Judicial system towers over Western New York
BRIAN ACKLEY Political Columnist
One of the nice things about being out of the area recently, besides missing last week's weather, was also missing all the coverage and hype of Super Bowl XLI.

One of the bad things about coming home, besides experiencing this week's weather, is being back in the midst of one of the things you've known, but the depths of which perhaps haven't truly been appreciated, about Buffalo Niagara.

When our Founding Fathers conceived their ideal government, central to virtually every decision was the idea of checks and balances. Attempting to ensure that just enough, but not too much, power would be vested in each point of their carefully conceived leadership triangle, the legislative, executive and judicial branches were thought to be, at least in a practical sense, equals.

Not here, where legislative and executive functions have been reduced to residing next to half eaten french fries and used Styrofoam coffee cups in the nearest convenience store Dumpster. Buffalo Niagara has become, and in retrospect has been for years now, the land of legislation by barristers and gavel bangers, where only a lawyer leads and everyone else heeds.

Being out of town, it's easy to keep up on the local happenings. In the space of seven days, I perused Internet reports of lawsuits that hope to keep George Holt in office, hope to keep local hospitals open, hope to stop an Indian casino from being built in Buffalo, threw out a five-year bid for sports equipment in Buffalo city schools and determined that indeed, our unelected county control board is in charge here, not lawmakers who long ago gave up that right with their combination of indifference, insolence and artificial indignation.

In the name of Rodney King, can't we all just get along? Joel Giambra has run to the courtroom so often - casinos, control boards and county clerks just to count a few of his favorite courtroom companions - perhaps he could help out the county coffers by signing an endorsement deal with Converse. Earlier this year, dispensing with any niceties, his opening sentence announcing another suit against the Seneca Buffalo casino read, "Good morning. I want to welcome my fellow plaintiffs."

Just think how much better off Buffalo schools would be, for example, if self-anointed superheroes Phil Rumore and James Williams spent more time finding ways to improve kids' education rather than hurling lumps of kryptonite at each other?

Why couldn't any leader in the Erie County Legislature shed the shackles of political correctness and pressure George Holt to simply do the decent thing, or is there that little decency that remains?

How rooted in reality is St. Joseph Hospital's President James McDonald when in announcing a decision to appeal a lost court case over the facility's potentially forced closing, he calls his operation an "efficient and vibrant part of the health care delivery system in Western New York." St. Joe's may be the Mayo Clinic, but if our medical setup is efficient and vibrant why do hospitals have to buy advertising space on hockey arena dasher boards to justify their existence and drum up business? To believe there is anything even remotely streamlined or healthy about how we dispense our care, McDonald must also have palm trees growing on his farm.

Obviously, the judicial system has its time and place in governing the masses. But while most leaders view court cases as a rest stop on the road to rational recourse, Erie County proudly wears its crown as the champion repository of redress. Should Buffalo ever host a Super Bowl (details of a downtown domed stadium aside), there will be someone, somewhere nearby ready to serve papers challenging the validity of heads versus tails.

"The authority did not act prematurely or arbitrarily," a judge wrote last week in upholding the powers of the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority.

Unlike those at the remaining two points of the local government hierarchy who constantly decide a courtroom is a better place to leave such decisions than a meeting room, perhaps we should be grateful at least the control board and judge were willing to act at all.

(Brian Ackley is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. Opinions expressed here are the author's.)