Onondaga County advances term-limit law to Board of Elections
County clerks sent the term-limit law to elections officials after a dispute over McMahon's “approval” pushed the fight toward court.
Onondaga County clerks formally transmitted the signed adopted local law on term limits to the Board of Elections, moving the fight out of county hall and into the election system after days of argument over what County Executive Ryan McMahon did when the bill reached his desk.
The dispute centers on the word approval. WRVO Public Media reported July 16 that McMahon had meant to veto the term-limits bill but approved it by mistake. By July 17, county officials said the clerks had sent the paperwork they received Wednesday to the Board of Elections, putting the measure in front of the county’s election machinery instead of leaving it as a political dispute.
That shift came after months of maneuvering around term limits at the county level. In May, Onondaga County Democrats proposed new laws that included term limits for the county executive. McMahon then had to decide whether to sign or veto measures that could limit the power of his office, and he vetoed bills on June 12 that would have taken power away from the county executive’s office. On July 7, legislators approved one term-limit bill and shot down another, and on July 15 the Onondaga County Legislature said it would advance a local law on term limits.
The Board of Elections is now the next checkpoint. Its office is at 1000 Erie Blvd West in Syracuse, and its commissioners are Dustin M. Czarny, a Democrat, and Kevin P. Ryan, a Republican. WRVO Public Media reported July 17 that Czarny rejected the term-limits measure, setting up a court fight over whether the law was handled properly and whether county officials satisfied the steps needed to move it forward.
For Onondaga County voters, the fight is no longer only about whether term limits should exist. It is about whether the county is carrying the law through the proper legal and election channels, or whether officials are sidestepping the public’s will by turning the issue into a procedural standoff. The legislature describes itself as the county’s chief policy-making body, but the next word now belongs to election administrators and, if the dispute escalates, the courts.
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