News Blog

Justin Roj, assistant Monroe County executive, has resigned at the request of his boss, County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo. The reason? I-Square. 

In a statement sent to media tonight, Dinolfo admitted that Roj contacted the county Industrial Development Agency's counsel over the Irondequoit project. That's not what Dinolfo told reporters earlier this week, when she said that it was COMIDA that contacted Roj. In tonight's statement, she said she thought she was telling the truth when she spoke to reporters the first time and has since learned that she was wrong. 

The whole I-Square mess started when Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed former Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello, a Democrat, to the county clerk job. County GOP boss Bill Reilich took a swipe at Bello, but in the process said that I-Square was struggling, and tried to pin it on Bello. Over the next few days, he also claimed that I-Square was in default on a COMIDA-administered tax incentive agreement. COMIDA sent out a press release, backing him up.

However, I-Square owners Mike and Wendy Nolan said that COMIDA never contacted them about any problems with the agreement, and denied Reilich's characterization of the state of their business. They also questioned how Reilich knew about an alleged default before they did. County Legislature Democrats have called for an investigation into possible collusion between Reilich and COMIDA officials.

Bottom line: A top county official acted to provide political cover for the GOP boss, unfairly damaging the reputation of a local business. 

Here's the statement that Dinolfo sent out tonight:

"This past Monday, I addressed the media regarding COMIDA and I-Square. I stated that Assistant County Executive Justin Roj had told COMIDA Chair Theresa Mazzullo to contact counsel, follow their advice and respond to the media inquires. I reported that information with confidence in its accuracy. I have since come to learn that the information I relied upon was untrue. I have learned that, in fact, it was Mr. Roj who, on Sunday, contacted COMIDA counsel.

"COMIDA Chair Theresa Mazzullo, the Board members and staff work diligently in our community. I must apologize to Ms. Mazzullo, the Board and its staff.

"Today, at my request, Justin Roj submitted his resignation."

Today is the last day of operation for the Clover Lanes bowling alley on Monroe Avenue in Brighton. The 50-lane alley and the former Mario's Italian Restaurant are being torn down to make room for Palazzo Plaza, a high-end retail development. The plaza would be anchored by a Whole Foods store. 

Clover Lanes is moving to the Blossom-Carlson roads area in the City of Rochester's North Winton Village neighborhood, not far from ARTISANworks, according to a woman who answered the phone at Clover Lanes. The alley plans a soft opening in its new location by August, she says, and a full opening the following month.

She referred further questions to her manager, who did not return calls for comment. 

Mary Coffey, co-chair of the North Winton Village neighborhood association, says that the group's board has heard the Clover Lanes rumor, but has nothing official to announce. 

"We're trying to find out ourselves," she says. "We've been trying to check it out, but nothing." 

Coffey says that the group is not opposed to having the bowling alley in the neighborhood. It all depends, she says, on the specific proposal. 

"They would have to come in. They'd have to sell themselves," she says. "They'd have to show how it would be for traffic, how it would be for the building itself, how close it would be to residential." 

North Winton already has the 12-lane L&M Lanes bowling alley at 873 Merchants Road. 

The Palazzo Plaza proposal is under review by the Town of Brighton. The proposal was put forth by Daniele Family Companies. Anthony Daniele, a company vice president, did not return calls for comment. 

Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo says that her administration had nothing to do with county GOP boss Bill Reilich’s claim that Irondequoit's I-Square development is struggling. Whether the public buys her proclamation is another matter.

The whole brouhaha started when Reilich took a swipe at former Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello, a Democrat, who was sworn in as county clerk last week. In an attempt to paint Bello as a bad leader, Reilich said that "financial woes are already apparent as I-Square is failing.” In later statements, he claimed that I-Square hasn’t lived up its end of a tax incentive agreement administered by the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency.

COMIDA backed Reilich up in documents sent to local media: a statement from COMIDA board chair Theresa Mazullo and a memo from the agency’s attorney. Mike and Wendy Nolan, owners of I-Square, defended their business and questioned why allegations that they weren’t meeting the terms of the incentive agreement were brought up by Reilich when they hadn’t been informed of any such problems. County Legislature Democrats have since called for a legislative committee to investigate whether Reilich and COMIDA colluded.

Reilich’s critics and local media have also publicly asked whether Reilich or someone from the Dinolfo administration might have passed the information onto Reilich, or ordered COMIDA to back him up.
Dinolfo finally addressed the concerns during a press conference on Monday, after a week of silence on the matter.

She said that COMIDA issued its statement and memo to address questions from the media. Mazzullo reached out to Deputy County Executive Justin Roj for advice on whether to answer media inquiries, Dinolfo said, and Roj responded that the agency should contact its attorney and address the media questions.

