>> Coming up on "Need To Know" -- Rochester mayor Robert Duffy
is facing a multimillion dollar budget deficit.
Mayor Duffy joins us to talk about potential solutions.
And just how green is Monroe county?
We will examine county executive Maggie brooks' state of the
county address.
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>> Rochester's news magazine since 1997, this is "Need To
Know."
>> And welcome to this edition of "Need To Know."
I'm news director Julie Philipp.
It's no secret Rochester city officials are facing a budget
deficit, but it's not clear just what mayor Robert Duffy is
going to do to try to close that gap.
The mayor is here to talk about that and a lot of other issues
on the table right now, aren't there?
>> A lot of issues.
>> Let's start with the budget.
The last I heard, $17 million, $18 million.
>> We have an $18 million gap right now.
How we close that, there's still a lot to be done. Had a meeting
this morning, and every day is probably two to three budget
meetings relative to what we will cut.
We're looking to cut some positions.
The first choice will be those that are perhaps vacant
positions, but we'll be cutting jobs.
We will be reducing some services.
We'll be doing some consolidations inside.
We are looking at combination a couple of departments, possibly
up to three.
Looking at ways that we can become more effective and efficient
in terms of services but we need to drive down costs.
I do not want to raise taxes.
I've learned never say always or never.
But I would like to start out with that premise that to raise
taxes and keep adding burdens to the people who live in the
city is not economically feasible.
We are trying to attract people to stay here and come here, and
I think government as a whole, Rochester, Monroe county and New
York state, they can't keep going down the same path.
We have to look for ways to cut costs.
And cutting costs are not often the ways that people in
political positions like to do it, but I want to give credit to
Tom Richards, our corporation counsel who made a comment which
I thought was profound.
In the private sector, you have to sell something.
You have to sell a service to get a profit to keep operating.
So if you don't sell, you don't have the money to go forward.
In government and the public sector, often you're expecting the
same amount of money every year no matter what you do and more
than that, even though lobbying and special interest throughout
the country.
The taxpayers are to the point they cannot afford to keep
driving the costs up.
With bread being what it is and rice and gasoline, the staples
that people need, we have to make some changes.
>> Do you think people will understand as you're cutting
services given the fact that everybody's sort of looking at
their own budgets that cuts have to be made somewhere?
>> Well, I do know that every time we make a cut, every
decision will be met with resistance.
Last year we reduced one position.
Letters to the editor, speakouts at city council and the person
in that position was a great person, served our city with great
distinction for many, many years.
It wasn't a personal thing but we had to make some decisions.
We cannot keep going on the way we're going and they can't keep
complaining about costs and saying we want lower taxes but
refuse to say no to certain services.
And I guess the old saying, you cannot have it both ways, and
my feeling is this -- we're going to be open and honest with
people.
We're trying to get input from our community, and we've had a
six budget sessions so far with the community that have been
great, great ideas about what you need to have, what you can do
without and what you don't have to have.
>> What are you hearing that people can do without?
>> There's some things, certainly police services, fire
services are important.
Net received very high marks from out in the community.
But things like leaf collection, different renditions of
garbage and refuse were coming up, certain services that
they're having right now, they're offering suggestions for
what, you know, we could do differently.
What we want to do is make sure we do not drive services down
or take the services away to keep people here.
There are a number of things that are really important.
We have a great recreation program in the city, but our surveys
show very few people know about it or use it.
And those that do use it, love it.
So there's a number of things we're looking at with -- one of
the things we are looking at that's going to be very different
is a service delivery system based on the four quadrants of
the city.
>> And that's the reorganization of the --
>> It's not just net.
Most of our line departments functioning in this model.
It's not reshuffling the deck.
It's not just moving things around.
It's looking for ways that we can have our line departments and
look at --
>> What do you mean by line departments?
Line departments would be certainly net, police, fire,
department of environmental services, economic development,
community development, people that -- organizations in city
government that are out in the neighborhoods looking at ways
that we can deliver a higher level of service.
However it looks when we're finished, and we're far from done,
is having geographical accountability.
Is having somebody in charge of turf.
