News briefs 9.17.03

‘Prime’ numbers

A couple Monroe County towns fired their leaders last week.

            In Chili, incumbent supervisor Steve
Hendershott lost to County Legislator Tracy Logel in the Republican primary, 1,207 to 815. Hendershott goes
on to the general election on the Conservative and Independence lines, but
insists he won’t campaign.

            Likewise, Channing Philbrick lost
his bid to remain Penfield supervisor. Legislator George Wiedemer took the
Republican endorsement away from Philbrick, 1,556 to 1,446.

            A third legislator, Jack Driscoll,
also sought to unseat a long-term Republican supervisor, but failed. Driscoll
lost to Jim Breese, 1,449 to 1,066.

            In Hamlin, Republican Supervisor
Austin Warner III defeated challenger Ed Evans, 472 to 334.

            There were four contenders for the
Conservative endorsement in the race for two Chili Town Board seats. Michael
Slattery and Virginia Ignatowski defeated David Burns and David Harris. The
count was: Slattery, 69; Ignatowski, 60; Burns, 55; and Harris, 54.

            In the Democratic primary for City
Court judge, John Schwartz and Jack Elliott defeated Marjorie Burns. By the
numbers: Schwartz, 5,273; Elliott, 4,605; and Burns, 2,608.

            There are four seats open on the
Rochester City School Board this year. Seven contenders competed in a
Democratic primary. The winners were David Perez with 4,336 votes; Shirley
Thompson with 4,226; Malik Evans, 4,086; and Willa Powell, 3,557. The nearest
challenger was Glenny Williams with 3,060 votes.

            The election results will be
finalized this week.

            Countywide, about 29 percent of
registered Republicans voted in the suburban primaries. Approximately 12
percent of registered Democrats voted in the city elections.

Inquiry
interrupted

The
District Attorney’s office has been
granted a breather by the Monroe County Legislature.

            Two years ago, the Lej asked DA
Howard Relin for a report explaining the alleged failure of his office to
effectively prosecute more than 4,000 felony cases. The cases, according to
Republican legislator Mark Assini, were subject to speedy-trial dismissals
because they weren’t prosecuted within the six-month time limit mandated by
law.

            Assini and Relin clashed at a Lej
subcommittee meeting earlier this month — Assini calling the DA on the carpet
for his failure to issue the requested report or even to keep the Lej updated.
Relin accused Assini of trying to tarnish the DA’s office in an election year.

            Assini’s proposal to create a
special three-member committee to investigate the DA’s office was tabled by the
full Lej in a party-line vote last week. The Democrats’ vote against tabling
the proposal was symbolic — it should be permanently scrapped, they said.
Democrat Stephanie Aldersley called Assini’s gesture “gracious.”

            Assini withdrew his proposal in
order to give the Lej time to review a state commission report on the matter
— issued days before the meeting — and because Relin has agreed to issue
his own report to the Lej by September 21.

            Although the State Commission of
Investigation said it “has not uncovered any serious misconduct in the handling
of pending felony cases” by the DA, Assini says troubling questions remain
about the management of the office.

            His motivation is not political,
Assini says, and he will continue to pursue the matter, if necessary, beyond
the November election — regardless of the party affiliation of the office
holder.

            “I just want to get this cleared up
and there is a problem,” he says.

            His proposal may be back in front of
the Lej by October.

            Meanwhile, the Democratic caucus
issued a press release last week, calling on Governor George Pataki and the
state Lej to pass a law preventing the backlog of closed felony cases in
district attorneys’ offices.

            The state commission’s report is
online at www.sic.state.ny.us. Link to “public reports.”

Fire
sale

Monroe
County will sell 28 acres — two parcels — of the IOLA Campus at public auction. The sale was approved in a
party-line vote at last week’s County Legislature meeting.

            The IOLA land, partially in the city
and partially in Brighton near Westfall and East Henrietta roads, has strong
potential as an industrial-commercial site because of its proximity to major
roads and highways.

            Democrats blasted the sale, accusing
the GOP of dumping two prime parcels at bargain-basement prices in order to
caulk the county’s fractured finances.

            “It’s a one-time fix,” said Democrat
Stephanie Polowe Aldersley. “It’s a way of avoiding making the hard choices we
have to make to balance the county budget.”

            Waiting for better economic times
might help the county fetch a higher price for the land, Aldersley said.

            Republicans countered that the
county has been planning to sell the land for several years, and holding an
auction is the way to get the best price. The county will not accept a sale
price below the appraised value. If bids come in below that value, it will not
sell.

            The land that the current juvenile
detention center sits on and a reserved site for a new juvenile justice center
will be excluded from the sale.

Gotta
run

Monroe County
legislators know how to clear a room.

            After hotly debating dog parks, a
land sale, and controversy in the DA’s office at a meeting last week, the
Legislature decided enough was enough and approved the remaining 20-plus agenda
items in bulk. Moved, seconded, and we’re-outta-here.

            The action was moved by Legislator
Bill Smith, a Republican, and seconded by Democrat Stephanie Aldersley — a
bipartisan effort to get home in time to watch primary election returns roll
in. Who says lawmakers can’t agree on the tough issues?

            It’s not a coincidence that it was
primary election night and the political futures of legislators Tracy Logel,
George Wiedemer, and Jack Driscoll were all being decided. Logel and Wiedemer
challenged incumbent supervisors in Chili and Penfield, respectively, for the
GOP endorsement and won. Driscoll lost the Henrietta primary to longtime
supervisor Jim Breese.

            Early dismissal is not
unprecedented, according to Lej President Dennis Pelletier, and the public
isn’t short-changed by this form of abbreviated democracy.

            “There was nothing contentious,” he
says. “The rest [of the agenda items] were pretty routine. They went through
committee unanimously.”

Correcting
ourselves

In
last week’s Metro Ink, we wrote that Forrest Cummings’ jazz show on WGMC (90.1
and 105.1 F.M.) airs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. The show actually airs on
Sundays from 5 to 7 p.m.

This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2003.