BREAKING: Morelle resigns

Joe Morelle must think he has a pretty good shot at becoming the state's next comptroller.

In a letter emailed to Democratic Party members late this morning the Monroe County Democratic Party Chair announced he was stepping down from that post.

In the letter and and in a statement on his website (.pdf), he cited his candidacy for comptroller the reason for the move.

From the letter:

Although this decision was very difficult, I believe that resigning my Chairmanship is the right thing to do in light of my candidacy for New York State Comptroller. I believe that I am truly the best- qualified candidate for Comptroller and that I can better serve our party, community and state as a greater voice for our region in Albany.

The letter goes on to highlight his accomplishments, but Dems now will be scrambling to look forward, not back. This year promises a series of bruising intra-party squabbles in the district city council races (second item), not to mention the question of who will succeed Morelle in the Assembly should he get that comptroller job he so covets.

Morelle restored some measure of party discipline, which might've softened those disputes, had he stuck around. A weaker party chair could spell, if not disaster, a return to the traditional divisive model of Democratic Party politics. The names that have been tossed around for a replacement for Morelle as chair so far have tended to include former party chairs (though at least one fresh face has said privately they'd consider a bid).

One such former chair is Ted O'Brien. Making O'Brien chair would take him out of the race to succeed him, leaving it open for his fellow county legislator Stephanie Aldersley to take over Morelle's vacated Assembly seat (Brighton Town Supervisor Sandy Frankel might be interested and some city politicians surely will be but the district is carved up in such a way that Irondequoit will likely have the controlling voice).

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Former City School employee sued by state AG

One of Eliot Spitzer’s last announcements as State Attorney General has to do with a former Rochester School District employee. A lawsuit filed in the State Supreme Court in Monroe County names Henry Marini, the district’s former chief financial officer, as one of four defendants. A joint investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s office and the State Comptroller’s office alleges that the Rochester City School District paid approximately $420,000 in consulting contracts, but the district did not receive all of the services.

See the press release from Spitzer’s office here: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2006/dec/dec29b_06.html

Ferry farewell

A few notes from this afternoon's press conference on the fast ferry's abrupt departure from Rochester (it's leaving at 6:30 p.m. tonight):

The ferry will be going to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where it will be docked for a cost to the city of about $300 a day -- cheaper, according to city officials, than it now costs to store the boat here.

A decision to move the ship was made after Bay Ferries, which has been running the vessel for the city, advised that if it didn't leave tonight, there might not be another chance before the St. Lawrence Seaway closed for the winter at this month's end. (Within the Seaway's narrow confines, breezes as slight as 15 miles per hour could spell trouble navigating and a calm spell is forecast for the next day or so that it will take to the boat to traverse the system.)

City officials had hoped up until earlier today that a deal with Euroferries, the primary prospective buyer at this point, might be completed before the boat left. A last-minute request from one of the company's two financing partners quashed that, according to Mayor Duffy.

Regardless of whether or not Euroferries can consummate the deal, city officials spin this move as a positive development. Should another prospective buyer come along, the city can sell the boat without waiting for the Seaway to reopen (which usually doesn't happen until around the first of April or so). The Great Lakes, said Corporation Counsel Tom Richard, are "the worst place in the world to sell a boat," for that reason. "No one can buy it if it's locked this side of the Seaway."

Should Euroferries fail to put together its financing, it has agreed to pay for the cost of moving the ferry to Nova Scotia, city officials said.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

BREAKING: Ferry is leaving!

It's pretty rare that we break out the all-caps and exclamation points over here at the Inner Loop, but here's some news that merits it:

The City just announced, via an emailed press release, that the fast ferry, the erstwhile Spirit of Ontario, is leaving town for good tonight at 6:30 p.m.

It's probably a safe bet that the emergency ferry board meeting and the press conference to follow this afternoon will bring more information about the final deal.

Details as they're available. Check back often.

UPDATE: Here's the full text of the release:

The City of Rochester has been advised by Bayferries, inc., that due to approaching unfavorable weather conditions, the departure of the ferry needs to occur today in order to assure the ship leaves Rochester before the closing of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The City has set the tentative time of departure as 6:30 PM tonight, December 21, 2006.

The City had hoped for more of a notice of departure for the ferry, but weather conditions dictate a departure later today. The City is asking media to please announce the ferry departure time as soon as possible to give the public who would like to witness the departure the opportunity to do so.

D&C Contract conclusion?

Don't like it? Tough.

That's the message from Gannett to D&C reporters.

