BS (as in Bait and Switch) Part II:Wonderful Bait for a Sinister Switch

On March 29, 2009, NY State Senator Mike Nozzolio’s website read “Senator Nozzolio Delivers!” What was it that he was delivering? Over $26 million in State dollars for projects bundled as the “21st Century Geneva Plan”-- and what turned out to be lots of bait for local practitioners of bait and switch.

$5 million of the bundle was dedicated to a “signature building for the Finger Lakes region that will serve as a destination for tourists.” That building, it was eventually determined by City Council, would be the Finger Lakes Boating Museum, currently operating out of meager facilities in Penn Yan.

$6 million was earmarked to match $6 in funding the Ontario County board of supervisors had already set aside for the “Finger Lakes Community College Campus in Geneva.” The Geneva FLCC campus had been housed for many years at the “Civic Center” and, in 2006, was moved to the former Geneva Middle School building at the corner of Pulteney and Milton Streets, leased to Ontario County by the Geneva City School District.

At first, taxpayers seemed generally pleased with the use of their state dollars in these ways. State money, it appeared, was being used to support placement of a regional tourist attraction, the Boating Museum, on the lakefront. And the new structure would be an architecturally significant building replacing the drab City building which currently houses the Chamber of Commerce.

Recall how the current building, which formerly housed the local Boy Scouts Council, was put on that site without proper footings. Over time, revenue from the lease with the Chamber for the use of interior fell short of expenses for the upkeep of the exterior. The building, of no historical significance, has been generally accepted as an eyesore on the lakefront and might be better used as a source of recycled building materials.

In September 2009, the City Council agreed with the Finger Lakes Boating Museum (FLBM) to design and build a more appropriate facility to house the Chamber and to serve as a regional tourist destination. However, as that project appears to move forward, the money Nozzolio promised seems to move back to Albany.

Nozzolio had come up with the $5 million figure by securing $4 million from the NYS Dormitory Authority and keeping his fingers crossed for another $1 million from a specific source he has yet to identify. The Senator’s office still has not been able to tell reporters from the local paper where the other $1 million resides.

In addition, it seems, Nozzolio’s priority has shifted from a regional destination to a local office complex. Rather than clearly backing the boating museum concept, the $4 million seems now to be flagged for new-and-improved offices to be occupied by the Geneva Area Chamber of Commerce (GACC).
If that is the case, Geneva City taxpayers would lose out doubly. While both the GACC and FLBM are tax-exempt entities, the FLBM is a regional destination, a place that people living here or visiting would come to experience. So, not only would the upgraded deluxe Chamber of Commerce not house activities that local residents could participate in, it would also eliminate another activity that would presumably draw tourists Geneva to boost the economy.

It is also worth noting that the notorious Bergmann report of 2009 on downtown-lakefront connectivity emphasizes the need to pursue water-related uses on the lakefront as a maximization of the highly coveted land that currently belongs to all of Geneva’s citizens. A Chamber of Commerce executive suite hardly seems water-based or even water-related. A boating museum and the proposed enhanced dockage fits the vision perfectly.

In the case of the FLCC extension center, use of the former Geneva Middle School building has accomplished many community goals. First, it stabilized a building that has significant community value and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic places along with its neighboring church and church school.

Second, it keeps FLCC students near the city center, utilizing its optimal location both to benefit students looking for a convenient location and downtown businesses happy to have more patrons in the vicinity. Last, it assisted the Geneva City School District in putting to good use a building that was no longer serving the district but still in need of maintenance.

But wait. A memo from FLCC president, Barb Risser, states her preference to tear down the building and looking forward “to the day a couple of years from now when we will open a… modern campus center in Geneva." So those two $6 million amounts, $12million total, which is nothing more than a combination of county tax and state tax dollars, will be used to pay Casella to take tons of building debris and then to build a smaller more contemporary looking building in its place.

Bait and switch takes many forms. In this instance, what’s used as the ‘bait’ are the community’s own values and ideas. Then, once the tax dollars are appropriated, under the guise of the public good in the public interest, the ‘switch’ comes in and we end up with projects that not only don’t achieve the intended outcome, but actually work against it.

Foregoing a boating museum for a Chamber office takes up valuable lakefront space for an unnecessary purpose. Foregoing a building renovation for contemporary new construction destroys a valuable piece of the community fabric and dumps a costly, unsightly single-purpose structure in its place. In both cases, what is unique about Geneva is used as leverage to get money for projects that ultimately destroy that very character.

