>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

This hour we welcome both candidates in the race for Perinton Town Supervisor, and I want to urge listeners, first of all, these races might seem parochial, but the issues are often universal.

Are your tax dollars being spent?

Well?

Are decisions made representing the people in Perinton the conversation we've had most often over the past decade is on the subject of the High Acres Landfill, but perhaps more importantly, we've been making efforts to bring the candidates together.

Republicans and Democrats and anyone else who's on the ballot.

And sometimes we're told that the candidates refuse to appear together.

Sometimes we're fortunate to bring them together for a conversation, and that is what we have this hour.

So let me welcome our guests.

Now, Ciaran Hannah is the supervisor of the town of Perinton.

He has been since his appointment in 2018 to replace the outgoing Mike Barker.

Hannah has served on the town board and the Monroe County Legislature.

Previously.

He is the Republican in the race, running for reelection.

Welcome to the program.

Thank you for being with us.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> Evan and Jenn Townsend is the Democrat in the race who, as Jenn mentioned on her website, has been involved in her community as a member of the town's Sustainability Advisory Board and currently serves on the Office of Community and Economic Development Board of the Village of Fairport.

Welcome.

Thank you for being with us.

>> Thank you Evan, happy to be here.

>> So there's a lot to kind of cover here.

And I just always like to start by asking our guests to describe themselves a little bit and why they've decided to either seek reelection or election in the first place.

And Ciaran Hanna, the floor is yours.

Tell people about yourself.

>> Well, thank you.

well, I'm seeking reelection because I honestly, I really love the town.

it's my it has been my job and it's been my privilege to do that job over the last several years.

and we've tried to keep a parent and affordable, family friendly place.

And I think we've done a great job.

And this is something that I love to do.

I get up every morning excited to get go to work, and it's something that I would love to continue to do.

>> Jenn Townsend the floor is yours.

>> Thank you.

I echo Ciaran's love for the town, and I think something that's really great about this race is that you have two candidates who both are true believers in Perinton and good people.

And here, for the benefit of the town.

And I think it really pushes people to have to listen to both of us and understand why we're running.

I grew up here in Perinton graduated in 98 from high school, and did all the things growing up that you do in Fairport.

and then went to law school.

which was a great experience.

I met my husband and from there decided that we were going to move back to the Perinton area.

and start our families.

And so my experience at law school our family business, which is land development, residential housing here in Perinton I grew up in the business of development and housing, and that experience gave me a lot of drive and insight into how people live.

And we decided Perinton was the best place to be.

And so we moved back, started our, our our family here.

And I started working for our family business again when I was pregnant with my children and both of us.

My husband's an attorney, too.

We couldn't both practice law.

It was our choice personally, to have me be around the kids more.

And in doing that, I went back into our family business of residential development and real estate.

And in doing that, I learned a lot.

I learned a lot about how we build our communities, how we shape parenting, and how towns do things and set zoning.

And then the people who make things come to life.

It's done through the builders and working with that and working at the front end.

After I had my law degree and legal experience, I then came at things from a perspective of how do we use our land appropriately and how do we build and effect change?

And that became a passion of mine.

How do I impact change?

How do I make our development, our community, grow the way it makes sense to grow?

And I hit a few hurdles with that, trying to be able to do that in a way I wanted.

and then I thought, you know, I think I need to be more involved.

I need to maybe join a volunteer board.

Maybe that'll help.

and so Ciaran was kind enough to appoint me for the sustainability advisory board, and I spent a year and a half there, and that's where I sort of.

That was a little bit of the nail in the coffin for me when it came to wanting to get more involved.

From there, because that experience really showed me that it's hard to get things done when we don't communicate effectively.

I sat on the board for a while and tried to open it up to public.

have public conversation and have the public provide feedback to the board.

We weren't allowed to do that.

Ciaran was always wonderful to talk to, and I would talk to him on my own before joining the volunteer board.

And once I joined it, I was you're reminded over and over again, you can't talk to the supervisor unless you go through the chair of the board.

And it just the whole process was a little bit difficult.

And I realized that there's a tone set from that office down about communication.

And that's where I was struggling to impact change.

and I saw, well, maybe it has to do with development, but it also has to do with just getting things done.

Regarding sustainability.

And the more I dove in, the more I realized there's maybe more opportunity than I had thought possible.

And so that's when I made the decision to run.

>> All right.

So a little bit of background here because Jen talked about some of the work experience and the supervisor I want to give you a chance to tell listeners a little bit about your own work experience and how you think that might have informed some of your work in government, too.

>> Okay, sure.

I have a lot of work experience in small business.

As a matter of fact, that's that's what I did.

I graduated from college moved back to the Monroe County in and dove right into small business.

At that point.

that brought me to to the village of Fairport, working in the village of Fairport.

