10/02/2025
The county legislature has scheduled a special meeting of the Highway Committee Chaired by 15th district legislator Rodney Strange on October 6, 2025 to amend a 10-year-old resolution, which will allow the City of Elmira to continue receiving a free DPW workforce costing county taxpayers approximately 1.5 million dollars per year. In June of 2025, the County Executive advised the City that the 10-year-old agreement was being terminated as per the termination clause in the contract and that a new agreement was being drafted, whereupon the City would be responsible to pay the County for labor costs (phased in over a 4 year period), while the County would continue to cover fringe benefits. Last week, the Executive received correspondence from the Legislature that the City of Elmira was "on the verge of bankruptcy" and requested the County Executive reconsider his position. See attached documents for additional information.
County Executive Chris Moss (10/2/2025): "Chemung County continually operates with fiscal discipline, which also means that our employees often make sacrifices involving their salaries and health insurance benefits helping the county remain fiscally solvent. When the City of Elmira is in the financial position to offer substantially higher wages for comparable positions, it has become increasingly clear that the County should not be financially subsidizing the City’s workforce at the expense of county employees and services. While it’s important for all municipalities throughout the county, to include the City of Elmira to experience fiscal stability, they must learn to operate within their financial constraints, just as every other municipality throughout the county has done. The legislators representing the City of Elmira are doing a disservice to the remainder of the municipalities and residents throughout Chemung County by rewarding poor financial decision making.”
