The website says it all.

As www.Pirro-03.com loads, up pop the slick graphics, American flag background and friendly signature. The warm personal greeting informs you of the legacy of Onondaga County Executive Nick Pirro as well as why he should be allowed to serve a fifth term in office.

Click through some of the menus, though, and the site tells a different story. The press releases section is only home to three documents, with the most recent one dating to May 8, a veritable lifetime in the world of election cycles. Even his volunteer section, which would normally be jam-packed with dates and locations for booster meetings and rallies, lists only one event: the announcement of his candidacy.

Not that he needs any help.

Come next week, Pirro will be the elected to his fifth term, since no other party fielded any opposition for the election. This is the first time he will assume another term without having to first win an election.

It will likely matter little to Pirro, though. The Republican stalwart has been in public service since he was elected to the Board of Supervisors, now the Onondaga County Legislature, in 1965. He won his first term for his current office in the fall of 1987, and has not looked back since.

Even if he were pressing flesh and kissing babies this summer, Onondaga County Communication Director Martin Farrell said Pirro would not have let it affect his day-to-day duties, which recently have included playing middleman between the Carrier Corporation, Albany and many of his constituents, who would lose their jobs should the company relocate its Central New York operations.

‘He is not one of those guys that you only see out when he is running for office,’ Farrell said.

In the 15 years since he joined Pirro’s administration, Farrell said he has never seen his boss falter in his vision for the sake of reelection. It is the kind of dedication which, under different circumstances, Pirro might admire in Syracuse United Neighbors.

Nearly four years ago, Pirro was charged to respond to federal mandate to clean Lake Onondaga, one of the most polluted lakes in the country. To achieve this, he proposed erecting a sewage plant in an area downtown near Midland Avenue. This came to the shock of SUN, which has since criticized the plan as everything from fiscally irresponsible to scientifically incorrect, and even racist since the neighborhood that they would level is predominantly a low-income minority one.

‘Yup, around the last election,’ said Zac Moore, SUN’s community organizer. ‘That was about the time this battle started.’

However, the feud has not been limited to letter-writing campaigns and community reaction time during local government meetings. Since the plan was introduced, SUN activists have made at least three trips to Pirro’s home and office, respectively, and held more than 20 protests, many of which featured large representations of the county executive’s head put in compromising positions, Moore said.

With that in mind, even though the organization does not endorse candidates, it is not hard to imagine that its members would like to see the office move in another direction.

Then again, if recent history is any guide, they should not hold their breath. Chances are, the only change is Pirro’s appearance will be a shift from ’03’ to ’07’ in the domain name to go with his campaign for a sixth term.

Published on October 30, 2003 at 12:00 pm