town hall

Stafford resident Beth Carr appreciated skimming the faces and hearing from fellow attendees at a town hall Tuesday evening, she said, though she wasn't so certain about organizer Diana Kastenbaum's remarks that people still have free speech.

As an example, the White House administration and President Donald Trump have restricted certain rights by not allowing the Associated Press into portions of White House press meetings and onto Air Force One, she said, and “they can only come on if they agree with him.”

“I don't know if everybody here is obsessed with the news as much as I am, but we also have lost Voice of America. I was married to a veteran; I lived overseas. I listened when I lived overseas to Voice of America. It was unbiased reporting and essential in this world, across barriers and across lines on maps so that people could listen to news that maybe did not have free speech. And so I am afraid that free speech is eroding and is a threat," Carr said during the Concerned Citizens NY-24 Town Hall. "Which leads me to Dr. Glover, because in light of this erosion of free speech, isn't that what's happening on university campuses? Students getting up and protesting are being threatened for their exercise of free speech, and I'd like you to address that and the impact of this on campuses like Columbia and Harvard."

Carr directed her question to Michael Glover, a retired longtime educator and administrator perhaps best known here as the district superintendent of Genesee Valley BOCES for 10 years.

"What you hit upon is that we've moved from a question of free speech to the Thought Police. So just tonight, before coming over here, I saw where the president had threatened Harvard with the removal of its nonprofit status because they did not bend the knee, at least thus far, to the demands of the administration to drop their DEI programs and to monitor student speech," Glover said. "So you know, universities have always been bastions of free speech. 

"They need to remain so. But I'm even concerned about my colleagues who are superintendents of schools in your local school districts," he said. "They are being targeted in a highly politicized environment. It's a very tough time in education. But I think to your point, it's more important than ever to speak up and to not give in to this kind of authoritarian threat."

Glover was a panel member for the town hall, which drew about 280 people from various counties within the NY-24 district. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz also attended the event and was singled out by Carr and others as the only elected official there. Congresswoman Claudia Tenney was invited but did not attend. Her cardboard cutout, used for other no-show events, was placed at the end of the panel row.

Issues ranged from cutting the federal Education Department, reducing Medicaid and Medicare, and the deportation of migrant farm workers and other immigrants to cuts in aid to food banks, healthcare, and how to best respond to and support what matters to folks.

Maria Bucci of Canandaigua County wanted to know, “What can we as citizens do to support farmers and build a strong workforce?”

Chris Noble, a seventh-generation farmer from Noblehurst Farms in Pavilion, said immigration is not a local or state issue but is in federal hands.

“The only way I think we can really impact the discussion is through our representatives, and so reaching out to representatives through email, phone calls, mass letters, whatever you can do to express your opinion on the matter is the most direct way,” Noble said. “Other than that, it's really trying to build a coalition that can help really affect the conversation. Us here in Western New York, we have a lot of diversity of farms, dairy, fruits, wine, processing vegetables. We relied upon foreign born workers for many years.”

Rev. James Renfrew of Clarendon painted the picture of local deportations happening and said, “I don’t know how agriculture will really continue in these areas.” Kastenbaum added that “we had heard that when ICE was coming in, the local sheriffs would have to comply with ICE directives. Are you concerned, if somebody came on your property, what would you do?”

Noble has not thought about such a “doomsday scenario,” he said.

“The number one thing, as the law states today, is that ICE, which is Integrations and Customs Enforcement, cannot enter private property by the warrants. So warrant means there's some activity or something that's gone on in the past or currently on your property that they are there to address, and beyond that, they cannot enter your property,” he said. “So I guess you can feel safe in the fact that there's that protection of the law that we can then rest upon, so we can affect our own property, of course, but beyond that, it depends on the federal authorities. So in terms of the impacts, it would be devastating, I would say, especially for the skilled nature of the labor. But I guess I don't know what that could look like.”

Jim Neider, a Vietnam-era veteran and 30-plus-year retired educator, said the same chainsaw that’s been used in other departments has also been let loose on Veterans Affairs, with “a little over 17% of the workforce” cut. The first cuts were to the veteran's suicide hotline, he said to a gasping audience.

