>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

This hour we are welcoming the candidates who are on the ballot for Irondequoit Town Supervisor.

And if you've been listening recently, you know we've been talking to candidates in different towns who are running for supervisor positions.

This is not a situation that we think is just going to be parochial conversations, just local issues.

That happens sometimes.

But a lot of this is universal issues.

It's good government.

It's the good stewardship of your tax dollars.

It's running towns well, and it's conversations with the candidates who want your vote.

Now, this hour.

We had hoped to bring the candidates together.

We were not able to do that.

But we will welcome John Perticone, the Democrat, in the second half hour.

The Republican Anthony Costanza is with us in studio now, and we're glad to have him.

Anthony, welcome to the program.

Thanks for making time for us.

>> Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

>> And the website for Anthony Costanza.

If you want to learn more, it's W-w-w-what Irondequoit Firstcom.

And first is one of Irondequoit Firstcom.

That's a website.

>> Roger that sir.

>> All right.

So I'm going to give you a little bit of space here.

You're the Republican running for town supervisor in the town of Irondequoit.

Introduce yourself to listeners a little bit about your background, who you are, and and then we'll talk about why you're running for this position.

>> Sure.

Anthony Costanza grew up in Irondequoit lived partially in Italy and America until I was about nine, and at the age of nine, my parents decided to live in permanently in the United States, went to Irondequoit High School, MCC after Irondequoit, I enlisted in the military in 1997.

I had a four year career as an enlisted guy, used the Montgomery GI Bill to go get my bachelor's, applied to officer training school, was accepted, and from 2003 to 2021 was an officer in the United States Air Force.

retired from active duty and came back exactly to where I grew up.

Which is ironic because this is where I wanted to raise my son.

And that's the impetus for me coming back to Irondequoit.

And just a brief overview of of my life.

>> And why this position in particular, why town supervisor?

>> Well, I was the town assessor for ten months.

In what, in that brief period, I saw that from my perspective, things the people weren't being treated fairly.

on the sixth week of the job, as the assessor, I produced a 26 page report that went up to the board.

And the gross takeaway from that report was that poor and poor and fair condition homes were overpaying their fair share of taxes via their assessments.

And that good and excellent homes were underpaying.

And as a person advocating for the masses, I thought that that was incorrect.

I laid forth a plan to fix the assessment, and it fell on deaf ears.

So I decided to get involved at the next step, which is the supervisor level, such that we can make it a better Irondequoit for everyone, not just the the 5%.

>> What was the qualification that you had that led you to be an assessor?

>> Right.

So I had done assessing of federal installations in the military.

So my college degree was in economics and math, and my tenure as an officer was in the area of financial management such that I was a cost analyst, a comptroller five times over, a resource manager.

And so I went to many schools within the Air Force and was taught how to, to a myriad of things, including the assessment of land, federal land values.

>> Okay.

and I want to give you some time to talk about an issue that I know has been somewhat controversial in this race.

Sure.

I'm going to read from the reporting of my WXXI colleague Gino Fanelli on this, and it goes to a story that goes back to late spring into the summer.

And he writes the following quote in July of 2024, the town of Irondequoit released a letter from Anthony Costanza where he sought to address public concerns about the assessment of his own home being lowered.

That happened after he challenged its 2023 assessment and went through the grievance process.

In the letter, Costanza said he had reached out to his peers in the town government on how to grieve his assessment as the assessor himself, a process he acknowledges had never been done before.

Costanza's assessment was reduced from $200,000 to $170,000.

After that grievance process.

The letter also included an apology to constituents over the perception that he had done something nefarious, end quote, and Gino's story goes on to point out that Anthony Costanza said that you deny all allegations of wrongdoing, but you're the assessor of the town.

Why?

Why spend any time focusing on lowering your own assessment when you're the assessor?

>> Right?

So I lowered all assessments that I were known to me to be wrong.

So upon examination of the 2023 assessment I found that a selective assessing occurred and in some instances, those selective assessments are illegal because they violate the constitutional rights of citizens.

So I not only fixed mine, and I'll get to that in a second, but I fixed every incorrect assessment known to me.

when it came to my own home, I reached out to officials in New York State.

They told me the way forward with respect to how to move on.

I was the sole assessor, which means no one else within the town had this capability.

And and I used no discretion, sir.

So that's a very important key term in this whole case, I would say, because I'm in court right now regarding this matter.

But the fact of the matter is, I had the authority because I was the sole assessor, and I used the numbers from an independent third party appraisal.

I didn't use any discretion in the valuation of my own home.

So I treat everyone fairly within the rules of the law and sought to overturn things that were done improperly in 2023.

>> The DA's office, the D.A.

herself, Sandra Doorley what had accused you of willfully using your municipal position or official powers and duties to secure a financial or material benefit for yourself?

And I want to just make sure people understand where the legal case is against you from the D.A.

's office, because the way they described it at the time was a corruption case.

What's the case?

>> Correct.

There is no corruption and there was no benefit.

So if I incorrectly overcharge you at Wegmans for a gallon of milk and you go back to Wegmans and want the overcharging of your milk to be corrected, you're not receiving a financial gain in that situation.

You're just correcting an error.

There is no financial gain to be had.

With respect to my own house, I was fixing an incorrect process, which was, like I said, not only done for myself, but for every other taxpayer who had an incorrect assessment done.

>> Okay, where is the legal case against you right now?

Is that still in court?

>> Yes.

We have.

Our next hearing is November 15th.

>> Okay.

and you're confident that you're going to win?

>> Absolutely.

100% confident.

>> How what's the difference in your tax bill from a $200,000 house to a $170,000?

>> So in the town and county portion, it was $132 annually.

That's correct.

>> Okay.

But you're saying that's not a financial benefit?

