Consolidating logic

The next exec:
The second in an occasional series of articles addressing issues related to the
2003 Monroe County Executive race.

Call
it political Fear Factor.

            A year ago, County Executive Jack
Doyle convened three public forums to discuss the concept of consolidating
local governments and school districts. The forums were inspired by remarks
Mayor Bill Johnson had made in his 2002 State of the City address a month
earlier.

            In his May 21, 2002, report on the
forums, submitted to the Council of Governments, Doyle wrote that Johnson had
“called for ‘systemic change’ to our present structure of government,” during
the address, had “derided what he called the ‘costly duplication of local
governments’ and held out Louisville’s metro government model as an example our
community should emulate.”

            “Johnson described the 30
municipalities and 18 school districts in Monroe County as a ‘luxury,'” Doyle
wrote, “and suggested we would be better off with countywide schools and fewer
local governments.”

            As his report on the forums makes
clear, Doyle is no fan of the metro government approach. In particular, he’s
concerned that such consolidation would make government less accountable and
responsive to citizens.

            So why go through the trouble of
holding public forums on the idea? “I believed it was important for the public
to have the opportunity to discuss the merits of Mayor Johnson’s arguments,”
Doyle wrote.

            On this point, at least, the
Democratic mayor and the Republican county exec — notorious political foes
— can agree. But you still can’t help but wonder if Doyle had an ulterior
motive in holding the forums. Johnson certainly thinks so.

            The letter Doyle sent to community
leaders and town and school officials announcing the forums “was very
frightening, very ominous,” Johnson says. “It says, [paraphrasing] ‘As you
know, Mayor Johnson wants to take over your town and your village and your
school district. You need to come out here to this public hearing and express
your concern about that.'”

            A year later, as Johnson begins his
campaign for county executive against Republican County Clerk Maggie Brooks,
political observers expect Johnson’s interest in consolidation to be a major
issue. And many of those same observers, especially Democrats, expect the
Brooks campaign to foster a fear that should Johnson win the race, people will
soon lose the unique towns, villages, and school districts they treasure.

            “There is no question that the
Republican campaign strategy is to promote fear by telling people, over and
over again, that Bill Johnson, if he were elected county exec, would create a
county-wide consolidated school district and metropolitan government,
essentially obliterating all of the existing towns, villages, and school
districts,” says Brighton Town Supervisor Sandy Frankel, a Democrat.

            “Nothing could be farther from the
truth,” Frankel says, “but that doesn’t mean that fear factor isn’t real.”

Penfield Town
Supervisor Channing Philbrick, a Republican, recalls a day a few
years ago after Johnson made a relatively vague statement endorsing a regional
approach to government.

            “He mentioned school systems,”
Philbrick says, “and, boy, I got calls the very next day. Several residents
called and just wanted to be sure I was aware they were adamant about any
change in the school systems. I think that may have been a knee-jerk reaction,
but I know that was a real quick one.”

            Philbrick says he was able to
assuage the callers’ fears that the mayor of Rochester could make changes to
the town’s school district. This year, Philbrick may be in the position of
explaining that a county executive couldn’t alter Penfield’s schools, either.

            “I think most people don’t
appreciate [that] the mayor or any one elected official really couldn’t do
this,” Philbrick says of school consolidation.

            Indeed, local legislators and town
leaders of both parties know that a county executive could not single-handedly
do much of anything to alter the county’s current system of government or its
school districts.

            “If people are worried that any one
individual, as executive, can come in and abolish their town or merge school
districts — that can’t happen,” says long-time County Legislator Kevin
Murray, a Democrat.

            Johnson himself stresses his
inability to merge governments or districts. “No one person — the governor,
the president, the pope, and certainly the county executive — has that kind
of power,” he says. However, he adds, “I think that’s precisely the fear that
[the Republicans] are raising, and the facts absolutely controvert that.”

            Merging towns or school districts
would be a very complex, contentious, and lengthy process, Johnson and others
say. Such mergers require state legislation — in some cases, amendments to
the state constitution — and public votes or referenda. Even the
smaller-scale merging of government services “requires cooperation between a
lot of entities, including both political parties,” Murray says. “And that
requires certain skills that we haven’t seen in recent years.”

Republican
County Legislator Mike Hanna knows that a county executive could
not unilaterally merge school districts. However, he says, “I think people
should be concerned about it, absolutely, because [Johnson’s] preached
consolidation for a number of years.

            “If I lived in Brighton, for
example, that would be one of the first school districts that he probably would
like to consolidate with the city of Rochester,” Hanna says. “That would be a
concern of mine.”

            That’s not a concern Frankel,
Brighton’s supervisor, shares. “I don’t believe that the people of Brighton
want a consolidated, county-wide school district,” she says. “But neither does
Bill Johnson.”

            “I don’t think the people of
Brighton need to worry that Bill Johnson would try to consolidate their school
district,” she adds. “My conversations with him indicate that is not something
he is promoting or advocating.”

            Johnson says people have approached
him during his campaign asking about his consolidation plan, but he says to
respond to that question “is to fall into a trap, because that means that one
person is trying to set the tone and set the terms of this debate.

            “I’m not gonna do that,” he adds.
First, he says, the community must reach consensus that consolidation is worth
studying. Study groups and reports would follow, followed by more public
discussion.

            Which brings up another of Hanna’s
concerns. He says Johnson’s interest in consolidation may not lead to merged
school districts, “but it could possibly be something that would be a waste of
a lot of someone’s time, when there are other pressing issues that we face.”

This article appears in May 7-13, 2003.