County executive reflects on accomplishments
JOEL GIAMBRA Erie County Executive
This will be my final opportunity to share my thoughts with you as Erie County executive. First, let me wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.

Since taking office in 2000, we have worked tirelessly to implement our "cut, coordinate and grow" agenda. We enacted a 31 percent cut in the Erie County property tax levy in my first year in office. The tax levy is still 28 percent lower than when I first took office in 2000.

Our work on consolidating local government delivery systems included every service from law enforcement to parks maintenance to water systems. My policy initiatives included creating the region's first cultural tourism marketing campaign, the region's first multi-institutional health care planning effort, and the binational region's first working group of business leaders and government officials.

For the first time in history, Erie County government joined with Buffalo City government and the area's leading business organizations to lobby Washington and Albany with a common agenda.

In 2003, the New York State Legislature passed our legislation to create a new governance structure for the Erie County Medical Center. The medical center turned a profit for the first time in history in 2006.

In 2003, Erie County also began construction of a new regional Public Safety Campus, which was completed in August 2005 and completed a new energy-efficient Youth Detention Facility.

I still firmly believe that tourism and the culturals are key growth industries in Western New York. In keeping with that, we were instrumental in providing funding for a new rain forest exhibit at the Buffalo Zoo. Under my administration, Erie County was also the major contributor to refurbishing the Darwin Martin House.

In 2006 our administration was responsible for creating the largest urban windmill farm in the United States, as the Steel Winds project was constructed in Lackawanna. This wind energy facility provides 20 megawatts of electricity, enough to provide power to 6,000 homes.

In 2007, the Public Safety Campus brought under one roof the 911 call centers for the Sheriff's Department, County Ambulance Service, Buffalo Police Department and State Police. We also offered this service to all towns and villages in the county at no additional cost and at a potential savings of $6 million to $12 million to those municipalities.

We leave Erie County with three straight years of balanced budgets and yearly surpluses. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the citizens of Erie County. When I step into the private sector in January, it will be after 25 straight years of public service. Perhaps someday I will have an opportunity to once again serve my community.