>> No, because I was overpaying before.

>> So I understand I understand the semantic point you're making about that.

>> It was more out of, to be honest, Mr.

Dawson.

It was it was about principle.

I corrected everything that was wrong.

And it's the principles here that are at play, not the not the monetary amounts.

>> Okay.

So we've spent a lot of time on this program covering the local housing market, which is on fire right now.

And every house that hits the market, not every house.

That's not fair.

A lot of houses that hit the market are going for well above asking, right?

I'm not seeing a ton of houses that are over assessed.

Given the fact that the market is on fire.

Why was your house?

Why did you need to drop at $30,000 and lower your tax bill?

What was the justification.

>> For the condition?

So the condition I bought the house having never set foot in it before.

I was not privy to an inspection.

It was during COVID.

I was going through a custody battle trying to win.

My son and my lawyer said, you need to secure housing.

So I did exactly what she told me to do to secure housing so that I could win the custody battle, which I ended up doing.

So on my website, people can go.

And just a month and a half ago, I did a 15 minute video where I walked through the entire house to show them the damage to the foundation, the fact that more than half the house is missing ceilings and floors these were all things that were problems that were in the house that were there when I bought it.

And so now it's going to take a great amount of time and money that I don't have presently to, to fix these things.

And so the condition is one of the things that the New York State Assessors Manual says drives the value of a home condition is huge.

And so based on the condition is why the assessed value went down.

>> Okay.

A couple other points.

I'm going to move on to some other issues here.

When you're the assessor of the town, you in your own letter to the town, acknowledged that there could be a perception, not that you did anything nefarious, but there could be a perception.

Why not say, look, as long as I'm the assessor, my own home is out of bounds here.

We'll deal with the grievance at a future date.

But because of that perception, I'm not going to seek it to lower my own assessment.

>> So first of all, my my going into the job was meant to be a long term career choice, not a ten month stint.

The reason why I, I left after ten months is because I produced a report and I highlighted inefficiencies and not one email and not one meeting was had by the town board to address those concerns.

So in retrospect, it looked like a very short tenure, but I resigned because the town was doing nothing to address the fact that the citizens, a great many of them, are paying incorrect tax amounts because their assessments are wrong.

If I had been there for six years, it may have been different, but we do things right.

And when you have when you're a person of integrity and do 24 years in the military, you do things.

You do the right thing when people are looking and when they're not looking.

Another huge fallacy, if I may, was the fact that the large decrease in my tax bill in 2024 had absolutely zero to do with my home assessment.

It was the fact that I retired and put in for veteran exemptions that all veterans get.

So it was a combination of bad timing them not allowing me to speak my side.

I kept asking the town, let me address the citizens, and they didn't allow that.

And so now I have to to right the ship because I was silenced as the assessor over.

>> Okay.

And what has the D.A.

's office?

Have you had conversations with them before they decided to move forward against you?

Did you try to say like, look, you don't understand?

>> No.

There were zero zero conversations okay.

>> So you're going to have your day in court.

You think you're going to.

>> Win that?

Yes, unequivocally.

>> Okay.

and last question on that.

How often are voters asking, do you think you made any mistakes here?

Are voters concerned about the fact that you're the assessor and your assessment went down?

>> No.

So when I explain the story so so that's the the ambiguity of this whole thing is they've only been able to speak their side.

And shows like this, which I'm grateful for, allowed me to speak my side.

When I speak to people, I'm going door to door every day.

Every weekend we're meeting with people from all different parties, whether Irondequoit and within 5 to 7 minutes, they get it because a great many of them were affected adversely by the same 2023 assessment.

So they empathize and they understand that it wasn't a perfect product.

>> Now, when I look at the response of your party, when Gino wrote that story, you know, he reached out to at the time, the Monroe County Republican committee chair, the party chair locally, Patrick Riley, who has since left that position.

But his his statement, he said, quote, Anthony Costanza only switched parties to Republican in February to run for Irondequoit supervisor, and he was only able to do this because of a political vacuum that was created when a previous supervisor, Rory Fitzpatrick, left the Irondequoit political stage.

So the Republican Party seemed to be kind of distancing themselves.

>> Well, that was that was Mr.

Riley.

First of all, he didn't inform himself on the facts.

The Irondequoit GOP had eight hours of meetings with me before they pushed me forward as a candidate in February, eight hours of interrogation and meeting, whatever you want to call it.

He did not ask anyone for their opinions.

Last night at around 10 p.m.

in the evening, a mr.

elder in the Monroe County GOP put out a statement fully endorsing me as the candidate going forward.

they laud my acumen, they laud my experience, my military service.

And so in my opinion, Mr.

Riley didn't do his homework and, and and I believe that 100%.

>> Okay.

have you been a Republican longer than just this year?

>> No, I was in the military.

I was an independent for 24 years.

So as an officer in the military, we support the Constitution.

We support the people, and we don't get involved in the politics game.

>> Okay, but now that you're a Republican, what does it mean to you to be a Republican?

>> what I believe is the most important thing is being a good steward to the people.

I'm not here to.

I'm not here to support and defend what's going on in DC, per se.

I'm here getting involved at the local level, because what I can control is in my span will be the quality of life of people in Irondequoit.

I have no aspirations of going further in the political spectrum.

I want to get in, clean things up, make a Irondequoit more efficient.

address the fact that nine out of ten homes that we knocked doors on have large concerns with the fact that they, they really can't afford the taxes that they pay.

So this is less about party affiliations and what's going on in DC and more about getting having a mechanism in a way to affect my local community that I love.

>> In a moment, we're going to talk about what your agenda would be here and where your priorities would be if you win the supervisor's race.

I take your point.

Local politics is not national politics.

Correct?

I'm curious to know as now, as a Republican, if you are a fan of the president, who is also a Republican.

