The
mayor and the schools
Given the
city’s fiscal challenges, would you favor more city
funding for the CitySchool
District?
While
we clearly have fiscal challenges, the first thing I want to do is get in and establish
a series of systems that’ll focus on not only performance but efficiencies,
trying to save money wherever we can. I will work closely with the school
district, the superintendent, the School Board, the teachers, to ensure not
only that the city provides the funding that we should provide, but also that
the district receives the state funding it requires.
I’m
going to be very intimately involved with the issue of accountability, that
there is a return for every dollar invested, and I’m focused very clearly on
student performance, test scores, student behavior, graduation rates, and
workforce preparation. I believe in establishing very clear goals and measures,
measuring what we do and measuring our accomplishments based upon our
investments and our inputs. I expect the same from the school district.
I
have proposed the Superintendent’s Leadership Council. I’m not proposing any
additional level of bureaucracy; it is a belief system that I have to bring
together the mayor, the county executive, the head of the Rump Group and the Boulé Group, our unions, especially our teachers union, the
United Way president, other community leaders, and clearly define with the
superintendent what the goals are, what the measures will be for success, and
then ensuring that as a community we get behind the district.
What about
having the superintendent report to the mayor?
I
disagree with the proposal to have the mayor appoint a superintendent and have
the School Board handle just the fiscal end. I’m going to be a mayor that’s
going to work with, in partnership, the school district. I have a deep
ingrained belief that I can be at the table with Superintendent Rivera, with
everybody that I just mentioned, and to define the path that will elevate the
performance of the school system.
Are you saying
that the district hasn’t done as good a job as it should?
I
think that the district faces a lot of challenges, and it would be unfair to
place every bit of blame on the school district, because so many issues the
district faces are outside their control. I think an example of that was the Newsweek article that rated Wilson
Magnet the 27th best high school in the country. Column two in that article had
the percentage of children who required subsidized breakfasts and lunches. I
think it was 80 percent; that was the highest number of any school rated, so of
the 100 top-rated schools, our kids are the poorest but also can perform at a
level with anybody. They are smart, but we have to do some things to ensure
that some of the other factors that they face are addressed.
So you put
together your group and you all set some goals, and you say, “We want the
school district achievement level to grow by this much in the next three
years.” If at the end of the three years they’re not there, what would you do?
I
would first identify why we weren’t there. Number two, I would identify which
programs and steps worked and which ones did not.
But isn’t that
the superintendent’s job?
It
is. It is. But in light of the investment that the city would make, I would
feel that there would be a great sharing of information and a great working
relationship, and that’s what I would establish. But before I would ever say
I’m going to reduce funding, I would look at what works. And I would perhaps
insist on redirecting city funds to those areas that showed performance
increases. An example is the Hillside Work-Scholarship program.
Are you
suggesting that the mayor — or this outside group — would tell the school
district where it should spend the money the city provides?
My
thought process is that we would be such a partnership to improve education
that by the sheer will and the way in which it would operate, it would be a
natural progression to be focusing on those areas of success. I look at it more
as helping and assisting the school district and the superintendent, not
operating against them.
My
view of the future is to really have the types of resources,
the types of support systems helping the school district to do everything it
can to achieve the successes. I’m a full supporter of Manny Rivera’s Children’s
Zone proposal. Those are the kinds of efforts that I believe need to be
supported and measured.
Would you
support it with city money?
Yes,
I would. I would support that and seek other outside support as well. That
proposal tries to impact the challenges that our children face outside of
school: health care, economics, and it realizes how it’s connected to the
educational process.
One
thing that I’d just throw in here: One thing I would insist on is for us to
take a whole different look at the middle-school system, and further define why we are losing so many of these kids. Why do the
test scores drop down at these ages? Why do we see the dropout rate continue to
go up, or at least not improve in some respects?
Again that
seems like the superintendent’s job.
Well,
it’s the superintendent’s job, but I think part of this council’s role is to
bring other resources together to help the superintendent. It’s no different
than I’m proposing on the economic development end, for the city to have this
economic development team that will advise me, help me to create a business
plan for the city.
Are you
satisfied with the financial reporting that the district gives to City Hall?
I’m
at a disadvantage in terms of not reviewing those documents. What I do know is
that the comptroller’s office did look at the financial practices of the
district and gave them a pretty strong, pretty positive report card. What I
have seen over many, many years is that there have been tensions between the
school district, School Board, city government, county government. I’m going to
make sure I am at the table with all the appropriate people, getting all the
data, having a great team of advisors.
Money
problems
Rochester receives disproportionately less state aid than some other
cities. Why?
I
honestly don’t know, but I will give you an opinion that I see from
observations that I’ve made. We have a political divisiveness here that impacts
our citizens. There are too often positions taken that benefit a small number
at the expense of our entire community. There has to be a different focus.
One
of the things I want to bring to the table is a different thinking politically.
We should be a unified force in Albany for Rochester, a unified
force in Washington. We have to
make sure that Rochester receives
everything that it deserves, and that those funds are spent wisely.
You’ve
asked before about my lack of “political experience.” I’m convinced more than
ever it is a plus, because I have worked with every elected official here in
some capacity and I’ve gotten along with everybody. My strength is to be able
to get consensus at the table. I will not go up to the microphone and throw
grenades and insults and attacks at somebody. I will close the door and come to
their office to try and fix things.
What
consolidations, if any, would you advocate between city and county government?
