Vogel emphasizes trust, increased resources in 100-day update
JES COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS
By Chloe Forbes, Assistant Publications Editor
In November 2025, Erie County residents used their vote as their voice to elect Christina Vogel as county executive. Last Thursday, Vogel took the stage at the Jefferson Educational Society for an update of her first 100 days.
Heading into office, Vogel brought with her a background of data analysis, business experience, and transparency. As she entered the position, she said she knew it came with challenges from the previous administration, which publicly disagreed with Erie County Council on numerous issues through lawsuits and vetoes. After an assessment, Vogel and her team found that their main task was to “rebuild trust and reset relationships” across the board, she said.
For employees, that includes lifting media censorship so that county offices are free to speak to the media; restarting the employee newsletter and leadership courses; and bringing back the Courthouse Cafe, a central gathering place that had been closed to become a gym that never came to fruition.
For County Council, trust-building includes inviting council members on tours of the prison, human services department, public safety, and more; ongoing individual and group discussions; and an administrative report from Vogel at council meetings.
For the community, Vogel said she is committed to partnering with organizations like Infinite Erie, Impact Corry, Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority, the city of Erie, and the Erie County Redevelopment Authority.
“All of those relationships had been paused,” she said, referring to the last administration’s actions.
She also hired a community engagement officer, John Stehlin, who was Erie News Now’s meteorologist, to learn about and highlight all the goings-on in the county.
Short-term opportunities
Already, Vogel has submitted appropriations requests for $63.5 million, but in the meantime, she’s full steam ahead on some short-term opportunities. One of those is the Tiny Homes project that the county terminated just a few weeks ago.
The effort was created under the Davis Administration to provide shelter to the homeless population. However, the budget for the project was $2 million, with half in Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority funds and half from the American Rescue Plan Act funds. The current structures do not pass the building code and would need to be raised by two feet and put on slabs to be used — at an estimated cost of $2 million on its own. There was also no money budgeted for ongoing maintenance, utilities, insurance, or supportive services.
“As such, we thought the county cannot support this,” Vogel said. “This is not what the county was ever set up to do, so we started looking for options.”
She met with municipalities that either didn’t have the right zoning, or were not interested in taking the structures. Now, the county is working with nonprofits and organizations that might be interested in using them.
“I think it shows very clearly that you need a plan before you take action,” Vogel said.
Another project left to her, the Brenton Davis administration wanted to turn Pleasant Ridge Manor farmland in western Erie County into a business park, but as Vogel lives in Fairview, she drives by frequently, “watching the weeds grow and grow.” Instead, she used a competitive bid process when she took office, awarding Troyer Growers from Waterford to use the land to grow potatoes. They’re expecting five million pounds of potatoes for harvest.
Other short-term efforts include reevaluating the internal departments like the public safety department and IT to streamline operations and share resources across the board.
“We have these great opportunities and resources in the county like the GIS center (Geographic Information System Center managed by the Department of Planning and Community Development), like the data center, that could be used throughout the county to improve the lives of the people of Erie County,” she said.
Medium-term opportunities
When it comes to planning what’s down the road, Vogel already has some priorities and has created a capital budget. The county is fiscally solid, she said, but there’s a lot of deferred maintenance and projects to be done.
Previously, the nearly $5 million in the gaming fund was sitting in what would basically be a checking account, not accruing any interest. Now, Director of Administration Chris Groner has transferred that to a fund that generates about 4% interest.
For someone with undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in business, and who successfully became the first solo woman franchisee for Donatos Pizza, Vogel said she has the background and skillset to recognize what needs to be done fiscally to achieve the county’s goals.
“Here we have a county executive that’s prepared to take a look at that budget and understand it and do what is necessary,” said former County Executive Judy Lynch, touting Vogel’s business experience.
Vogel is also hoping to tackle the EMS crisis, which former County Executive Brenton Davis made a central point of his term. Instead of seeing the crisis as a people problem, Vogel said it should be seen as a system design problem. Between fire departments, police departments, state police barracks, hospitals, and EMS agencies, Vogel said the complex network throughout the county demands partnership.
“The volunteers are leaving, the calls keep going up, the healthcare crisis is adding additional stressors, so we’re looking at ways that we can make this better,” she said.
Part of that is a system that began on April 1 to stack or hold BLS (basic life support) calls. BLS is less life-threatening than ALS (advanced life support), with BLS covering things like a sprained ankle. Under the new system, if an EMS agency is at the hospital to drop off a patient, it can wait to respond to another BLS call until after that person is safely in the hospital rather than call on mutual aid, which strains resources.
The county is also reviewing its IALS protocol, which is the step between BLS and ALS. She’s hoping to increase training and capacity by working with Erie County Community College, of which she was an inaugural board member.
Vogel also spoke about economic opportunities like Opportunity Zone 2.0, a tax strategy for capital gain that has an extra boost for rural efforts; and opportunities to market Erie County through the Erie to Pittsburgh Trail or flights to and from Erie International Airport.
Long-term opportunities
Looking to the future, Vogel mentioned many projects planned by Infinite Erie, so the county is looking to support the 35 projects identified in the latest playbook. The county will also support and be an advocate for the Ironworks Square project on 12th Street, the McKean Business Park, Corry Area Technology Center and Hub, and an eastside campus for Erie County Community College.
About 80% of the current community college student body is eligible for a Pell Grant, a federal form of assistance to low-income students that does not need to be paid back. The college has already applied for Title IV funding — expected to be approved in June — so it can administer Pell Grants up to $7,395. Tuition at the community college will cost $4,300 for the whole year, meaning the extra $3,000 can go back to students for child care, transportation, fees, and more, investing back into the Erie County economy.
For the low-income neighborhoods on the east side, Vogel said this could be a game-changer.
“It is imperative to get an option on the east side that brings in the resources, gets people to the next level so they can get better jobs,” she said. “It’s a great win-win situation.”
Across the whole county, Vogel said that there seems to be a lack of strategy to get from where it is now to where it wants to be. By increasing efficiency, removing obstacles, and rebuilding trust, she hopes to solidify that strategy and work toward it.
When asked what would be the metric to gauge her success, she answered that she wants to create a place where her three teenagers will want to stay.
“If I can create a strong foundation that provides opportunities for them to stay and for everybody else’s children or grandchildren (to stay) … or we get them back here, that would be how I would measure success,” she concluded.
To follow the county under Vogel, click here. To find upcoming events at the Jefferson Educational Society, click here.
ICYMI
City of Erie Mayor Daria Devlin stopped at the Jefferson to talk about her first 100 days.