Earlier this month members of the Rochester Newspaper Guild, the newsroom union, voted down a contract offer that the company called it's "final, firm and best" by an overwhelming 51 to 4.

Now, the corporation that owns the Democrat and Chronicle has told newsroom workers at the paper that it plans to impose that contract anyway.

Usually the D&C responds to our requests for comment with a boilerplate sentence or two about how they can't comment on personnel matters. That's why this letter to the guild from Wendell Van Lare, the company's top labor negotiator (or as Gannett likes to say: Senior Vice President/Labor Relations) provides such an interesting glimpse into the company's view of the negotiations. Interestingly enough, Van Lare agrees with the guild's leaders that the 401K issue --- the newsroom union wants one, the company refuses to offer one --- is at the heart of the impasse:

"It seems perfectly clear to me that the key issue that has kept the parties from reaching an agreement over these many years has been the Guild's insistence on adding a new benefit to the contract, to wit, the 401K, and the Company's refusal to do so."

Van Lare also mentions other issues the Gannett and the guild couldn't seem to comes to terms on like how much flexibility the company will have at scheduling reporters and whether layoffs would have to be on a seniority basis. And after declining the guild's request to keep negotiating, he leaves the door open just a crack with this offer that he must know he won't be taken up on:

"The Company would reconsider this decision only in the event that the impasse is broken with a clear change of position on the part of The Guild with respect to the 401K issue, the need for scheduling flexibility, overtime compensation only over 40 hours and the elimination of seniority as the controlling factor in layoffs."

Finally he lays the blame for the impasse at the feet of the union. "A new contract would be preferable," he writes, in apparent agreement, before adding this parting shot: "But, the way you chose to spin the Company's offer to your bargaining unit, and the overwhelming rejection of the final offer, after fourteen years of bargaining, leads to the inescapable conclusion that further efforts to reach an agreement would be fruitless."

It's not immediately clear what's next. A guild newsletter sent to members on Friday contained this bleak assessment:

"It’s indicative of Gannett’s concern for its work force. At some point a smile and half-hearted 'Thank you' become too little for the hard work we all provide. We keep hoping our own management will intervene and choose to do what’s right versus what’s expedient. We’ll see."

From that it seems that papers reporters may be holding out hope that Publisher Michael Kane or Editor Karen Magnuson will imitate upper management at the the LA Times, who earlier this year defied the Tribune Company's order to cut newsroom jobs (and eventually got canned for their troubles).

The group may also be able to appeal the National Labor Relations Board, if they think they can prove the company didn't negotiate in good faith. But they'll have to hurry. Van Lare's letter indicated the company would impose the contract beginning on the first of the new year.

Whether the union has lost their fight or not isn't clear, but they certainly haven't lost their dark humor. From the guild newsletter, here's their take on Van Lare's letter:

"We won’t recite all of Mr. Van Lare’s misstatements and mischaracterizations here; they’re too numerous. We can only assume that this letter was written with the idea that his corporate bosses would read it and find favor with what he says. (Must have worked. This week, he, along with some others in Gannett, was rewarded with 2,000 shares of Gannett stock for a job well done. Remember that when you’re asked to bring your own food to a holiday pot luck next week.)"

---Krestia DeGeorge

County budget wrap-up

Last night the county budget passed.

No big surprise there. And we’ve already provided some analysis, including this piece (second item) --- written before the vote --- that just came out today.

So this post is just a follow up to highlight a few interesting points from last night’s proceedings.

First, a small but possibly significant change.

After County Executive Maggie Brooks released her proposed budget, the state revised the total assessment of property in the county slightly downward. To make up for that, the county introduced a slightly revised version of the budget. It basically takes about half a million dollars that was headed to the Monroe Community Hospital and brings it back into the general fund. In the revised version of the budget, that lost revenue is now replaced with revenue from patients.

Once the debate on the budget began, the Democrats in the legislature introduced a handful of proposals. Predictably, all were shot down.

The first, from Paul Haney, was the most complicated.

Right now, the county doesn’t identify what it collects from the regular property tax levy and from delinquent tax collections in separate lines in the budget. And in recent years, the county’s formula for estimating back tax collections and measures taken to cushion the county from delinquent payments (they can charge slightly more than the actually levied amount: a city tax bill for instance, shows a $9.31 per $1,000 assessed value, rather than the $9.10 that’s technically the rate) has meant that actual tax collections have been higher than budgeted since at least 1995. A decade later, in 2005 (the last year for which figures are available), the county collected $8.2 million more than it said it expected to in its budget.

