I would like to respond to the story “Mallow criticizes leak of info from executive session” in the September 25^th addition of the Daily News.

I am embarrassed and ashamed that a Council person would use a confidential letter sent by a city resident in an improper way. Our citizens should feel confident that problems they have with city staff will be handled in a professional manner and not for political purposes. The city takes all accusations seriously and attempts to work through these problems in a confidential way. We must be respectful and discreet to those who file a complaint, as well as the person it was filed against. Releasing personnel information and matters related to potential litigation that have been discussed in an executive session is an unethical abuse of power. Our city residents are financially liable for any indiscretion of this type.

I know for certain that this citizen assumed that the letter would be held in strict confidence and would like to thank the Daily News for not releasing the name of the complainant. It is also clear that a member of Council abused their elected position and divulged privileged information on two separate occasions in the last month. I want you to know that we will do everything in our power to determine who abused their position.

Interesting read in todays Daily News about Batavia's Municipal Code, reguarding uncut grass. Sam Barone, and Kathy Riggs were the only ones who cared enough about the public opinions to show up.   Its just all about the money, and who you know isnt it.........

The City Council meeting set for June 8^th was cancelled after being scheduled for almost six months. The reason given was that some of the Republicans wanted to attend a $50 a plate party and there would not be a quorum for the meeting.

But one Republican stated she would do her duty and attend the Council meeting and that was Marianne Clattenburg. With her and the four Democrats, that would have been 5 out of 9 members, a quorum. Councilman Bill Cox will be away on a trip, so the meeting was really cancelled so that three members, Tim Buckley, Frank Ferrando and Bob Bialkowski can go to a party. By the way, they still get paid for that meeting also. Thanks guys, nice way to do your sworn job.

Two of them, Ferrando and Buckley, are running for office again this year, so I hope some people take that into consideration.

A thanks goes to Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian for trying to force the meeting to be held as scheduled and to Councilwoman Clattenburg for putting her duty before a party.

One odd question, why didn’t the City Democratic Chairwoman, Cathy DeJannerio, stand with her candidate, Rose Mary Christian, on this issue instead of siding with the Republican Party?

There has been a rash of out of town people telling Batavia City Council how to spend city resident’s money as of late. I always sit back in amazement when people who don’t live in the city or pay our taxes call for raising the burdens on city residents. City Council represents the interests of city residents, period. It is not in the interest of city residents to provide “extra” services or expend dollars we don’t have to support wasteful spending being demanded by residents who don’t live in the city.

    This is submitted to address the issue of representational fairness in regard to the election of at-large city council members. Currently, if a sitting council member who was elected to represent an individual ward runs for an at-large seat and wins, someone is then appointed to the vacated ward seat from the winning party. Since this appointment is voted on by the city council instead of the ward's voters, it dilutes the power of each ward resident's vote. By replacing the member who initially won the ward's vote with a candidate who only needs approval from elected officials outside of the ward, this effectively means that the ward's representation is then decided by the whole city instead of  by the wards' voters. Additionally, in a ward election, party affiliation doesn't mean as much as it does in other elections, so limiting the council's choices to just one party even further deprives the ward voters of choice.

     I would propose that a sitting member should be required to serve notice of their intention to resign their current seat to run for an at-large seat so that their ward can make the decision on who represents them instead of leaving it to the city council members to decide for the ward. This resignation would take effect at the end of the current council year. In the interest of fairness, the announcement should be required to be made sufficiently in advance of the election so as to provide interested candidates the time necessary to file and gather sufficient petition signatures.   By allowing sitting members to make a horizontal move to an at-large seat, it also reduces the pool of interested candidates for the ward seat, thereby additionally depriving ward voters of further choice in their representation.

  This proposal is made in regard to fairness and outside of any partisan considerations.

Is there any party that conducts surveys regarding council's approval ratings? Also, if you would like to comment on what you think the results of such a survey would be, please feel free. I'm curious.