With an a packaging company called HP.

I worked there for 20 years and it was a wonderful experience.

I, I can't say enough about working in a small business, because you get to do everything and it was a terrific experience.

The responsibility that you have really prepares you for an awful lot in life.

at the time, I was sort of recruited to to move on to the, Monroe County Legislature.

the the the legislator from the town of Perinton who happened to be my uncle was was term limited out.

And they they asked me to to run when he was term limited out.

and that was a great experience.

It was county government is an interesting way to get your feet wet in, in government.

And but I really did enjoy it.

but I really kind of wanted to move back towards the, the local level, the town level, because I feel that that's really where you can impact the residents life the most.

That's that local level is where where residents really are affected on a day by day basis.

So when I had the opportunity, I moved over to the town board and ran for town board.

when one of our long serving town board members retired and I was successful there, and it was that's really that's where I was really at home.

and in the meantime, I had the company that I was with had sold and moved out of the village of Fairport and into Wayne County.

The new the new owner.

And I really didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things.

so we parted ways and I ended up starting my own business, my own packaging business.

And I ran that as I was at the time, serving on the county legislature.

And then when I moved over to the town board as you mentioned, Mike Barker, the supervisor he retired and the board appointed me as as the supervisor.

And at that point, there was there was really no way that I could could run.

I tried for a little while.

I would go into the into work and my business, I show up 530 or 6:00 in the morning and work until 8 or 9, where I would go into town hall, and then afterwards I'd go back to work at 6:00, 7:00 and work until whenever.

but it just didn't work out.

So I my brother took over that business while I concentrated full time on the supervisor.

So that's that's how I ended up where I am.

And it's been seven years of just something that I love to do.

>> We're going to try to cover a lot of ground here.

I want to start with Jenn Townsend.

Hu on your website, you use terms like independent nonpartizan, but nowhere on your website do I see the word Democrat.

Why is that?

>> That's a good question.

>> it to be totally transparent, I have been an independent my whole life, and you have to pick a party to run.

and I and I don't want to say that in a way where I'm not proud to be representing the Democratic Party, because I am.

but it came from conversations with the people who locally are part of our Democratic Committee and their ability to welcome me in, even if I'm a bit of a centrist and that I'm going to be who I am as a candidate and true to myself.

but we did see eye to eye on a lot of the important issues that mattered.

so they welcomed me in to run and that's where I go from there.

And also in regards to politics of it, I think I just would love to serve our community, the politics part of it.

I'm not a career politician.

This is the part that's the most uncomfortable.

This is the part where I'm learning on the job here, on how to do this and run for office.

it feels like a really long job interview, which is.

Which is necessary.

But yeah, the independent comes from the fact that I have previously been an independent.

>> Okay.

And, you know, to your point about the challenge of it, I mean, I admire anyone who wants to run for office and serve communities.

What we often see in local government is a kind of progression where you run for the board, you get experience on the board and and the supervisor's case here gets appointed and then gets reelected.

But you are kind of looking straight at the top here, right?

So tell people why you decided I'm going to run for super.

I'm not going to run for the board, I'm going to run for supervisor.

>> Yeah, that's a great question.

>> So and that's a question I got from a lot of family members.

And everybody in my life was like, just run for the board.

What are you doing?

Supervisor for?

And there's a reason for that.

The reason is that in my experience, as on the volunteer board on sustainability, that really drove home that our volunteer boards are really you can only eat what the kitchen serving.

Right?

So all the boards, the town board the supervisor's office is the one that's going to give to you that the application comes in and you vote on it.

So you're either saying yes or sending it back to the kitchen saying no.

And the control and the opportunity to impact those developments, those decisions, the community engagement, all that stuff happens in the kitchen.

And that's the stuff that I'm the most passionate about.

That's where my expertise lies through my legal experience and through my experience working with people, through the process of building a home and communicating difficult things.

and that's where the change is that I want to impact.

And I wouldn't be able to do that as a town board member, because we'd still only be able to take what's given to us from the supervisor's office.

>> Well, you're indicating pretty directly that there's a communication issue that you feel like there's.

Is it too hierarchical?

The public isn't allowed.

You said feedback is sometimes difficult to allow.

Is that fair?

I mean, how would you describe it?

>> Yeah, I think it's fair.

And I think it's just different methods of communicating.

I think the way it's being done right now isn't wrong, isn't malicious, isn't with any intent to be negative.

I think it's just that today people expect to have information differently than they used to.

I think when we create an information or communication void, it gets filled.

It will get filled.

And I don't think that we are stepping up right now at the town level to provide that level of information.

>> But is it possible they're just following procedure?

>> Yes, I absolutely think that's it.

I absolutely do.

I think they're following procedure, but I don't think the procedures they're following limit every bit of communication that they can do.

