Herkimer County Legislature Chairman Vincent 'Jim' Bono to resign after 22 years

“Bono” means “good” in Italian, and longtime Herkimer County legislator and chairman Vincent “Jim” Bono has always hoped to honor that moniker.

“I always tell my kids, ‘Live up to your name,’” Bono said. “And that’s what I’m trying to do – be a good person, be the peacemaker, while getting the job done.”

After representing District 11 for 22 years, serving eight years as vice chairman and eight years as chairman, Bono is resigning from the legislature, effective Sunday. He will begin a new position, as Herkimer County’s community development director, bright and early Monday morning.

Bob Hollum, R-District 4, has been elected as Bono’s replacement as chairman. He will appoint a new legislator to fill Bono’s vacated seat.

Hollum did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

New role in Herkimer County

Bono hopes to continue to do good for Herkimer County in this new role. He thinks of the position as being an ambassador for the county.

“I’m going to hit the ground running, and my main focus will be to promote Herkimer County,” Bono said. “Certainly I’m going to promote businesses and any attractions that we have. But any event that anybody, whether it’s a private company, a nonprofit, a religious group, fraternal group, educational group, I'm going to be promoting. I want to put a calendar together where people can go online and say, ‘Hey, what's happening in Herkimer County?’”

Regional pride

Bono is a Herkimer County native – he was born in Ilion, lived in Frankfort for a time, and moved to Schuyler in 1985 to build a house and start a family. He also started a property management business with his brother, Bono Brothers LLC, around that time.

“I've lived here all my life, and I wouldn’t want to be in any other place,” Bono said.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr., who has worked in partnership with Bono on a variety of matters that impact both counties, said that Bono’s passion for Herkimer County is evident.

“He’s a regional thinker,” Picente said. “He knows what's good for Herkimer is good for the surrounding counties and vice versa. And that’s really been one of his strengths in his leadership role.”

Business, education and child care

While serving in the legislature, Bono focused on promoting economic opportunities in the county. He has long been closely involved with the Herkimer County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) and currently serves as its chairman.

Bono fiercely advocated for the construction of the Schuyler Business Park and the Frankfort 5S South Business Park in order to create jobs and draw in new residents.

The Frankfort park’s first tenant was Heidelberg Bread Production Facility, and has since grown to include Tractor Supply Co. and an Amazon distribution facility.

Patrick E. Russell, District 15 legislator and Republican majority leader, has worked with Bono throughout his entire tenure..

“I call him Mr. IDA because right from the beginning, he pursued business development,” Russell said.

Bono said that he is most proud of the investments in business and job creation in the county that have occurred under his leadership.

“That builds our tax base and builds opportunities for people to advance, and gives them a variety of places that they can go to work,” he said.

Bono’s other passions as a legislator included Herkimer County Community College and a proposed Children's Center, for which details, including funding, are still being worked out. The county envisions the center bringing together affordable childcare, mental health services, early motherhood and lactation services, and more under one umbrella.

Christina Cain, Herkimer County Public Health Director, said in May that her department’s Best Start Committee noticed that access to affordable childcare in the county was a huge issue, especially in 2017 when Herkimer College had to close its childcare center due to budgetary issues.

Discussions between her department, the county’s Department of Social Services, and the county’s budget office led to a proposal that combined a variety of services for children, teens and parents.

“We all kind of picked a piece to really cast a different perspective on the importance and the feasibility of what it might look like," Cain said in May. "And we brought that to the legislature."

Bono is sad to be leaving the Children’s Center project behind, but knows that it will be in good hands.

Bono also cared about making sure Herkimer College stayed updated and vibrant, saying that colleges all over the country are facing struggles with admissions. The county is investing in updating the college’s facilities and developing programs that will attract students.

“He’s always been a strong proponent of Herkimer County Community College, making sure that it stays afloat and runs well,” Russell said.

Collaborative partnerships

Bono believes in the power of collaboration, especially as the Mohawk Valley has faced challenges throughout his tenure, such as the 2013 mass shooting, the two floods that occurred in 2013 and 2019, and the coronavirus pandemic. He recalls working closely with other local county officials during the pandemic, including daily phone calls in the early months.

“I’m proud of the collaboration we've had with the region, getting the region together and working together,” Bono said. “We’ve found out that we need one another through adversity.”

Picente also remembers those daily pandemic phone calls, and spoke to the value of the partnership between Oneida and Herkimer counties.

“It was about standing together as county governments,” Picente said. “We had a tough haul with the state dictating a lot of things after the fact and trying to adapt to them, as all counties did. In particular, because of our close relationship, we were able to get right on the phone with each other and really figure out a course of action. We shared processes, we shared supplies, we did whatever we could to keep everything in play and moving forward. Our health departments worked seamlessly, and it was because of [Bono’s] leadership.”

Herkimer County was recognized by the White House Council for Community Solutions in 2012 for its Kids Herkimer and Return Home Early Project programs through ICAN. The council recognized these programs as models for successful community collaborations.

Bono is a proponent of consolidation, such as the combining of smaller local police agencies into one united force in order to improve efficiency. He said that while the legislature brought the seven Mohawk Valley police agencies together for meetings, the efforts ultimately fizzled.

“I really believe that consolidation should and will happen by necessity rather than by choice,” Bono said. “We talked about it, and I don't want to call it a failure, but at least people talked about it.”

Challenges that lie ahead

Bono also acknowledged the challenges facing Herkimer County, with a shortage of affordable housing and the RemArms plant closing in March. However, Bono feels optimistic about the county’s ability to face these challenges.

“Lately there is a ray of sunshine in that there are some [housing] developments being proposed, I know two in Schuyler and maybe two in Little Falls, maybe somewhere else,” Bono said. “That's always a concern. But it's a good thing too, with the jobs coming in, maybe that'll spur some of those developments. So there's pluses and minuses to any issue that you look at, but there is a lot going on around here.”

Bono said that while the loss of jobs from RemArms departure will be painful, he believes those employees have marketable skill sets that will prove valuable to other Herkimer County businesses.

He is concerned about how the village of Ilion will cope with the closure of the facility and does not know what they will do with the building, but feels confident that the IDA will support efforts to make good use of it.

The busiest man in Herkimer County

In addition to serving in the legislature, running his business with his brother and chairing the IDA, Bono estimates that between advisory groups and foundations, he serves in about 27 different organizations.

He is also a church trustee and a volunteer fireman and has no plans to slow down.

Bono intends to devote himself to his position as community development director with the same gusto he applies to his other roles.

“People who know me know that although my political job was a part-time position as a legislator, I still took it as a full-time responsibility, and this will be no different,” Bono said. “I will do the same and give my 110%. I’m proud of our accomplishments, what we’ve done in the county and the way it’s moving forward. And I'm very humbled by everything that the legislature and my constituents and our employees have done as a group.”

Russell said that Bono was a devoted civil servant for those 22 years.

“He's just given it his all,” Russell said. “He bled for the county. We certainly hate to see him go, but we certainly understand it.”

As Bono transitions into his new role and continues to advocate for Herkimer County, he hopes that he will leave behind a positive legacy in the community.

“I can’t stress enough how honored and humbled I am by the opportunity to work the last 22 years as their representative, and I hope I’ve served them well,” Bono said. “We certainly can't make everybody happy in politics, but for the most part, I think I left a fingerprint that lasts for a little while, and when people see that fingerprint, I just hope people say, you know, ‘He did good for us.’ And I want to leave it that way, because I want to live up to my name.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Herkimer Legislature Chairman Vincent Bono retires for new role