The Latest Bloggers' Appearance on WGVA

Our latest appearance on Ted Baker’s WGVA morning show is now available for your listening pleasure in the radio archive. Click here to download it.

He led off the discussion with questions about Governor Spitzer’s “secret meeting” with various officials in a Canandaigua diner, without press present. Baker was rightly concerned that the press had not been notified of the meeting. Perhaps of even more concern is that few people thought the exclusion of the press was problematic. Have people forgotten that the role of the press is to be a watchdog for open government?

Speaking of open government, the discussion turned to City Manager Rich Rising’s farewell address on that topic. Augustine read an excerpt of the statement as printed in the Finger Lakes Times and we discussed the role of process and outcome in government decision-making, as a preview of our post on the topic.

Covering some of the action at the last Council meeting, we critiqued Councilor Greco’s handling of appointments. Capraro noted that Greco had voted against past appointments when council was not given notice of applicants in advance and/or was not provided an opportunity to meet the applicants. Yet Greco presented nominations to Council without providing the resumes or even the names of the nominees ahead of time, and they were appointed. The point here is, again, the process.

Looking ahead to coming events, we discussed the City Manager search. With the deadline for applications come and gone, and with some 26 applicants in the mix, the City is headed toward the next stage of the search. The City is also looking for a City Attorney. Council will receive a report on the City Attorney position at the next meeting and discuss the next steps in hiring a replacement for former-full-time-currently-interim City Attorney Clark Cannon.