Brighton: Frankel Again
Brighton-Pittsford Post
October 12, 2005
Messenger Post Editorial
Sandra Frankel has built a solid political career on past successes. She said she wanted parks, and she got them. Ask her what she's done for the town, and she'll start in 1992 and give you an example from every year since.
It may be enough to ensure her victory in the coming election for Brighton town supervisor. Rightly so. But Republican candidate Wes McAllister comes from a long and career in municipal management, which makes him an unusually well qualified challenger. He speaks at Town Board meetings regularly, and says the town could be more creative on economic development, has not managed infrastructure problems well, and has been too quick to raise taxes rather than cut spending.
Still, as with most candidates challenging well-established incumbents, some of McAllister's ideas amount to much more than a little trimming around the edges. His suggestion of cutting the full-time health benefits for part-time town board members may be right in principle, but the savings would be small, He's also having a great time pointing out that a connection between Town Hall and the Brighton Library, which Frankel promised she'd get done when McAllister first challenged her two years ago, is still undone - a point for him, but not a major town issue.
The most contentious issue in Brighton is the town's decision to use eminent domain to obtain some land from Faith Temple. The town had planned on purchasing farmland next to the church to expand its parks. The farmer sold it to the church instead. The town says the church broke an agreement with the town.
We're not taking sides on that. But it is terribly unfair of McAllister to suggest, as he does in his essay on the opposite page, that Frankel's stance is based somehow on religious or racial differences with the church. That kind of smear should have no place in the campaign.
From the time she took office more than a decade ago, Frankel has worked hard to run an open government based on citizen participation of every kind - her success on working out the contentious Elmwood Avenue rebuilding project being a prime example. She's been working with her counterparts in city of Rochester and in Pittsford to renew and protect the whole length of Monroe Avenue, which she calls the "Main Street " of the county. Complaints from Brighton's residents are very few, compared to other towns.
There does come a time when every town simply needs new blood, but that time hasn't come quite yet for Brighton. What should earn your vote in the end is Frankel's consistent style, and knowing that the Brighton of two years from now will be incrementally even better than the Brighton of today.
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