Published: April 20, 2008 01:01 am            

GENCO: Where does Collins keep his notes?

When it comes to one guy, speaking off the cuff and from the heart, few were as masterful at malaprops as Jimmy Griffin.

Far too often, elected officials are entirely scripted and afraid to let us now where they stand. Griffin was the exception.

It may be early, and he probably is still in his honeymoon period, but I saw Erie County Executive Chris Collins speak in Buffalo last week and couldn’t believe my ears. Griffin may have company, though admittedly more eloquent.

Collins spoke with no notes.

He held 120 or so people in rapt attention for 45 minutes at the Saturn Club. What thrilled me most about it was that his message and manner of speaking have never changed. He says what he thinks, like it or hate it.

It’s the same as what I witnessed standing around a Boy Scout campfire with him over the last several years, or chatting at a Monday night meeting long before anyone knew he might run for office, only now he is speaking to a larger audience.

“We can no longer accept a reduction in our rate of failure as a success. We have one option. Grow or die,” seems to be his mantra, paraphrasing.

“Something is wrong with the picture when our government in Albany increases spending by 5 percent and inflation is 2.5 percent. How can anyone see that as a success?”

The most telling moment of Collins’ speech came as he neared the end and promised just a few more comments before he finished. Then he rambled on for another 15. That is refreshing. No handler pulling him off to the side and while a room full of citizens waited with questions, he finished his thought without glancing at his watch.

One point he enunciated has received little ink anywhere: While the Berger Commission mandated the merger of ECMC and Kaleida, Collins is calling for a third party at the table: The State University.

The obvious element we have overlooked, in his view, is that Albany and Syracuse have money-losing hospitals supported by SUNY because they train physicians. ECMC and Kaleida receive no such support, even though they, too, train physicians.

It’s sort of like having the Thruway Authority charge tolls on the 190 when similar roads in Syracuse and Rochester remain free. Western New York deserves the same shake as the rest of the state.

It’s also fascinating that Collins won election by currying the support of people like you and me, not the crusty white elite of the staid Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which instead stood behind Paul Clark and then clumsily tried to claim it supported no one. There is a certain arrogance in their lack of support for Collins, an outsider. With Collins now winning small battles every day and apparently making a difference, that old-money has to be questioning its import and relevance.

I also found it interesting when Collins was asked about the competitive and confusing nature of the eight different industrial development agencies in Niagara County (11 if you count Lumber City Development, Niagara County IDA and Lockport IDA). Collins spoke about the need for a single contact point and a coordinated effort to attract business. The idea sounded great but there was one troubling element. In 1999, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise was formed by the partnership to fill that role. If BNE were succeeding, wouldn’t Collins have talked about it?

Hopefully Collins will get a chance to talk to the partnership, its board and its membership about his vision for the future. While he’s already celebrating small successes, that conversation needs to be framed in terms that relate to the real people who have chosen to settle here, rather catering to the ultra-educated old-money types who have been here forever and benefited only themselves.

LM Boyd of the Week: That recently hatched alligator measures about nine inches or so.

Word of the Week: Kismet – a word from the Turks that means fate.

Contact Joe Genco at jgenco@localnet.com

        

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