“How does anybody in their right mind think that’s ok?” he said, prompting an enthusiastic round of applause.

Panel member Abe Zino said that the VA is lobbying for things to protect veterans, such as medication.

“I don't know if anybody realizes it. When you go to the VA home here in Batavia, the VA doesn't pay for your medication anymore. So now we’ve got to struggle to get the veterans the meds that they need. So we're trying to pass federal legislation to take care of those little things,” he said. “And we're also trying to help veterans who are in nursing homes that rely on Medicaid and Medicare because when you go in a nursing home, the fees could be anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000, and if you need specialized care, that's even more expensive. So just some things to think about.”

Dr. Laurel Dallmeyer, a panelist representing healthcare, didn’t mince words about how she felt about the direction of her field lately. She has seen patients stockpile meds in case of coverage reductions or bans, fear, and concerns by segments of the population and has even signed up to help out Strong’s trans care in the face of DEI targeting.

“This is one of the times when I say cruelty is the point,” she said in response to a speaker wanting to know what to do if her meds are taken away or not covered because of White House changes. “As a physician, I had to, like representative Tenney, swear an oath. And my oath was not to the Constitution, but it was to serve my patients and protect them. As many of you probably know, the Hippocratic Oath starts with first do no harm. And I would just like to point out that these cuts that are being proposed, and indeed some have been enacted into law already are going to do nothing but harm people of this district and this country, and that's why I've come out of the exam room to help fight for my patients and the people that I believe are being harmed in this district."

She later said that she "was horrified" when there wasn’t more of an outcry against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being named as Health and Human Services secretary. 

A number of people had concerns about what would happen to their local schools if and when the U.S. Education Department is eliminated. What does that actually mean? As programs are reduced at the federal or state levels, localities are left to fill those gaps, Glover said.

More than a dozen years ago he was speaking similar words, reminding the public of financial shortfalls that would affect rural — “low wealth” — districts the most. Free and reduced lunches, extracurriculars, programs for special needs students are just some of the potential items up for cuts. Revenue was not keeping up with increased costs, he said then, and is still repeating the same warning, though with perhaps more of a federal accent.

“Public schools should provide an equal opportunity for success,” he said. “The local schools will have to tighten up and do more with less. As time goes on, they will have to do less with less, and children will suffer.”

He emphasized that there’s a crisis in education because there’s not enough educators to do the jobs needed, teacher education programs are shrinking and an increasing demand is being met with a lower supply.

“And at the cabinet level, there will no longer be a voice in the cabinet,” he said.

Joy Hammond of Bergen asked about food banks and pantries and how FDA cuts will affect those programs. Poloncarz said a $3.5 million cut, effective in May, will especially impact fresh foods from farmers for Meals on Wheels programs—something that Noble himself is worried about for his grandmother.

Since food pantries don’t deal so much with these types of fresh foods, they may not be quite as affected, Poloncarz said. But if your local food bank has lost funding and these direct resources, obviously it’s going to matter.

“A decision in Washington is affecting the local community,” he said. “You don’t want anyone going to bed hungry in your community.”

Chris Bennem and his wife came from South Bristol to attend their second town hall, the first being in Geneva. It was worth the trip, he said.

"I thought it was really important for us to hear from, if not public officials that are elected, then public citizens who want to represent those of us who are residents of this area to talk and have an open discourse on the issues that affect all of us based on recent legislation that's been proposed and what DoGE has been doing," he said. "I did attend one in Geneva by a similar group that was wholly focused on healthcare, and that was really helpful. But I wanted to hear more. There are so many things being affected. This has been really effective and eye-opening. Certainly, the statements on education and free speech absolutely hit home for me. 

"One topic that didn't come up, I thought about getting in line, but it was a little late, is the issue of book banning that's happening throughout the country, and the fact that things are being removed from federal libraries, whether they're military libraries and other libraries," he said. "So I am a big free speech person. I was in publishing for years, so this is not a good development in our country."

Senator George Borrello has sent out postcards inviting folks to join him for a town hall meeting later this month to hear about the latest updates on state and local issues.

The session has been scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 23 at 10569 Alleghany Road, Darien Center.