I can give examples of that if if you'd like.

>> Well let's ask the supervisor, do you think this criticism is fair?

>> Well I'm a little surprised because given Jen's background, she should know that the boards are all involved.

They're involved before an application ever even becomes an application.

we have.

I don't know that it's true of other towns, but we certainly in the town of Perinton have heard from developers that we have early morning meetings so that our volunteer board members, who are all volunteers, by the way, they have other jobs, and they were able to come in before work and they sit down with the applicant or the potential applicant, and they discuss the application or the proposal and any board that it's going to go before they have a representative there and they talk about what they think that their board may like or may not like.

We have the supervisors there and there's numerous staff members, including our town engineer and our commissioner of DPW.

Anybody that would be involved in the application are there.

And they talk about it and they say, okay, what are the pluses?

What are the minuses?

And and that is all done before we even it becomes an application.

Once it becomes an application, there are numerous times when the public is is invited to come and speak about it.

again, my office is always open.

I am always there anytime that anyone would like to come in and have a question.

You know, it surprised me about Jen saying, well, once I hit the board, I wasn't able to talk to the supervisor.

Absolutely not.

I talked to board members all the time.

They're in there all the time.

They concerns whatever.

That is not the case.

But I will say that that's not the only part of the job.

I mean, it's it's an interesting take on it because, as I said earlier, being being in small business and owning a small business and doing that, you do everything soup to nuts and and that has prepared me quite well for, for to be a supervisor because it's, it's not just running applications through and deciding that you're, you're running several different departments.

We have the parks department, the recreation department, DPW Building and Codes assessment, town clerk, all of those departments have personnel where you have to deal with the personnel issues.

as well as as town Townwide facilities, parks.

There's a lot that goes on that is a little more than just when developers come through with applications.

>> All right.

I'll let you respond if you want to respond to some of that.

Go ahead.

>> Yeah.

No, I understand his perspective for sure.

I don't come at this as though that's the sole part of the job by any means.

I think anyone who runs for office or starts this process has that first initial issue, that sort of sparked it for you, that made you look deeper.

And that's what development is for me.

So that's started the process of the digging of the learning.

And in that process, I can speak to the process the way it is right now because coming at that from the perspective of one of the developers, one someone who's tried to invest in our community and also as somebody, you know, who has thoughts as a resident about things occurring around them.

we would go into many meetings and people are available to meet with you.

So you do have these early morning meetings.

My problem isn't that that they're not available to meet with you, or that they wouldn't meet.

The problem is, is that and many folks looking to invest in our community have a similar situation.

You will have a year's worth of meetings, but there's no feedback from the town.

So I would literally sit in these meetings and say, we have a piece of land.

We would love to develop this land.

How do you think we should do it?

What are the needs of the community to the planner, to everyone in the room?

And we want to do this in a way that is the most optimal.

And it's like crickets.

Nobody says anything.

And I and that's what I want to change.

So yes, people are available, but I really do think that as a supervisor, as a whatever that department and all those folks are doing, there does need to be a way to provide feedback and planning materials and things that are consistent and well drafted so that folks looking to invest in the community can do so, not at their own risk.

And it doesn't put the policing agent of things onto the residents.

>> Okay, just briefly, if you want to respond to that, then we're going to move on to other issues.

>> Sure.. >> I will say, Evan, that that the town of Perinton right now is one of the most desirable places to, to not only for, for families and residents to move, but businesses as well.

It's we have had a tremendous amount of success in how we've developed.

And and how we have engaged our community and what they want.

and so, yeah, I am again, I'm a little bit surprised at Jen's take on this because it's something that I think the town has done a marvelous job in the development over the years and continues to do so.

>> Well.

Let me ask you about the issue that probably we get the most feedback on.

And it's not just a parenting issue.

Hi.

Acres is not just in parenting.

It straddles some some boundaries, but it's a big issue in parenthood.

Of course.

And from the the amount of feedback we've gotten over the last decade, covering both Seneca meadows down in the Finger Lakes and High Acres, they have these lovely names High Acres, Seneca meadows for trash, mountains.

you know, people really care about this, and I understand why.

And I know that not everyone in the town is affected the same way.

Depending on where you live and where the wind is blowing and how often you feel like you are affected.

But people are affected.

So is there anything that that you think voters should know about how you've made decisions or tried to at least shepherd decisions?

Shepherd communication with the public about what's going on with that landfill, about its growth, about where it's going next and about any financial agreements that the operators have with the town.

are you pleased with the decisions that have been made?

>> yeah.

Well, first we have to we have to establish that the hikers landfill has been around for over 50 years.

it's not as if this has been built recently and suddenly residents are affected by it.

It's been around for 50 years.

and every five years the the special use permit is, is renewed.

if that's a decision that is made by our zoning board of appeals and we also every five years renew adjusted renew, our host community agreement.