>> Some of the things that he's doing have merit.

I'll give you one example.

I also think that the way he's going about doing things, you know, could stand to be better polished and one of those things that I keep talking to and, and actually resonates with even Democrats when I'm out campaigning is the fact that America has lost its manufacturing base over the last four years.

That's an unequivocally true statement.

Now, Mr.

Trump is trying to bring manufacturing back to America.

Is that a good or a bad thing?

And if you ask anyone across the spectrum of political parties, it's a general good thing.

Now, the way you go about doing it is totally different than the fact that it has merit.

And so that's where my consternation is, is, you know, tone down the rhetoric.

yes.

You are the president.

You run the show.

But maybe let's let's have a let's be a little more soft spoken such that we can actually bridge gaps across the aisle and work together as a nation to better the nation for everyone.

>> So mostly you're not a fan of his tweets.

You don't like his rhetoric, but some of his policies are pretty good.

>> Some of the policy.

And I'll give you, may I add another topic is immigration is a hot topic.

Well, I can tell you first and foremost, my fiance lives in Thailand right now, and I'm going through the immigration process the right way, as prescribed by by the Immigration Department.

And it's a very long process.

It costs a lot of money, but there's rules.

And I just followed the rules that that are have been given to me as a citizen of the state, citizen of this country.

And I have no animosity to immigrants.

I'm an immigrant myself.

This country was built on the shoulders of immigrants.

Okay.

So that isn't an issue for me either.

But if you are not here in the proper fashion, look to correct that.

If you came here seeking asylum, put in the right paperwork.

if you're a criminal and you're not here legally I personally don't want criminals that are harming Americans, hurting Americans.

>> I think everybody would agree with that last point.

So if you're if you're the town supervisor and Irondequoit, do you want to see Ice more active in your town to make sure that people are pulled out and deported?

>> I would say that first of all, that that call wouldn't come down to me.

No one's going to call Anthony Costanza as the town supervisor and say, hey, are you going to let these folks in?

That's a reality that will not happen.

what I want them to do is follow rules, follow the laws of New York State, follow the rules of this land and do it properly.

that's all I ask.

I follow rules, I expect you to follow rules and and do it with tact.

Do it based on credible evidence.

And really, that's that's the bottom line.

>> So if you're elected what are your give me a priority one for you as supervisor.

>> A fiscal overhaul.

deep dive into the how money is being spent at town hall.

examine the processes by which we spend money.

And that's that was my forte in the military was I would go into organizations that weren't operating at at peak efficiency.

And that we're not getting increases in federal funding.

And basically, I was told, get more out of this organization with the with the money that's there, without having to ask for more.

And via tweaking and educating and training human capital via process changes.

efficiencies, economies of scale, root cause analysis, these are all the things that are on the table so that I can go into this job, expend the every dollar such that we're getting maximum return on that dollar so that I can look my constituents in the face and say, we're doing the best we can.

Spending your hard earned tax dollars such that you're getting the services that you need.

>> Do you have a sense of where money is being misspent right now?

>> I think it's in the procurement process.

That's if I was, you know, from what I saw as the assessor.

And I'll give you an example as the assessor from year 24 to 25, I decreased the assessor department budget by 11%.

How did I do that?

I did things in house that were being contracted out.

If you have the manpower and the human capital to do acts you shouldn't be spending money on that human capital and then farming it out via contracts.

So there's a myriad of different things that we can do.

but like I said, in in 11 months, I reduced that one department by 11%.

Now, I can't guarantee that we're going to do the entire town by 11%, but I can guarantee you that we can be more efficient than we are now.

>> Okay.

what's another priority for you as the supervisor?

If you win this race?

>> Another priority is.

It's funny.

we have a great school district, and they have a motto called all means all.

and so Rhonda is a very diverse community such that we have very rich and wealthy folks that live up on Rock Beach Road and, you know, near the lake.

And then we have those in, you know, 1460914621 who are dealing with a different, a very different Irondequoit I spent two weekends campaigning in those areas where they the, the borders of Iran are quite border.

Those are the, the city.

And in my general opinion, it's those areas and those people that aren't getting the services that other folks in around quite are.

And so let's just be fair, such that all people in Irondequoit are getting, you know, similar treatment.

And you know, if crime is a concern in one area, then let's address it.

Let's put together some task forces.

Let's get let's mindmeld with law enforcement to see what we can do to better the lives of those who are not living the Irondequoit dream.

>> You also talk about wanting to make sure that government runs effectively and efficiently, no matter if board members are Republicans or Democrats, no matter the political parties.

And I mean, I think everybody listening would agree that that's a good goal.

Yes, sir.

You are the assessor, as you said, and you thought you might be there for years.

>> Correct.

>> You ended up being there for ten months, correct.

And you end up leaving at a time when you feel like no one is listening to you.

You couldn't get anything from the board.

They weren't responding to, to the report that you put together.

Correct.

Do you feel like assessing your own house?

Lower led the board to say, we can't take this seriously?

No.

You don't think that had anything to do.

>> With it?

Not at all.

Because because the lowering occurred after the report was was completed and the board had until July 1st to voice their displeasure with what I was doing.

If it was illegal, they had two months to let me know before the final roll was let.

No one ever contacted me and no one ever had any concerns.

It was only when I started diving into the the realm of political aspiration that this then became a hot issue.

>> Okay, but the reason I'm asking is because you want to be the supervisor and you want to be able to work across party lines, and you want to be able to work efficiently.

But when you were the assessor, something went wrong.

Something was was not working.

>> Correct.

I can tell you what went wrong is the fact that I was highlighting deficiencies that affect the masses.

And so those are hard things to overcome.

And so I truly believe that there was people in leadership in Irondequoit that don't want to put in the work and that are not there for the 95%.

