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Greg Rabb Is Wrong

Is it reckless to have public debate? Is it reckless for people to ask for something other than the status quo? Is it reckless to question a governing body?

These are questions worth asking in response to a comment made by Greg Rabb, D-At Large and City Council president, during a recent City Council work session after the council’s 2015 budget public hearing that, “I’m getting tired of people saying things recklessly.”

What led to that comment?

During the city’s public hearing on its 2015 budget, Todd Tranum, Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive officer as well as Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier executive director, asked some pointed questions of the council in regard to spending and its relation to the city’s requests for dividend payments from the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities that help lower tax increases in the city budget. Tranum has, over the past couple of years, reiterated his concern that repeated dividend payments will weaken the Board of Public Utilities and force a rate hike that hurts the members of his organizations. He has repeatedly asked for city spending cuts and further restructuring as a way to lower the tax burden on the businesses he represents. That is a logical position for someone in Tranum’s position.

What is it about those comments, or the thoughts behind them, that qualifies them as reckless? As we said recently, there is no debate over the legality of the dividend payments. Debate over the effects of the payments on the BPU and of the need for the city to request the payments are certainly fair game. Does Mr. Rabb think Tranum or the three BPU board members who have fought the dividend payment are the only ones in the city unhappy with the payment? Surely those four people aren’t the only ones begging for a constructive dialogue on possible cost savings or further restructuring that we hope begins with Mayor Sam Teresi’s Joint Task Force on Efficiency and Cost Reduction that involves the city and Board of Public Utilities. Tranum and those he represents can’t be the only ones who want to see some discussion of how the city can get around the roadblocks preventing further right-sizing of the city’s spending and revenue. Much has been done since 2000, but that doesn’t mean the job is done.

Tranum is also right to be concerned about the council’s role in fighting Jamestown’s drug problem. Slowing the drug trade must involve treatment and education in addition to increased police enforcement. Tranum asked if the city has a plan on how to address the causes of the drug problem? After all, who wants to locate a business in a city with a reputation as being drug-infested? Who wants to buy a house and invest their time and money in areas that have drug traffic and, occasionally, drug-fueled violence and crime? Yet, the response from Mr. Rabb was this – “We haven’t been silent, but quietly working.”

In fairness, we note Mayor Sam Teresi made a point in his State of the City address back in January that the city would take a tougher stance with drug dealers – a promise backed up by the increased enforcement city residents have seen through the Jamestown Police department and the Metro Jamestown Drug Task Force. City Council members surely had a voice in that decision as well. The Striking Back at the White Plague forum at Jamestown Community College, an event sponsored by nearly a dozen agencies that included the city, drew quite a crowd for an eye-opening evening of discussion.

Those are good first steps, but Tranum’s question has merit – what is the city’s plan going forward? What is the city’s role in conjunction with the county and other agencies involved in drug-related task forces? Drug dealers certainly don’t go about their business quietly, so why should the City Council? After all, it isn’t solely the responsibility of the police department to make noise when it comes to drugs in Jamestown. Most city residents understand the city has budgetary constraints that prevent it from hiring more police officers or from taking the lead on treatment issues, as was pointed out by Anthony Dolce, R-Ward 2. But, shortly after Rabb’s quip about “quietly working” Dolce began meeting with Rick Huber of the Mental Health Association to get a better handle on the association’s work and to find out what the city can do to help. Kudos to Dolce for taking that step.

There are ways – without spending anything more than some time on Monday nights – that the council can publicly come to the table when it comes to the drug problem. Perhaps the Public Safety Committee should set aside some time at each meeting to at least address with JPD officials problem areas, changes in approach, suggestions from JPD – in a public setting – of ordinance or policy changes the city can make itself or that need to be pushed at the state level. The council can also convene public forums or set aside time at meetings to discuss drug-related issues that could fall within the city’s purview. The council can discuss policies and ordinances from other cities and if they are applicable to Jamestown. Any of those activities can and should happen publicly.

To answer our own question – Tranum’s comments are far from reckless. On the contrary, they are productive questions that should be asked.

Never asking the question, or disdainfully disregarding the public, is reckless.

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