County legislators depart at time of transition
Reporting and analysis by Robert Lynch; December 23, 2025
Mike Lane was first elected to the Tompkins County Legislature in 1993. Aside from four years when a Republican briefly represented his eastern Dryden district, Democrat Lane has been a legislative fixture ever since. Come January, Mike Lane will be gone. He’s retiring to make way for someone new.
“There’s so much institutional knowledge that’s going to be walking out of the door,” Shawna Black, a continuing legislator and former Legislature Chair, remarked December 16 as Mike Lane and five colleagues, all Democrats, convened for the final legislative meeting of their careers. None was voted out of office. Each is leaving voluntarily. But their departures will leave their mark. For better or for worse, next year’s County Legislature will look, sound, and feel far different from the one we’ve come to know.
Next year the Tompkins County Legislature will expand from 14 to 16 members. With six departures and two new additions, exactly half of those newly-convening in January to govern us will be freshmen. Moreover, most of those eight new arrivals are political novices, inexperienced in elective service at the local government level.
Experience lost will come with the retirements of Mike Lane (28 years), Dan Klein (12 years), Rich John (10 years), and Anne Koreman and Amanda Champion (each 8 years). The sixth retirement, rather unique, is that of the Ithaca City’s Dan Nolan, elected this past June to fill out an unexpired term, but who did not file to run this fall in a redrawn district.
Decennial redistricting, first imposed with this newest election cycle, played a small role in the incumbent departures. For example, new district lines would have thrown two Ithaca City incumbents, Rich John and Veronica Pillar, into a Democratic primary. Rich John bowed out early, leaving the field open for Pillar to win reelection unopposed.
But most others, including Enfield-Ulysses legislator Anne Koreman, gave no particular reason for their decisions to exit. There’s no imminent catastrophe that would prompt any of them to hightail it from governmental service, to terminate their twice-monthly attendance in meeting chambers on the edge of DeWitt Park. Financially, Tompkins County remains sound. Controversies, like the (now) $64 Million Center of Government project, loom large, of course. But over the years issues like that have always arisen.
What appears more likely is that many of those leaving are simply tired. “You know when it’s time,” Mike Lane, who continues a family law practice in Dryden into his mid-70’s, quietly told a confidante before he announced his planned departure last February. When he publicly disclosed his plans, Lane told fellow legislators much the same thing.
At this more recent legislative meeting, the Dryden incumbent’s colleagues—and the broader community—gave Mike Lane quite a sendoff. State Assemblymember Anna Kelles attended and presented Lane a giant plaque on which was written a proclamation commending Lane for his decades in government, not only on the Legislature, but before that as Dryden Village Trustee and Village Mayor.
“From me to you, I deeply appreciate you, your 44 years you’ve given to all of us in service,” Kelles, a former Tompkins legislator herself, commended Lane. “When I was on the County Legislature, we didn’t always agree on things,” Kelles conceded, “Where we did, we were allies; where we didn’t, we were respectful,” she continued. “And you can’t ask for anything else.”
When Anna Kelles and Mike Lane, both Democrats, served at the same table a half-decade ago, Kelles was the more progressive lawmaker, Lane the more moderate.
“We have to represent everybody,” Lane counseled fellow lawmakers near the close of the December 16 meeting, taking his turn to speak as Chairman Dan Klein—himself retiring—offered each member, whether departing or continuing, an opportunity for final thoughts.
“We have to represent the folks in business, the folks in labor, the folks that are rich, the folks that have no money, they maybe have no house to live in,” Lane advised legislators, both present and future. “We have to represent the people we don’t agree with politically, and we don’t turn our back on any of them,” he went on. “We have to do what we can for them when we encounter those needs. Sometimes we can’t do anything. Sometimes we can.”
At the Legislature’s organizational meeting January 6, Democrat Dan Wakeman will take over as Mike Lane’s District 10 successor.
But the winds are changing. Observers keen enough to raise their political fingers into the air near the Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins Building, the 19th Century landmark where the Legislature meets, will realize it. All the new legislators are Democrats. Republicans, all incumbents, will still hold just three seats. And as the Legislature will expand by two, the GOP members will find themselves even more outnumbered.
And one can also foresee the incoming Democrats providing the Legislature a slightly more progressive tilt. Already five of 14 current legislators decline to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. One can easily imagine an incoming majority following the earlier lead of Ithaca’s Common Council and the Enfield Town Board and purge the pledge from the regular meeting order entirely.
The principal advantage Republicans will hold next year lies in experience. Newfield-Enfield legislator Randy Brown, Lansing’s Mike Sigler, and Groton’s Lee Shurtleff, comprise three of the new Legislature’s eight continuing incumbents. They may find a way to shepherd those eight newly-arriving lawmakers into the ways of Tompkins County Government and educate them to their own points of view.
Change in Tompkins County’s governance comes in a different way as well.
During the past decade, the role of County Administration has risen in prominence, perhaps in large part due to the presence of two men; former County Administrator Jason Molino (2018-2021), who steered Tompkins County through the COVID-19 crisis with what was viewed as a “more regimented, by-the-book management style;” and now Korsah Akumfi, who took over as County Administrator this past January and has since driven legislators with resolve rivaling that of an elected county executive toward their building a Downtown Center of Government.
