>> Coming up on "Need to Know" a view of Rochester has been in
the news.-
We will give you another perspective from another Toronto
journalist who reported on the state of the flower city.-
We will begin the look at the state of the political parties in
machine row county with examination of the Democrats.-
We will say goodbye to a long-time public servant barber
Conable.-
Keep it here for "Need to Know."-
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>> The democratic party is losing touch with the middle of the
road voters.-
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[Captioning Made Possible by the U.S. Department of Education]-
(For "Need to Know")-
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>> Thanks for joining us.-
I'm Michael Caputo.-
We will talk about the local Democrat party health but the
story from Rochester to Toronto has been a big topic for
years.-
Toronto hasn't had the same interest in the ferry service.-
Lately Toronto's press has taken an interest in Rochester and
some stories have been far from flattering.-
Last weekend the "Toronto Globe and Mail" published a story
that criticized everything from the city's homicide rate to its
garbage plate.-
Mayor Johnson was quoted and called a press conference to blast
it.-
It raised a sore subject, are we in decline or just perceived
rass a declining community.-
Two weeks before this "Globe and Mail" article a columnist for
the Toronto star, David olive print add piece.-
He looked at the fortunes of the big three companies in
Rochester but also got at the city's overall psych.-
Joining us by telephone is David olive.-
I want to ask you first, there appeared to be a difference in
the articles that you wrote and Mrs. Wong wrote in the "Globe
and Mail", not just in tone but in purpose.-
Can you talk about that?-
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>> Yes, I think Jan Wong went to Rochester to talk about the
ferry.-
That was the excitement for her.-
As it is for folks in Rochester.-
For me, I -- my excitement is about the, some of the largest
corporations in America are headquartered in Rochester.-
That is remarkable that it has no fewer than six multibillion
dollar corporations in that region.-
So I was interested in looking at their difficulties and any
lessons we could learn here in Canada's business capital about
how to avoid the same issues of industrial decline and
globalization where you have Japanese and other companies
stealing your markets over a long period of time.-
So I had a different perspective.-
But of course I have been to Rochester before and I have an
affection for the city so I couldn't help writing about other
aspects.-
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>> You say it is rare a city our size has such a large
corporation base but you wrote in the column that it is a case
study set in missed opportunities.-
Would you explain that?-
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>> I think if you talk to people in Buffalo they would tell
that you Rochester is the beautiful city compared to Buffalo.-
That is the feeling that people in Buffalo have had for 50
years.-
Unfortunately, I think folks in Rochester have often believed
that and believe that there was a superiority and that is the
word smugtown.-
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>> Which goes back to a book are written back this the 1950's.-
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>> Yes, a long time a ago.-
And I still encountered some of that three weeks.-
People saying we have problems, Rochester has lost 40,000 jobs
from Kodak alone, never mind the other declining companies.-
But things are still much better here than in Buffalo or
Syracuse.-
And to me that was a mark of complacency and a very dangerous
thing to hear people saying.-
If Rochester adopts an attitude of greater urgency about the
decline that's happening there, that is going to be the first
and essential component of a turnaround in a city that I have a
great deal of affection for.-
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>> Talk about Kodak since you are a business columnist, talk
about Kodak and what's been happening and that sense of delays
si -- complacency.-
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>> The problem for Kodak is civic leaders in Rochester relied
on the leadership of Kodak for the last century, and in the
same way maybe before that they relied on the leadership of
Bausch and Lomb which is older than Kodak.-
Then Xerox came along and Joe Wilson was another great civic
leader.-
Well, what a wonderful thing to have a city so blessed with so
many people that were successful worldwide from a Rochester
base.-
But you get to the point at the beginning of the 21st century
where you can no longer rely on them.-
Their companies are in decline.-
Partly because of issues of globalization and as one executive
put it to me, Kodak cares more about the Kline these market
than Monroe county.-
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>> I have less than a minute.-
I would like to ask you, are people from Toronto looking do you
think on Rochester?-
How would you characterize it?-
-
>> No, someone am Rochester pointed out while Buffalo has a
lousy reputation for snow, Rochester has no reputation and the
reality is that folks in Toronto don't care is the wrong word.-
They don't know anything about Rochester except one thing, they
know Kodak and it is the birthplace of amateur photography.-
I think that the fast ferry has a possibility of making a big,
big difference in all of that provided that it doesn't bypass
the city and go straight to the threw way.-
If -- throughway.-
If ferry project makes any sense for the city there will have
to be a move to upgrade the downtown.-
You have a beautiful historic downtown.-
If you can revitalize that that would be a tourist traction.-
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>> David olive thank you for being with us.-
