Jacobs’ stellar performance has earned second term

Endorsement for County Clerk

Chris Jacobs is a first term County Clerk whose management skills have righted an office that had come to epitomize government dysfunction and mismanagement.

Upon taking office he encountered the now infamous 3-year backlog of mortgage documents that had yet to be processed. It turned out that over $3 million worth of uncashed checks were found siting in the mess.

Jacobs has introduced new technologies to make the office more efficient, including the introduction of an online reservation system in the Auto Bureau, making your trip to the DMV that much easier.

Under Jacobs, the office initiated a “register local” campaign aimed at encouraging residents to register their vehicles through the County’s office rather than via-mail to Albany. Doing so has helped keep several million dollars  of registration fees in local coffers.

But Jacobs deserves reelection for another reason — beyond his managerial competencies: He has long offered this region civic leadership that has sought to tackle some of our community’s most challenging problems.

From founding the philanthropic “Bison Fund,” which has raised millions of dollars to help send disadvantaged children to private and parochial schools — to pushing innovative, outside the box ideas to catalyze Eastside revival — Jacobs’ civic leadership, easy temperament, moderate style, and big-picture approach have earned him a status in the public psyche that elevates him far above the pettiness typified by our electeds.

Jacobs is a proud son of Buffalo who has long been at the forefront of downtown revival. He has redeveloped properties in the Theater and Cobblestone districts that have been widely lauded by planners, developers, and preservationists.

His bipartisan and broad based popularity — in an age polarization and policy extremes — has crafted a quintessentially Buffalonian political brand.

Chris Jacobs has certainly earned another term — and our profuse thanks for his public service. The Buffalo Chronicle endorses him for reelection wholeheartedly.