When did candidates stop answering questions?

There is a war going on out there.
Here in Rochester, our election process has become so nasty, so mean and so awful in terms of mudslinging, rumor mongering, plain old lying and the worst part is how a regular plain old citizen, expressing his opinion, can become a victim of online ridicule and harassment. One poor guy's voter registration information was maliciously put onto the Freeman website after he posted his opinion about one of our local candidates, which some people disagreed with.

There is no doubt that in this town rumors and lies work well. Now we have a new tool of public shame - the information superhighway a/k/a the internet or, as they say in Brooklyn; da web.

This is an extreme analogy, back in the 'Godfather' days of the Mafia the women and children were never touched by the violence of 'the business' world. It should be the same way here. Members of the public, people not involved or running for office, should NEVER and I REPEAT - N E V E R - be made the topic of anyone's ridicule, scorn, research or further comments. People are entitled to their privacy and opinions and all this talk about high faluting values and these scholarly treatises on how our election issues are up there with the Magna Carta are a bunch of horse dung if people have become afraid to post their opinions because their so called neighbors will publicly and brutally ridicule them.

Here's the new rule - You don't get to hide behind the First Amendment, like a child hiding behind his mommy's skirt, and cry that it's your 'right' to say what ever you want to intimidate someone else from ever again considering using his/her first amendment rights to express themselves. The next attack on 'civilians' will be posted here, everyone will know it.

We are being ignored.
I always thought candidates love to proclaim how and why they are so great and why we should not only vote for them but why we should also not even think about voting for their opponent who is blah-blah-blah...

Suddenly, here in the Town of Rochester, is it OK that if candidates do not want to answer questions they just ignore them? Some have ignored every communication I have sent to them via e-mail and phone calls, both directly and to their party. I think that some candidates think they need to only respond to questions from their chosen audience. Perhaps, they think that they can render the question irrelevant by ignoring it. So, Readers, here is the deal; your one question, which seems reasonable and very relevant to me, has been ignored by some candidates.

The Question: What is your strategy for bringing the Town together?

Town Supervisor & Town Council Candidates
(in alphabetical order)

Carl Chipman: this candidate has not yet responded to our question.

Tavi Cilenti: this candidate has not yet responded to our question.

Pamela Duke:
We will continue on the path of creating a consensus driven proactive stewardship of our communities values. I will continue to work as I can with other community leaders, from the state, county and other communities, to prevent Rochester from turning into Westchester or Rockland County. The people of our town have said it over and over; they want to preserve our small town in terms of what it looks like and what our way of life is here. To preserve our community and encourage commercial growth, which will bring jobs, will bring our town together.

Francis Gray:
With the exception of those who own large tracts of land or those who have an interest in poor environmental standards, the vast majority of town residents want to know that our town will continue to look like a small town in the country; rolling hills, open farm fields, lush forest land, sweeping vistas of mountains. People believe in the family values that come with small towns; knowing your neighbors and taking care of and looking out for one another. Preserving our rural community while looking to the future with things like high speed internet and other things that encourage job development will not only bring our community together but will allow us to prosper.

Manuela Michailescu: this candidate has not yet responded to our question.

Donna Ragonese:
After spending over 40 years in education, social work and serving community organizations, as a volunteer and board member, I have learned a very simple and important skill - I will spend a lot of time LISTENING to people. I believe that will go a long way in bringing people together.


Do you have questions for the candidates? Please post your questions and we will ask the candidates to respond

How do you feel about the upcoming election?

Please use the comment button to post your thoughts anonymously. YES, ANONYMOUSLY, just like in the voting booth.

Links:
The Good Ole Days
What We Got Here is a Failure to Communicate
Presenting - The Candidates


Moderator's Note : We look forward to publishing profiles from any candidate who may have missed the previous deadline. Please use the e-mail button to contact me and/or click my name to send in your information. TOR2007 --click to e-mail.

Note on recent comment posted: a comment was received this afternoon that has been rejected because posts must be reasonably respectful. Perhaps, rather than attacking the candidates the writer dislikes, the writer can tell us some of their ideas about how all the people in our town can communicate better and what qualities he would like to see in a candidate. If the writer would like to discuss this with me, please send an e-mail - TOR2007. Thank you.

The Good Ole Days

from The New York Times
November 23, 1999

In Accord, NY, There Is Anything But; Clash of Workers and Weekenders Includes Suits and Death Threats

By KATHERINE E. FINKELSTEIN

Accord should be a place of peace.