We will move from the state.-
City image to the state of the political parties and start with
the deposition.-
The year started with a new person in charge of the democratic
party, Molly Clifford.-
Her first campaign was a heavily local one.-
Democrats wound up retaining one countywide seat and losing two
others.-
They made little inroads in the county suburban towns.-
They still have control of only one of 19 towns, Brighton.-
The victories were expected ones and the city of Rochester
where they retained unanimous control of the city council and
school board.-
The most high profile race was county executive.-
This time the Democrats were ready to compete.-
"Need to Know's" Jennifer Davis explains how the race to
replace Republican jack Doyle appears to have set an unexpected
tone for the party.-
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>> We will not fail.-
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>> Bill Johnson's bid for county executive was seen as the
democratic party's best opportunity to win in almost 10 years.-
Johnson is one of the county's most recognized Democrats and he
had the might to raise major campaign dollars.-
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>> Bill Johnson demonstrated what I think a lot of people knew
and that was he was a formidable individual within the party.-
And basically when he said he wanted to run for county
executive that took care of everything.-
And part of it was his ability to raise funds.-
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>> Bill Johnson suffered a resounding loss.-
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>> I'm still going to be the mayor of Rochester.-
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>> Obviously no one expected the margin in the county
executive's race.-
But I think we heard the message.-
This community does not want to move forward on consolidation,
or the form of metropolitan government.-
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>> The idea of metropolitan government in Monroe county
shouldn't be brought up again.-
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>> But they point out the Democrats have some successes.-
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>> I think we have to look at the big picture.-
The entire state assembly delegation is democratic and they
represent both the city and a number of towns.-
We have have a democratic district attorney.-
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>> In spite of this Johnson's loss raises questions about the
state.-
Democratic party.-
After being number two in enrolled voters for years, enrollment
is now on par with the Republicans.-
In 2003 there was only a difference of 513 enrolled voters a
far cry from the 1970 numbers where the Republicans outpaced
them by nearly 100,000 voters.-
Professor Lundberg says with that's types of numbers county
elections shouldn't be lop sided.-
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>> They should be tight elections.-
If anything the Democrats should be fighting neck and neck in
many towns, they should be holding their own in the city.-
Every race should be hotly contested.-
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>> But in the town race it is is often difficult to get
democratic candidates because the enrollment in the towns is
more heavily Republican.-
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>> Lundberg says the Democrats' problem is less competing with
other candidates and more about tuning in to voters.-
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>> The democratic party, I think, this really means that they
are losing touch with the middle of the road voter.-
They have a very long road ahead of them.-
Because it is one of these things where you are talking about
voter at attitudes and at attitudes change with glacial speed.-
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>> We are joined by two Democrats who can speak to the future
of the party.-
Carla Palumbo Monroe county legislator and wade Norwood
Rochester city councilmember.-
Let's get to the assessment that we heard from Ed Lundberg who
said Democrats are not hearing the middle of the road voter.-
Wade.-
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>> I don't know if that is necessarily true that deposition
aren't hearing the middle of the road voter.-
I think the question is does the middle of the road voter hear
the democratic party message as being relevant to them or see
it as a message that takes care of the other.-
And when one goes that the voting booth one is voting to try to
find someone to take care of their interests and we have to
make sure our message is being heard by the middle of the road
particularly nonurban voter.-
>> This year you were on a par in terms of spending on the
county executive race.-
It should have been heard.-
Right?-
Carla?-
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>> I think what the voters voted on was a -- you know, they
bought the message of the Republican candidate.-
They, I believe, chose based on her claims that she could
balance this county's budget without raising taxes and cutting
services.-
And that was hugely important to people.-
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>> I think, mike, that the message could very well be that,
yes, we heard what you had to say and rejected it.-
And I think that what we have to do is have the conversation as
a community as well as the party and say why was that message
rejected when in many ways brooks' campaign adopted many of the
base themes of Johnson in terms of we are an interdependent
community and we need to work together.-
Why were those things at the foundation so similar but heard in
a different way.-
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>> Molly Clifford seemed to indicate that consolidation and
talk of metro government was rejected.-
Do you agree?-
-
>> I think that was part of it.-
