News Blog

Joe Morelle will step down as chair of the Monroe County Democratic Committee when his term expires in September. He announced his decision at a press conference this morning. 

"It's really time to allow this organization to grow in a different way," Morelle said.

A new leader will be chosen after he steps down. 

Morelle became party chair in May 2005. At the time, Democrats were struggling financially and bitterly divided among different factions, he said. A viable county party is necessary in order to win races, Morelle said during his remarks this morning. And as chair he said he tried to bring a sense of purpose and direction to the organization, worked to improve fund raising, and moved the party into a new headquarters.

And Democrats' countywide enrollment advantage has grown, he said. State Board of Elections records show that in Monroe County, Democrats had an enrollment advantage of approximately 8,000 in 2005, but as of April 2014 that advantage had grown to 46,000. 

"Our party is on the ascendancy," Morelle said.

Morelle said he's stepping down because of his new duties as the State Assembly's majority leader. His decision is not the result of the 2013 mayoral election, where he backed incumbent Tom Richards over eventual winner Lovely Warren, he said.

Morelle also wouldn't speculate on who the next leader might be, and said he isn't aware of a shortlist since he hadn't talked much about his decision.

"I don't think anyone has had an opportunity to think about that," he said.

A panel of six Rochester residents will share stories of their encounters with police. The panel will run about an hour and will be followed by a “Know Your Rights” workshop conducted by the Genesee Valley chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The event is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, April 25, at Inner Faith Gospel Tabernacle, 32 York Street.

The event is part of the Flying Squirrel’s “Springing into Action Against Police Brutality and Misconduct” series. A community speakout and a march are also planned. BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN


The Rochester school board will hold a second public hearing on the superintendent’s proposed budget for the 2014-2015 school year at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22.

This is an opportunity for students, teachers, parents, and residents to comment on the budget or to raise questions before the budget is approved next month. The meeting will be held at the district’s central office, at 131 West Broad Street.

The school board will also hold “Commissioners and Cookies,” a meet and greet with the members of the board at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 24. The event will be followed by the school board’s monthly business meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the district’s central office. BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO


The Monroe County Legislature’s Agenda/Charter committee meets Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. to begin discussing a package of proposed changes to the county’s charter and administrative code. Those laws spell out the organization and operation of county government.

The Monroe County Charter and Administrative Code Reform Act of 2014 is based on recommendations from a committee established by the Legislature to review the charter and administrative code. Much of the legislation modernizes sections of the charter and code and changes position titles. The packet containing the legislation is available here.

One section of the code establishes a compensation review commission, which under certain circumstances will review proposed pay raises for elected officials.

The Agenda/Charter Committee meets at 6 p.m. today at the County Office Building, 39 West Main Street.

The committee will likely pass the legislation, which means the full Legislature will take it up during its next meeting, on May 13. But before the Legislature can pass the proposal, it has to set a public hearing.

This item has been corrected.

Tuesday is Earth Day, and Friday is Arbor Day, and local groups are planning a variety of events around each day.

City has compiled a list of select Earth Day happenings, which is available here. But more Earth Day and Arbor Day events can be found in the listings section.


At 6 p.m. Thursday, two of the region’s League of Women Voters chapters, Foodlink, and First Unitarian Church will hold a forum on hunger at First Unitarian Church, 220 South Winton Road.

The forum is meant for League members and the public to learn about hunger, as well as the government and community programs that exist to assist people in need. The moderator will be Edward Doherty, the Rochester Area Community Foundation’s vice president for community programs.

Panelists include Congress member Louise Slaughter; Julia Tedesco, co-executive director and chief development and communications officer for Foodlink; and Lori O’Brien, supervising attorney of the Nutrition and Outreach Program for Legal Assistance of Western New York’s Rochester office.

Organizers want anybody who plans to attend to register in advance. BY JEREMY MOULE

Drastic cuts in global carbon dioxide emissions are necessary to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Still, decades of human-generated carbon emissions have already locked the planet into some degree of warming and change, climate scientists say. 

In other words, the only relevant question is, just how bad will it be? And the answer depends on whether countries across the world can agree to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, chiefly carbon dioxide.

