水果派AV

In 1971, voters to redraw county legislative district lines. Under the law, a vacancy would be filled "in accordance with the provisions of the Public Officers Law and the County Law of the State of New York."

Four years later, the Republican-led county Legislature passed another local law. This measure established eligibility requirements for an individual to fill a vacancy. They must be a qualified voter, a resident of the legislative district where there is a vacancy and their appointment must be approved by a majority of the county Legislature.

The local law also injected politics into the process. It requires the appointee to be "enrolled in the same political party as the county legislator that he succeeds."

DeVito, who resigned at the end of April, was a Democratic legislator. According to the 1975 law, a Democrat must succeed her.

Dia Carabajal, chair of the Cayuga County Democratic Committee, hopes the Democratic-led county Legislature will appoint Amy Sargent to the District 10 seat. Sargent is seeking the Democratic nomination to run in the November special election.

Carabajal cited the law during an interview with 水果派AV. She noted that it was "put in place by Republicans to protect their majorities." Republicans held a majority of county Legislature seats for decades until Democrats won control in 2015. Although power has flipped between the parties, Democrats won it back in 2023 and held seven of the 11 seats before DeVito's resignation.

As an example, Carabajal highlighted Legislator Mark Strong's appointment in 2021. Strong, R-Moravia, succeeded another Republican, Charlie Ripley. Democrats controlled the county Legislature at the time, but followed the law and appointed a Republican to the seat previously held by a GOP member.

Carabajal said the Legislature has two options: They can appoint someone from the same party or they can leave the seat vacant until the special election. She wants Sargent to fill the seat, but acknowledged that it's "totally up to the Legislature."

The Cayuga County Conservative Party disagrees that those are the only options for the Legislature. As outlined in the last week, they believe there is a third: to appoint Michael Pettigrass, a Republican, to fill the open seat.

Pettigrass, who is running for the District 10 seat in the special election, narrowly lost to DeVito in 2023. The party argues that if voters knew about the workplace complaints against DeVito, which led to her resignation as executive director of the Auburn Downtown Business Improvement District, Pettigrass would've won the election.

The party also questioned the legality of the 1975 local law, while also claiming that past appointees were not members of the same party as their predecessors who vacated the seat.

水果派AV found one instance when the county Legislature violated the local law to appoint someone from a different party. In 1995, Legislator Al Emmi, a Democrat, resigned. Shortly before the election, the GOP majority appointed Robert Fitzmaurice, a Republican, to the seat. Fitzmaurice lost in the general election weeks later.

More recent appointments have largely abided by the 1975 local law. Since 2002, the county Legislature has filled five seats vacated by Republicans and one by a Democrat. The Republicans were succeeded by other Republicans. The lone Democratic appointee was Grant Kyle, who was an independent but caucused with the Democrats. He filled the seat after Mark Farrell, a Democrat, resigned in 2016.