And that's really where where the town board really gets into it with with high acres and what how the community can benefit by having that the landfill there.

are there challenges?

Absolutely.

>> can the town just up and shut the shut the landfill down?

Not likely.

that's it's just something that the deck is involved.

there's a lot that's involved.

There have been lawsuits all over the country.

regarding landfills and so what the town does is the town negotiates with high acres.

And the last time we had a host community agreement, we took a little bit of a different tack.

It wasn't necessarily just what monetarily can the town get, but it's.

What are we going to force the High Acres Landfill waste management in particular, to do, to make sure that they minimize the impact to the community?

and that could be anything from we have required the strictest air quality monitoring of any landfill in the state.

we have regular meetings with what I call our tech team.

with waste management their staff there at, at High Acres, as well as the deck, they're there usually on a monthly basis.

They have tech team meetings where they discuss anything from Phil progression to daily cover to as, as I mentioned, air quality monitoring to anything that's going on on that hill and how it's affecting the residents who are neighbors of the hill.

So there was a lot of that in this most recent, host community agreement just to safeguard the community from any unnecessary impacts, as well as the monetary.

there is always going to be a monetary if you're if you're a host community, you expect a monetary payment.

>> Sure.

>> And we get that.

And we've been fortunate for the last 50 years to have that.

>> What about the issue though?

It's one thing to say shutting it down is not going to happen.

It's another to say should it keep growing?

Should it be allowed to keep expanding?

What's the answer?

>> Well, the interesting thing about the High Acres is you, as you mentioned they are kind of sunsetting in in the town of Perinton now.

It's going to be a long sunset, but they are most of the fill right now is is happening in the town of Macedon.

And so, the town of Perinton can only control what what's within their boundaries.

>> Okay.

You also say, though, that if you live in a town that has a host agreement with a landfill, you know, it makes sense for that company to be paying something that essentially the residents ought to be getting something for having to live close to a landfill.

I don't live in Perinton anymore.

I lived in Perinton for a number of years.

I've been trying to talk to old neighbors, and a lot of people live there.

And one of the things that I hear from people is like, well, we don't get free recycling anymore.

costs have gone way up for for trash.

So I'm looking up for a standard toter from BNN, which is one of the haulers.

It was $68 quarterly when you came on the board, $76.95 quarterly when you became supervisor, $83.43 quarterly.

As of four years ago, $136 quarterly.

Today.

And that's essentially doubled since you came on the board.

And so the people I talked to are kind of wondering, like, are we getting enough here?

Are we paying too much for trash to begin with?

What's the answer?

>> Well.

>> As you all know, as everybody knows prices have gone up.

sure.

So this is going to be no different.

The town does not control the local waste haulers.

so we can't there's there's we can't control what price that they that they charge.

but they are getting a benefit back.

one of the, one of the large benefits and one of the things that I've heard numerous times out in the community is, is there the weekly yard debris pickup?

That's something that not many towns have, and it's it's yard debris.

It's branches, limbs, what have you weeds leaves in the fall and in the spring.

All of that is picked up.

and we have an agreement with waste management to send it over to the landfill.

Now, it's not just landfill at that point.

What they end up doing is mulching the the branches and converting it to mulch.

They convert the leaves to compost, and we have a giveback program every spring and every fall, the residents get free mulch and free compost that is available to them through that agreement.

So that's a service that it's kind of that's one of those intangibles.

You don't you don't really know about it until you move out of town and realize that you don't have weekly yard debris pickup anymore, because there aren't very many towns that have that.

>> Or how about recycling.

>> Though?

>> Recycling?

that was a service that was originally set up with waste management when early on in the recycling process, it was the town of Perinton was one of the early recyclers it was a smaller town back then, and recycling was a much smaller program back then.

waste management has kind of approached us and said now that New York State has made it mandatory for all waste haulers to pick up the only town where they are not picking up is the town of Perinton, because waste management is is responsible to pick up every single recycling box in the town of Perinton because that was it was grandfathered.

It was it's an old agreement.

we worked with them and agreed to a sum of money that they would pay out to the town, which the town would use for various recycling sustainability.

functions and exchange for asking the rest of the waste haulers just to do what they do.

And every other town and every other community in New York State.

And that is to pick up their own recycling.

>> So, okay.

>> Jenn Townsend, on your website, you talk about wanting an honest conversation about what's going on at the landfill, right?

Are you happy with what's how the town government has operated in regards to the landfill?

>> I think what we do right now is we drastically underestimate the capacity of our residents to handle all the facts.

I think there is a lot of conversation about the pros and cons, a lot of things that, you know, Ciaran said here today, like we have leaf pickup, we love leaf pickup.

We want to give that up.

what do we do if we don't have the landfill?