When reporters asked about the substance of Reilich’s remarks, Dinolfo said that she wouldn’t comment on a “political statement.”

Local clergy members and representatives from soup kitchens, food pantries, and programs for the homeless will hold a press conference on Tuesday in support of a $15 minimum wage.

Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a $15 minimum, which would be gradually phased in over five years, in his 2016-17 state budget. Lawmakers are negotiating the budget, but Senate Republicans are pushing back on the wage proposal.

Tuesday’s event is organized by Roc/ACTS, a faith-based coalition of urban and suburban congregations and social justice organizations. Many working Monroe County residents need assistance because their jobs don’t pay well enough for them to provide for their families, the organization says in a press release.

The press conference will be held at 10 a.m. at Downtown United Presbyterian Church, 121 North Fitzhugh Street. Downtown United Presbyterian previously voted to set the minimum pay for its employees at $15 an hour.

Last night’s Rochester school board meeting started with a celebration of the accomplishments of a stellar group of young female students, followed by accolades for schools that were on the state’s list of low-performing schools, but are now showing solid academic achievement. The third floor conference room at the district’s central office was nearly filled to capacity with proud family members and onlookers.

But the mood quickly changed from festivity to anger over the district’s new contract with its teachers, and the meeting was shut down by protesters at around 9 p.m. Board members approved the contract in a 5 to 2 vote.

Board members Cynthia Elliott and Mary Adams voted against the contract, but not before about a dozen students, parents, and community activists spoke passionately against a controversial clause in the new agreement.

The clause relates to school safety, student discipline, and personal injury benefits for teachers. It reads, “Crimes committed in schools will be pursued as crimes committed elsewhere, to the extent the District has the right to press charges for those crimes. In all other events, the District will fully support the teacher who chooses to press charges on his/her behalf.”

Many of the parents and students characterized the language as precisely the kind of wording that represents fear and intolerance of black and brown students. And it encourages teachers to view and treat minority children differently than their white peers when they misbehave, they said. 

Others spoke of the time and resources that have been invested in a new code of conduct policy, currently in progress, that some people say will help to change disciplinary steps and redirect them from punitive measures toward more restorative justice practices. The new teachers’ contract, they said, turns the work on the new policy on its head.

Melanie Funchess, a mother of two children in the district, said that the board has supported the code of conduct overhaul, so the language in the contract "is a slap and an affront."

Another parent said that she's afraid that her 8-year-old child could end up in the criminal justice system for something as minor as running down a school hallway. 

Some board members tried to explain their votes, while board vice president Cynthia Elliott lashed out at teachers at union leaders. 

“They have this passion for teachers, not for children,” she said. “They have been selfish bullies and liars.” She said that the district’s children are treated like criminals.

“You can’t teach them if you fear them,” Elliott said. And she urged teachers who felt this way to leave the district.

Board member Mary Adams read from a prepared statement, which reads in part:

“One must consider why RTA leaders would choose to launch that missile at our community when the contract offers many other significant elements: financial and other benefits to teachers; provisions that strongly support meaningful, potentially transformative changes in student supports; and teacher leadership in the pursuit of alternative educational settings. An emphasis on those provisions would have symbolized not a missile, but rather an extended hand to our community and would correctly identify those provisions as actually effective contributors to improving teaching conditions, including personal safety.

“The added contract language, and media emphasis on crime in schools, has caused me to conclude this is about something other than teacher safety. I know that employees already can and do file criminal charges based on incidents in schools, some of which, in the judgment of the courts, are reasonable and some not. I want to be clear that when I insist on confronting and addressing the ongoing reality of pervasive racism and criminalization of youth of color throughout this city and country, this is not an invitation for a dog-whistle phrase about condoning abuse or violence in schools.”

School board President Van White said that he is disturbed by the clause in the contract that says school officials will fully support the teacher. 

“What does that mean?” he said. The language is vague, he said, and school officials can already be required to provide things such as a recording of an incident.

He also said that a memorandum of understanding between the district and the union has been signed that says that the new contract can be modified to clarify the language.

And White ordered Interim Superintendent Linda Cimusz to have the new code of conduct policy ready for board review by May 1. But that may not be enough to fend off criticism that some board members cater to the unions. 

Numerous questions about the contract remain: Why didn't board members know about the controversial language in the contract until they heard about it from media reports? And how could contract negotiators not realize how that language would be received? The anger it would elicit was predictable.

Toward the end of the meeting, one young man rushed the board members, shouted obscenities, and then made his way up behind the dais. The outburst shocked and frightened some people, and sent some board members scrambling.

Ironically, it may have unintentionally underscored why the controversial language is in the contract. It also illustrated what usually happens when a disruption occurs in a school setting: instruction is interrupted and people feel uncomfortable – not the ideal environment for learning.