>> What if they think you're wrong?

What if they think that your assessments were just off?

>> Well, so I have two independent third party appraisals that both support not only support what I did, but and the one appraisal I'm still overvalued by $30,000.

And these are not my opinions.

These are the opinions of other people.

So I have the facts to prove that they made a mistake.

And like I said, go to the website and you can you can do the walkthrough and watch the video for yourself and you'll realize quite quickly that my house is no Taj Mahal, sir.

>> Well, Anthony Costanza website is Irondequoit firstcom Irondequoit the number one street Irondequoit Firstcom you are confident that you can get people to work together and work with you as supervisor.

If you win this race.

>> Unequivocally.

The and I know this because I've been going door to door like I told you, sir, and speaking with people and the feedback that we're getting is amazing.

time for change is like the mantra, the slogan of our campaign.

And everywhere we go, it resonates with people.

People are are sick of the status quo.

They're sick of high taxes.

They're sick of politicians not being able to work together and produce results.

My entire career has been predicated on producing results, and I promised the voters that if elected into office, that I will produce results for the people.

>> Okay.

And before we go, we're going to take a break.

And welcome the Democrat in the race.

John Perticone, who's running for Irondequoit town supervisor.

What's your relationship like with John here?

Do you feel like you could work with John if you're if you're the supervisor, can you work with people like John?

>> Of course.

Yes.

>> Okay.

Yes.

How's the relationship now?

>> we don't speak his entire platform is about this case in smearing my name.

I don't respect that.

I would rather talk about the policies and plans that are going to be the plans that we put forth to move Irondequoit into 2030 and beyond.

But they're just stuck on this old rhetoric of lambasting me, and and that's not working.

It only fortifies my will to go out and better represent the people even more.

But but if he's at the council and I'm at the supervisor, we will work together.

Because at the end of the day I will produce results for the people of Irondequoit.

>> I want to thank you for taking the time to come in here talking to us at length here.

We appreciate now the listeners appreciate that as well.

>> Thank you.

WXXI.

I really appreciate the opportunity.

>> Anthony Costanza is the Republican running for Irondequoit town supervisor.

His website is Irondequoit.

Firstcom.

The number one street Irondequoit Firstcom.

We'll come right back and talk to the Democrat in the race.

John Perticone.

Coming up in our second hour, Rochester Mayor Malik Evans sits down with us for the hour talking about his reelection campaign.

Yes, he won the Democratic primary a few months ago.

And that's often where the winners are decided.

In cities like Rochester.

But in this case, there is a Republican opponent.

That Republican will be on the show tomorrow.

Today it's the Democrat in the race, incumbent Mayor Malik Evans, seeking a second term.

And we'll talk to him about it next hour.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Cariola center, supporting residents to become active members of the community, from developing life skills to gaining independence.

Mary Cariola center Transforming lives of people with disabilities.

More online at.

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Org.

>> Welcome back to the program, and I want to welcome our next guest in just a moment here.

It's a quick change out here.

That's Anthony Costanza.

The Democrat in the race is John Perticone.

Who is?

You'll see on the ballot if you're in a Irondequoit.

And he is with us in the studio now.

And I want to welcome John.

Well, it'll be a little easier.

It's a quick change out to get those headphones on, but I'll say hello, John.

Welcome.

Thank you.

>> Hello.

Thank you very much.

>> It's great having you.

And what we always do, John, and what we did with your opponent in this race is give you a chance to tell the listeners a little bit about yourself, your background, your work background, and why you decided to run for the position that you're seeking.

>> Okay, well, I'll start out with my work background.

I was a business manager of the United Association plumber and Pipefitters local 13, and I also was the president of the Rochester Building Trades Council.

that's my background as far as my career.

and I've been on I've been on the town board for 17 plus years.

I've also was on the planning board prior to that.

So I've been a public servant to the town of Irondequoit for quite some time now.

>> And why run for the supervisor job now?

>> Well, I think we need a fresh start right now.

Definitely need a fresh start.

We need some stability and we need some experience in there right now to bring our town forward and give some respect to our employees.

And that's what we need right now.

A lot of experience to move this, and it's time to go with stability and experience.

>> And you've been there for the better part of two decades on the board, and you've seen a lot of different leadership changes.

Republicans and Democrats and it sounds to me like you think that your the town's at a low point.

>> Oh, I don't think it would be at a low point.

I think we're there.

We're getting there, we're there.

You know, this has been a tough year.

The town board has basically taken over.

I have good colleagues on the town board right now.

I wouldn't say we're at a low point.

We've we've come a long way.

We're getting better, but it'll be better once the transition starts next year.

And we get the right people in there with experience and stability and integrity, and we will make leaps and bounds immediately.

you'll see.

>> And so just so listeners understand a little bit about what's happening there is another technically there's another Democrat in the race, although he's not on the ballot, and that's why he's not on the program.

And it's the incumbent supervisor, Andre Evans, a Democrat, who would like voters to write him in.

But the party has essentially moved on from Supervisor Evans.

And as John said, in your view, the board has been running the town because of allegations of misconduct that Andre Evans has denied.

Did you think the allegations against him were enough for you to say that it was out of bounds and you needed a change?

>> We definitely needed a change.

We we had a reprimand letter back in January.

The town board.

Now we're all Democrats.

The town board told him we want him to resign.

we said that back in January.

And then after that, we censored him.

And basically he stays home and he comes into meetings.

and that's where it is right now.

So with the absence t of him there, the town board, all four of us have stepped up and did our due went above and beyond.

>> Okay.

and so now you are running against Anthony Costanza.

Our goal is always to bring the candidates together.

And your choice was not to come on with the Republican in the race.

Why would you not come on with Anthony?

