The Orleans County Legislature opened 2024 the way it closed 2023: with the same person in charge. Lisa Stenshorn, Clerk of the Legislature, called the roll at 4:30 p.m. on January 4 and found all seven legislators in their seats — Allport, Draper, Eick, Fitzak, Johnson, Miller and Morgan. Within minutes, Legislator Johnson had been nominated, voted on 7-0, and congratulated as re-elected Chairman of the Legislature. William Eick was re-elected Vice Chairman on an identical roll call. A recess followed so Nadine P. Hanlon, Orleans County Clerk, could administer the oath of office and the legislators could sign the official book. What followed was 18 resolutions in roughly 18 minutes of adopted business, and for most of them the pattern never broke: a motion from Eick, a second from Morgan, seven ayes, zero nays. The Legislature reappointed Stenshorn as Clerk and Katherine Bogan as County Attorney for a two-year term. It fixed its own pay for the year — $20,021.00 for the Chairman, $15,138.00 for the Vice Chairman, $13,347.00 for every other member, plus mileage at a cent below the IRS rate and federal per-diem rates for out-of-county travel. It named The Daily News the county's legal newspaper, set a 2024 meeting calendar built around the fourth Tuesday of the month, and designated Donald Allport Majority Leader and Fred Miller Minority Leader. Kimberly DeFrank, County Treasurer, was authorized to approve property-tax refunds of two thousand five hundred dollars or less on her own, reporting monthly to the Legislature. Then the unanimity broke, once. Reaffirming the Legislature's own appointees to the Orleans County Industrial Development Agency — Carol D'Agostino, Jeffrey Martin, John Misiti, Craig Tuohey and Ed Urbanik — passed 6 ayes to 1, with Allport casting the meeting's only dissenting vote. The minutes record no discussion of his reasoning; the resolution itself describes the reaffirmation as resolving ambiguity about how long IDA members serve, since state law lets them sit at the Legislature's pleasure rather than to a fixed term. The bigger dollar figures that night involved a separate but related body: the Legislature voted 7-0 to let its Chairman sign a 2024 agreement with the County of Orleans Industrial Development Agency, known as COIDA, worth $200,000.00 a year in $50,000.00 quarterly payments, to carry out the county's industrial-development and job-retention work under state General Municipal Law. Legislators also approved $7,367.00 to NYSAC, the state counties' association, for advocacy and research services in Albany and Washington. One appointment showed actual turnover rather than reaffirmation. The county's Assigned Counsel Plan — which administers court-appointed legal defense — had lost its Administrator and Administrative Assistant when James P. Punch, Esq., ACP Administrator, and Virginia Nicholson, ACP Administrative Assistant, gave notice ending their agreement effective December 31, 2023. The Orleans County Bar Association recommended a replacement, and the Legislature voted 7-0 to hire Benjamin J. Bonarigo, PLLC, with Kristie L. DeFreze, Esq., as Administrator, at $35,000.00 a year plus $6,000.00 for an administrative assistant, with payment contingent on continued state grant funding. The rest of the night ran through the county's standing appointments board by board: the Soil and Water District Board, the Oak Orchard Watershed Board, the Genesee Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council, the Region 8 Open Space Advisory Committee, the InterCounty Association of Western New York and the Orleans County Jury Board all got their 2024-25 rosters confirmed without objection. James Bensley, Director of Planning, picked up two of those regional seats himself. As the county seat, the Village of Albion hosts the Legislative Chambers where this reorganization played out, and the resolutions adopted that afternoon — the tax-refund authority, the IDA and COIDA arrangements, the assigned-counsel contract — apply countywide, including to Albion. Chairman Johnson told legislators the next regular meeting would be held January 23, 2024. With no further business offered, Legislator Draper moved to adjourn, Allport seconded, and the Legislature's 2024 organizational meeting closed at 4:48 p.m.