I
would look first of all to start building trust with the county: Let’s look at
projects that we could examine. For years the water authority’s been one, civil
service, administrative positions. I’m not going to commit to a decision on any
one of those, but I want to sit with the county executive and look at where we
can start. And if there is a fear of consolidation, let’s start to build trust
by showing that with certain things we do together successfully, we can save
money for both the city and the county and we can redirect those resources
elsewhere. And we start a progression in that partnership.
The
bigger entities — policing — they are hot-button issues, but I think the
big consolidations that may happen in the future won’t be driven politically.
They’ll be driven financially.
Would you
support merging the city and county economic development efforts?
I
would never turn my back on a proposal that would benefit the citizens of the
city of Rochester, so I would
be open to discussion to that. But more importantly I would not want to
duplicate current efforts. Perhaps a better answer would be to say, city and
county put their resources behind the Greater Rochester Enterprise and look at
just a single point of contact. What I want to eliminate are duplications of
services that could be consolidated and duplications of costs.
How will you
deal with the city’s fiscal constraints?
The
first thing I would look at is going through all of our operations and ensuring
that we create a series of economies. I think there are a lot of opportunities
for cost saving. To me, tax increases are an absolute last resort, because we
do not want to drive people out.
As
we develop downtown and neighborhoods and when we get vacant homes back on the
tax rolls, we have a chance to start on a path to create wealth. Developing
along the waterfront… it’s taking advantage of a lot of resources that we have.
Shaping
City Hall
How will your
administration be different from the Bill Johnson administration?
I
would like to rethink some of the ways we are structured and look for
opportunities for organizational changes that would help us to streamline our
customer services, make us more customer friendly, and become both more
effective and efficient. I’m looking at ways of aligning departments based on
functionality and trying to streamline the structure.
I
intend to implement an initiative called Rochester by the Numbers, which
focuses on establishing very clear-cut goals and having measures attached to
those goals, and then by virtue of a weekly meeting having each department head
report on their progress with each one of those goals — tracking their
progress on a weekly basis to ensure that by each week, month, year we are
staying totally focused on our mission, and establishing a sense of
accountability from top to bottom. I employed a very similar process called CrimeStat in the Rochester Police Department.
The
whole science of how government functions is really important to me. I’ve seen
where changes that a leader can put into effect can have a profound impact on
services. I’ll point to the CrimeStat effort in the
police department. It was not an overly popular model with certain commanding
officers, but I can assure you that their level of performance went up
dramatically starting in the first year and continuing, because they became so
adept at fully understanding what was going on in their respective sections.
They had a plan in place to address those issues and they were constantly
reporting out on the progress in their goals with crime reduction and quality
of life issues.
What’s your
vision of your role as mayor? Are you the public face? The
top administrator?
It’s
both. It is the CEO and administrator as well as the public face for
government, which to me is the only way the next mayor can effectively run the
government. My goal would be to hire the best possible talent that I could find
to fill every top position in city government. It’d be a formality for every
department head and bureau head to submit their resignations at the end of the
current administration. I would have a transition team review all of the current
staff as well as other applicants inside or outside of government. My goal is
to identify the brightest, most committed, passionate men and women that I can
find.
I
don’t want to be behind a desk. I want to be out in City Hall and out in the
community and in touch with what we are doing and what the issues are. But I
also will not micromanage. I believe that if we find and identify the right
talent for each position and the accountability is established, I won’t have to
micromanage.
When
I was at the police department I would work in each patrol section for a week
at a time, for the first few years. I rode a bike, I rode in police cars. I
attended hundreds and hundreds of neighborhood meetings. I believe in
face-to-face contact with people who work in government and the people who we
are serving. And I intend to do that as mayor.
Some of the
other candidates have emphasized their political background as a strength. Are you concerned about having the contacts and ability
to work with the county, the state and federal delegations?
I
have a track record of working very well with elected officials as well as a
long line of very strong relationships on both sides of the aisle in Washington, in Albany, and here.
Project Impact offered tremendous opportunities to partner with the governor’s
office and his staff, locally with the sheriff’s department and the state
police, the county executive’s office.
I’ve
worked with or around almost all the elected officials, and it really comes
down to relationships. I also have a reputation for following through and for
returning phone calls, and ensuring that those partnerships stay intact. I
can’t think of an elected official at any level where I’ve had anything but a
very strong relationship with over the past 13 years. What I don’t bring to the
table is the political bickering and baggage that some elected officials may
have already in place.
And
here’s an advantage that I also believe that I bring to the table: I am not
looking at this as a stepping stone or as a start of a long political career. I
am so focused on being here to serve the city of Rochester that
everything that I do will be for the benefit of 220,000 people in this city. To
some candidates, politics has been their life. For me, public service has been
my life.
What’s the
role of the mayor within the structure of the Democratic Party?
If
I’m elected mayor, I will fully accept the responsibilities relative to the
Democratic Party. If elected, it is my intention to help recruit outstanding
candidates for the future, help to financially support those candidates, and
look to strengthen the Democratic Party through providing great government. I
believe that we are at a crossroads. We have an opportunity to rethink how we should
be acting politically and how political leadership should behave in the future.
In the past, political divisiveness has often been at the core of the problems
that we have experienced here in Rochester and MonroeCounty.
What’s your
position on open government?
I
believe in open, honest government at all levels. I believe that the doors
should be open, and — barring any legal impediments such as personnel records
and personnel histories — it is my expectation that the citizens of this city
will have full access to information, full access to anything that would not be
legally prohibited.
I
have a pretty good record as a police chief of not dodging the tough questions,
providing information at scenes or elsewhere. Providing information is a basic
foundation of building trust.
This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2005.