Is the Red and Black In the Red or in the Black?City Schools Seek $12.5 million in New Borrowing

A year ago, we ran a series of posts concerning the Geneva City School District's proposal to shift from two K-5 neighborhood schools to one primary (PreK-2) and one intermediate (3-5) school. The plan was brought to our attention by faculty and staff who were concerned that the effort was misguided in several ways. We don’t deal in leaks and rumors, so we didn’t post until we’d checked out the facts. And when we did, we were compelled to speak out about what we’d found, especially when the Finger Lakes Times was giving the plan a pass.

First, we shared worries that the plan was educationally unsound, and that it was likely to lead to greater disassociation between students, parents, and their school. Second, it was foreseen that there were serious logistical difficulties with such a move: scheduling, bussing, and adequate classroom space would be a problem.

Underlying those concerns, and creating a situation of distrust within which those issues could not easily be discussed or addressed, was the perception that the District administration, in conjunction with favored insider faculty members, was moving full steam ahead in insulated, secretive, non-public meetings.

Sure enough, the Finger Lakes Times towed the "company line" that no decisions had been made and there were no foregone conclusions. But they didn't press, and they didn't ask the hard follow up questions that would have revealed the facts behind the well-controlled sound bites. Despite the newspaper's headline "Nothing Decided" (2/9/09), the final public hearing on the proposal was held March 25th, and the decision passed with the support of five of the seven school board members on April 6th.

In less than two months, the District maintained (according to the resolution that you can read here) "the reconfiguration of the elementary schools will maintain and/or enhance the quality of educational programming for students and will also maintain fiscal discipline during this time of economic uncertainty."

You might wonder, as we do: Has the reconfiguration of the elementary schools enhanced, or at least maintained, the quality of educational programming for students? Did the move maintain "fiscal discipline" during a time of economic uncertainty? While we abhor the concept, we wonder if at least the ends justified the means? Did the perceived Machiavellian maneuvers of the District administration at least pan out?

If so, you wouldn’t think this move would require, in its first year, the pursuit of a $12.5million building project to remedy a lack of classroom space that, apparently, went unnoticed or unplanned for during the very process that the District said was guided by a thorough, responsible, and detail-oriented advisory committee. We wish it was otherwise, but alas, the district is putting just such a request up for a public referendum on March 9, 2010 (one year and one month, to the day, after solemn reassurance to District families and taxpayers public that this wasn’t a ‘done deal’).

Here’s the referendum item:

SPECIAL REFERENDUM
SPECIAL REFERENDUM OF THE QUALIFIED VOTERS OF
GENEVA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a special referendum of the qualified voters of the City School District of the City of Geneva, New York, shall be held at Geneva High School, 101 Carter Road, Geneva, New York on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, between the hours of 12:00 o’clock to 9:00 P.M., for the purpose of voting on the following proposition:

PROPOSITION

SHALL THE BOND RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE CITY OF GENEVA, NEW YORK, DATED JANUARY 19, 2010, AUTHORIZING CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS CONSISTING OF ADDITION TO, CONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF, SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND FACILITIES, VARIOUS SITE IMPROVEMENTS, AND THE ACQUISITION OF CERTAIN ORIGINAL FURNISHINGS, EQUIPMENT, AND APPARATUS AND OTHER INCIDENTAL IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH FOR SUCH CONSTRUCTION AND SCHOOL USE, AT AN ESTIMATED MAXIMUM AGGREGATE COST OF $12,500,000; AND PROVIDING THAT SUCH COSTS SHALL BE RAISED BY THE LEVY OF A TAX TO BE COLLECTED IN ANNUAL INSTALLMENTS WITH SUCH TAX TO BE OFFSET BY STATE AID AVAILABLE THEREFOR, AND IN ANTICIPATION OF SUCH TAX, DEBT OBLIGATIONS OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT AS MAY BE NECESSARY, NOT TO EXCEED SUCH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM AGGREGATE COST, SHALL BE ISSUED, AND, IF THE PROPOSITION FOR THE APPROVAL OF SUCH BOND RESOLUTION SHALL HAVE BEEN APPROVED BY AT LEAST A SIXTY PERCENT VOTE, SUCH OBLIGATIONS MAY BE ISSUED IN EXCESS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEBT LIMIT OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, ALL BE APPROVED?”