What we need to do is make decisions how we want to do this and
give people the power to make decisions in the neighborhoods.
And the neighborhoods are critically important to us.
What it will also do is simplify some of the planning, some of
the issues that neighbors feel -- it can be drug houses, can be
traffic, can be noise, it can be garbage and refuse
pickup, vacant houses, beautification, you name it, but having
groups out in these four areas --
>> There's some question if you have four mini-city halls that
how can that save money if you're not consolidating?
>> We're not looking at having all the city hall services out
in the neighborhoods.
We're looking at ways we can deliver services at a higher
level.
One of the things we are doing this Monday, we're meeting with
our neighborhood and sector leaders again and asking them what
do you need to have in this model?
What would be helpful?
I've talked to a couple of leaders already.
They want us to put people in these offices who can make
decisions, who can say yes, we'll access these resources to fix
this problem.
Not have to go back up the chain of command and keep asking for
permission.
>> A decisionmaker in each quadrant, not necessarily all the
people that will take care --
>> Absolutely.
Hypothetically that would be what would work the best.
We have great people in city government.
We have some incredible talent that in many cases the public
doesn't know about.
You don't see them on TV or read about them.
They are incredibly talented, passionate people for the city.
I think we can come up with a system that will work.
We're not done.
We had a plenty lengthy meeting yesterday.
A lot of work to do and come July 1, there's going to be
changes but I would not say we're going to be fully operational
at this.
We have to do it smart, in a smart fashion, implement in
stages, do the things we can do right away, do them right away,
but before we take the first step and finalize it, most
important thing is we ask our customers and we ask our
employees how best can we do this?
They're the ones with the great ideas.
They're the ones who really know best, and my job is to listen,
to make sure that in the end it fits the needs and then make it
operational.
>> We will see an idea for new model of city government.
>> You will.
You will see that.
You will see things that we are currently doing that we're
going to say we're not going to do any longer.
And there are some redundancies in government that I think we
have to look at stopping.
>> Could you name --
>> Well, I would -- I would probably be giving some things away
before they're finalized yet, but I think we have to look at
cross departments.
What is each one doing?
One area that I think is easy to point to is the issue of
property inspections.
We have community development.
We have net.
We have fire.
In some cases even police.
But the other three do property inspections.
Three different departments, three different chains of
command.
And often sometimes there's three different levels of
complaints that they follow through on.
We could do a more effective, efficient job no how can we put
it under one?
We're working on things like that.
What we're trying to do is not just cut and paste and move
things around.
We want to make sure in the end people who live in our city say
this is better.
I give mayor Johnson credit because he did an awful lot of
changes in government.
Things that he did really made a difference.
And I look at my position and those that will come after me, it
is like a relay race.
You take the baton, you do everything you can during your time,
you improve upon what's done.
Each administration does very good things, and what we're
trying to do is take what we currently are facing and make the
changes necessary so that people that live in our city really
enjoy it.
And I would have to say from my view right now, in sports and
in life, momentum is important, and I feel we have momentum
going in the city.
>> Before we move on to the budget, just clarify a couple things.
Raising taxes low but not off the table?
>> Raising taxes is a last resort.
My budget director, it's a running joke.
Don't go to the mayor with ideas about raising taxes.
I do not want to put on the backs of taxpayers more burdens
that we should take off with how we do business ourselves
inside.
>> And there will be job cuts?
An estimate of how many last year was one.
Are you looking at more than one?
>> I think substantially more than one.
We'll be having --
>> Ballpark?
>> We could have 20 to 75.
It could be anywhere in that range, and I would say somewhere
in the middle lies more of an accurate figure.
There is no doubt we have to cut.
I looked at one list of jobs.
If we cut the one list that we reviewed recently, we'd have
been probably 80 to 90 jobs, would save the city about just
over $3 million.
When you look at an $18 million gap, you look at 70 to 80 jobs will save you $3 million, you get a
sense that we have a long ways to go.
These are deep cuts.
These are very painful cuts that we have to make.
And every job that men and women do in a city, they're
important jobs.
They do a great job, and I'm looking at vacancies first before
I would take somebody's livelihood away.
>> How many vacancies do you have?