>> Well, I didn't want to debate Anthony because right at the beginning, this started very early.

He started mudslinging.

he did a video of me saying incriminating things, and then he accused me of breaking the law by not having my friends of John Perticone on some of my my Fourth of July T-shirts where I had my family and my grandson walking in the parade, which he doesn't know.

The law that does not that does.

That doesn't apply.

I didn't break the law for that.

And there's been some serious mudslinging right along the way.

So I.

>> Think happens in politics.

>> Right?

Yeah.

But I think people around the Kuwait deserve a little more than what they're getting, believe me.

>> So you don't think he's a serious candidate?

>> I don't think so.

>> Okay, well, I mean, it is your choice.

And we decided to honor your choice to appear on your own without Anthony.

I will say he had a lot to say about the allegations of his conduct as the assessor.

I want to spend the whole half.

>> Hour on that.

>> But I want to hear your take on that, because as a member of the board, as someone who's worked on government, sure, he comes in as as a new assessor and he told us his thought was he was going to be the assessor for years.

He did not come in solely for the goal of trying to lower his own house assessment, but he ends up lowering his home assessment from 200,000 270,000.

He said he was doing that as part of a systematic change for homes that were overvalued.

His included, and he thought it was the right thing to do.

He even wrote a letter to the town saying, you know, it might look bad, but he wanted to make sure he was doing it above board.

So he said he doesn't feel like he was ever out of bounds here.

How did you see it?

>> I think he's completely out of bounds.

We have ethics, okay.

And basically our ethics in our town of Irondequoit virtue of your office.

You can't financially take advantage of your of your of your position.

and I thought it was the right or wrong thing to do.

I think a PR thing, it wasn't the right thing to do.

He went through the process one time.

He went all the way to the scar.

The scar would not reduce it.

Less than 200,000.

Okay.

He takes over the job immediately.

He lowers his own assessment without going through the proper channels the second time.

And let me bring up one other thing.

Is the New York State is Association said that if he was still in office, he violated their ethics code.

So he did the town ethics code as well as himself as the New York State.

I'm sorry.

>> What about his claim that when you look at the actual property, it's simply over assessed?

And and he felt like by the merits, this was not a $200,000 property.

>> Well, I think a lot of people might feel that way, but we don't have the luxury of sitting at a computer and changing our assessment.

Right.

A lot of people might feel that same way.

After you get reassessed, but nobody has the luxury of sitting in there as an assessor and lowering your own assessment.

That's that's the issue right there.

He had that.

Nobody else has that opportunity but him.

>> How's your assessment?

You think it's too high?

>> My, no, I think my assessments.

Right.

>> Yours is fair.

My, you didn't agree with it?

>> I did not grieve my assessment.

What would you grieve.

>> It if he had come to you as the assessor and said, look, I want to do this the right way.

I'm not going to change my assessment right now, but I want to tell you that my analysis is my own home is over assessed.

What should I do?

>> Go through the proper channels and see where it comes out.

In the end, don't just sit at a computer and change your assessment.

He never came to us.

As far as the town board and said anything like that.

He just went ahead and changed his assessment.

I mean, you know, I don't know what more to say than that.

I can't do it.

Can you go just change your own assessment?

No.

>> I cannot, that's correct.

>> And I cannot either.

>> Okay.

I understand that point now.

Over the years, you've worked with a number of people in government who are Republicans.

You've worked with plenty of Democrats, and at first in this past summer, it looked like the Republican Party chair at the time, Patrick Riley, was kind of distancing himself from the Republican candidate.

He said he only became a Republican earlier this year.

You know, there's a lack of good leadership in Irondequoit.

Basically, it was the Republican Party saying, that's not our guy, but the new leadership may be in a different position.

What's your understanding?

I mean, were you surprised to see the Republican, at least this summer, distance themselves from your opponent?

>> Yeah, I think he did.

He he made a comment about he supported our D.A.

at the times.

you know, the process that she brought.

Mr.

Castanza up on a misdemeanor.

He supported her, and he said that.

So he he went with that decision, and he didn't support someone that was breaking the law.

>> And to be clear, I should I should be clear.

This has not been mentioned yet this hour.

The allegations against Anthony Costanza include a misdemeanor charge, not a felony.

It's a misdemeanor charge.

And then two town code violations is my understanding.

He says he's going to have his day in court.

He's going to be cleared.

>> Well, I think every criminal says the same thing, right?

>> Talking to John Perticone, the Democrat running for Irondequoit town supervisor.

So let's talk about what you want to do, okay.

You've been in government for a long time.

What's the priority?

>> Well, you know, once you become the supervisor, you have your own agenda, what you want to do.

I think number one, obviously is always our public safety is number one, fiscal responsibility and economic development.

Those are things that we need in town.

And I'm going to work very hard to get to those and make sure that they stay.

We stay on track with all three of those.

>> Public safety.

What needs to happen?

Is there anything that's not happening that needs to happen?

>> Well, I think public safety right now, I support our our captain and our captains and also our police chief, Scott Peters, as well as our police department, 100%.

I'm behind them 100%.

They have a building right now.

They have a building right now.

It's probably a 20, 25 year building and it's over.

They've been in it over 30.

And I think we have to look at that.

We have to look at that, not just a bricks and mortar building, but I think we have to look at new technology now.

the technology that they need.

And you know, what?

They they support us, we support them.

You know, I think it's time to start looking into that as well too, as far as.

And then that'll roll right into fiscal responsibility.

We got to look at long term spending over the next five years, I think get together with the comptroller, who's an extremely important part of this.

Diana marsh does a great job with the town of Irondequoit.

Get the town board together, her staff, and let's look at a five year plan B fiscal responsibility, because we need maintenance on some buildings to Camp Eastman.

Our cabins need to be renovated.

So there are things like that.

