An Audience of 500 Greets Contenders for the Mayoralty of Rochester

A surprisingly contenious audience of 500 greeted the five contenders for the mayoralty of Rochester.

A surprisingly contenious, even raucous, audience of about 500 greeted the five contenders for the mayoralty of Rochester, NY in St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene Episcopal Church (17 South Fitzhugh Street) on Thursday, July 28, 2005. The forum was sponsored by Interfaith Action, a local organization composed of church and business leaders in the city.

In what turned out to be a combination of revival meeting, political free-for-all and community action event, the five candidates, Wade Norwood (D) (photo: 1), Bob Duffy (D) (photos: 1 | 2), Tim Mains (D) (photos: 1 | 2), Chris Maj (D) (photo: 1) and John Parrinello (R) (photos: 1 | 2), weighed in on the Interfaith Action proposal called the "RochesterOneMonroe Community Agenda" whose core idea is to establish a $90 million Neighborhood Trust Fund to rebuild distressed neighborhoods in Monroe County.

As might be expected, the candidates with the least to lose were the most candid and controversial, while the likely winners were more cautious and inclined to the middle of the road. Duffy and Norwood, the apparent frontrunners, were eager to trade on their native Rochesterian understanding of the problems of the city; Mains, Maj and Parrinello were willing to be more provocative. Asked to sign the individual copies of the agenda looming over them, Duffy and Norwood signed without reservation, Mains and Maj signed with reservations, and Parinello refused, saying the goals were unattainable. More important to the organizers was the agreement of all five that the winner would meet with Interfaith Action by January 15, 2006 to attend a one-day retreat to discuss and develop strategies to implement the Agenda, and to participate in a public action meeting in February, 2006.

The format was one of pre-arranged questions by IA to each candidate with a follow-up response by the others. Each candidate was given two minutes to answer and the others were given one minute to rebut or respond. There was an epidemic of courtesy in following the time limits and in phrasing answers, although there were some passionate outbursts by John Parinello, the Republican candidate thrown into the fray to incite the Democrats. (There were also some passionate outbursts from the audience until the moderator requested a civil reception for all the ideas expressed.) A Democrat, William A Johnson, has been the mayor of Rochester for as long as anyone can remember.

The questions generally centered on troubled neighborhoods (e.g. Jones Square where IA can show improvement because of their actions) and issues such as safety, neighborhood development, problems with young people and the need for regional cooperation (hence the name RochesterOneMonroe). It is an accepted tenet of Interfaith Action that the mayor of Rochester is important not just to the city, but also to the whole of Monroe County.

Additional Information City Coverage of Election 2005