Archive: News

With each new year comes a new Town Board.  This year the board is missing a member from the five-person council.  Kathy Miller was finishing the second year of her four-year term as councilwoman when she won the supervisor position in November's election.  Miller, along with council members Robert Cree, Ruth Hopkins, and Ed LaVigne now must appoint someone to fill the 2012 portion of her term.  They have chosen to do it in a somewhat unusual way.

A call went out at the end of November for interested parties to submit their names for consideration.  Seven people responded before the December 21 deadline including three who unsuccessfully ran for office in November.  Since that time the four elected board members have been considering who will be the best choice.

The candidates are Andra Benson (R), Katrina Binkewicz (D), Steve Farkas (R), Michael Koplinka-Loehr (D), Scott Pinney (R), Mike Sigler (R), and Connie Wilcox (D).

Benson and Koplinka Loehr both ran for council seats last November.  Benson has served on the Lansing School Board, and Koplinka-Loehr is a former Tompkins Legislature Chair.  The two were defeated in November by LaVigne and Hopkins.


Wilcox, an outgoing Lansing councilwoman and Deputy Supervisor, gave up the Democratic nomination for a council seat to run against Miller in the supervisor race. 

Pinney is the outgoing Supervisor.  He chose not to run after Miller won the Democratic nomination at this year's Lansing Democratic Caucus.  Pinney is now a Republican.

Binkewicz is a former Lansing councilwoman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Lansing Community Library at that time.  Farkas served on the council for almost ten years, eight of them as Supervisor.  Sigler served as a Tompkins County Legislator representing the Town of Lansing.

The new council members have reportedly been talking about the choices, and they hoped to meet in executive session at next Wednesday's organizational meeting to make their final choice to be announced the following Wednesday at the regular January board meeting.  This week Miller learned that a specific protocol must be followed that may delay that timetable.

The board is under no obligation to ask for people to submit their names.  They could have simply appointed a person of their choice, assuming that person agreed to serve.

Whoever is chosen will serve one year, and then will have to run in next November's election for the remaining year of the term.  A year later they will have to run again if they choose to stand for the next four year term.  If the chosen council member does not choose to run in the next election, the board will be forced to choose someone else to finish the remaining year of the term.

Miller, LaVigne, and Hopkins are currently attending training sessions at the Newly Elected Official Training School in Rochester.  The sessions are offered by The Association of Towns of the State of New York.

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