Whatever course the newly-installed Tompkins County Legislature may take in 2026 and in the years beyond, a key dynamic to watch will be the interplay between an increasingly powerful County Administration and a Legislature which has—at least, traditionally—preferred to have the final say.
But December 16 was a night when incumbent departures, not future power struggles, held sway.
Lansing’s Deborah Dawson almost cried as she lauded the accomplishments of Ulysses’ Anne Koreman, who sat across the big, oval table from her, and then as she hugged the Ithaca Town’s Amanda Champion, sitting beside Dawson. Both Koreman and Champion are leaving. Dawson, herself, almost retired this year as well, only to change her plans. Dawson ran and won this fall as a write-in.
“To the members of my cohort: Annie, you’re the heart; I’m going to miss you,” Dawson praised Koreman, tears welling up. “And you, too,” Dawson reached over and embraced Champion.
That term “cohort,” carries meaning here. It dates back to 2017, when Dawson, Koreman, Champion, Shawna Black and the late Henry Granison ran for and entered the Legislature together. They forged a political and emotional bond, doing so as like-minded liberals. If the Tompkins County Legislature ever had a “caucus” that burrowed inside mere partisan affiliation, theirs was it. During these past four years, the now foursome, one might say, comprised sort of a “sophomore class.”
Praise for Anne Koreman came from other places that December night, including from Veronica Pillar, elected in 2021, but who now usually allies with Koreman, sitting beside her.
“I’m going to miss you all, and that’s a bummer,” Pillar said of the six who convened with her for the last time that night.
And to Anne Koreman, Pillar said, “Annie’s like my big sister. Now I’m going to cry.” Pillar composed herself and continued. “Thank you for everything; for supporting me when I’ve been crying, because sometimes the job is hard, but you’ve taught me a lot, up, down, and sideways.”
Then even Koreman’s pet calico cat earned credit. “And sometimes you brought Princess Buttercup in, and that also makes everything better,” Pillar commended the retiring lawmaker.
Anne Koreman put her departure message this way:
“This experience has been for me one of the hardest, one of the least paid—and I’ve done blue-collar work—but one of the most rewarding things that I’ve ever done,” Koreman reflected on her eight years of service.
Koreman commended fellow legislators, the clerks, the department heads, the county employees, and the late legislator Granison.
“We did this together,” Koreman told them all. “We always haven’t been perfect, and I apologize for my mistakes, hindsight is 20/20; but I hope people know that everybody here, including all our department heads, employees, everybody does the best they can every day for the community, and I hope that people in the community hear this and know that we are doing the best we can,” she said.
The Legislature’s Chairman spoke too.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” Dan Klein stated, as he stood at the podium, presiding over his final meeting. “Mostly, I just feel grateful,” Klein read from prepared remarks. “I’m grateful to my constituents, who entrusted me to be a shepherd of the public good for a little while, and to the people who have given me positive feedback.”
Dan Klein credited fellow legislators, whom he described as “smart, dedicated people who take their jobs seriously.” Klein likewise praised those others who labor for a Tompkins County paycheck. “The employees are the Tompkins County Government,” Klein assigned gratitude, “and Tompkins County Government rocks.”
“As colleagues, we disagree,” Rich John acknowledged, the long-time chair of the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee, taking his final turn as he ended a decade of service. “We’re a decision-making machine. That’s how we’re set up,” John observed.
“We’re supposed to bring a lot of different perspectives to the table, and we do, and we often disagree with each other and that’s the way it’s designed,” the adjunct law professor, took note. “It’s really frustrating at times, but that’s the democratic process that makes Tompkins County work.”
Not all, but most legislators, both those departing and those remaining, reflected on their past four years in office during the December 16 meeting’s final 40 minutes. Some focused on the future; others the past. Mike Lane, the leader with the longest legacy, struck a balance somewhere in-between.
“You think of this Legislature as an hourglass,” Lane reflected. “It has the sand of the beginning, of the four years, in the top. And slowly the grains of sand fall through to the bottom.”
“Those grains of sand are the work we do,” Lane analogized, “the projects that we take on, the discussions we have, and at the bottom the little mound grows higher.” Lane’s comparison continued, “Well, tonight, we’re down to that very last grain of sand about to fall through the neck of the hourglass to the bottom.”
“But don’t fear,” the retiring Dean of the Legislature concluded. “Even though this four years is up, the new legislators will turn the hourglass over, and the sand will start to fall again,” Lane predicted.
A cynic might suggest the symbolism’s weakness: Do successive legislatures do the same things over and over again without progress? But that was not Mike Lane’s intent.
When Anne Koreman exits the Legislature within days, Ulysses’ Rachel Ostlund will take over her role. Enfield’s other legislator, Randy Brown, plans to stay on for one more term.
“This is the best legislature I’ve ever served on,” Brown quipped. (He’s never served on any other.) Then, getting serious, Brown said of his service, “This is one of the highlights of my life.”
“These are really hard jobs,” Anne Koreman closed out her final statement and her near-decade in public office. “We feel a lot of the issues in the community, and we’re trying to do things that are trying to make things a little better for people and more fair and lift people up.”
“So thank you for giving me this privilege,” Koreman concluded. “It’s been an honor, and I’ll see ‘ya.”
Turn the hourglass.
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