News Blog

Yesterday's news that Nelson Rivera, Monroe County's chief information officer, had resigned set off a new wave of speculation about the grand jury investigation taking place into county-linked local development corporations.

The history is complicated, and county spokesperson Justin Feasel wouldn't say why Rivera resigned. He'd only confirm that Rivera stepped down on October 9.

Two county LDCs are thought to be at the center of a grand jury investigation by the state Attorney General's Office and the FBI. And those investigations are thought to be based on critical audits from the state Comptroller's Office.

Each year, Environmental Advocates of New York scores state legislators on their environmental voting records and yesterday, the group released this year's rankings. The marks are based on legislators' votes on a selection of environmental bills, including fracking moratorium measures, brownfield tax credit reform bills, climate change legislation, and a measure to corral wild boars. 

In a press release, the organization said that the Senate had a generally lousy record of dealing with environmental bills, while the Assembly did a much better job. It gave its annual Oil Slick Award to Senate Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein, saying that "he prevented common-sense legislation from making its way through the legislative process; he refused to stop the rollback of hard-fought protections from coming to the floor; and he voted in support of bad bills." A spokesperson for Klein in turn called EANY and its supporters the "tea party of the left."

A group of local community leaders and children's advocates are calling on the state to raise the age for teen offenders to be tried as adults. The group is part of the statewide Raise the Age campaign. 

New York is one of two states — North Carolina is the other — where 16-year-old offenders are tried as adults, unless the judge says otherwise. Group members say that they want the state to increase the threshold to 18. 

Melanie Hartzog, executive director of Children's Defense Fund — New York, said at a press conference this morning at the Center for Youth on Monroe Avenue, that the state is needlessly saddling youth with criminal records before they finish high school.

Hartzog, who was one of several speakers, said that imprisoning young offenders doesn't improve public safety. Instead, the state is missing out on an opportunity to rehabilitate youth through alternatives available through the juvenile justice system, she said.

I get why Lovely Warren, the Democratic candidate for Rochester mayor, wouldn’t want to debate her Green Party opponent, Alex White. Warren says that, instead, she intends to focus on door to door interactions with citizens — the kind of  grassroots campaigning that won her the Democratic endorsement. 

Warren’s ground game has been so successful – earning her a primary victory over a heavily favored rival – it makes sense that she’d want to keep grinding her way to the November 5 goal line.

And by agreeing to debate, you’re essentially conferring status and credibility on your opponents — acknowledging them as equals. Third parties are still fighting for mainstream acceptance and it’s better, strategically, for Warren to keep White on the outer banks.

It reminds me of something I noticed in the last election cycle: candidates refusing to come in for endorsement interviews because they’d “chosen not to seek an endorsement.” (This doesn’t apply to Warren, who was generous with her time during the primary.)

That’s not the point.

The point i s that people seeking public office have a responsibility to subject themselves to a thorough vetting by the public. And the media, in most cases, are acting as the public’s representatives. People can decide for themselves whether or not they agree with that particular outlet’s conclusions. Ideally, voters are consulting several sources and arriving at an individual, informed opinion.

Warren needs to put herself in a place where her ideas and plans are challenged. If they’re worthwhile, they’ll hold up.

The Union of Concerned Scientists recently released a couple of publications that should be of interest to anyone with questions about the ongoing fracking debate.

The organization hasn't taken a position on fracking, though drilling companies would probably say that the UCS is against it. Instead, it's focused on helping the public ask critical and relevant questions on the technique. And as an organization, UCS is very concerned about climate change, so it tends to frame oil and gas drilling in that context.

One of the publications is a report aimed at helping the public find reliable and useful sources of information about fracking. "Toward an Evidence-Based Fracking Debate" points out that companies haven't exactly been open with technical information about how fracking affects the environment. The companies won't publicly disclose what's in drilling fluids and they are often selective with the information they'll give academic researchers.

Wegmans and representatives of Teamsters Local 118 are set to resume contract negotiations on Friday.

