk and many have laid off women staff members.

The CountyExecutive has stated publicly that everything non-mandated in the budget is on the chopping block. Having done so much in just a year to hurt poor women and children, we also fear for the future. Will, for example, the administration cut HEAP, the lead hazard abatement program, and youth violence prevention programs?

As women leaders in ErieCounty we call upon County Executive Collins to recognize that he is elected to represent the interests of all the citizens in ErieCounty: city, suburban and rural; rich and poor; people of all colors; adults and children; men and women. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” We assert that this is completely true in ErieCounty and we call upon the CountyExecutive to use his skills as a leader to advance the cause of the County as a whole.

Specifically, we call upon County Executive Collins to immediately restore daycare subsidy funding for 90 days, as the democratically elected CountyLegislature has voted unanimously to do. He has at his disposal a significant County surplus which the CountyComptroller has stated can be used for this purpose. During the 90 days we call upon him to work with our State Legislators to lobby Albany to restore funding, and to apply for federal stimulus dollars that can be retroactive to October to fund this program. We also call upon him to cooperate with the CountyLegislature to search for additional funding possibilities out of the County budget

We also call upon County Executive Collins to make clear by all his actions that his administration is working to lift up the status of women and children in ErieCounty and that he is working to open up pathways to progress for the poor. We refuse to allow him to play a numbers game, making the County budget look good on the backs of its most vulnerable citizens. Now is the time to lead on behalf of all the people.   

For more information on this campaign, or if you are a local Woman Leader who would like to sign on, please contact dschif1@verizon.net.