My Top Ten Proposals for the City of Rochester

Dear Blog Visitors:

Since I don’t meet the residency requirements for the mayoral race in Rochester, I am not a declared candidate. However, this is not to say that I don’t have ideas on how the City of Rochester should be run. After all, I have spent 23 years of my life in City Hall, and in the process of my assorted positions, I have certainly seen the ‘good, the bad and the ugly.’

As I near retirement on May 6 as a Civil Service employee with the City of Rochester, I would probably be entering my name amongst the several persons running in the special election for Mayor if I were a City resident. While I did in fact spend most of my years within city limits, I am currently a resident of the Town of Henrietta (south of Rochester), which disqualifies me from the current mayoral contest.

Since the mayoral election is only a few weeks away (March 29), the media has correctly stated that candidates need to state their positions very clearly and SOON!

Although I am not a mayoral candidate, I have put together my top ten proposals for the City of Rochester:

My Top Ten Proposals for City of Rochester:

1.) Limit compensated employee travel to emergencies only. 2.) Cut back on non-emergency professional service agreements. 3.) Investigate the frequency of ‘change orders’ on construction projects, whereby initial bid quotes become greatly increased/inflated once projects are underway. 4.) Look into consolidation of City departments whenever possible. 5.) When considering job cuts, re-negotiate with the AFSCME so that cuts are not strictly based on seniority. ‘Slackers’ (non-performers) should be released first, whereby top-achievers would be retained. 6.) Thoroughly investigate illegal gun trafficking in Rochester. (While illegal guns are not the root source of violent crime, they become the primary means.) 7.) Initiate frequent dialogue with Monroe County on potential governmental consolidations. 8.) Encourage more dialogue between City administration and talented employees, so as to eliminate the top-down model that currently exists. (When the brains of talented employees are used, the necessity for outside consultants would be greatly reduced.) 9.) Enter into dialogue with suburban entities for the purpose of evaluating the potential of a metro school system. 10.) There needs to be more transparency with the media. This helps to keep local government honest and the public remains informed on important matters. (Mayor Bob Duffy began his first term with weekly briefing sessions in City Hall’s atrium for the media and City employees; this practice was gradually discontinued.)

I truly love the City of Rochester, and I hope candidates for Mayor will at least take some of my proposals (or perhaps all of them) into serious consideration for their own campaigns.

Peace to all,
Ray