And then last but not least is economic development.

I'm starting to have a good rapport with our Chamber of Commerce.

I think those go hand in hand.

I think the supervisors should have a good rapport with the chamber.

Let's bring economic development, let's bring businesses in.

Let's let's work on that and make sure this is a friendly community for people to do business.

>> How do you feel about what's happened at the old Irondequoit Mall?

>> Well, you know, that's always been we put our community center in there and it's been extremely successful with the leadership of Shannon.

>> Tell people what say they haven't been there for years.

Tell people what's.

>> There.

Right now.

We have the we have our community center there.

It's about a 40,000 square foot building.

Now, if people know that, especially the people in Irondequoit do, we had a small little old school that was our kind of our rec center.

This has gone leaps and bounds.

Now we got, you know, pickleball.

We got weights.

You know, there's a lot of services there.

And Shannon and her staff have done a great job over there.

It's gone from a little to, you know, almost 40,000ft.

So that's what's in there right now.

We just did a groundbreaking with the Willow Domestic.

they're coming in there.

They're going to be in the backside, though.

they're going to renovate about 16,000ft, and there's a child advocacy.

building that's getting renovated right now, square footage.

>> So it's a pretty good use of.

>> So yeah.

Right now.

Yeah.

I mean, it's good for you know, when I went to the groundbreaking, I mean, you know, I got a good education there.

when they were talking about what they do, how they do it, it's going to be a one stop shop for people.

You know, those services.

We need them.

It's too bad you do, but you need them.

And I think that's going to help the community.

It's kind of a what they said was good.

It's centrally located for people.

And they're going to use that space.

It's probably about a year out.

I would say they got to do a build out on it, though.

>> I moved to Rochester in 2003, and one of the first stories I covered was the unveiling of the new medley center and the hope at the time that this could be, you know, the mall of the future.

And turns out malls in general are struggling.

That's just the way of it, sure.

But at the time, you know, I'm new to Rochester and people are saying, well, you know what used to happen?

Irondequoit mall, people used to hide under your cars.

I don't think there was ever a single incident where that ever happened, did it?

>> No, I don't think there was.

You know, in the day I was I was a lot younger.

But I think if you talk to our police department and look at look at the history of the mall, I don't I don't think that was just, you know, it's too bad because it got a bad rap, right?

The rumors kind.

>> Of killed it, right?

>> You know, that mall's 1,000,000ft.

When it was going 1,000,000ft, that mall is.

So it's a lot of square footage.

A lot of stores were in there, and then it started, you know, slowly, slowly going down, you know what I mean?

But we're repurposing it.

Angelo Ingrassia is the owner there.

He's trying his best.

And, you know, we got like I said, we're he's going to continue to work on bringing businesses in there.

>> Is it still a large is there still a lot of unused space there?

>> Oh, I would say.

But at the end there's housing on the end that they bought the old Sears building and that they took some square footage.

But if you go in there, I mean, I don't know exactly the square footage, it hasn't been used up.

But yeah, there's still some vacancies there.

There's still there's still quite a bit of square footage that needs to be you know, used.

>> so on some of the subjects you mentioned, you mentioned fiscal responsibility.

and in Irondequoit, a listener wanted to know.

Judy said your opponent has pledged to take a 10% pay cut as supervisor.

Would you do the same?

>> Well, you know, to go, I think people need more than just that.

I just think that's just a stunt.

It's a political stunt.

I think most people want to.

They want to more.

They want strong, strong leadership.

They want someone that's going to bring this town together with everybody.

They want stability and they want experience.

I just think that 10% rate is is just a stunt.

And let me, let me make one other thing clear.

When I'm going through the budget right now.

Okay.

So you have a rate to drop that rate one penny you need close to $50,000.

So you know, do do your math there.

It's not going to make that big of a deal.

One thing I will promise I'm not going to be in the news on a misdemeanor charge.

And that goes without saying.

And I don't think you can put a price tag on that.

>> Talking to John Perticone Democrat running for Irondequoit town supervisor.

Kathy and Irondequoit wrote in to say Irondequoit is the only town in the whole state that has two school districts, which contributes to the taxes.

Do you think that contributes to a mentality of two different Irondequoit?

>> No.

Well, you know what?

Growing up, because I've been there my entire life, there was always, you know, you had the East Easter Irondequoit West Ranucci, especially when it was sports.

Oh, yeah, very, you know.

very competitive.

Oh, rivalries like the Yankees and Red Sox.

So you know what, school districts.

That's something the school districts, you know we don't get into that.

But I'm certainly sure the school districts know that's been hanging over their heads for many, many, many years.

You know, the school boards would have to get together with the school districts and talk about it.

I you know, I've never that is something that's been out there a long, long time.

And it's never combined into one school district.

So, you.

>> Know, do you think it makes a feeling like there's a an upper crust and then a working class around it?

I mean, like, Kathy's wondering if that stratification.

>> No, I don't believe so.

Not anymore.

No, I don't think so.

No, I think it's all around.

I represent all Irondequoit.

we have variations of people, status, et cetera.

and I will always represent everybody around equate.

>> some of our listeners who were curious to hear that Anthony Costanza until this past January had been an independent.

He was not a Republican until this year.

They wanted to know what he thought about some of the national scene.

You know, I think part of the reason we talk about local politics is we talk enough about national politics.

My guess is when you're in town government, you'd rather focus on town government.

Sure.

You've been a Democrat your whole.

>> Adult life.

I have my whole adult life.

I was in organized labor, and in the year when I went into organized labor, I mean, the Democrats, the Democrats were the ones that supported organized labor.

But that's changed a lot.

That's changed leaps and bounds.

>> Are you surprised to see how much labor has supported, at least on the national level?

Republicans like the president?