Just 90 miles from Manhattan, this hamlet in the Hudson Valley, encircled by fruit orchards and flinty mountains, is home to two groups: plain-spoken farmers and truckers who scrape by on camaraderie and shrinking incomes, and Manhattan weekenders, who bought low-cost land from the 1970's on and restored dilapidated farmhouses into retreats.

This marriage of opposites has worked well throughout southern Ulster County, now a booming weekend destination where celebrities like Robert De Niro have built homes and where three-star restaurants have opened alongside package and hunting stores.

But in Accord, the conflicting cultures have bred a remarkable, and even bizarre, level of hostility: lawsuits have been filed; old-timers and newcomers have sworn off talking to each other, except perhaps to say something nasty; and accusations of harassment and corruption prompted both the F.B.I. and the State Attorney General to briefly open, and then close, an inquiry.

The battleground is 88 square miles of beauty within the town of Rochester, population just under 6,000.

The standoff began in 1992 over a speedway that reopened near the homes of newcomers, who have been fighting it ever since. The rancor has gone on to encompass various zoning laws -- namely who can or cannot build what where -- cries of trespassing, and most recently, an uproar over a truck shed. And in a measure of the extreme level of unease, the town has instituted a set of rules governing public meetings: no booing or hand-clapping.

Yet the issues, to hear the combatants tell it, have come to transcend property and zoning regulations. The longtime residents, some of whose families settled here in the 1600's, say they are fighting to preserve their informality and freedom, and, above all, their livelihood. The people they call the weekenders, some of whom have lived here year-round for two decades, say they want equal treatment as taxpayers and residents, and to safeguard the small-town qualities that first drew them to Accord.

''Here I come to what I think is this nice idyllic place,'' said Iris Lewis, 42, a Manhattan designer, weeping one recent morning in her stone home on 60 acres. Since then, she said, her life has turned into a nightmare.

Angered by a neighbor's truck shed, large enough for an 18-wheeler, she formed a group and sued the town last year, accusing it of selectively enforcing, and even changing, zoning laws to benefit longtime residents.

After that, cars began to trespass menacingly, idling on her property for long periods, despite the video camera and ''Keep Out'' signs on her driveway. Death threats appeared in her mailbox, Ms. Lewis said, including a cartoon last winter of stick figures crying and waving goodbye. ''Every year that I'm here,'' she said, ''it gets bigger and it gets uglier.''

Down the road, longtime residents say that Ms. Lewis and her wealthy friends are trying to remake Accord in their own image. ''Basically, this town is just farmers and truck drivers, and there's nothing we can do about it,'' said Lori Schneider, 24, who lives in a mobile home with her husband, a truck driver. The Schneiders were drawn into the fray after Ms. Lewis's group, Citizens Against Illegal Zoning, challenged their plan to build a truck garage in their backyard.

Gerald Meade Dewitt, a dairy farmer whose family has been here since 1648, said that the newcomers do not understand rural life. It ''isn't peace and quiet,'' he said. It is big trucks, rumbling farm equipment and compromise borne of poverty in a town where people scrape by to make a living. The equivalent, he said, would be like ''us going down into the city and saying, 'We don't like taxicabs anymore.' ''

From the late 1970's on, newcomers like Ms. Lewis bought land and created a tousled retreat unlike the Hamptons. Today, they own one-third of Rochester's 3,000 residential parcels. And as the town's former code enforcement officer, Michael Redmond, said recently, ''I keep constantly hearing about the people who don't live here. But everybody lives here. We're all us.''

The problems began in 1992, when a speedway that had been closed for five years roared back to life after town officials swiftly approved a special-use permit for an upstate farmer.

The newcomers demanded that the town study the environmental impact before letting the man reopen the track. But at a heated public meeting, officials contended that a town law limiting speedway noise to 79 decibels was protection enough. The newcomers were outraged, predicting a blow to their property values. The cars raced on summer weekends, bringing traffic and noise to their doorsteps. So they organized.

Lorna and Kim Massie, who moved from Brooklyn to a remodeled barn near the track in 1973, formed a protest group, Citizens Accord Inc., with 300 members. They began a legal battle that has lasted seven years; at each step, the town has successfully appealed. The speedway's owner, David Flach, a red-bearded farmer from Ravena, N.Y., says he has spent $300,000 in legal fees because the Massies have ''big mouths and big wallets.''

In 1995, the group sued the town, contending it had failed to enforce its own laws, after a sound engineer found that the speedway noise exceeded 79 decibels. The town then passed a law allowing sound levels to be averaged by measuring quiet time between races. Citizens Accord then sued town officials, accusing them of conspiring to deprive the group's members of their civil rights.