For folks who say, let's just not have a landfill anymore?

Obviously not a realistic conversation, but why?

What would impact us?

How would it impact our budget?

How much money do we make from the landfill?

And what does that money going towards?

What is our plan for when that money stops coming in?

How does our budget rebound from that?

Or do we all pay higher taxes?

Are we planning for that?

there I think is just missed opportunity to engage people, to bring them to the table and have sort of two way conversations about the real pros and cons about our landfill and just do it in a way where it's not merely a presentation to the people about what it is, the situation that they're in.

>> So better communication.

>> I think better communication.

And that's the format.

>> So I understand that's part of a theme here, but is there anything that's actually been executed by the government that you say, boy, if I were the supervisor, this would not have gone that way.

>> I think that it would have been in addition to.

So I don't think that when they have the meetings, I go, oh, my gosh, I wouldn't I mean, I wouldn't have said it like that or I wouldn't have done that.

I think the whole way it was gone about could have been different in the sense where this is an example for an area where you have things like community assemblies or you have things where people can ask questions, dive in and learn all the facts around it.

And so I think there's opportunity to have not just a regular board meeting or to give more back at a board meeting.

That's what I'm looking to do in this position is to provide that.

So I can't point back and say, oh, this is not something you shouldn't have said because I don't think they said enough.

I think they should have said more.

And I also think that as a member, a previous member of the sustainability board, we were told that we were going to get that money to utilize sustainability efforts.

Throughout the entire year and a half.

We were there.

There was no money no money, no staff person provided to us to get anything done.

So that money is probably still sitting somewhere.

We don't know where it went, but that accounts for, again, trying to just figure out and decipher.

As a community member, it's very difficult when things aren't shared.

>> Okay.

>> Is the money missing there, mister?

>> No, it's not missing.

>> That.

Jen tweaked it, tweaked it a little bit.

I said there would be money available because that's what.

That's what that money is for.

And it has been used.

It's been used for various, as I mentioned projects.

with we've had as you as everybody knows, we've had an issue with ash trees and it's, it's a quite expensive task removing many ash trees from some of our public spaces.

It's been used for projects such as that and other recyclable and sustainable initiatives.

The money is there.

It's still there.

it's it's available and it was available for for the sustainability board.

they never actually came to us with any initiatives on it, but that's that's not unusual.

It was it was a, a new board.

It was just put together.

And they were kind of finding their way.

so that's not a, that's not a knock on the sustainability board in any way, in any way.

>> Jenn Townsend you left that sustainability board, right?

>> I did.

>> Why did you leave it?

>> I left because we weren't getting anything done.

I left because I felt as though my hands were tied on that board.

In order to impact change, because we didn't engage.

We had said we wanted to be a climate smart agreement, and we didn't.

I didn't really know how to make things move forward.

>> But the supervisor.

>> Just listed what he says are the answers to questions like, like, well, what sustainability efforts is that money funding?

He gave you some.

Is that is that not a sufficient.

>> Do you think?

No, no, I don't think that's a sufficient list.

I think we are well behind not being a climate smart community, not benchmarking our community.

there's a lot of low hanging fruit, sustainability wise, that we can do.

>> So.

>> Like what?

So we need to start initiating our services and benchmarking where we are as a community in regards to emissions and climate.

We need to have the sustainability board or maybe somebody be involved and how we work with growth in our community so that everyone coming in to build is looking at alternative sources of energy and as working in the same parameters, because right now we don't have a foundation for when someone comes to build.

There's no there's no sustainability efforts.

And when you are a community that's soon to be kind of a built out community has to be looked at differently than it has in the past.

so our board really kind of just spiraled.

We didn't have any direction.

and I think that having some Earth Day initiatives, working with local groups like color, Fairport Green, folks who are feet on the ground right now, pushing through sustainability efforts at Our Town, we weren't really allowed to engage with them.

so hopefully those types of things have changed since I've left the board.

but that we there's a lot of things through New York State there's grant money.

We could probably be getting through that climate smart initiatives that we're leaving on the table by not pushing through.

>> Mr.

supervisor, part of what Jen is saying is that here we are without any kind of sustainability efforts towards new development.

that you're leaving a lot on the table with climate smart agreements, with grants, with development standards towards sustainability, that, you know, that your list is is meager, that it could be a much more robust set of actual sustainable initiatives.

>> I'm not going to say that it can't be.

It could not be more robust.

I think that there is I think there's a varying opinion in the town of how much effort and money and time should be spent on sustainability and how much shouldn't.

And that was one of the things the Sustainability Board is an advisory board.

And that's one of the things that we expected, we expected to be advised and, and while Jen said, well, nothing happened.

Well, she was on the board.

She's the one who should be advising us as to what is advising the town as to to what they could do.

Now, did they come up with some options?

