Let the games begin

It
was an interesting chain of events. Last Monday, July 7, City Newspaper received a press release from the Maggie Brooks for
County Executive campaign committee. A press conference was scheduled for
Tuesday, at which the county clerk and representatives from the Rochester
Broadway Theater League would make “an important announcement about a community
project that will preserve and enhance the performing arts in Monroe County.”

            But what does the county clerk’s
office have to do with “the performing arts in Monroe County”? And why didn’t
the RBTL itself send out a press release on this important announcement?

            So we went to the press conference
the next day. And there was Brooks, along with RBTL President Don Jeffries and
RBTL Chairman of the Board Arnie Rothschild.

            The announcement: Thanks to Brooks,
Governor George Pataki approved a $1 million grant from the Empire State
Development Corporation to the RBTL. The money will be used by RBTL to acquire
the Auditorium Theatre from its owners, Raymond and William Saucke.

            In addition to purchasing the
theater, the RBTL will begin a $2.5 million renovation financed by a loan
through HSBC, which will be paid off by ticket sales.

            A press release issued the same day
by the Maggie Brooks campaign committee said this was all part of Brooks’ “$3.5
million plan to renovate the historic structure at no cost for local
taxpayers.”

            Quoted in the same release was
Jeffries: “The key element that allows us to move forward with this project is
a $1 million grant from the State of New York that was secured by Maggie
Brooks. Without Maggie’s efforts on our behalf, this project would still be
just another dream on a shelf somewhere.”

So what,
exactly, did Brooks do to “secure” this $1 million grant? She wrote a letter to
Governor Pataki over a year ago, on June 21, 2002. In the letter, she lists all
of the economic and cultural reasons why the governor should support the RBTL’s
request for financial assistance from the state.

            Sending a letter like this appears
to be a unique move for a county clerk. Especially considering it was sent well
before Brooks announced her candidacy for county executive. But, as Brooks said
during an interview a day after the press conference, she has a long-standing
relationship with the RBTL, both as a patron and as somebody whose daughters
have benefited from RBTL’s outreach programs.

            Besides, she said, “You’d be amazed
by the things people ask me to become involved in.”

            “There are two pieces to my job,”
she said. “There’s the governmental piece, which is my role as county clerk and
what I do in this office. Then there’s the broader piece as a countywide
elected official. I represent everyone in Monroe County. And people come to me
for a lot of issues that don’t relate to what I do here in the clerk’s office.
And that kind of leads in to the political piece of what I do. When people
call, I try and connect them to folks who will listen or advocate for them.
It’s something I feel I can do effectively.”

            “The letter,” she says, “brought the
issue to [Pataki’s] attention. This was one case where we were successful.”

            Don Jeffries, also contacted the day
after the announcement, said RBTL never asked Brooks to lobby on its behalf. He
also said there’s no way of telling how much of an impact Brooks’ letter had on
the governor, since RBTL was doing its own lobbying in Albany as well.

            According to Brooks, she was simply
aware of the RBTL’s need to have a viable Broadway performance space while the
debate over a new Performing Arts Center continues.

            So Brooks had the pleasure of being
the bearer of good news, as the PAC process continues at its achingly slow
pace.

            But perhaps she has more than the
governor to thank for the opportunity.

            In the year 2002 alone, the RBTL’s
Arnie Rothschild donated $25,500 to the Monroe County Republican Committee. His
total donations for the same year to the Dems? 0.

This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2003.