Haney proposed separating out the revenue from back taxes as a separate revenue line, then using to it reduce the tax rate to $8.97 per $1,000, and pay for two small programs: a fund to help with indigent burials and a fund to televise the county legislature’s meetings.

The Republicans eventually managed to declare the proposal out of order (it amended a revenue estimate, they claimed, which county law doesn’t allow; Haney contended that it created a new revenue stream, but the GOP upheld their president’s ruling).

Another Democratic proposal called for the creation of a police districts. It’s a way for the county to charge towns that don’t maintain police forces to pay for more for the cost of the Sheriff’s Road Patrol, often their primary police presence.

Still another directed the county to use an additional $100,000 from a state flex fund for daycare subsidies, and a final one added $100,000 to restore a position of Director of Children’s Services for the county’s central library.

Each amendment was duly moved, debated, then voted down along party lines (except for the police district proposal, which Assistant Minority Leader Harry Bronson also voted against).

The Republicans did pass one amendment, though. It was a proposal from Legislator Bob Colby to take $175,000 that the county was slated to give to the Cornell Cooperative extension and give it instead to the county’s Planning Department. The Planning Department will use the money to create an Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute at Monroe Community College. The institute will take over the duties that the Cooperative Extension had been performing with the money, particularly working with the County’s farmland protection board.

The Amendment passed as the rest had failed --- along party lines. The Democrats who explained their vote against it said it wasn’t for lack of merit, but because, as GOP legislators freely admitted, the Cooperative Extension hadn’t been informed of the plan.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

The guild and Gannett

The D&C’s union has overwhelmingly voted down a contract offer that the paper’s management described as its “firm, final and best.”

The Newspaper Guild of Rochester rejected the contract by a 51 to 4 vote on Friday.

What happens next? This is where things could get interesting. When the company announced the “final” offer a month ago, the union was taken a bit by surprise since, they said, talks had been improving. But the “firm, final and best” language paves the way for Gannett to declare an impasse and impose the contract.

In a one-page communiqué to its membership dated Monday, union leadership told editorial staffer they hoped the lopsidedness of the vote against the contract worked to their favor.

“The Guild’s bargaining committee will formally notify the company in a letter today and stress that the overwhelming margin (93 percent of the vote against the proposal) demonstrates the need to return to the table to find a middle ground on outstanding differences,” the letter read. The guild will also ask the company to keep a federal mediator, which they just recently admitted, at future bargaining sessions.

The company hasn’t said previously whether it would seek to impose the contract, releasing only terse, single-sentence statements about its long-running guild dispute (it’s company policy not to comment on personnel issues). Tom O’Connor, the local Gannett operation’s spokesperson didn’t respond to an email query for comment Monday afternoon.

UPDATE: Democrat and Chronicle Spokesperson Tom Flynn just emailed with the official company statement. Here it is:

"Our position has been stated many times. We presented a final and best offer to the union. A decision on that contract was entirely in the hands of its membership. We have nothing more to say at this time, out of respect to our employees."

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Superintendent search begins

The same executive search company that is taking Rochester school Superintendent Manuel Rivera away to Boston has been hired to find his replacement.

The Rochester School Board announced today that Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler will conduct the search. The firm has placed superintendents and high-level executives in large urban districts throughout the country, including Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

“Our biggest concerns were finding a superintendent with experience in an urban district, and one with sensibility for working with diverse communities,” said board member Tom Brennan. “We’re also looking for someone who can make a commitment and stay a while, because stability is important.”

The district received proposals from 13 search firms, but Brennan said it was the contacts Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler seemed to have in education settings, including colleges and universities, that helped the company land the job.

No salary range or timeframe for review of applicants has been decided.

“But the board is entirely in agreement that we are going to conduct this search out in the open with as much community engagement as possible,” Brennan said. “This is not going to be conducted behind closed doors.”

--- Tim Louis Macaluso

Rudy runs

At about 5 o'clock in the evening yesterday, word got out that Rudy Giuliani has formed a presidential exploratory committee (a formality that lets candidates raise money for a possible bid for the White House). Just an hour later Working Families Party Executive Director Can Cantor was first out of the gate with this jab:

"For nearly seven years and nine months, Rudy Giuliani proved himself to be one of the most divisive figures in New York City's history – and that's saying a lot. He almost completely erased that image in an instant. But if Giuliani is actually now a serious presidential candidate – and this is not simply a gambit to boost his consulting business – I suspect the rest of the country will be introduced to the real Rudy – the divider, not the uniter."

--- Krestia DeGeorge