The costly litigation did not go over well with some longtime locals, who, the Massies said, began dumping garbage on their lawn, honking at them and making obscene phone calls.

The town observes its own laws, said Douglas Dymond, the code enforcement officer whose son races at the track. But he added, ''These people are against racetracks. They're against gravel pits. Their agenda goes on.''

Throughout Accord, newcomers contended that the town was giving businesses special-use permits to open in residential areas, violating zoning laws and aesthetic principles.

One longtime resident, Carlo Ferrialo, switched sides and joined Ms. Lewis's group, after a condemned bungalow colony reopened across the street from his immaculate mobile home. In memorandums, the town's building inspector, who is legally blind, reported finding no evidence of dilapidation on the site. So in June, Mr. Ferrialo hired a private surveyor who documented seven pages of violations.

By 1997, the newcomers contended that their efforts at redress were thwarted by ''collusion'' and ''conspiracy.'' At a town board meeting that year, Steve Fornal, a outspoken newcomer with long hair and a wispy goatee, handed out pamphlets that he said documented the town's manipulation of its own laws. With a withering tone, he read aloud the dictionary definition of codify. ''Note,'' he said, ''codification does not mean wholesale change of laws.'' The room exploded in applause.

The town responded by passing a law that prohibited hand-clapping, booing and demonstrating at public meetings. It also restricted citizens to addressing board members for no more than three minutes, and only if called on by the town supervisor.

Refusing to elaborate, Mr. Fornal said he had taken steps to protect himself, after his mailbox was was shot at and run over nine times.

The town supervisor, Robert Baker, who did not run for re-election and will step down on Dec. 31, did not return numerous calls seeking comment.

Last year, with paranoia and menace escalating, the newcomers found the ultimate object for their anger: a 29-by-50-foot truck shed built by a neighbor, Richard Smith. In person, Mr. Smith, 32, a slim and unassuming trucker, hardly looks like a target for fancy lawyers. But after he got a special-use permit to build a truck shed near his home, Ms. Lewis's group claimed that he was running an illegal trucking business there, and offered the Zoning Board of Appeals a stack of Polaroid photographs and public records to support its claim.

When Rochester officials upheld the permit last February, Ms. Lewis's group declared war. It sued Mr. Smith and town officials, claiming that they conspired to break zoning laws.

Richard and Jennifer Smith, meanwhile, sank $5,000 into legal fees, and held a victory party last summer after the State Supreme Court upheld their permit.

But in September, Ms. Lewis' group, Citizens Against Illegal Zoning, filed an appeal, which is pending. At an Oct. 12 meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals, Mr. Smith and Mr. Fornal got into a verbal tussle. Warned by board members to be respectful, Mr. Smith yelled, ''I don't think there's any respect in this town.'' A board member then called the state troopers and threatened to have him arrested.

The next day, Mrs. Smith, 28, sat at the kitchen table in their modest home and rifled through two years of newspaper articles, lawyers' letters and zoning documents. Like so many Accord residents, she compulsively keeps records of her battle.

''This is just to build a garage, so my husband doesn't have to lay out in the dirt and mud to do an oil change,'' she said, denying that they run a home business. ''In this town, you can't better yourself without a lawsuit. Where does it end?''

Now, you have something to talk about. We need your input. Please take a few moments to post the questions you would like the candidates to respond to, or, perhaps even more interesting, remember this article? Your thoughts?

Please use the comment button to post your thoughts and questions anonymously. YES, ANONYMOUSLY, just like in the voting booth.

What We Got Here is a Failure to Communicate

After several e-mail letters and a few phone calls some candidates refuse to provide this blog with Biographical Information etc. Please see election coverage Page #1 - Presenting - The Candidates.

I, personally, have made up my mind and know whom I am voting for. I could spend all day writing about why the candidates I happen to support are good choices. However, from it's inception, as I have defined it, my personal point of view is not the subject of this blog. The purpose of this blog is to provide a forum for constructive information to be shared between people who have an interest in the local election in the Town of Rochester.

Because we have only received input from candidates of a single major political party, we are faced with a dilemma.

After thinking about it, candidates who refuse to answer simple questions to a local blog are sending out a loud message about how much they respect all members of our community and especially the readers of this blog, who, at last glance, based on the number of hits, have been busy reading what we have presented. Therefore, we have decided to go forward with questions and hopefully the candidates will respect the readers of this blog enough to answer us.