They sure.

They came up with some.

Well, let's do a, a an Earth Day event.

But the problem was that they came up with it about a week before Earth Day.

And so you can't put an event together that quickly.

So I said, let's let's look towards next year and let's, let's put together an Earth Day event next year.

I was all in favor of, of any kind of education that we have an unbelievable recreation department that offers so many different programs and programing for our public.

I said, put together a sustainability program, something an educational doing this and doing that.

The board never did.

They talked about it, but they never did.

And I'm again, I am not knocking the board because a these are all volunteers and B it was a new board.

And when you whenever you have something like that, you kind of go through these, these growing pains and you have to figure out your way.

And Evan, I do want to.

>> Yeah.

Go ahead.

>> I just want to say one more thing.

the public input for the landfill and the host agreement.

There was an awful lot of public input.

We had a survey out there that the public was.

We pushed out there and allowed the public to see every year, waste management is is expected to come before our conservation board where they have an annual report.

We, we ask for the public input on, on things like that.

All the time.

If the public wants to be engaged, they can certainly be engaged.

>> Right.

>> Brief response.

And I want to give you a little bit of a chance.

I think it's just two different views here.

The supervisor saying the board could have done more.

it was a new board who understands that.

I don't think you think that the board could have done more, but go ahead.

>> Yeah.

>> I think that's actually a great point.

no sitting on a board and wanting to do the work and not being able to is frustrating.

And that's why I'm running for supervisor, because I realized it was a top down issue.

So you can only do the chair of the board runs a board, right?

So when you're a volunteer board member, you show up, the chair sets the agenda.

You can request that they put things on the agenda, but you don't actually have control as a board regular board member, to put anything on the agenda that you'd like.

so the reality of, you know, I don't want to get in the weeds with it too much, but the reality of how those board meetings went was me sitting at every board meeting at the end of it and saying, you know, Mr.

Chair and Board, I would really like to open up to the public for engagement so that they can give us feedback on what our sustainability efforts should be and what we can do to best benefit the town.

And every time at the end, I would get looked at and say, are you finished?

And I would say, yes, I'm finished to silence and that would be the end.

And it was like this ongoing thing for a year where we couldn't actually engage.

And so, yes, there was the Earth Day initiative.

There was a lot of talk behind the scenes for folks on the board who felt as though all of our agendas were educational.

We brought in companies and people to teach us about sustainability.

It wasn't under our control to make that agenda.

and that was the meeting for the day.

The chair would run out the door and that was it.

half the board meetings would be canceled, because the chair was unavailable to make it.

So I don't want to hone in on placing blame on specific individuals.

But if we're saying the board didn't do their job, it was because it was impossible for us to do so.

>> All right.

>> We got to take our only break of the hour, and we're going to come right back to some feedback from the audience as we talk to the candidates for Perinton Town supervisor.

The incumbent is Ciaran Hanna running for reelection.

and Jenn Townsend is the challenger in the race.

the Democrat is Jenn Townsend the Republican Ciaran Hanna.

And we're coming right back to your feedback next.

I'm Evan Dawson Tuesday on the next Connections.

In our first hour, a conversation about what happens when buyers overbid and overpay past the asking price for a house.

It's happening all the time in the greater Rochester area.

The data is pretty ominous, and we'll talk about that.

Then in our second hour, a leading Russian dissident, a protege of Boris Nemtsov in Rochester and will sit down and talk with him on Connections.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Andrew Burke, associate real estate broker with Remax Realty Group and proud supporter of WXXI News.

Committed to guiding home buyers and sellers in Rochester for over 22 years with offices at ten Grove Street, Pittsford.

More at Andy Burke dot remax.com.

>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson, my colleague Megan Mack points out that, as reported by our colleague John Campbell with the New York Public News Network, the New York Court of Appeals upheld a law moving many town and county level elections to even numbered years.

And that means all town offices except for town justices on the ballot for this year, are going to have their term of office reduced by a year.

So that means you have to go do this again next year in Perinton.

This is this is a one year term.

>> One year term.

>> That's brutal.

Does anybody.

>> Think that's not brutal?

That's that's tough.

>> That's awful.

>> The interesting everybody agrees.

>> We got agreement.

>> On something.

>> Interesting thing though Evan was was I'm sure the same with Jen.

When when it was time to actually decide that you had you wanted to run for this office.

there had been a challenge to that in court, and the the courts had overturned that decision to make it a one year term.

So when when you decided to run, there was a possibility that it was it was still going to be a two year term.

But since then it has flipped back the other way.

And so, yeah, it's all this for a for a one year term.

>> Sorry to hear that.

So all right.

>> Some some questions from the audience.

And again sometimes this gets really esoteric.

But hey we're covering local races as best we can.

And I think a lot of this stuff is more universal than you think.