From Wednesday's Daily News:

• The Daily News recaps last night's City Council session, which featured a notable squabble over whether or not City Attorney George Van Nest needs to be present at each and every conference meeting.  Councilman Frank Fernando told the Daily News the conversation is "over for this year," given that the city budget has already passed.
• Genesee County's Empire Zone could be expanded to include more than 100 additional acres near Route 5.  The addition would make more room for a Canadian food processor talking with the Genesee Economic Development Center about becoming the first tenant of the planned Agri-business Park.  According to the Daily News, EDC Chief Executive Officer Steve Hyde "declined to identify" the Canadian company, but the story doesn't mention why he declined.  Maybe he would say it's because they're still negotiating, but I'll try to give him a call and let him say that for himself.  If I lived here, I'd want to know who was coming to town.
• In sports, Batavia scored five goals in the fourth quarter to top Palmyra-Macedon at the Section 5 Class C boys lacrosse tournament on Tuesday.  The lacrosse program is in its second year at Batavia, so winning a playoff game must feel amazing at this stage of the program's development.  Coach Chuck Hammon told the Daily News his team was pretty excited about the big win.  Check out the full Class C lacrosse tournament bracket here.  Batavia takes on top-seeded Penn Yan on Friday.

We recommend you pick up your copy of the Daily News at a local newsstand, or subscribe on the Daily News web site.

Over the past few months, I have seen the actions that this Council has taken, and unfortunately, that some council members have tried to overturn, the actions being consolidation and its relation to Batavia's long term fiscal health, the preserving of our great cultural heritage and who an increased tax burden would hurt the most. Unfortunately, Bill Cox, Bob Bialkowski and Sam Barone have been obstructionists to the general progress that this Council is trying to create Batavia.

Firstly, I am a very proud Batavian, I have lived here for almost 20 years now, which is almost my entire life. I have been blessed to live in this area, an area rich with educational opportunities due to excellent schools, great youth programs and, most importantly, people of compassion and responsibility, thats what I believe Batavia's greatest asset is, its people. However, I believe that all of that has come under attack by an overriding objection to change, this objection being irrational and irresponsible at its core, the change being consolidation. Although it is true I was originally opposed to consolidation, I believe that Batavia would not be able to survive if we didn't make large scale to changes to the way that we operate our government, unfortunately that meant making tough choices. Those tough choices lead to the accepting of a grant that would consolidate our dispatch services. I still don't believe in a perfect world that we would have to consolidate those services, however, the very fabric of our fiscal health and the maintenance of our cultural heritage was at risk. So we did what needed to be done in order to make sure that we can continue to operate in the short term and not have a large amount of debt in the long term.

On the same note, the council worked hard to make other tough budgetary decisions this year, these decisions reduced an increase in the tax levy from roughly 24 percent to roughly 8 percent. Those may be just numbers to some, to others its the difference between paying for their medicine or for their groceries. In the end, its the struggling middle and lower-middle class that ends up stomaching such a large tax burden. In the long run, the consolation is the difference between having years of saddled debt upon the City for future generations or having a fiscally clear future.

Unfortunately, some, such as Mr. Barone, Mr. Cox and Mr. Bialkowski have taken it upon themselves to reverse those decisions to create a culture of political mudslinging to overtake council, as was seen tonight by the attempt to remove the City Attorney from proceedings of meetings (which costs roughly 1600 dollars per year), it has also been seen by the attempts to cut out small and already agreed upon expenditures, such as the cutting out of 500 dollars in order to cancel parades and other events. It appears that it is the goal of certain councilmen to simply grandstand and make a large issue out of very small expenditures for their own political benefit, instead of working hard to make the lives of Batavians better and preserve our great cultural heritage.

My question to Mr. Cox, Mr. Bialkowski and Mr. Barone is simple, what offends you about us?

Why do you, Mr. Cox, Mr. Bialkowski and Mr. Barone find working people so offensive? As to not leave us, the middle and lower class, a bit of relief on our tax or rent bill in the short run and fiscal health in the long run.

Why do you, Mr. Cox, Mr. Bialkowski and Mr. Barone find young people so offensive? As to not leave us a city that is in good fiscal health, wanting us to pay off the debts of your proposed recklessness 20 years from now.

This Council worked very well and hard and across party lines to make a budget that addresses the needs of the hard working middle class people of Batavia and by consolidating provided a better long term fiscal situation for the young. I give all due credit to those council members, Mr. Mallow, Ms. Briggs, Ms. Clattenberg, Ms. Christian, Mr. Buckley and Mr. Ferrando, they are making Batavia a better place to live for all.

Perhaps some other council members, such as Mr. Cox, Mr. Bialkowski and Mr. Barone should stop paying lip service to the taxpayers and renters they swear to protect and start actually working for them instead of making a political show out of the City Council.