Staten Island residents and their representatives opposed the plan. Assemblyman Edmund P. Radigan introduced a secession bill in the Legislature. A bill was passed (later vetoed by the governor) requiring all garbage to be incinerated before being placed in a landfill. Ellsworth B. Buck, called for the federal government to step in and stop the project. Cornelius Hall, when he was the city's public works commissioner, opposed the project, but when he became the Borough President of Staten Island, he surprised residents by backing the plan, saying: "I am firmly convinced that a limited landfill project can be undertaken at Fresh Kills, a project that would prove of great value to the island through the reclamation of valuable land from now worthless marshland. Hall intended the landfill to be part of a proposed belt highway along Staten Island's west shore, which was approved by Moses in exchange for his support of the landfill. Hall went on to say "I want operations limited to [a period not to exceed three years ... I am going along with this proposal because I believe ... we are in a position to use this fill to our advantage, for the development of the West Shore of Staten Island, which is essential.". The talk of using Fresh Kills for only three years may have been a ploy to allow Hall to save face politically. As described in an inter-departmental report from 1946: "Because of the substantial sums involved in the preparation and acquisition of the Kills site, order to justify this expense the City must dispose of refuse at this location for a number of years."