Borrello represents the 57th Senate District, which includes Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee and Wyoming counties as well as the western half of Allegany County.

Everyone in the community is welcome to this event. This will also be a time for attendees to share their questions and comments on the material stated.

To contact the senator, email borrello@nysenate.gov or go to borrello.nysenate.gov. His Batavia office hours are noon to 4 p.m. or by appointment at Cornell Cooperative Extension, 420 E. Main St., Batavia, or call 585-507-8139.

A group of folks, led by Diana Kastenbaum and Millie Tomidy-Pepper, have gotten together to begin doing something instead of just fretting and wondering individually about the actions being taken by the White House administration and how those things might affect citizens.

They formed Concerned Citizens of NY-24, and town halls have broken out already in various parts of the state, including Canandaigua and Geneva. One has been scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. on April 15 at the Arc GLOW Community Center, 38 Woodrow Road, Batavia.

“The one we did in Geneva was on healthcare and Medicaid … there was a panel of four, and we thought maybe we would have 10 people," Kastenbaum said to The Batavian. "Over 400 showed up in Geneva, at the opera house. We call ourselves Concerned Citizens of NY-24 just because we don’t want it to be partisan. We really want to bring in everybody because it’s going to affect everybody.”

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney has been invited to discuss recent federal actions and policies with a panel of community members in various fields of social security, Medicare, healthcare, Medicaid, agriculture, small business, veterans, and education.

Kastenbaum, of Batavia, is no stranger to politics and civic engagement, having run against former Congressman Chris Collins and for a seat on City Council in the past. This event is not meant to have a Democrat or Republican slant, however, as she and her co-organizer encourage people of any affiliation to attend, ask questions, and hopefully leave with more information than they had at the beginning.

“We really just want some answers,” she said. “And the reason I got involved in it is because people kept saying 'well, we should have a town hall,’ and I said I wanted to work on a town hall, so then people started to reach out and said, ‘well, what are you doing on it?’ So I just sort of took the lead.”

This is a public forum, so come and engage in the discussion, she said. Sample questions include:

• How will our K-12 public schools, BOCES and local colleges be affected if the Department of Education is eliminated?
• What will happen to our local hospitals and counties if Medicaid is cut?
• What will happen to your social security and Medicare if the makeshift department of government efficiency (DOGE) privatizes it?

Topics are anything that the federal administration has been doing that has or might affect citizens, including ongoing deportations, tariffs (re-enacted internationally on Wednesday), the stagnant or rising cost of goods, thousands of federal employee layoffs, agency reductions or closures, and freedom of speech issues.

“We’re encouraging people to come and ask questions and share their stories,” Kastenbaum said.

The community center has an occupancy limit, so attendees are also urged to get there before the event begins.

Organizers had not yet heard back from Tenney but “would love to have her attend,” Kastenbaum said. 

Tenney’s office did not return The Batavian’s request for comment about the event as of Wednesday night.

Press Release:

The Byron Town Board will hold a meeting at the Byron Town Hall on September 25 at 6 p.m. 

A representative from Bene-Care, the Town of Byron's health insurance broker, will be presenting health insurance coverage information.

Immediately following the presentation the Town of Byron's Tentative Budget Meeting Workshop will take place. 

The event last night was billed as a "town hall," a chance for all constituents in New York's 27th Congressional District to come to the Alexander Fire Hall and voice their issues, raise their concerns and ask questions of Rep. Chris Collins.

If Collins bothered to show up.

Of course, he didn't.

In his place on the dais was an empty chair.

If he had filled that chair, he would have found himself on a panel of people billed as experts in various topic areas who, rather than represent the range of political ideology in the 27th District, seemed to largely hold liberal and progressive viewpoints.

The more than 400 people who attended were all given 8 1/2 x 11 colored pieces of paper -- raise green when you agreed with a speaker's point and red when you disagreed. Rather than showcase a diversity of opinions, green cards tended to go up in unison for points favored by the audience and red cards raised altogether when audience members wished to jeer a negative point made about Collins or the current presidential administration.

This, though Michelle Schoeneman in her opening remarks, suggested the audience might represent a range of political views and party affiliations.

"Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, whether you are conservative or liberal, whether you voted for Collins or not, you are all here because you care enough about democracy to take time out of your busy lives to make your voices heard," Schoeneman said.

The town hall took on the feel of a partisan political rally when Schoeneman concluded her remarks and said Collins might have a rough go of it in the next election.

"Mr. Collins, if you’re watching this right now, I’m here to tell you that this is your last term," Schoeneman said. "Come 2018, we will have a new representative. It may be a Republican. It may be a Democrat, but it will not be you. We will vote into office a person who does not consider it unreasonable to want to talk with you. We will listen and weigh every decision that is made."

That was the loudest applause line of her opening remarks and the room was filled with green cards held high.

The expert panel included a 22-year-old organic farmer from East Aurora who runs a 24-member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture group) and an educator who runs I Am Syria and is the founder of the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide, even though a couple of the nation's top experts on agriculture and immigration live right in Genesee County.

Dean Norton, former president of the New York Farm Bureau who helped draft comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 (it didn't pass, though Collins supported the bill), said he got an invitation through Instant Messanger that he didn't see until after the event was over, though he didn't specify if the invite was to speak or just attend.

Maureen Torrey, who runs with her family one of the largest produce farms in the region, and has been to Washington, D.C., and traveled the nation in support of immigration reform, said she was invited to attend but was not invited to be on the panel.

Even though economics and trade, as well as foreign policy and criminal justice, were all big topics in the recent presidential campaign, there were no experts on the panel in those subject areas, even though in the county and in the region there are available experts.

Comprising the expert panel were:

• Healthcare: Gary A. Giovino, professor, and chair, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior at UB;
• Great Lakes and Rivers: Barry Boyer, who taught environmental law and administrative law at UB;
• Small business: Ginine Capozzi, owner of KnowledgeForce Consulting LLC in East Amherst;
• Local environment, fish, and wildlife: Dick Thomas, retired from a 33-year career with NY Department of Environmental Conservation;
• Education: Chris Cerrone, cofounder of WNY for Public Education;
• Diversity and social justice: Jeremy Besch, head of Upper School at the Park School in Buffalo;
• Immigration: Andrew Beiter, director of I Am Syria and is founder of the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide;
• Climate change: Sandra Chelnov, who is "deeply concerned" about climate change and has attended several conferences;
• Laura Colligan, owner of Dirt Rich Farm in East Aurora.

The town hall was sponsored by several progressive organizations: GLOW Progressives, WNY Peace Center, Buffalo Resists, Sister District of WNY, Invisible NY 27th, Turning Emotion into Action, ACTion Buffalo, and Citizens Against Collins.

As part of each expert's introduction, the speakers were invited to say a word about why they were there. Some speakers gave just a brief introduction, others used the time to share stronger opinions.

Giovino said the current healthcare system is not designed to help you get well, rather it's designed to ensure you keep coming back.

"My concern about healthcare is that it’s for profit," Giovino said. "In every other country, every other rich country, it’s not for profit. I think capitalism is a great thing, but when it comes to health, we need a catalytic converter on that engine."

Thomas said the environment is his passion.

"I think it’s everybody’s passion whether we know it or not," Thomas said. "Elections are guided by politics and not so much guided by science. Environmental protection suffers from the ebb and flow of global leadership changes and at the same time, that environment is generally not working in many cases. Under our current federal government leadership, the divide between economic interests and the environment is wider than it ever has been."

Besch got a laugh with his introduction.

"I’m a white guy who does diversity work," Besch said.

He added later, "For a long time this country has had a political environment that has sort of secretly and quietly marginalized already-marginalized groups to drive a culture of fear to push its agenda. What I’ve seen in recent years is that action is no longer quiet and secret. Preservation of wealth and privilege is coming at the expense of those who don’t have either of them.

"If we don’t find ways stand up and stop that then a situation that is already pretty precarious and getting worse is going to get a heck of a lot worse and a heck of a lot more quickly than I think any of us care for."

Capozzi said she's tried to talk with Collins many times about a range of issues that affect small business owners, from healthcare to immigration to tax policy to education to workforce readiness and manufacturing.