David wants to know the candidates stances on accessory dwelling units in Fairport, he says the Fairport Board of Trustees is looking to change the zoning code to allow for them in the village.

It's a hotly contested issue in the town.

and, Kieran, Hannah, I'll start with you on ADUs.

>> So ADUs, that's that is a the village of Fairport.

As you know, they have their own zoning.

It's separate from the town of Perinton, even though the village is within the within the town.

And that has been a hot issue in the village.

it was a hot issue at a point a couple of years ago when the when the governor really tried to in a way do away with home rule and, and force the towns to, to accept ADUs in all of their residential zoning.

she, she eventually, due to a lot of pressure, withdrew that from her budget proposal.

But again, as I have said before, the town of Perinton is a wonderful place to live.

And it's a wonderful place to live because because we have planned it appropriately.

we've had community input and the zoning that we have seems appropriate and is, has created a very, very nice town.

So to have something from like an Adu forced upon us, forced into the zoning would I think would be a big mistake.

I think what we do is we we allow growth through our community, and we grow according to what our community wants and what our character is.

And not through any.

You certainly don't want growth to redefine what your community is.

And I think that that would do that.

>> Jenn Townsend I think we have to have a community conversation about ADUs.

I don't think there's been enough discussion about what they would look like, what it's not an all or nothing endeavor.

I think there's more nuance to that.

I think that there are communities that successfully have ADUs, and they do that by regulating design.

there's a lot of, thought process about how that looks and how you don't have to redefine your community, but we have to consider growth in our community in a smart way.

And we have to engage the public when we determine what that means.

we're right now we have a, you know, sort of when something comes in, it's a yes or we say no for growth.

And I think that there's a lot of in-between room there.

And ADUs, maybe there's possibility to do those in a way in our community.

But again, I would never want that forced upon us.

It's something that the community members need to engage with and discuss at length to find out how that would work.

>> Robert in.

>> Fairport on the phone.

Hey, Robert.

Go ahead.

>> Yeah, thanks for taking my call.

First I'd like to ask about deer, but the first thing is on the on the trash thing.

If you're a resident of the town of Perinton, you can go to Highacres and dump your trash for $7 a trip.

So that price has hardly changed.

So that's just a tip for the residents.

on the issue of deer, I lived in Perinton for a long time and the deer issue just gets worse and worse.

Literally, if you pull out of the town hall and take a left hand turn on Turkey Hill Road, there is a field there that's literally less than a 10th of a mile.

There is a herd of deer there.

It's not the only herd there, dear.

All over the town.

Nobody's done anything about this since I've been a resident of the area, probably, I don't know, 20, 30 years.

>> Robert.

Thank you.

Jenn Townsend you get to start this one?

>> Yeah.

That's so funny.

This is the second time I've heard the deer issue, so I'm knocking on doors and talking to a lot of people.

So I'm learning things here.

you know, I experienced deer, too all over in the village.

I live in the village.

and there are nuisance.

It's a problem.

And I don't have obviously answers on specifically how to fix it.

I'm sure there are communities that are trying to impact their deer population in a in a humane and and understandable way.

but it is sounds like Robert is not the only one with this concern because I have actually heard it a few times.

>> you want to add.

>> To that?

Ciaran Hanna?

>> It is it is a topic.

certainly.

various locations in town are far worse than others.

We pride ourselves in our open space, and with that comes along some of these challenges.

So the problem, it's not a, it's not an issue that we haven't looked into.

the problem is, is it's there there are no easy ways to do it.

There are no inexpensive ways to do it.

And there are no really super effective ways to do it.

So we have we have and continue to have limited permits for for deer hunting within on some of our open spaces here that's managed by our animal control.

They do a wonderful job, but it only can go so far.

it's a challenge when you have a growing community a residential community to try to eliminate something like that.

>> All right.

>> Robert, thank you.

Stephanie on YouTube says that when it comes to the money from the landfill, says that some of that went to pay the salary of a newly created project manager position.

And I have to say, in the last few days before this program, this is an issue.

I knew nothing.

I'm not even sure really if it if the supervisor thinks it's an issue or if Jenn Townsend thinks it's an issue.

But some people have shared this idea with me that they are concerned about a position that I think is currently unfilled.

So I'm going to go down in the weeds a little bit here.

First of all, county Legislator Rachel Barnhart has written a lot in the last year about her concerns that her own party and she accuses the administration of giving political positions or giving jobs to political allies for people who are not qualified.

The administration has said that's baloney.

this is a case where it's a former county legislator.

So the guy's name is Sean Delahanty.

He's a longtime Republican.

He was elected to a Fairport Village trustee job in 2011.

He's been you know, a longtime ally and donor to Republicans, something like $12,000 in donations over the years to various candidates.