>> It varies at times.
I think right now we're somewhere in the 70, 75 area with
vacancies.
I have frozen promotions.
>> So actual job losses will be fairly minimal if you're
cutting all the vacancies first?
>> Well, those are jobs that -- those are positions that are
ready to be filled, waiting to be filled.
>> Some need to be filled.
>> Some are critical.
So it's an evaluation of which ones do we need, which ones can
we do without?
And there's no way I can say that we will achieve our goal
without having people lose their employment.
I can't say that.
We're hoping to avoid that as best we can.
State delegation did a great job for us this year.
They worked very hard.
>> But not enough?
>> We have a gap.
>> You mentioned cuts.
Were you looking at leaf service wasn't as important or redoing
refuse, that sort of thing.
And you mentioned the recreation programs.
People love them but they're not using them.
Does that mean they're on the cutting board, that you can take
those away or are you looking at a restructuring or retooling
of those somehow?
>> I do not want to take a service away for children that would
be helpful.
We're looking at extra programs in a library for literacy.
Literacy is a big issue with us.
Libraries are critically important to us.
REC centers are, too.
What the interesting thing is that a small number in general
use these facilities, but they love them and the programs are
terrific.
So we want to make sure we reach more kids and we look at ways
that we can work with the school district.
I see schools being great community centers.
>> So maybe cutting out some of the things the city does in
partnering with some other --
>> We have a number of REC centers right now that are in the
schools.
So there could be an opportunity for us to work with a school
district, with the superintendent and his team --
>> Have the school pick up some of the costs?
>> We're all in the same position with trying to save money and
do more with less.
But I think we have a lot of opportunities.
In the end, our goal is to save money, to have a higher level,
at least the same if not a higher level service and focus on
our priorities.
Public safety, economic development, education.
Those are three things along with customer service that are
most important.
Those are areas we do not want to lose one step on.
>> Unfortunately, we're getting close to the end.
We have a couple of minutes left and we haven't gotten too far
on my list.
One thing you were successful this week is reaching a deal for
the port, that the city will now take ownership of that and
have control of that.
Any movement yet on the harbor in Toronto?
I know that's another big expense for the city that's ongoing.
>> Not yet.
The four-year lease was something we wanted to get rid of and
we did.
So that's been taken care of.
And the money that we had to pay, it wasn't buying out the
lease, it was understanding what was invested and deducting
what was -- the city was owed.
So I think in the end that was good for the both parties.
The Toronto lease, we have not broken yet or stepped out of.
That lease is with the ferry authority, which is still in
existence but not operating.
What we're hoping to do is see if there's an interest for a
ferry service because Toronto invested very heavily in our
port.
We have a beautiful terminal building --
>> If you can get that going again --
>> I would love to see a vessel going back and forth.
>> But are you negotiating a way out that of lease if you can't
get --
>> Well, I think Toronto realizes that this is the last step,
trying to see what the interest is in the private sector before
we try to dissolve the lease.
>> Thank you very much for coming in today.
Mayor Robert Duffy.
We told you last week about a special radio call-in program
with New York governor David Paterson.
The governor's office rescheduled that.
It's now slated for this coming Monday, April 28, beginning at
1:00 P.M. on WXXI-a.m.'s 1370 connection.
Host bob Smith and our capitol bureau correspondent Karen
Dewitt will interview the governor, and you are invited to join
in the conversation.
Again that's now scheduled for 1:00 P.M. on Monday on our
sister station, WXXI-a.m. 1370.
>> We spent the beginning of the show focusing on the city of
Rochester.
Now we turn our attention to Monroe county.
County executive Maggie brooks gave her state of the county
address this week.
She spoke on Tuesday, earth day, inside a green building on the
Rochester Institute of Technology campus.
And that was the backdrop for a very green speech.
>> We introduced a number of new economic development programs,
including green jobs plus.
E.S.L. is the first company to take advantage of our green jobs
plus program.
The new headquarters will be a green building.
The new crime lab will be one of Monroe county's first green
buildings.
Our county's new green building policy.
Green building rating system and green building design
practices oversee green construction projects.
County's green building policies, our green jobs plus program.