Approximately 900 Wegmans truck drivers and warehouse employees are represented by the Teamsters. Last week, those employees rejected what Wegmans officials called the company’s final and best offer. At the center of the issue is a plan to change employees’ retirement benefits.

Wegmans officials want to move the Teamsters into the company retirement plan. Union officials, however, want to continue participating in the union’s statewide pension fund.

The two arrangements have significant differences. The Wegmans plan is a defined contribution plan, similar to a 401(k), which means that retired workers can only draw down what’s in their account. The pension is a defined benefit plan, which means that workers pay into the fund during their working years, and then collect benefits for the rest of their lives after retirement.

When the Teamsters rejected Wegmans’ offer, they also authorized a strike. But no strike has happened yet. 

Unshackle Upstate has released a five-point plan for job growth and lower taxes in the parts of the state that aren't New York City.

The plan focuses primarily on eliminating or changing certain taxes and surcharges. But Unshackle officials are also highlighting the potential benefits fracking the Marcellus Shale.

During a press conference this morning at the Rochester Business Alliance offices, Unshackle Upstate executive director Brian Sampson said that fracking could create 12,000 to 15,000 jobs in the Southern Tier. And a press release from Unshackle says that fracking would generate approximately $78 million for the state in 2014-15. (The job creation figures and economic benefits of fracking are often viewed skeptically, in part because many of the jobs go to workers from outside the areas where drilling is happening.)

"We think it's time for New York to get off the dime and develop the Marcellus Shale through hydraulic fracturing," Sampson said.

State Education Commissioner John King offered tepid praise for Rochester’s public schools during a visit here yesterday, saying that the schools have "potential" for significant improvement. And he praised Superintendent Bolgen Vargas for the steps Vargas has taken to convert that potential into academic gains: implementing extended learning, increasing of instruction, improving attendance, and focusing on reading.

King was in Rochester on a back-to-school tour of districts throughout the state.

And he said that he not only appreciates what Vargas has done to improve Rochester’s schools, but that he’s also impressed by the superintendent’s sense of urgency.

King took a completely different tone toward Buffalo’s schools. He said that making excuses for low student achievement because the population is largely poor and has many English language learners isn’t acceptable.

When asked what else the community of Rochester should do to improve student achievement in city schools, King made two points. First, Rochester, like many urban areas, will need to increasingly turn to its corporate citizens for help with wraparound services, he said. Rochester is fortunate to have an education-minded company like Wegmans, King said.

But King also said that while it’s important for teachers to have high expectations for students, it’s just as important for parents to share those expectations. 

More than 600 Rochester school teachers have formally appealed their Annual Professional Performance Review, says Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association. The appeals will be looked at by a joint district and union team beginning as early as next week.

Teachers could only appeal their evaluation if they received either an “ineffective” or “needs development” score. And the appeal has to show that there was an alleged “departure from the process,” Urbanski says. Teachers can't appeal just because they don't like or accept the evaluation, he says. 

For example, a teacher would have a case if his or her score included teaching English Language Learners, but no interpreter was provided for the student. An evaluation based on scores on tests that students didn’t take is another example.The appeals can be denied, upheld, or the teacher’s score may be altered.

Urbanski says that the high number of appeals is a serious problem, and raises a lot of concerns about the APPR.

While nearly 900 city school teachers received evaluations of ineffective or needs development, Urbanski says, no Webster teachers, for example, received those scores. And other suburban districts had only a few teachers with low evaluations, he says.

“City teachers are so much worse than suburban teachers?” Urbanski says. “I could prove that isn’t true by just swapping our teachers with theirs for one year and we’ll see if we get better results.”

Urbanski says that APPR was intentionally positioned to dismantle urban public schools — possibly to diminish union power — and allow for the growth of charter schools.

“If anything, APPR will make unions stronger,” he says. “There’s never been a time in recent history when they [teachers] need unions more.”

Douglas Lowry, who served as dean of the Eastman School of Music from 2007 until illness forced his retirement last week, died this morning, the school has announced.

A Spokane, Washington, native, Lowry was also a composer and had served as professor of conducting and ensembles at the Eastman School.

A memorial event is being planned.