Membership Set For CO. Manager Search; Sources Say Updegrove may be offered position

Reporter

55 years ago

LOCKPORT— Niagara County is looking for a new county manager to replace Jeffrey Glatz who handed in his resignation recently and will retire shortly.

As long ago as late Spring last year there were rumblings about 20http://southbuffalonews.com5 being Glatz’s final year with the county.

Now the membership of the Niagara County Manager search committee has been finalized, Niagara County Legislature Chairman Wm. Keith McNall, R-Lockport, announced.

The addition of Lockport teacher Kevin Clark, who has been a high school instructor for 35 years, rounds out the eight-member committee.

Clark, one of two community members appointed, joins Legislators John Syracuse, R-Newfane, who chairs the committee, Tony Nemi, R-Lockport, Michael A. Hill, R-Middleport, Dennis F. Virtuoso, D-Niagara Falls, Jason A. Zona, D-Niagara Falls, Owen T. Steed, D-Niagara Falls, and Niagara Falls restaurateur Michael Capizzi, the other community member advising lawmakers on the search.

“When your community asks you to volunteer and to help improve the lives and experience of county residents, it’s a duty and an obligation,” Clark said. “Our county taxpayers and our county workforce deserve effective leadership, and I know this committee will work to achieve that result.”

Clark, who is also Lockport High School’s varsity swimming coach, serves on the boards of directors of the Lockport Family YMCA and the Lockport Schools Federal Credit Union, and the board of trustees of New Directions Youth and Family Services.

While the committee will make recommendations, it is up to the Republican controlled legislature to make the final pick.

Informed sources tell the Reporter that former Niagara County majority leader, , Rick Updegrove, who did not seek re-election may be the Republicans first choice for the job.

“The ‘search committee’ is just for public consumption,” our source says.

Updegrove is a lawyer and, by all accounts, is capable enough.

Many also feel that Glatz did his job well.

Updegrove was considered by more than a few to be the hardest working and smartest of legislators.

If he gets the nod for the $http://southbuffalonews.com00,000 plus per year job, things may get lively, especially if he has the full support of the real Republican powerhouses – George Maziarz and Henry Wojtasek.

With the power behind him, and with his experience as a legislator and an attorney, Updegrove, as one source says, will be guiding the Republican caucus as much or more so than vice versa.

That is not to say that Updegrove has applied or will be selected.

Someone may just come out of the woodwork – someone with talent; someone who you would least expect to submit his resume.

And then again – maybe the Reporter will call it on the nose: Updegrove.

Time will tell.

Hopefully such good things as reducing taxes and streamlining government will be top of the list considerations for whoever the next manager turns out to be.

A fine choice: Rick Updegrove for County Manager?