Local governments should, at a minimum, develop plans to deal with current and anticipated hazards caused by climate trends, such as flooding and strong storms, said Mark Lowery, a climate policy analyst with the State Office of Climate Change. Lowery was the featured speaker at the Rochester chapter of the Sierra Club's annual environmental forum, which was held last night at First Unitarian Church.

A bill introduced in the State Senate would eventually ban a list of toxic chemicals from use in children's products, including toys, clothing, car seats, and furniture. The legislation has the votes to pass, going by the number of cosponsors alone, but it's stuck in bureaucratic limbo.

State Senators Ted O'Brien, a Democrat, and Joe Robach, a Republican, are among bill's 34 cosponsors. And during a press conference this morning, they called on the Senate to pass the Child Safe Products Act. The State Assembly resoundingly passed a matching version of the legislation last year, and again this year.

The legislation would establish a list of dangerous chemicals in children's products. The list would be maintained by the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Within one year, children's product manufacturers and distributors would have to notify retailers when their products contain any of those chemicals.

Starting in 2018, children's products containing those chemicals could not be sold in New York. A fact sheet on the chemicals, compiled by the advocacy group Clean & Healthy NY, is embedded below.

Updated at 5:15 p.m. A statement from the the city school district says the proposal came from School Turnaround, an organization affiliated with Rensselaerville.

The Rensselaerville Institute has responded to Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s request for proposals for an educational partnering organization, or EPO, to turn around East High School. The Delmar, New York-based organization was formed in 1963 and, according to its website, turning around failing schools is one of its specialties.
The deadline for responding to the RFP was this afternoon. The school board will have to approve the proposal and so will the State Education Department.

“In essence, this is like selecting a superintendent,” school board President Van White said, “because the institute will serve as the superintendent for that particular school. But the timeframe we have available to us is a concern. It’s not the time we would normally take to hire a superintendent.”

The State Education Department has given Rochester school officials until mid-May to submit a plan for East. The school’s chronically low performance prompted the state to direct Vargas to select from a limited set of options for fixing the school. An EPO is one of them.

Exact details of the proposal can’t be disclosed, said Chip Partner, a spokesperson for the district.
White said that the EPO option is not the only option under consideration. The board has directed Vargas to come up with an alternative option, he said. 

Medley Centre's developer has a choice: pay now, or pay a lot more later.

Yesterday, the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency's board affirmed that it'll terminate a tax incentive agreement with Medley owner Bersin Properties if the company doesn't make $3.9 million in overdue payments by May 1. Losing the tax incentives, which are laid out in a payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement, would be costly to the company.

Back in March, Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello told me the mall property has an assessed value of $40 million. So if the PILOT is terminated, Bersin Properties would have to pay full taxes on that assessed amount. Bello said the taxes based on that assessment would total $1.7 million between the Town of Irondequoit, Monroe County, and the East Irondequoit School District. To put that figure in perspective, the mall owner's 2014 obligation under the PILOT was $392,381.

The developer of the Windstream building at Midtown is asking the city to extend its $5 million loan out to July 2051 at its current 1 percent interest rate. This would be the second extension. The city already extended the term of the loan from 15 years to 20 years. The latest extension would reduce the company's annual payments for years four through 38 of the loan from $312,269 to $165,306.

The same company is also exercising an option to buy 245 E. Main Street from the city for $1, according to legislation currently being considered by City Council. A building will be constructed on the site for the Democrat and Chronicle's new headquarters. 

Extending the term of the loan will allow the company to pass savings on to Gannett, which will result in lower rents "more in-line with the downtown Rochester office market," the legislation says. 

Windstream Corporation is in the old Seneca building at 20 S. Clinton Avenue on the Midtown site downtown. The building was redeveloped by Seneca Building of Monroe County, a limited liability company formed by Pike Development Company. The sale of 20 S. Clinton to Pike included an exclusive option for the company to buy 245 E. Main, the legislation says. 

The legislation would also allow 250 parking spaces in the Midtown garage for exclusive use by Gannett employees at a discounted rate. 

Gannett will use the first two floors of the 60,000-square-foot building, with the third available for future tenants. A public "media cafe" is planned for the building's first floor. Projected cost is approximately $12.6 million.