Worse, the events last night and the discussion around the contract seemed to minimize the hard-won achievements of the many students, teachers, and families whose success was deservedly praised earlier in the meeting.

And it was another reminder that if we don’t learn how to replicate the successes in city schools – even when students, teachers, and parents tell us what’s working – we’re doomed to repeat the failures.   

Democratic County Legislator James Sheppard wants Monroe County's newly created public integrity office to step into a messy and odd political dispute in Irondequoit. But there's a slight problem: the office isn't up and running yet. 

County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo last week announced the start of a national search for the office's director. In a statement released early this morning, Sheppard called on Dinolfo to expedite the search. 

Sheppard's concern is with recent statements by Monroe County Republican Committee chair Bill Reilich, as well as with statements and actions by officials with the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency.

In a misguided attempt to sully the reputation of Irondequoit Supervisor Adam Bello, a Democrat who will be sworn in as Monroe County clerk tomorrow, Reilich claimed that Irondequoit's I-Square development is failing under Bello's watch. He said that I-Square has defaulted on a tax incentive agreement with the town, the West Irondequoit school district, and COMIDA.

COMIDA then sent out its own statement backing Reilich up.

During an appearance on WXXI's Connections program Monday afternoon, I-Square owners Mike and Wendy Nolan said that COMIDA hasn't notified them of a problem. And they questioned why Reilich had been informed before them. And They've said that they intend to sue Reilich for defamation. 

"Public institutions charged with developing local businesses and creating jobs cannot and should not be used for personal gain, yet the chairman’s statements indicate that he used this independent authority as a tool to further his political agenda," Sheppard said in his statement.

He says that the county's new integrity office should open an investigation into Reilich's and COMIDA's conduct as its first order of businesses.

Sheppard voted against the legislation that created the county's Office of Public Integrity over questions about the office's powers. 

The Rochester City School District and the Rochester Teachers Association have negotiated a tentative new contract and some of the deal's contents are catching people by surprise. 

A section concerning personal injury benefits, in particular, is receiving a lot of attention: “Crimes committed in schools will be pursued as crimes committed elsewhere to the extent the District has the right to press charges for those crimes," it says. "In all other events, the District will fully support the teacher who chooses to press charges on his/her behalf.”

The strong language comes despite efforts by several groups to change the way that the district handles discipline. They criticize the district's high rate of suspensions and say that the district tends to criminalize student behavior. 

The Rochester Community Task Force on School Climate, initiated by former superintendent Bolgen Vargas with the help of the Rochester Area Community Foundation, Metro Justice, Teen Empowerment, and several other education and community groups worked together to come up with a set of recommendations that steer the district away from “zero-tolerance” approaches to student conduct and discipline and more toward restorative justice practices.

The Task Force strongly advised that the entire district undergo anti-racism training and use suspensions, expulsions, and arrests as a last resort. The groups urged the Rochester school board to approve a new Code of Conduct policy that encourages a more nurturing approach to student behavior issues.

But the board never approved the draft policy and it was never clear why.

The language in the proposed teachers contract seems to reflect old thinking, according to some members of the Task Force.

“I think we were all taken aback,” says Jennifer Banister, development and collaborations manager with Teen Empowerment. Banister says that the students, teachers, administrators, and community leaders working on changing school climate have been transparent and inclusive. So the language in the new agreement was a surprise, she says. 

But Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association, insists that the new contract does not conflict with the task force's objectives.

“We shouldn’t criminalize student misbehavior,” he says. “But surely that doesn’t mean that if a person commits a serious crime that it not be treated as a crime.”

Urbanski says that the contract is referring to crimes such as rape or assault with a deadly weapon.

“It’s not criminalizing because it’s already a crime,” he says.

Banister says that the task force is working to improving the school environment for teachers, as well as students.

And some of that work has already begun with some schools using restorative justice approaches to student discipline. But Banister questions why the board would approve a new contract before approving a new Code of Conduct policy.

But the bigger problem of how to address student misbehavior and classroom disruption may be broader and more complex than the school board and administrators know how to address.

The issue was put in stark terms at a recent meeting of the Association of Supervisors and Administrators of Rochester with school board President Van White. In a room of about 100 principals, supervisors, and administrators, many said that they need more effective ways to deal with children who have serious mental health diagnoses. Addressing the growing number of children with social emotional needs as young as 3 and 4 is one of their biggest concerns, they said. 

Some administrators said that they could observe pre-kindergartners and tell which children will have problems with violence and other behaviors if they don’t receive help.

One administrator said that she spends as much as 80 percent of her time dealing with those problems in older children. And keeping those problems from interfering with their peers’ learning is becoming increasingly difficult, she said. 