We need your input. Please take a few moments to post some of the questions you would like the candidates to respond to. Please let us know if you would like the Supervisor, Town Council or Town Justice Candidates to answer.

Regardless of whether some candidates post their information or not, we will ask them your questions. The first question has just been sent out - look for the results on Thursday.

Please use the comment button to post your thoughts and questions anonymously. YES, ANONYMOUSLY, just like in the voting booth.

Links:
Presenting - The Candidates

Moderator's Note : We look forward to publishing bio's and profiles from any candidate who may have missed the previous deadline. Please use the e-mail button to contact me and/or click my name to send in your information. TOR2007 --click to e-mail.

Presenting - The Candidates

(unedited, in alphabetical order, by position)

Town Supervisor

Carl Chipman: after several requests, this candidate has not yet submitted biographical information.


Pamela Duke: Mother of two and Grandmother of two, lives in Kerhonkson. First elected to position of Town Supervisor in 2003, re elected in 2005. Personal Statements:

• When I first ran for office, I thought our town government could do a better job helping our residents. I think we have a more business-like attitude and are better equipped to handle the increasingly complex requirements that Towns now have to adhere to. I also thought that it was time to fix our outdated zoning laws. We’ve started the process in Rochester, and I want to work to ensure that it’s done properly.
  

• How do you plan to continue if elected (zoning) and name one thing you may have already initiated that you hope to support and promote even more? We’ve come a long way in the past four years working to address all aspects of growth. We’re the fastest growing town in the county and we have something missing and whether we want it or not, our town is going to grow. With that comes a need for more infrastructure, and potentially higher school taxes. If we want to keep our rural lifestyle, we need to manage that growth and I’m running for re-election to see that process through.
  

• Do you feel you have done an effective job so far and name one are you feel you have been most effective? I think that we’ve done a great job on the Town Board in addressing the future direction of our Town. We’ve improved financial controls and we have opened the dialogue on the direction our Town should go in the future. The decisions we are discussing and making now will have an impact on the shape of our town long after we’re all gone. I think that starting that dialogue is the most important thing that any Supervisor can do.
  

Email Contact for Pam Duke: pamdreal@aol.com

Town Council

Tavi Cilenti: after several requests, this candidate has not yet submitted biographical information.


Francis Gray: Married, lives in Kerhonkson. First elected to Town Board in 2003. Personal Statements:

• We started several positive initiatives during my first term in office and I would like to continue to ensure that they are completed and properly implemented. Each of these is designed to create an environment that is for the benefit of the people of the town as a whole and will help the town for the next half century, including the revised comprehensive plan, the revised zoning and subdivision codes, improved cellular service and wider accessibility to broadband internet service.
  

• I think the Town Board has done a lot to preserve our town’s character and resources for future generations, but the process has been divisive even though we’ve tried to give as many opportunities as possible for people to have input into the process. No body likes change, it can be scary, and the more people keep informed and talk about change together. If our community doesn’t manage change, we’ll be forced to accept whatever the next developer wants to do.
  

• As an elected official you will hear complaints regarding school taxes. Do you support a property tax reform movement and why? You’re right. Town Board has no input in to the formulation of school budgets or the tax levy that the school board passes down onto the town’s property owners. I have been very supportive of the property tax reform movement, and Rochester was one of the initial towns in Ulster County to help this movement move state-wide with the Hudson Valley Property Tax Reform committee that we worked on with neighboring towns. I would definitely work on this to see if we can get a state-wide consensus on changing the way our schools are paid for. Property taxes and other ad valorem taxes are not an equitable way for small communities like ours to pay for education.
  

• How do you plan to continue if elected (zoning) and name one thing you may have already initiated that you hope to support and promote even more? One initiative started that needs to be completed is the installation of the cell towers. This will allow new businesses that require broadband support to locate in Rochester; bring new revenue to the Town’s coffers (minimum of $32,000 annually) to help offset taxes and allow residents in Rochester the opportunity to work nearly anywhere in the world by telecommuting.
  

• Do you feel you have done an effective job so far and name one are you feel you have been most effective? On the Town Board we’ve opened the town to an open discussion shared by all who want to participate so that the town can develop into what the majority of residents want. Access to elected officials is important and I’ve always been willing to talk to anyone on any subject.

Email Contact for Francis Gray: fgray_040302@msn.com


Manuela Michailescu: after several requests, this candidate has not yet submitted biographical information.