>> yeah, some of them, yeah.

You know, it all depends.

You know, it's different now.

It really is.

It's different.

it depends what they're promising you.

If they if they support.

Listen, I used to represent the building trades, and we used to go to Albany a lot.

And if you know whoever it was, if they supported your agendas, your.

Then you support them.

You know, there's some unions, some organized labor that they supported the president maybe he told them this is you know, this is what's on my agenda.

Whether he followed through on it, I don't know, to this day.

>> Well, what do you think labor needs most right now?

>> Labor needs most right now.

I don't think there's a lot of labor unrest right now, but I think labor always needs being under.

Collective bargaining is very well.

I think you always need support of the people and you need support of your, you know, elected officials, your dignitaries absolutely.

All the time.

You know, building trades is different than other unions.

We're all under the AFL-CIO.

You know, but building trades are a little different structure differently.

So we go out, we build.

That's what we do.

>> If I would have told you 30 years ago you were running for supervisor position, would you have been surprised?

>> I'd be very surprised.

>> This is not the career.

You.

Well, part of part of a career that you expected.

>> No, no.

But, you know, my job as a business manager brought me into politics, and I enjoy it.

I I've been you know, I enjoy it, I like it.

I had a business manager.

That was the best job I've ever had.

>> Well, we'll see if you're elected supervisor.

If you feel the same way.

Yeah.

do you have a political hero.

>> A political hero, you know, not not.

No.

Not really.

You know what I mean?

I really don't have anybody that you know, I, you know, I've, I've appreciated some of the things that went on locally with some of our elected officials supporting labor.

Of course.

you know, I've always supported anybody that supports labor.

I support them.

>> Okay.

now I want to I want to move back to public safety a bit because there are questions about that in the last half hour with your opponent.

Anthony Costanza there were questions about immigration.

He talked about immigration.

And let's start with this.

How much of an issue is in your town?

Is the the work that Ice is doing?

>> Well, you know, we follow the law in Irondequoit.

I haven't seen anything yet personally.

What they're doing, I haven't come across anything they're doing.

But we will follow the law.

That's what we'll do.

The town of Veronica will follow the law.

>> Okay.

And if you're the supervisor, do you expect anything different to be going on with ice?

>> No, I don't believe so.

I don't, you know.

No, I would like to.

I'd like to know if they're going to come in and we'll see.

But we'll always follow the law, whatever that law is.

>> Okay.

has any of their conduct hit your radar where you thought they were doing anything inappropriate?

>> Ice.

Yeah, well, not not to my knowledge.

As of we speak right now.

No.

>> Okay.

Do you want the police actively working side by side with us?

>> Yes.

I think our police department should be aware of what's going on in our town.

Absolutely.

Our police chief and our officers.

Yes.

I would like them involved and see.

Yeah, absolutely.

>> The reason I ask is because in the next hour, we have the mayor of Rochester who's running for reelection.

Malik Evans on this program.

And the Trump administration is suing the city of Rochester for its sanctuary city status.

You're not a sanctuary, right?

how do you feel about the argument that towns or cities should or should not be sanctuary cities?

>> Well, that's up to an individual town.

That's something you'd really have to discuss.

You know what I mean amongst yourselves.

>> But that's not something you think Irondequoit should do.

>> No, not right now.

Not.

Not off the top of my head.

No, there's nothing I would really have to look into it and dive into it right now.

to give an answer.

but I would like to look into it, to see and talk to people.

Folks, I want to talk to the community, too.

I would like there feedback on it.

Do you think we should be a sanctuary city or not?

I'd like to see the feeling of the residents of Irondequoit how they feel about it.

I don't want to make that decision.

I would like to see how they feel about it.

>> When you talk about public safety with people going door to door, well, first of all, does anybody answer the door anymore?

When you knock.

>> On the door, you know what.

>> More not as much as they.

>> Used to.

Not as much as they used to, you know.

Now you got the ring bells.

You got people got cameras all over.

Now the ring bells answer the door for him.

You just tell him who you are.

no, they don't answer the door like they've done.

I've been doing this a long time.

>> Sometimes.

>> Sometimes.

>> Okay.

And when they talk about public safety, what are they actually telling you that they want or that they're concerned?

>> Well, I don't think they're concerned.

They want to make sure we have public safety and that we support our police department.

I think that's the most thing.

Do you support the police department?

Are we going to have enough police to to go through the town?

Do we have enough?

you know, do we have enough finances for our police?

Yes we do.

We have enough finance for our police.

I think that's the main thing.

They want to keep our our police department is very popular in town.

Very popular.

>> And what's the status of crime in Irondequoit?

>> The status.

I don't.

>> Think it's going up.

Going down?

>> No, I don't, you know, I, I don't know percentage wise, you know, we have our things here and there.

But you know, you have your you know, your robberies and stuff at retail stores, but I don't think so.

I think our police do an excellent job to keep our our to keep our, our laws in check.

And I think they make sure that they keep that percentage down.

>> Alex wants to know what you would do about old strip malls or those kind of spaces for economic development, so.

Well, that's an interesting question.

>> Go ahead.

Yeah, sure.

I mean, we have some strip malls that have obviously that have some vacancies.

there's a plaza on Ridge, Culver.

The Burlington just went in there and five below, which is retail.

You don't see a lot of new retail coming in.

I'm working with a developer right now that bought a little strip mall on Ridge Road.

I'm working with him to see what he's going to wind up doing with that piece.

But again, work with the Chamber of Commerce.

Let's get together here, see what we have to do for these spaces.

And let's, let's, let's get together with each, both of us, and let's see what we could do to help fill these vacancies.

>> You know, I'm my teenage years were in the 90s.

Yeah.

You know I'm John's laughing.

I, we think back to the decade of our teenage years.