I think it was also the issue of taxes and the issue of, you
know, raising taxes.-
People didn't want to hear that.-
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>> Let's talk about that.-
The budget negotiations just concluded.-
And I want to talk about the politics going on here if we can.-
The Republicans came out with a plan apparently gave it to you
about 45 minutes in advance of the vote.-
The Democrats complained about that.-
The Republicans said you haven't been in the game.-
You haven't been with us at all.-
What's going on here?-
-
>> What's going on is I think Kevin Murray said it best last
night.-
The Republican majority, since the beginning of the process,
including the county executive, the process has been flawed.-
They were late with returning the budget.-
He was late in giving us the budget.-
They tabled it.-
And it took them seven days to come up with this plan.-
We, as a caucus, continued to meet just as they continued to
meet.-
And I know that there are people in our caucus that have had
conversations with Republicans.-
But they chose to give us the plan 45 minutes before.-
>> But isn't it a political choice that the Democrats have made
is?-
I wanted to bring up the fact that the criticism has been of
your party that you lack unity.-
A lot of infighting among members.-
This time around it seems that the Democrats have come together
to say we are not involved any more in the process.-
I -
>> I don't think it is a lack of involvement.-
The Republicans raised property taxes by 16%.-
They also cut services.-
They did exactly the opposite of what their county executive
elect said she would do.-
So, did they take the fall for their party to do the dirty work
for her.-
I do not know.-
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>> Did you say you backed away from negotiations because they
won, hey, let them go then?-
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>> The issue in terms of the politics of it is, remember, they
had the 16 votes.-
They had the votes to do whatever they wanted to do.-
Any budget that we put forth would have been rejected.-
It just -- and we had no believe that it wouldn't be rejected.-
They have continually rejected every plan we have put forth
because they are the majority and they wanted to act as the
majority.-
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>> Wade, I would like to ask you about this question of unity
and you know it has been the criticism, that Democrats can't
get along with each other.-
Is that still the case?-
-
>> I think that despite the defeat in the county executive race
and loss of the county clerk race we as Democrats take great
pride in fact that throughout the course of the campaign we as
a party have become more cohesive.-
There are conversations across the factional lines that were
not takes place at one point.-
You are a reporter you can go through that.-
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>> Are we talking about Joe morelli and Dave gint or -- -
>> I think the fact that you have wade Norwood and Carla
Palumbo talking about the future of the party is a strong
symbol of the fact that conversations are taking place.-
But I think that back to the central thesis of our being here
is we have to find a way when we communicate we are
communicating in a way that makes sense and is active and
relevant not only to our urban base but to our suburban base.-
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>> The strength of the Democrat party is it is a big umbrella
and when you put different people in a room you will have
disagreements.-
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>> But it makes it hard to win then, doesn't it?-
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>> The trick is to have those conversations, then to reach
consensus and to come out strong together.-
I think that's what we did this year.-
There were people in a room that don't normally sit together
and we had some conversations.-
And I think those relationships were built and I think that we
are a much stronger party than we were a couple of years ago.-
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>> I have about a minute.-
Why can't Democrats win in the towns this I know you one one
supervisor's seat and you only have Brighton.-
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>> I will go back to the pac-man commercial.-
This was not about regionalism but the city taking over the
county.-
What we have to do is make sure that the Democrat-Republican
isn't translated in city versus suburb.-
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>> I think you have to look at the concentration of who wins
and where.-
I think that although it may be evenly distributed Republican
and Democrat in the county there are pocket where it is more
evenly distributed than other parties.-
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>> Thank you both for being here.-
You can join the discussion.-
Email us at NEEDTOKNOW@WXXI.org or foreign us any time on our
response line, the number is 258-0250.-
Now here is the business section with the Democrat and
chronicle.-
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>> With us is Ellen Rosen.-
How are you -
BRIAN: I'm fine.-
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>> Let's talk about the decision that came down on the
responsibility to the former doctor group the -
>> In an issue one excel husband insurers and doctors group
that was part of it.-
It was over the doctors filing suit saying the insurer had not
paid all of the money promised and it has again that you
several petitions an the court ruled they do "The $15 million
plus interest.-
Is for a lot of doctors we are not sure how much it is.-
It is a lot of a moral victory for the physicians.-
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>> Are we taking about hundreds of dollars?-
For some it is 10, for others more.-