He worked for Mark Johnson, the Republican Assembly, until Mark Johns loses his bid for reelection.

So Sean Delahanty is out of that job.

He's still working in politics as a county legislator, but he's leaving that job.

And in February of 2022, a new job got posted by the town of Perinton.

a project manager job.

So from what I've seen, that job was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022 and the job opening was closed just five days later.

I saw a post from a town board member who encouraged people to apply in that five day window.

Sean Delahanty gets this job and the salary and benefits tied to it.

It's a civil service job.

This is not my expertise.

But again, trying to dig up some documents he hadn't done the civil service exam.

He does that in October of that year.

He gets a 75, which is not failing.

Less than 70 is failing.

He gets a 75.

So he passes the public record.

Indicates that other people place higher.

But he gets a 75.

And then earlier this year he takes a different job with the Board of Elections.

Now he's out of that job.

And I don't think that job has been filled, although I could be wrong.

So for people who see that from the outside, they see a five day application window.

They see a longtime Republican donor who gets the job, and then they see him leave that job this year and it's not filled.

And they wonder, was this a patronage job or is there something we're missing in the story, Mr.

Supervisor?

So tell me.

>> About that.

Well.

>> It was the job was open for five days.

We got several several resumes were sent.

>> Is that normal?

A five day open window for a job?

>> we've had jobs open for five weeks and five jobs open for five days.

It all depends on what the response is.

>> But why was it only open for five days?

>> Because we got a good response.

>> Okay, okay.

Yep.

>> So we the after it was closed, we went through the normal interview process.

and Sean was hired.

it was a, it was a job that we felt was was necessary at the time.

there were several there was Arpa money available at that time, several projects that were coming up, the Arpa money was had had to be spent within a certain period of time.

So there were going to be several projects that were that were occurring at the same time.

Sean came in, he did his job.

He, he, he handled those the Arpa funds.

shepherded several of the the projects through to, to completion.

at that time, there was there was sort of a shift I know that many people are aware of of, of of green light.

And their entry into the town.

And there was a shift of project management from a from the type of, of project that Sean was doing to a much more of a town engineer type thing, meaning they had to go through we we really were.

It would have been more beneficial at that time to hire a an engineer.

to to help out our town engineer with a lot of the things that were coming through the.

So at that time, Sean was still in the job, but he ended up moving over to the Board of Elections because there was a job available at that point.

He saw that his, as the Arpa funds were, were being spent and spent down, and there were fewer and fewer projects that that's where.

>> He was.

>> But not a patronage.

>> Job.

>> Not a patronage job.

>> And you don't do patronage jobs?

>> I do.

>> Not okay.

>> How did you view this issue?

If you're elected, would you hire political allies or do you view this as an example of a patronage job or a qualified person?

>> I think I mean, obviously when you look at it from the outset, it looks a little suspect.

But I think that all I can speak to is how I would handle it.

And going forward, I think that my this is where being an independent before running, I think is a benefit, because I don't have any long term loyalty.

I don't have any backs to scratch.

So my number one priority is the town of Perinton.

And to be a buffer from any countywide or statewide politics that might trickle down.

And I think that's essential.

And that's something that's at the forefront.

>> Okay.

>> 30s apiece.

Go ahead, Mr.

Supervisor.

>> Just go ahead.

>> It's easy to say that.

but when when you you, after you've run a campaign and there are expectations from your party, I believe, Jen, when she.

I truly do believe Jen when she says that.

But.

>> It's hard when you get elected not to do.

>> Political backdrop.

>> No, that's not it at all.

There are there are expectations.

She doesn't believe.

If she doesn't believe that there are going to be people that are expecting.

>> It, or wanting something.

>> Or wanting something that's a different story.

>> Okay.

But I think both of you would agree it takes important leadership to say, I can't just give you something because you want a favor.

>> That's my point.

>> Okay.

I think you both agree on that.

So you're going to hear the music in a second.

20s make your final pitch.

Mr.

Supervisor.

>> Perinton is a very special place.

Always been a special place for me.

for my family.

it has not done so.

It's not that way by accident.

I think that everyone wants to live there.

I think that everyone wants to stay there.

And I think it's very, very important that we continue to, to make it that way.

So I've been very proud to do that for the last seven years, and I'm honored to do it again for at least one more year.

>> One year term.

20s go ahead.

>> All right.

In order to keep Perinton the place that we love, which it is.

I think we need an active, engaged advocate for residents.

We need residents need to be heard in a way that they're not currently being heard.

that communication stems from community engagement, transparency, smart growth, all the things we have ahead of us in order to encounter all of these things and do it well and have everyone be heard.

We need a leader who's going to listen.

>> Jenn Townsend Ciaran Hanna, thank you for being here.

More supervisor candidates, interviews later this week and more Connections tomorrow.

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