Yours might have been a slightly different decade.

>> Yes, it was.

>> A different.

Regardless, it wasn't.

Now.

And I don't know if people at the time would have realized that malls, strip malls, I mean, how much change there was going to come.

But not only the change, how difficult that change is for local government, because that's space that isn't always easy to repurpose.

So do you have a an overarching view?

Is it case by case?

Do you think there should be more housing?

is it a goal to try to get more retail?

I mean, how do you view these kind of issues?

>> Well, it depends the location, right?

Ridge road, we're a corridor.

That's where most of our excuse me, most of our retail and things would be.

So you go around but you know we've we've filled a lot of spaces.

We've got new restaurants now that are coming into town.

we got, you know, we got ice square over over there.

Wendy and Mike Nolan do an excellent job.

In fact, he's expanding some housing over there.

so, yeah, you find out where it is, you got to work with the owners, and you got to try to help fill those vacancies.

And you know what?

When you say that sales tax is a big thing to, you know, people don't realize when you drop retail and everything, you know, your sales tax goes down, which is a big part of our budget process.

So you have to keep stay on top of that.

You don't want to keep making up that difference all the time.

And one good thing you're saying about housing, there's two big parcels right now that are going to be under development for housing.

If people know, especially people in Irondequoit know, the Wambach property, there's going to be about 90.

They're doing some site work there.

They're doing some soil samples, and then there's going to be a new housing project on Hudson Avenue.

About 70 units.

So those big parcels are putting housing on, you know, we always see we're 98% developed.

Well, it's it's creeping up to 100%, you know what I mean.

So those bigger parcels that we have in Irondequoit, the open spaces, they're going to be filling in with housing.

>> Okay.

Are you are you happy with it.

>> Yes I am oh yeah.

Yes I'm happy with that.

Yeah I think we need housing.

It's good.

and these people that do that, they see there's a need for it as well too.

And again I think the housing on Hudson Avenue that's going to be in the, the planning board stages as we speak, that's going to go real quick.

And yes, we worked with that developer.

I sat down with him, the engineer, and that's a very good project.

And I look forward, and these people spend millions of dollars for these projects.

So they have to make sure that that's, you know, that's going to work for them, too.

>> just a couple minutes left with John Perticone.

We talked to Anthony Costanza in our first half hour.

John's the Democrat running for Irondequoit town supervisor.

Anthony Costanza the Republican.

He said if he is elected, he wants to see the books more up close and he wants to to do kind of a financial audit and make sure that money is being spent efficiently.

Do you think town tax dollars are currently being spent efficiently?

>> Yes, I absolutely, you know, we go through a budget process with our comptroller.

I think they are definitely, you know, we look at it, you know what, we're going through a budget now.

You look through how the money is spent, and that's where you make your changes and your adjustments for next year.

Yes.

Every year that's top notch.

What we do, make sure that taxpayers are getting the best bang for their buck.

Every budget.

We're in it right now.

I got my first workshop tonight on our budget.

Yes, well, that's one thing.

Number one.

So we do it every year.

It's not something we haven't done for a long period of time.

>> Do you think the board could work with Anthony Costanza if he's elected >>?

>> I don't, I don't think so.

>> I don't think you've even considered the idea that he could be elected.

>> He could be elected.

Okay, yeah, he could be elected.

I'm going to still be on the board, you know that.

>> I know, that's what I'm wondering.

>> Yes.

We'll have a lot of.

We'll have a lot of discussions moving forward.

>> Are you worried it would be contentious if he's the supervisor?

>> what he said about me, what he's done about me.

What do you think?

Right?

I mean, you know, the insults that the.

You know, the rhetoric that's been going on?

yeah.

I think we'll have to make peace for the people of Irondequoit.

We may not make peace, but I'll do what's right for the residents of Irondequoit.

But I guarantee.

>> You expect to win the race anyway.

Here.

>> I'm going to work hard, and I'm expecting to win.

Yeah, I think everybody is.

It's running this year.

I'm expecting to win.

I'm working hard.

>> And we'll close with this here.

To be fair, Anthony Costanza did tell us that he didn't just leave the job as the assessor because he had given himself a break on his bill, and he was off to do something else.

He said he presented a comprehensive report to the board, and the board utterly ignored his concerns.

>> Never saw, never saw that.

You can ask any other board member to never.

So we were told he left for health reasons by our supervisor.

That's what we were told.

Why he left back in early, probably mid November.

We were told that he left for health reasons and he left January the 3rd.

That's what we were told.

We never heard of this or anything like that at all.

>> Okay, so.

>>.

>> You would dispute his contention that he, that he brought not his own assessment situation, but the assessment of many people in Irondequoit to the board that he feels that people in Irondequoit there's a segment of the population who are over assessed and are kind of getting screwed.

And he wanted the board to know, and the board ignored him.

You're saying what?

>> We just went through a reassessment, so we assumed you can challenge your assessment.

So anybody thought they were getting screwed, had a chance to challenge their assessment.

Right.

>> But but you don't think you ignored the assessment?

>> We didn't ignore the assessor.

We did not ignore the assessor.

No.

Because we I don't know I never saw anything.

We were told he left for health reasons.

He looks pretty healthy to me.

>> John Perticone, I want to thank you for being here.

Do you have a website that you direct people?

>> Yes, I do elect John Perticone.com.

Get on there.

There's a lot of information on there as well too, and I appreciate people to move in and look at my website.

There's a lot of information on there.

>> Elect John Perticone.com John Perticone is p e r t I c o n e running for Irondequoit town Supervisor.

Thank you for making time for our program.

>> Thank you for having me I appreciate it.

>> Great pleasure.

John Perticone Anthony Costanza joining us this hour, Rochester mayor Malik Evans next hour.

More coming up on Connections.

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