Marianne Clattenburg looks at her city and sees all the benefits you would find in a metropolis — a symphony, appreciation for the arts, great restaurants — yet there is very little of the violent crime and squalor that makes big city living a risk. It's a perfect fit.
"I have a strong belief that we have a strong community and a very nice place to live and I want to keep the quality of life we've had," she says. "I'm guarded about how we cut things, what we cut."
Marianne joined the City Council in April of last year, took the seat for the Second Ward vacated by her predecessor who had left town. She was then elected to the position in November. So why would this mother of two and grade school teacher want to take on the often burdensome chore of running a city?
"I was afraid that with the taxes and budget where it was that we would cut so much from Batavia that the quality of life would not be the same," she says. "You have to have a certain quality of life in the city, otherwise there's no impetus for living in the city. You have to have that feeling of what you want the city to be and living there as a positive experience."
Marianne calls herself a moderate. She isn't so naive that she doesn't realize a city needs to spend money to get the kind of services that make it liveable. But that doesn't mean that there isn't some fat to be trimmed.
"It's just like the private sector has been doing since the downsizing of the '80s," she says. "We want to try to do the same with a smaller government."
No surprise, then, that Marianne supports consolidation, for the most part.
"New York has those issues of overlapping of government services," she says. "That's a testament of how old the state is. Over the years government has just grown and grown."
Marianne teaches the third grade at St. Joseph's School. (They hatched these chicks, here to the left, just yesterday.) She has only been there full-time for a year, though she has been teaching since 1982 as a substitute, while she raised her two daughters, both now in college — one for psychology, one for pre-law.
Now that she has done "all the mom stuff," as she says, it's time to step up and tackle the public business. Namely, consolidating, shrinking things down without sacrificing those things that make Batavia great.
"Sometimes consolidation isn't the panacea that you think it's going to be, but I'm sure there areas where consolidation is the way to go," she says. "The tax base is not what it used to be in Batavia, and everybody knows that. We have an aging city, aging water system."
"Where there's a willingness to do it, there has to be openness to pursue it."
Marianne really is someone
Marianne really is someone who has a positive attitude and is really great to work with. She’s a smart person who does her homework and understands the big picture.
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Conor, thank you for making a
Conor, thank you for making a first contribution to The Batavian.
One of our goals is to help foster a meaningful community dialogue.
This works best when people make contributions that offer valuable information or insight. Such a contribution would generally provide specific example and well honed opinion minus rancor or personal attacks.
While your comment is clearly trying to offer an opinion, we're confused as to what you're saying or who you're directing it at.
If there is some deeper insight there that eludes us, please share. Otherwise, attack by innuendo doesn't really advance understanding.
my bad. I mistook her for
my bad. I mistook her for Rosemary Christian. I'm just not a big fan of her or Charlie Mallow. Mrs. Clattenburg is fine. I didn't even read the article, and I thought Mr. Mallow was referring to his best friend, "Rose Mary", forgetting that there was another "Mary" on council, Marianne. My sincerest apologies to her. Anyway, how has the city been doing since my dad left? I'm quite curious to know. Has any "progress" been made, or is it still the same old same old. If anyone could fill me in, it would be greatly appreciated.
And Howard are you the guy that's at Main Street Coffee often? I'm supposed to let you know that Brian Hillabush is probably the best sports writer outside of Buffalo. I strongly suggest that "The Batavian" adopts a sports section, and appoints Mr. Hillabush as the sports editor. Local sports are a big deal here, and in order to see this website grow I believe it would be in the site's best interest to have a sports section. Maybe it already does. I'm still not quite that familiar with it.
I am that Howard Owens. I
I am that Howard Owens.
I would enjoy meeting Brian at some point (and a few others on the Daily News). He does good work.
We're not quite to the hiring for sports point yet, but I agree it's a pretty critical coverage area.
Tell your friends about The Batavian so we can grow and do more things.
Before anyone blows this out
Before anyone blows this out of proportion, let me say that I don't dislike either Mr. Mallow or Mrs. Christian, but I vehemently disagree with their politics and the democratic councils' handling of the budget crisis. I'm sure they're very nice, wholesome people.
It’s amazing that you can
It’s amazing that you can somehow feel that explanation is suitable for your baseless personal attack of Rosemary and me. You attempted to cover-up by attributing your missteps to dislike for "Democratic policies" is weak. It leaves one begging the question, what "polices"? As far as I know, there are no “policies” besides, not spending what you don’t have. From my point of view, you lack insight into our cities finances or knowledge of the “budget crisis” to comment in a meaningful way. No matter how much you would like to interject your political leanings, Council is a group of individuals that for the most part do not act with the loyalty of some national party in mind. In fact, council has a majority of Republicans, not Democrats. I was elected council president despite my party affiliation, not because of it. My only intent was to compliment Mrs. Clattenburg, who I consider a friend regardless of her “party”. Our past budget decisions were made in a bipartisan way. Our last two budgets were passed with only one dissenting vote. You “vehemently” disagree with what? I’m also not some national “political” figure you should feel free comfortable taking cheap shots at, this is a small town. If you don’t like something I do, pick up the phone and call me.
Mr. Mallow, if this is
Mr. Mallow, if this is something you'd like to discuss in private feel free to email me at conors72@yahoo.com. I'll get to it when I can. Anyways, I find it incredibly unethical, and hypocritical, to dump someone out of the budget and claim that their position is useless, and uses up too much money when the person in that position has attained grant money that more than paid for his salary. I realize that there was obviously some mismanagement before the current council was elected, but the way that the situation was handled was poor to say the least. It was a very reactionary measure to take an axe to what, with careful thought and consideration, could have been handled with a scalpel. Mr. Molino was given far too much power in his decision making. Instead of opting for someone that had served the community- the "neighborhoods", if you will- for years, the council decided to hand the reigns over to a young gun with little experience in dealing with matters such as the city's massive budget crisis. True to form, Mr. Molino panicked and cut, cut, cut. The man can not be trusted. You speak of the importance of neighborhood, and community. These are values that are integral in the functioning of a small town. If you could hear half of the things Mr. Molino has said about the city, you would be appalled. He came to my house one night after a football game I had just played in and went on a twenty minute rant about how bad Batavia football is, and how it's never getting better. Mr. Mallow, I'm not saying you're a bad guy, but I really disagree with how you handle certain things. There is your explanation.
And yes, I'm biased. For very good reasons.