By JIMMY LAWTON

CANTON -- St. Lawrence County Legislators have directed the county administrator and department heads to come up with $3 million that can be moved into the fund balance.

Legislator Joe Timmerman, who said he would like to put $3 million in the county’s coffers in 2016, put the resolution forward.

The resolution comes in the wake of Moody’s Investors Service downgrade of the county’s bond rating.

The resolution would require the county administrator to work with department heads to identify a minimum of $3 million that can be moved to the unassigned fund balance.

The vote followed a change in leadership after Norfolk Republican John Burke was elected chairman of the St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators.

In a surprise vote Jan. 4, Burke, who is serving his first term, Democrats partnered with Republicans to oust Oswegatchie Legislator Joseph Lightfoot as chairman of the board.

Burke ran for election in 2014 against Jason Clark, who had been appointed to the position.

When running for the board in 2014, Burke promised to work across party lines.

Burke says expressed concern during the budgeting process when the St. Lawrence Industrial Development Agency’s county funding was cut in in half.