Green's instruction project benefits our environment.
The cleanest, greenest and most efficient vehicle fleet
possible.
Fuel cell electric vehicles will serve as the flagship of the
green fleet.
>> I counted the word green about 18 times in the transcript of
that speech, but does that really mean Monroe county is a
leader in the green movement?
I've invited George Thomas of a private nonprofit organization,
the Center for Environmental Information in Rochester to help
put this into perspective.
Welcome.
>> Morning.
>> So green obviously the word of the day in that speech.
It took about a third of her speech.
Is Monroe county a leader when you look at it nationwide or is
this just the hot issue of the day and she's using that in her
speech?
>> Well, I thought about that before I came, and I think they
are a leader.
They've always been a leader in recycling.
Monroe county, I've been involved with a lot of activities
across the state and from a recycling state, Monroe county
doesn't take a back seat to anybody in that.
And I think from a green standpoint, she's talked a lot about
that, but it's a homegrown thing.
A lot of the people that work for Monroe county, particularly
the environmental services department, they all want to do this
sort of thing.
So it's kind of a bottom-up and a top-down kind of thing.
So I think Monroe county has a lot going for it.
>> So it's almost the personality of the community has been
green for sometime?
>> Yes.
>> So let's talk about some of her programs that she has a lot
of green building initiatives.
>> Sure.
>> Is that atypical in the nation?
A county giving benefits to people who build green buildings
for their businesses?
>> I think probably Monroe county, I don't know for sure, but I
imagine Monroe county is ahead of the curve.
It isn't a widespread practice yet, but as you see, it's the
information and all the press about going green.
I can't -- you can't miss it a subject on that.
I think Monroe county is seeing more, but money county is
leading.
>> An early leader in that movement.
And the same with green vehicles and green fleets?
>> I would imagine, yep.
I feel fairly confident, I don't know for sure, but what I've
seen is Monroe county is very progressive.
All the work they did at the landfill.
That was in her press release.
That's a pretty forward-thinking kind of thing.
And that's because --
>> Let's explain.
That's turning -- using the sludge from the landfill to create
power?
>> Right.
They extract that, a lot of times that was just vented to the
atmosphere or burned off and no benefit from it.
But they were able to come up with a process to do that.
And they're a pioneer in that and it's a good thing.
>> So she has every right to use the word green?
>> I think so, yeah.
>> Let's talk about some of the things that need to be done,
where Monroe county could improve in its green and I don't mean
for you to criticize because obviously there's always something
left to be done, but what are some of the areas that the county
could be working on?
>> One of the things we started addressing already is the issue
of pharmaceuticals and drinking water.
I think you've seen some articles on the news on that, and
we're working with the county to try to come up with a
collection program.
We did a collection last weekend to collect old
pharmaceuticals.
They're starting to get involved in that.
We were actually the first county to do one in New York city.
So it was a pretty good -- very good turnout.
We exceeded our expectations.
So that's one area I think they can do more in.
Transportation is probably the other one.
There was a forum just last week about that topic and what can
we do to better improve the transportation infrastructure here
to make it more conducive to people to either ride bikes or to
take public transportation?
So I think that's an area we could probably do more in.
>> Well, we do have a sprawl issue.
And coming in, so are you looking at suburban bus routes?
>> Yeah, that was what they talked about.
Rich Paren from the transportation council, I think it was,
and a couple other folks were at a forum and they discussed
those plans.
And it's pretty interesting.
It takes a long time for those things to happen, but they're
talking about it.
So that's a good step forward.
We need to have that to try to manage the growth, land
development.
>> Any other areas that you'd love to see targeted?
>> I think the other thing is the whole BIOfuels thing.
Monroe county is in a good position geographically to take
advantage of that in some way.
I'm not sure exactly how that will happen.
>> Why are we in a good position?
>> Well, we have -- we're in kind of the middle of the
northeast.
We have a lot of BIOmass here, trees and shrubs and that sort
of thing, the right climate for growing those types of things.
And if you wanted to, you know, create the material, then
distribute it, you have a pretty good distribution network.
>> OK, well, thank you so much for lending some perspective
on that green speech.