Finding alternative ways to help city school children before they get into serious trouble is something that both Banister and Urbanski agree on. Certainly not every kid in city schools who misbehaves has a mental health problem, and we know that many children who live in poverty are resilient and overcome their situation.

But many cannot, and that is leaving the Rochester school district to once again come up with the answer.

Pity poor Bill Reilich, chair of the Monroe County Republican Party. All Reilich wanted to do is to take a cheap swipe at soon-to-be county clerk Adam Bello and instead found himself facing a possible defamation lawsuit.

The ordeal started when Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed Bello, a Democrat and the Irondequoit town supervisor, to the vacant county clerk position; the seat has been vacant since January when Republican Cheryl Dinolfo gave it up to take office as county executive. Reilich, fulfilling one of his duties as head of the county GOP, sent out a statement saying how awful Bello is, even though Republicans didn't bother running anyone against him this past November.

But Reilich's mud-slinging missed its intended target and hit I-Square owners Mike and Wendy Nolan instead. Reilich's statement included a phrase, "financial woes are already apparent as I-Square is failing," that pissed off the Nolans, who have put several millions of dollars into the development in the heart of Irondequoit. The Nolans quickly responded.

"I-Square served over 100,000 customers in 2015 and has exceeded new employee goals," Mike Nolan wrote in a statement released on Facebook. "To refer to our business as 'failing' as Mr. Reilich did is a lie. To lie about the viability of a locally-owned, family business for political rhetoric is immoral and is harmful."

Reilich could have walked back his remarks, but instead he doubled down and called in COMIDA for backup. He issued a new statement, saying that I-Square's "apparent financial woes" are evident because it had defaulted on a tax-incentive agreement between the the Nolans, the town, the West Irondequoit school district, and COMIDA. And then COMIDA followed up with its own statement to the press Monday morning, siding with Reilich.

Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo has tapped the director of the New York State Office of the Aging, Corinda Crossdale, to serve as Monroe County's new human services commissioner.

Crossdale must be confirmed by the Legislature, but Republicans control the chamber and it's unlikely they'll reject Dinolfo's choice. Crossdale served as the county's Office for the Aging director from January 2004 to June 2012, and in 2015 she was the New York State representative to the White House Conference on Aging.

Crossdale will replace current human services commissioner Kelly Reed, who is leaving when her term expires on June 1, according to media reports. Reed, who was appointed by former County Executive Maggie Brooks, has held the position for a decade.

Reed guided the county through efforts to decrease social service worker caseloads, to reduce foster care placements, and to improve the phone system at its public assistance offices. But critics say that caseloads are still too high and that clients still have trouble reaching caseworkers. Reed also defended Brooks administration cuts to county funding for child day care subsidies.

The American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters will hold a discussion on the issues and impacts of paid family leave in an upcoming forum, 'The Pros and Cons of Paid Family Leave: How It Impacts New York’s Employers and Employees.”

The event is 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Monday, March 21, at AAUW’s Perkins Mansion, 494 East Avenue. To register or for more information: www.lwv.rma.org

The program’s moderator is Katherine Smith, advocacy director for the League of Women Voters. Panelists are: Blue Carreker, organizer with Citizen Action of NY and campaign manager of Paid Family Leave Campaign; Greg Biryla, executive director, Unshackle Upstate; Larry Marx, executive director, the Children’s Agenda; and Yvette Pagano, CEO, CAR Engineering & Manufacturing.

The panelists will take questions after their presentations.


The Landmark Society of Western New York is working with interested property owners in the downtown area of East Main Street between St. Paul and Chestnut streets to identify a potential historic district in the National Register of Historic Places.

Landmark Society staff and a consultant will hold an informational public meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, March 21, at the Landmark Society offices, 133 S. Fitzhugh Street, to explain the project.

The Landmark Society is pursuing this designation so that property owners can take advantage of state and federal preservation tax credit programs.

The meeting is open to the public. BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN


The Rochester City School District will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22, regarding the proposed budget for the 2016-2017 school year. The proposed $847 million spending plan includes a $24 million gap.

The meeting will be held at the district’s central office, 131 West Broad Street, and is expected to last several hours.


The Ibero-American Action League will hold a voter registration drive at its main office, 817 East Main Street, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22. The drive is open to all Monroe County residents regardless of political party, but Ibero especially encourages Latino residents to come in and get registered.

This is an important date because applications must be postmarked no later than Friday, March 25, in order to vote in the 2016 elections.

The Justice or Else Movement supported by  Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan will hold a town hall meeting on Tuesday, March 22, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March on Washington, DC. The event will be held at the David F. Gantt Community Center, 700 North Street. BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO