I began this series as a reaction to the front-page opinion series that looked at old problems (too much property off the tax rolls, a climbing tax rate, a lack of intermunicipal cooperation) through the lens of old, tired, dead-end “solutions” (build on the lakefront, “cut taxes” in some generic unspecified way, and “take over the town”). The title of that series could have been “Tell Me You Don’t Really Understand the Problem Without Telling Me You Don’t Really Understand the Problem.” But I timed this series to end at the conclusion of this almost-all-newbie City Council’s first 100 days in office.
It’s a general rule of thumb that you can tell what a political body will accomplish by looking at the way the first 100 days unfolds. The Geneva City Council has a majority willing to vote together on most issues. Given their campaigning, you might think that they would hit the ground running on all the things they said they could deliver: lower taxes, higher services, and all the bells and whistles city government can offer. Yet, thus far, the group has “brainstormed” things that a) they treat as brand-new ideas but have actually been discussed for years (weren’t they paying attention?), or b) sound nice, but aren’t actually allowed by New York State (or federal) law (don’t they do their homework?). They also hit the brakes on the vacation rental legislation, which was put into place by the prior Council after public hearings and comments showed it was well-received (by the residents, not by the investment owners).
This new majority has also made it clear that they are unfamiliar with the city’s Comprehensive Plan, the downtown Full Occupancy Initiative, the Brownfields Opportunity Assessment, and the Neighborhood Improvement Study. Some of them came right out and said they didn’t know these things, but it’s also clear by their suggestions that the City pursue things those plans cautioned us not to do. Not a promising start to their term.
I promised to deliver a range of legal, workable, helpful solutions that perhaps they could be encouraged to do in their next 100 days. I’m simply reporting out items that anyone serious about solutions would find, if they bothered to look.
From what’s out there I’ve selected 10 that Geneva could have and should have been doing already, but because I have limited space in this column and because Council might struggle to manage too many ideas all at once, here are three quick, manageable items that a simple majority could do right away:
1)
2)
3)
I will stress again that none of this is rocket science. All that is required is that elected officials get serious and smart about solving problems.
That has not been the case in the first 100 days of this administration, but we can’t give up on them yet!
Jackie Augustine lives with her three children in Geneva, where she served on City Council for 16 years. An ethics instructor at Keuka College, she serves on many local boards and is founder of BluePrint Geneva. “Doing the Write Thing” appears every other Tuesday. Email her at writethingcolumn@gmail.com.
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