Cayuga County Legislator Peter Tortorici, R-Auburn, was quick to point out, as he ascended to the chairmanship of the Cayuga County Legislature Monday, that one of his goals is to increase the amount of communication that is occurring when it comes to the way the Legislature operates. While his target audience for such comments were the other 14 members of the Legislature, this is an opportunity for him to take communications a step further, something that is in the public's interest.

This is Tortorici's second attempt to become chairman in as many years. One of the reasons that he succeeded was because of, according to some of his fellow legislators, the alleged lack of communication coming from his predecessor, Roger Mills, R-Owasco, when it came to certain issues. It can be expected that the new chairman will go out of his way to increase communication within the 15-member body, which is a very positive step. Yet, he can go a step further and this would solidify his pledge, at least as far as the public is concerned.

The Legislature is a committee-based legislative system # - where most decisions are thrashed out at the committee level and then brought to the full Legislature at its monthly meetings. On fewer and fewer occasions (usually only on very controversial issues) is there dissension or discord before votes. Even though the monthly sessions are televised and the press usually covers them, for the most part the public does not get to hear any real discussion. More importantly, people may not get to hear alternatives discussed and voted on in committee.

While it may have been past practice to have both newspapers and a radio station at every committee meeting, the resources for covering the six committees that meet on a regular basis aren't available. Just as importantly, many of these sessions are not taped, and written minutes are the norm. The end result is that we often don't know who said what and why and we don't get to see what led up to decisions. This may not matter for a lot of people, but in some cases having tapes and/or videos of these meetings can increase accountability and clarify responsibility. One need not look any further than Asbestosgate to know that such a record would have cleared up a number of issues and may have helped prosecutors.

With this in mind, Tortorici should immediately require, at a minimum, the taping of all committee meetings on audio and move toward video.

His chairmanship was not a day old before the county's Web site not only listed him as the new chair, but also the committee changes he implemented. He should move just as fast to create audio records that the press and public can easily access.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com