But if is a moral victory in that they are trying to iron out
issues and the story on the side that the physicians have had
regarding the insurer.-
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>> Can the blues appeal?-
Is there any other action?-
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>> This particular aspect looks like it is resolved.-
But there are other pieces of the puzzle that are going to
continue to be up.-
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>> We have to talk about Xerox.-
They announced another round of layoffs.-
How many and how many here?-
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>> 800 U.S. and 200 here.-
You have to remember that Rochester, Webster is their largest
manufacturing site, largest concentration of workers and they
will take the brunt.-
This is relatively small compared to other things and Xerox is
quick to say not to read into anything this is continuing cost
cutting and restructuring.-
They were announcements they had in the last earnings taken a
charge for restructuring so this is the result of that and not
to read anything into it.-
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>> Who did they if to in terms of who they were going to
layoff?-
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>> It is across the board.-
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>> You had a great article on the mid town mall.-
It changed hand some two years ago.-
Basically a new developer is saying, you know, things are slow
moving.-
Why?-
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>> Well, thanks for the compliment.-
There was a good interview with the owner of the property,
black acre owns it.-
He is manages it.-
He is saying the economy has been difficult, the mall needs
something like $30 million to $40 million to bring it up to
where you want to attract tenants and does he put it in now it
attract them or wait until the way it is and hope they will
come in.-
Right now it is positive cash flow and that makes sense, not a
lot invested.-
Mid town towers saw something like 90% empty and they are
concerned about the chase in a lot of the other towers and they
are concerned about whether those leases will be renewed.-
It is really a matter for the developer of when wants to put
the money in or not.-
Some say that's what you have to do with folks that put a lot
in the temple building and now they are attracting and seeing
the results of the investment.-
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>> We have the county of Monroe industrial agency giving
benefits to clear channel.-
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>> They said they didn't want to stay in the tower.-
This is the first we have had heard from the verls.-
And he offered them plans and they trpped them down.-
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>> How is it going retailwise.-
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>> The original projections were that things would be strong.-
But they are not.-
But high end retailers are doing well.-
And certain big box targets and whole sailors are doing very
well.-
But Wal-Mart's projections are in the middle and a lot of other
businesses, the department stores are down.-
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>> Tell us what is coming up Sunday -
>> People making money off the business of Romans.-
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>> OK, then.-
We would like to end this program with a look back at barber
Conable.-
For two decades he represented parts of our region in congress
and later led the world bank and he was known as a civil voice
in politics, a species that is is more rare.-
He died this week at the age of 81.-
"Need to Know"'s person who worked with him years ago gave us a
look at him.-
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>> He was a master of the cat nap, an expert doodler, a joyous
declaimer, a player of the violin and viola.-
But what you noticed first was his mind.-
That searchingage lit calendar restless instrument she let him
out of Cornell at 19.-
He became a lawyer and took him to the state senate and then by
political miracle to congress.-
After winning as a Republican in the year of the Johnson
democratic land slide, he was one of the most sensible if
little known representatives in the house.-
The "Washington Post" said he has one of the best minds on
capitol.-
Woodward and Bernstein wrote his influence this the house was
enormous.-
Nervous, vocal.-
Intellectual, he is regarded as almost puritanical in his
conduct.-
A man of unquestioned integrity.-
That is the next thing you noticed.-
To his constituents in person and wider audiences he reached as
an expert and television host, Conable's sense of honor was
visible.-
That is why he served for 20 years in congress and the globe as
president of the world bank.-
It was at the end of that last duty that fittingly he appeared
on wxxi's the Rochester I know.-
He knew plenty and that included far more than the U.S. tax
code.-
When you visited at his graceful home you might easily settle
in for a scholarly monologue on the French and Indian war or
other things.-
During his speaking at Rochester he didn't miss a fact.-
He always came back with more.-
Barber did that show with the understanding that he would focus
on what was right and good about the region he loved.-
He continued to believe in words he spoke in 1972.-
It is pretty hard not to be overpowered by our awareness of the
negative things in our society .-
They not only sleek at us but impinge on our daily life.-
He lived a life dedicated to making a positive difference.-
It was a life well spent.-
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>> Thanks, Wyatt.-
We hope you think your time with us is well spent and that you
appreciate wxxi's commitment to local public affairs , it is
local support that makes it possible.-
Here is someone to tell you how you can support local in-depth
news coverage.-