During her more than twenty years of involvement in public and community service to the greater Rochester community, Sandra Frankel has established a standard of excellence that has earned her the bipartisan respect and admiration of government, business, labor, education and community leaders.

             Leadership, tireless dedication and a willingness to build consensus have been trademarks of Sandra Frankel's years of involvement as Town Supervisor, in education as a school board member, and as a speech language pathologist and community activist.

             Sandra Frankel was re-elected to her ninth term as Supervisor of the Town of Brighton.  Home to approximately 35,000 people, Brighton is an urban suburb that abuts the City of Rochester.  As the elected executive of the Town of Brighton for 16 years, she has improved the quality of life for the people who live and work in her town and beyond. Her many accomplishments include the following:

• Restored the town's fiscal solvency and achieved a Moody's Investors Service, Inc. credit rating upgrade from A1 to AA3

• Acquired and/or developed more than 350 acres of land for active and passive recreation and to protect environmentally sensitive areas, creating a town-wide park and trail system with 12 new parks and trails

• Implemented and expanded a community policing program, adding more police on the street, updating technology, and eliminating deteriorated and crime-ridden motels

• Strengthened fire and ambulance services

• Preserved and protected the residential character of Brighton, strengthening property values, and ensuring a diversity of housing stock that includes high end to new affordable homes

• Reconstructed a safe neighborhood network of sidewalks and instituted an aggressive infrastructure improvement program for roads, sewers, and drainage systems

• Built a new library and supported Brighton’s outstanding schools

• Opened town government and made it responsive and inclusive

• Established a historic preservation law and commission to designate local landmarks, and created an arts council and annual town arts festival

• Implemented an economic development initiative for the community with a focus on the town's main retail/commercial corridor, revitalized Monroe Avenue, and built a pergola in Brighton Memorial Park to create an appealing town “center” green

• Updated the Comprehensive Plan, Brighton’s vision for the future

• Achieved National Arbor Day Foundation designation as a “Tree City U.S.A”

• Sandra Frankel was appointed to the Governor's Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness by New York governor Eliot Spitzer in 2007.

             In 1998, Sandra Frankel won the Primary Election to become the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York.  As the first Democrat from upstate, western New York to win a statewide primary, she opened the door for Democrats from our region.  Sandy championed many issues, including the need for fiscal responsibility, access to quality health care for all New Yorkers, support for education, public safety, and a clean environment.  Although she and her running mate did not win the General Election, she represented our community with dignity and honor in a positive campaign, and put Monroe County on the map.

             Committed to continuing a tradition of excellence in education for all children, Sandy served as a school board member for 10 years.  She was elected vice president of the Brighton School Board and BOCES #1 Board of Education, and president of the Monroe County School Boards Association.  She is proud that the Brighton schools have earned recognition as one of the best in the nation.

             Sandy has contributed many years of volunteer service to organizations such as the League of Women Voters, United Way, Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, Greater Rochester Fights Back, Continuing Developmental Services Foundation, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Brighton Chamber of Commerce, Genesee Land Trust, Temple Sinai, Brighton Kiwanis, Rochester Rotary Club, Children Awaiting Parents, Hillel Foundation for Greater Rochester Area Colleges, the Freedom Celebration Committee of the Rochester/Monroe County Freedom Trail Commission, the Bi-Racial Partnership for Community Progress Program, and Odyssey for Humanity.

             She has worked to strengthen ties between suburbs and the city through her work as a member of the City of Rochester Stewardship Council for the comprehensive plan update, "Rochester 2010: An Urban Renaissance".  She initiated a cooperative planning process for Monroe Avenue, a major commercial/retail corridor shared by the City of Rochester and the Towns of Brighton and Pittsford.  She successfully led a bipartisan, community-wide effort to secure designation of Interstate 490 as the “Erie Canal Expressway”, which brands Monroe County as an Erie Canal Community and will help to stimulate economic development, promote heritage tourism, and encourage recreational use of this unique asset. She championed inter-municipal cooperation to save tax dollars and enhance services without compromising local control.  She chaired the New York State Democratic Party’s Committee on Domestic Partnership and Civil Union at the request of the Chairman, and demonstrated her ability to bring people together to reach consensus on issues of fairness and equal treatment.

 She also serves as a member of the Board of Governors and is Past President of the not-for-profit New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal (NYMIR).  NYMIR is an insurance company licensed by New York State and owned by its subscriber municipalities, including counties, towns, small cities and villages.  NYMIR provides cost-effective risk management and cooperative property and liability insurance services to approximately 600 local governments throughout the state.

             In 1999, the Huntington's Disease Society of America honored Sandra Frankel with their national Distinguished Leadership Award. Frankel has also received numerous other awards and recognition for her public, community, and professional leadership and service.

            Sandy acknowledges that her idealism and desire to help people had its roots in our country's civil rights movement and the Democratic leadership of President John F. Kennedy.  Frankel grew up in Miami, Florida.  As a native of the South, Frankel knows the destructive nature of hatred and prejudice based on race, religion, or gender.  Frankel's early experiences were a crucible for her interest to include and inform all citizens in the process of government, and to fight for civil rights and equal and fair treatment for all. 

             Frankel received her Bachelor of Science with distinction from Newcomb College of Tulane University, including a year at the University of Bristol, Bristol, England. She graduated with a Master of Arts from Northwestern University and completed additional graduate studies at Stanford University and San Jose State College.

             Family life has always been a focus of Sandy's.  She and Neil A. Frankel, Ph.D., have been married for 43 years.  Neil recently retired from a 30 year career at Xerox Corporation, and is the author of the website www.slaverysite.com, a non-commercial resource for information about the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in America. They have three children and seven grandchildren.  Janice Block, 39, is a pediatrician, and is married to David Block.  They have four children: Hannah (14), Akiva (12), Ezra (9), and Yaakov (1).  A graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Miami Medical School, Janice and her family live in Israel.  Tom Frankel, 37, is co-founder and co-owner of Stamford Scientific International, Inc. (SSI), located in Poughkeepsie, NY.  SSI is a manufacturing and export management company that specializes in wastewater management systems and other industrial processes.  Tom is a graduate of Washington University at St. Louis.  He is married to Carolynn Perrone, and they have three children: Sarah (7), Jeremy (5), and Natalie (2).  Eric Frankel, 32, is an Emergency Medicine physician in Alamosa, Colorado.  Eric trained at the University of Rochester Medical Center residency program in Emergency Medicine, and received his M.D./Masters in Public Health and Medical and Health Science from the joint University of California San Francisco and Berkeley program; he is a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts.  Eric is married to Ashley Little.

            The citizens of Brighton have learned that they can count on Sandy Frankel to address complex issues of critical importance to make their community a better place to live, work and raise a family. 

  February, 2008