Donna Ragonese: Mother of two, Grandmother of three, lives in Kerhonkson. First run for elected office. Personal Statements:

• I participated in the updating of the Comprehensive Plan (for 18 months) and have learned about the challenges facing our town. I would like to continue to be a part of the positive growth and development of our township so that ALL of us may have access to an affordable, comfortable, beautiful, healthy and safe environment.
  

• The first thing we have to do in our town is stop yelling at each other and spend more time listening to each other. There are a lot of things that can be used to divide us, but that won’t help us. In the end, we all need to work together to talk about new ideas – and old ones—that we can work together on to make our community better for our children. If everyone’s concerns are listened to, I think we’ll be able to join together.
  

• As an elected official you will hear complaints regarding school taxes. Do you support a property tax reform movement and why? As a former teacher and through my current activities with Cornell’s cooperative education program and early childhood learning programs in Rochester, education holds a special place in my heart. Good school systems are necessary for holding communities together. Unfortunately, the present way of funding schools is becoming extremely unaffordable for working families, our senior citizens and a large number of others. Something has to be done to ensure that we can provide the best education for our children in a way that is affordable and equitable and I would support any movement that would protect education spending in a fairer and more affordable way.

Email Contact for Donna Ragonese: Donna-marieragonese@msn.com


Town Justice

Albert Babcock III: after several requests, this candidate has not yet submitted biographical information.


Paul Shaheen: Father of three, lives in Kerhonkson. First run for elected office. Personal Statements:

• I think that qualifications matter in our local justice courts. Rochester is a small town, however, there has been an increase in the number and the complexity of the cases that we and other small town courts have seen. I believe that my legal education and 20 years’ experience as a practicing attorney will improve the ability of our local court to deal these cases in a fair and equitable manner and to provide the justice that all our residents deserve.
  

• Do you look at community service as an option when working with those who come before you on legal issues and do you use it. Please provide a comment how you feel it might save taxpayers money? I do believe in community service and alternative sentencing in cases where it’s appropriate. In my law practice, I’ve been in justice courts in a lot of towns around the county and I’ve seen a wide range of practices. I hope to bring my court room and legal experience to Rochester as well as my knowledge of the law to ensure that justice is served impartially and fairly. Community service and other alternative sentencing can save taxpayers money because it can be more effective in putting people on the right track, Incarceration costs tens of thousands of dollars per year and isn’t always in the best interests of the community or the offender.
  

Email Contact for Paul Shaheen: pshaheen@hvc.rr.com


Do you have questions for the candidates? Please post your questions and we will ask the candidates to respond

How do you feel about the upcoming election?

Please use the comment button to post your thoughts anonymously.

Links:
What We Got Here is a Failure to Communicate


Moderator's Note : We look forward to publishing bio's and profiles from any candidate who may have missed the previous deadline. Please use the e-mail button to contact me and/or click my name to send in your information. TOR2007 --click to e-mail.

From Bill Moyers Journal this evening, a discussion about a new book; AMISH GRACE, by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher, about the 2006 killing of five Amish schoolgirls in Nickel Mines, PA...

A year after the killings in Pennsylvania, the old school has been torn down and replaced with one named 'New Hope'.

Three of the surviving five girls are back in class with the same teacher. On October 2 the school was closed and silent for the day, in remembrance.

On the anniversary of their loss, the community once again spoke to the larger world, in a statement saying that 'forgiveness is a journey…you need help from your community of faith and from God, and sometimes even from counselors, to make and hold on to a decision to not become a hostage to hostility.' Hostility, they said, 'destroys community.'

Perhaps this is something that we, especially in the Town of Rochester, can all learn from.

How do you feel about hostility in your community?

Please use the comment button to post your thoughts anonymously.

The Polls are Closed and The Votes are In

Rondout Valley High School Capitol Project

Proposition 1 - Passed

1,714 - Yes / 1,339 - No

Proposition 2 - Failed

1,505- Yes / 1,529 - No

Blog Pages on HS Project Topic: (click links below)

• HS Project Blog Page #1
• HS Project Poll #1
• HS Project Blog Page #2
• HS Project Poll #2

How do you feel about the High School Capital Project Proposition Vote outcome?

Please use the comments button to post your thoughts anonymously.

Rondout HS Project Poll #2

What is wrong with the Rondout HS Project?
The scope is too large for our needs.	48% (12)
It does not have enough 'green' features.	8% (2)
The district will allow it to deterioriate like in the past.	0% (0)
The district only listens to the builders, not the taxpayers.	0% (0)
The district should use up all the excess fund balance to pay for it.	20% (5)
Nothing is wrong, I love it!	24% (6)
Total number of votes is 25.