For the complete referendum, click here.

It's probably wise for the Board of Education to separate the vote for $12.5million of new debt from the May vote for the election of new Board members. Is it to cover their lack of foresight—or, the old bait and switch? Whether it was poor planning or misleading the public, or something else, perhaps board members feared that residents who care about accountability and fiscal responsibility would not re-elect board members who supported this ill-fated reconfiguration.

In upcoming posts we will delve into this issue in more detail, fully presenting this case study of bait and switch. But we are again reminded that one of the values in public, inclusive decision-making processes (which the reconfiguration debacle certainly was not) is the ability of governing board to be clued in to 'public intelligence' on critical issues. We see what happens when those in power think they know better than those they are elected to represent. Unfortunately, it's the represented that end up footing the bill for their representatives’ mistakes.

Bait and Switch Anyone? "The Bloggers" Preview Posts and a Citizenship Academy to Come in 2010

Our recent appearance on Ted Baker's WGVA morning radio show featured a discussion of our post on Tiger Woods, Obama, and spin. We also previewed the themes we're looking to cover as NoStringsGeneva enters its fourth year, this coming March.

True to our original mission, we remain focused on public decision-making and accountability. We also remain committed to providing a fact-based point of view, resisting the urge of other media sources to rely on sound bites from local leaders without verifying the accuracy of those statements. We believe that our readers have come to rely on us for the "whole story" surrounding critical local issues, and we plan to keep delivering on that. As we mentioned to Ted, we will be starting with a look back at critical issues that have dominated community discourse in the past year.

Those include the Geneva City School District elementary school realignment plan (Were the projections accurate?), the City's Neighborhood Initiative (Is it catching on and how much is it costing?), City subcommittee work (What are those groups up to?), leachate (It keeps coming in, but what is the ‘it’?), and the ever looming national, state, and local budget crises (Who’s going to be hit the hardest by a failure of forward-thinking?).

Baker also engaged us in discussion of “bait and switch,” a political term Capraro first encountered when he entered public life in a big way in the early 1990s. He has been intrigued with it ever since, because it is so common in public affairs.

The term refers to presenting one set of reasons, rationalizations, premises, arguments—whatever will get elected officials, boards, or the public to agree on a certain action—and then, once taking that action is passed, changing the action, or the reason.

Ted’s example was selling the U.S. invasion of Iraq with fears of weapons of mass destruction, and then, once it happens, saying the invasion was about regime change and state building all along. And locally, we can think of several examples, like promising job creation to receive Empire Zone benefits, but never actually producing any new jobs, or pitching a new idea as a cost-saver but then watching costs soar after it’s implemented.

According to WiseGeek, “bait and switch” is an old marketing ploy:

“The bait and switch begins with the bait, an advertisement for a product at what seems like an extremely low price. Sometimes these products, such as a mattress, are of very low quality. Other times, the price may apply to one specific style of, or model of an item. In general, the bait is stocked in very low numbers. In some cases, only one or two of items are available at the low price.
Once the customer has walked into the retail establishment, the bait and switch moves to the switch. The salesperson will inform the customer that the store has sold out of the advertised item and offer a similar item at a higher price. Alternately the salesperson may push hard to be certain the customer understands that the lower-priced product is of inferior quality, and try to sell a better quality product at a higher price. Bait and switch may also be used to bring in customers with bait, low prices, and also raise prices of unrelated items that customers might also pick up at the time.”

Any sportsperson will tell you that deception is inherent in a bait scenario. If there were no barbed hook inside the worm, you’d just be feeding the fish one worm at a time on a string. We told Ted we’d be doing more posts on bait and switch, perhaps some case studies, of which there is never a shortage.

Our hope is that our readers will come to recognize the bait, uncover the hook, and not get caught up in the deception! This is the essence of accountability, getting to the core reasons, the true reasons, for public decision-making and making sure those, and only those, guide the public policy debate.

Of course, we want to cover the issues that matter the most to you. While we think the topics above are a good start, we welcome your suggestions!

In 2010 we also hope to begin a NoStringsGeneva “Citizens Academy” that will give anyone who's interested the opportunity to learn about and participate in local government decision-making, from filing FOIL requests to effectively debating the policy that arises from those assembled sets of facts. All in all, it looks to be an exciting year and we look forward to having you join us on the journey!