"There isn’t a part of our communities that is not impacted by the small business community and he doesn’t have anything to say," Capozzi said. "Literally, nothing to say, since May of 2014. I’m really concerned about our opportunities, or lack thereof, to talk to the congressman across all spectrums and all areas of business and all the impacts that affect us."

Cerrone slammed support for school choice.

"Chris Collins supports the Trump-Betsy DeVos privatization schemes that will devastate our local, public schools," Cerrone said. "If this raised achievement, I would be all behind it, but studies show that school choice sounds good, but choice does not work. It does not raise achievement, which is our number one concern, but also it’s a boon to those who want to privatize and profit off our tax dollars with no accountability." (Fact Check: the studies are not as one-sided as Cerrone states, but decidedly more mixed.)

Beiter said he came to the event to talk about the refugee ban and the "war on immigrants." He was critical of the Trump Administration's position on immigration.

"His policies are wrong and xenophobic," Beiter said. "They also hurt the economy, our agricultural development and who we are as a people."

Walter Eckert, of Mendon, asked the first question and it was on immigration, so it went to Beiter.

"It's the businesses that employ illegal immigrants who are breaking the law," Eckert said. "Why do we not charge the employers of illegal immigrants?"

Beiter said that was a good question and he blamed greed.

He said agriculture in New York is a $3.5 billion industry and farmers fear with a clamp down in illegal immigration they will not be able to fill vital positions. He said in Niagara County, there are 1,200 migrant workers between May and November. He said these workers are exploited by farm owners.

"On one level this is a human tragedy," Beiter said. "It's slave labor that lowers the prices of our groceries, so the answer to this is comprehensive immigration reform. I think what you’re going to see as to why these businesses and corporations are not prosecuted is because they’re profiting from it." (Fact Check: The average migrant farm worker makes $12 an hour in the United States, with some earning as much as $15 an hour, and migrants are also provided housing at no cost on many New York farms.)

He said during the George W. Bush administration and the first part of Barack Obama's two terms, there were attempts at immigration reform, but that greed prevented these reforms.

"These issues tried to get on the table, but they were put down because corporate America makes too much money from our brown-skinned brothers and sisters who are here in our communities," he said.

Actually, there was comprehensive immigration reform bill considered in 2013. Dean Norton helped draft it and Collins supported it. It didn't pass.

Collins has said many times that never in his political career does he participate in town hall meetings because he doesn't find them productive. He would rather meet with small groups of people around specific topics. He has said he will talk with any constituents who ask for a meeting.

Maureen Torrey, for example, has said she and other farmers have had a productive relationship with Collins. 

"Since the election, Congressman Collins and his staff have been working with the agriculture community in his district with all the family farms and agribusinesses in his district weekly," Torrey said. "He has held bipartisan meetings on trade, immigration, and the economy of agriculture. He has been working hard to arrange meetings and educate people on what our needs are.

"He knows our issues and hasn't been afraid to speak them. He talked about our needs on national TV. He has opened doors for us. For the first time in many years, I feel we are making progress on issues."

There were also people at the event who let reporters know that they've requested meetings with Collins, but they haven't gotten a response.

The Batavian has been trying to arrange an in-person, hour-long, multi-topic interview with the congressman since late January. We've made at least a dozen requests and despite assurances that such an interview will take place -- and statements by Collins himself that he will sit down for an interview and that he enjoys being interviewed by The Batavian and would be happy to talk -- we have yet been able to secure a date for such an interview.

UPDATE/CLARIFICATION & DISCLOSURE: One of the organizers, Jane Cameron, has said I was invited to be a speaker at the town hall. I honestly didn't remember the invitation. I found the email from March 30 where she said she wanted to talk with me about "your possible participation in a Town Hall ..." I wasn't sure what she meant by this, but I said I would cover the event but that I don't participate in partisan politics. She also said there were two conservatives on the panel without specifying who those individuals are.

Michelle Schoeneman

Jeremy Besch

Laura Colligan

Andrew Beiter

Walter Eckert, of Mendon

Darien had their Art Show and Community Day, Sunday, the 29th and I took a few pictures for readers of the Batavian to enjoy.