Pike will also ask for a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement from COMIDA for the Gannett project, the legislation says. 

The legislation will be considered by City Council's Neighborhood and Business Development Committee on Thursday. Committee hearings begin at 4 p.m. in Council chambers at City Hall, 30 Church Street. Council's monthly meeting, which is the earliest Council could vote on the legislation, is on Tuesday, April 22, beginning at 6:30 p.m. 

  

 

The Monroe County Industrial Development Agency has issued a firm ultimatum to Medley Centre's developer.

During its meeting this afternoon, the COMIDA board approved a resolution to terminate a tax incentive agreement with Medley owner Bersin Properties if the company does not make overdue payments by May 1. Under the resolution, the agency would terminate the agreement on May 2.

County Executive Maggie Brooks appeared at today's meeting to request the resolution. The board also approved a second resolution — which Brooks also requested — stating that the agency would work alongside the county on any related legal action.

Two education initiatives are among the few issues in this partisan climate somehow crisscrossing ideological and political boundaries. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has not backed away from his support of charter schools despite some tensions with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The new mayor of the country’s largest school system has been critical of the amount of state support directed at charter schools.

Cuomo will serve as honorary chair of a retreat in Lake Placid for some high profile charter school advocates, according to an online article in Albany’s Times Union. US Senator Mary Landriew, a Louisiana Dem in a tough mid-term race, and Michelle Rhee, the former Washington DC schools chief, will be among the attendees at next month's event.

Cuomo’s staff has played down his involvement in the event, probably because charter schools can be a divisive issue and the governor is up for re-election. 

And former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a strong advocate for the Common Core curriculum, isn’t getting a warm embrace from the conservative base. His frank support of high-stakes testing and the Common Core has upset many on the right, even though Bush is widely seen as a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate who can take down Hillary Clinton.

The Common Core is being implemented in 35 states in an effort to shore up US students’ competency in math and reading. American parents have been lowering expectations for their children, Bush says, while countries in Asia and Europe are raising their expectations. 

Tea Party Republican and US Senator Ted Cruz has vowed to get rid of the Common Core, along with the IRS, Obamacare, and who knows what else.

Much of the conservative resistance to the Common Core stems from its nationalized approach to education standards. That it’s linked to the Obama administration hasn’t helped, either. 

On Tuesday, Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks will speak to the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency about what she’s called “the ongoing saga of Medley Centre.”

Mall owner Bersin Properties missed a deadline to make $3.9 million in tax incentive and penalty payments to COMIDA, the Town of Irondequoit, and the East Irondequoit School District. Officials are now demanding payment by May 1.

During her State of the County address last week, Brooks said she’ll ask the COMIDA board to back a resolution terminating the agreement with Bersin on May 2 if the company doesn’t pay what it owes.

“This is really an issue that goes beyond one developer and one project,” Brooks said during her speech. “You and I don’t have the luxury of missing our tax payments. We don’t get a pass when we don’t pay our bills. We cannot hold developers or companies to a different standard.”

The COMIDA board meets at noon on Tuesday at the Watts Conference Center, 49 South Fitzhugh Street. The agenda and summaries of the incentive packages up for approval are available here.


The local Sierra Club chapter’s annual Earth Day forum will center on local action to address climate change. It will be held on Thursday at First Unitarian Church, 220 South Winton Road; an environmental fair starts at 5:30 p.m. and the main program starts at 7 p.m.

The featured speaker will be Mark Lowery, a climate policy analyst in the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Office of Climate Change. The office leads the state’s multi-agency Climate Smart Communities program.

Communities that sign on to the voluntary program typically develop plans in two key areas: reducing communitywide greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for hazards related to ongoing or anticipated climate shifts.

But organizers also hope the audience can have an honest discussion about what climate change means for the Rochester area, and how communities can adapt.

The Sierra Club’s website has more information. BY JEREMY MOULE


Take Back the Land Rochester and community supporters will demonstrate and form a nonviolent eviction blockade to stop what they say is the unjust foreclosure-eviction of Akhom Phetphanh and his family at 256 Durnan Street. Tuesday is the first day that the eviction could be carried out.

The protest is at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at 256 Durnan Street. BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN