Town supers near the finish line

With
the primaries safely in the past, most Rochester-area suburban elections are
over before they’re over. Whoever was lucky enough to win the Republican
endorsement can coast.

            But there are still some town
elections worth watching — because a particular primary turned the tables, or
because a race involves issues that may resonate beyond the town.

            A few local supervisor races
illustrate the principle.

Gates may be Monroe
County’s smallest town geographically, but with more than 29,000 residents,
it’s larger in population than Brighton. So it’s not surprising there are three
ballot lines in the supervisor race. But there are only two candidates, and
only one of the big parties, on the ballot.

            Ralph Esposito, a 13-year incumbent,
has the Republican and Conservative lines. “I’ve only run against a
Democrat twice,” he says. “I generally run unopposed.”

            Esposito waxes proud about his
record. He cites the “stature” he’s achieved through service on the
Monroe County Council of Governments, for example. He says he’s one of two COG
members who’ve worked with the Rump Group, an activist committee of local
business leaders. “I think you’re going to see more consolidations,”
Esposito says. Here he’s talking about intermunicipal agreements, not about
combining governments.

            “I try to broker deals all the
time,” he says, moving to economic development. He points to the Westside
YMCA’s move to Gates, and to his success in drawing tenants to the
8-million-square-foot Rochester Technology Park. He says he’s also helped
create new public parks, like one at Westgate installed by the Benderson
development firm.

            What about Gates’s plans for the
future? Is the town working on its master plan? “Maybe sometime we’d need
to get around to that,” Esposito says. It’s not a priority, he says, in a
town that’s 95 percent developed. So what are the
priorities? Rather, he says, town government must concentrate on the essentials
— “clean the roads, pave the roads” — and maintain the quality of
life.

            Sue Swanton, the retired director of
the Gates town library, is running on the Working Families Party line. She puts
emphasis on planning. The current master plan, she says, dates from 1974 and
badly needs updating. “I agree there is not a lot of vacant land in the
town,” she says. But she notes the town has some vacant plazas and other
properties that need attention. “Obviously,” she says, “the town
of Gates is out of kilter” in regard to planning.

            “Ralph and I are only a week
apart in age,” says Swanton, “but we’re a generation apart in how we
use technology.” The town government’s website is “shallow,” she
says. She promises to upgrade the Internet resources with the expertise she
gleaned as a librarian. But she also talks low-tech — about improving the
town’s pedestrian amenities, including a now-neglected stretch of the Erie
Canal trail.

            Saying she gets a good “Tier
1″ public pension, Swanton pledges not to take her supervisor’s salary.
“I don’t double dip,” she says.

            For many candidates, the Working
Families endorsement is a dual back-up: It makes a name more visible on the
ballot, and it confirms that the candidate is liberal and pro-labor. But for
Swanton, the line is a lifesaver, since she didn’t get the signatures necessary
to win the Democratic Party line.

Next door in
Chili,
the supervisor race has come down, you might say, to two and a half
candidacies.

            County legislator Tracy Logel has
the advantageous perch of the Republican line. Democrat Jason Elliotto, who has
the Working Families Party line as well, has mounted a reformist campaign in
this, his second run for supervisor. Last time around, Elliotto nearly beat
incumbent Steve Hendershott, who’s running for re-election on the Independence
and Conservative lines. (Hendershott’s loss to Logel in the Republican primary
hurt his chances, and he’s reportedly not campaigning actively. He did not
return our call for comment, nor did he return calls before the primary.)

            What’s Logel’s message? “Taxes,
taxes, taxes. People want to see that change,” she says. “I truly
believe that government is too intrusive; we need less government,” she
says, adding we can’t “give away the store.”

            On the other hand, Logel attacks
Hendershott’s “style of government” and vows to improve citizens’
access to public meetings. She’s concerned about the town’s trajectory, too.
“We have a master plan, but there seem to be so many deviations,” she
told us before the primary.” I don’t want another Ridge Road [here]…”

            Elliotto — whom Logel attacks as
inexperienced — says it’s “time for a change in leadership.” A
Holley police sergeant for 10 years now, Elliotto cut his teeth in town
politics with the No Exit group, which fought a plan to build a new Thruway
exit on Route 259 in the town’s southern tier. Aside from its environmental and
quality-of-life objections to the plan, the group complained that decisions
were being made behind closed doors.

            “We have been talking about
open government for years,” says Elliotto, “and they [i.e. Hendershott
and Logel] have been part of the problem. In 12 years, she [Logel] never
advocated for these changes.” He faults Logel both for initially
advocating the Thruway exit, then “flip-flopping” when opposition
gelled. He also charges Logel is seeking the post mostly because she’ll soon be
term-limited out the county legislature.

            Elliotto would create “three
new programs”: a “bipartisan economic development committee,” a
budget-review committee with citizen representation, and a “board of
ethics review.”

The town of
Hamlin may be seeing an electoral upheaval, the kind of things that could spread to
other Republican domains.

            A Hamlin Democratic Party slate is
going after these posts: supervisor, town justice, and two town council seats.
The Dems also have formed an “All Hamlin” party to offset the
Conservative Party.

            The current town leadership is
“a pretty exclusive group,” says Democratic supervisor candidate
Peter Tonery, a former city resident who’s lived in Hamlin for 16 years.

            “We feel they are stuck in an
outdated view of what the community is,” says Tonery, who’s actually a
registered independent. Hamlin, he says, is no longer “a farming community
where [most] people make their living off the land.” The leadership, he
says, is “under-representing” the large majority of residents, who
are commuters.

            As for town operations, Tonery
targets what he calls “old, inflexible zoning regulations.”
Development patterns, he says, are dictated by the layout of sewer districts,
and this makes zoning reform that much more important. He would strike a
balance: providing “good quality homes” and services for the new wave
of residents, while “helping the farmers by putting greater restrictions
on other [i.e. agricultural] areas.”

            Tonery also is looking at revenue
streams. He charges Hamlin is now “burdened” with a 25-year
communications-tower contract that won’t pay enough back to the town.

Cyberspace is playing a role in the
election, too. Tonery got under some town officials’ skin with an irreverent
blog (www.hamlin-ny.blogspot.com/). He insists the blog is separate from his
official campaign, though it’s obviously part of the public record.

            Incumbent Austin Warner III, who
fought off a primary challenge from fellow Republican and one-time ally Ed
Evans, did not return a call for comment. (For background, see “Primary
personalities,” City Newspaper,
August 27, via www.rochester-citynews.com.)

The Penfield
supervisor race is an intriguing footnote.

            In the September primary for the
Republican nod, George Wiedemer, a businessperson and county legislator, turned
the tables on longtime incumbent supervisor and retired Kodak executive
Channing Philbrick. So now Wiedemer, who also has the Independence line, has a
distinct advantage over Philbrick, who’s left with only the Conservative line.

            Philbrick acknowledges he’s
“not aggressively campaigning” — “I’m sharing the things I’ve
done over the last 10 years,” he says. “There still are only two
names on the ballot,” he says.

            He quickly turns to town business.
Penfield still affords “growth opportunities,” he says. Yet the town
“really isn’t changing,” he says. “We’re basically a residential
community.” Ninety-two percent of the town, he says, is zoned residential.
“We’re well into our open-space program,” says Philbrick. He cites
the need, too, for a Bay-Creek-Empire “area plan” to deal with
commercial development.

            All in all, 2004 will be “a
tight budget year” for the town, says Philbrick. “Just operating next
year,” he says, “will be a demanding process.”

            Things look good from Wiedemer’s
position. “I’m on two ballot lines; we think our chances are pretty
good,” he says.

            Wiedemer says that since the
primary, he’s been spending time getting to know more of his future
constituents. “Our platform remains intact,” he says. “Spending
issues… in every department” are top priorities, he says. “I don’t
have any specific department in mind. I do say this: We’ll be looking at more
partnering with towns and school districts in the area.” He says there are
opportunities to share heavy equipment, for example.

            Penfield is “in pretty good
shape financially,” Wiedemer concludes. “The town has been pretty
fiscally conservative. They’ve had a healthy reserve.”

Election
411

Polls
will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, November 4. For more
information, call the Monroe County Board of Elections at 428-4550 or visit www.monroecounty.gov and link to “Board of
Elections.”

To
view City Newspaper‘s profiles of the
Democratic candidates for Rochester City School Board, visit:

www.rochester-citynews.com/gbase/Gyrosite/Content?oid=oid%3A2071

The
rest of our pre-election coverage can be found in our news archives at:

www.rochester-citynews.com/gbase/Gyrosite/Archive?searchPhrase=&section=oid%3A1132&category=&releaseDate=

Following
is a list of the website addresses for various candidates running for public
office:

Maggie
Brooks, candidate for county executive:

www.monroegop.com/frame_set.htm?hotraces.htm~mainFrame

Bill
Johnson, candidate for county executive:

www.billjohnson2003.com

Mike
Green, candidate for District Attorney:

www.mikegreen4da.com/

Ann
Marie Taddeo, candidate for District Attorney:

www.monroegop.com/docs/ann_marie_taddeo_brochure.pdf

Jason
Crane, candidate for City Council:

www.jasoncrane.org

This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2003.