George Thomas, spokesperson for the Center for Environmental
Information in Rochester.
It's time now for the "The Business Section with the Democrat
and Chronicle."
>> And Matt Daneman joins us.
Hi, Matt.
>> Julie.
>> What we did not hear in Maggie brooks' state of the county
address was anything about renaissance square, but there has
been some movement on that project.
>> Well, you know, renaissance square has been going on
forever, but yes, there finally seems to be some sort of
movement.
To wit, what's going on is there's now sort of four designs
that the local development corporation, the group spearheading
this has sort of gotten together, public input was taken on
them this week.
>> So they sort of dropped the initial design?
>> Exactly.
>> And these are all local architects?
>> Yeah, much more local firms sort of putting together within
more financial constraints, here's the idea for the combined
three-piece square, campus, bus station and theater.
>> So they were put out for public comment and review?
>> Right.
Exactly.
What happens next now is they take all those public comments
and input and try to narrow down to one -- one final design
that gets shown to the public in late may.
Like may 20 for more input and things of that nature.
The idea being sometime in June, bam, here is what renaissance
square is supposed to look like.
>> They really need to move along.
There's some federal funding in jeopardy if they don't.
>> Exactly.
Senator Schumer has talked about putting the line up, let's get
this ball rolling.
>> OK.
A local corporation has run into some controversy regarding a
plastics.
>> Yeah.
They make -- probably anybody who's done any kind of mountain
biking or hiking has probably used a bottle at some point.
>> Very useful.
>> And they're made with a compound that's used -- a chemical
that's used to make for the plastic has been somewhat
controversial in environmental circles for years as having
impact on the human body, but usually that's been kind of
ignored.
What happened is that Canada has gotten very active in
regulating this, and now the U.S. has as well.
And now there's all sorts of controversy.
The company was sued this week even by a consumer out in
California seeking class-action status.
So you're going to probably see the lawsuits against the
company, too, claiming this plastic shouldn't be used.
>> What is the company saying?
This could be pretty serious?
They're not a huge company.
>> Exactly.
Well, their a division of a larger company.
But their line of the entire time has been that the controversy
is overblown, that the science bears out that the compound,
B.P.A. it's called, is safe for human consumption.
Here's all these studies.
>> And from what I've heard one of the major controversies is
that type of plastic is used for baby bottles which the company
does or does not produce, but it's the heating of the plastic
that is a big concern in Canada.
>> Exactly.
Yeah, that's been one of the major controversies is the use in
baby bottles.
Wal-Mart, for example, has announced a week ago that all baby
bottles produced with B.P.A. in them were going to be pulled
from U.S. shelves by 2009.
Baby bottles has been a big focus but it's spread.
>> And so the company is phasing out production of these
bottles --
>> Exactly.
So at least going forward there won't be any more bottles using
that.
That doesn't end all the controversy and the lawsuit.
>> Finally, looking at the state's gasoline tax and maybe
getting rid of that.
>> Right.
Here's a, you know, any consumer who's been driving at all
knows that gas is $3.65 a gallon on average in Rochester.
Some state legislators in the Republican party are proposing
that between labor and memorial day --
>> Other way around.
>> That --
>> For the summer getting rid of that.
>> Exactly.
>> What kind of reaction are they getting?
>> Well, governor paterson and the Democrats in Albany are not
in favor of it at all.
The state already has a budget that doesn't make sense at all
and here's $800 million that would be removed.
For you and me as consumers, it would mean about 33 cents less
a gallon if that was tacked on to the gas station.
>> Thanks so much, Matt.
Matt Daneman is a business reporter for the Democrat and
Chronicle.
Next week, "Need To Know's" Carlet Cleare will be covering
reform day in Albany, and she'll have a report.
We'll also have a double dose of arts Friday with a feature on
retro architecture and a discussion with a local filmmaker
whose work is featured in the high falls film festival.
I'll see you then.
Enjoy your week.
>> Previous "Need To Know" broadcasts can be seen if you have
timewarner's on-demand service.
Go to Rochester on demand, channel 111.
Then look for WXXI news.
There you'll find a selection of recent "Need To Know"
programs.