They were for Proposition One before they were against it

Shortly after the start of the year, when some minor bit of legislative nonsense (about which I no longer remember any specifics) became the focal point of some squabbling, the honorable Dan Tagliente (D) remarked that "the silly season was upon us". I hadn't heard the term "silly season" before, so I asked him to explain. He indicated that the term is used to refer to political campaign season, and even though the election was many months away at the time he said it, he was right: the silly season had begun.

So just how silly does it get? Here is a transcript from a radio ad now airing locally:

Tom Hartnett (D) - "... remember how they ("they" refers to "some of those Republican county legislators") tried to take away our right to vote for Treasurer.. it's like they think their way is the only way and they don't care about what we think or how they treat people."

Carol Tytler (D) - "I see your point"

OK, there certainly was disagreement about Proposition One, the name of the proposal that appeared on the ballot in November 2004 offering a referendum on whether to continue to elect a treasurer (who, by law, cannot be made to hold any qualifications for the post, other than being at least 18 years old and living in the county) or to appoint one based on qualifications. But let's check the record, shall we?

On motion of Mr. Steve (R), seconded by Mrs. Brown (D) and adopted by a two-thirds roll call vote with Mr. Allen (R) (2789); Mrs. Breed (R) (2816); Mrs. Brown (D) (2320), Mr. Dafoe (D) (2,042) , Dr. DiGiovanni (R) (2362), Mr. Elston (R) (3,207), Mr. Hartnett (D) (2,334) , Mr. McKee (R) (3,351), Mr. Steger (R) (2,775), Mr. Tagliente (D) (2,357), Mrs. Tytler (D) (2,317), Mr. Willcox (R) (2,348), Ms. Wyant (R) (2,362) and Mr. Steve (R) (2,324) voting aye ;

Mr. Armstrong (R) (3,369), Mr. Cornell (R) (2,875), Mr. Ross (R) (2,314) and Mr. Wern (R) (1,973) voting nay; and Mr. Behrenfeld (R) (2,364) recorded as absent,

Agenda Item No. 1 became: Local Law # 1 for the year 2004, A Local Law Abolishing the Office of County Treasurer and Creating an Appointive Office of County Comptroller for the County of Cortland and Causing a Proposition to be Submitted to the Electorate at the Next General Election.

So, let's see, that would be the entire Democratic caucus (including Mr. Hartnett and Mrs. Tytler) in favor, and four Republican legislators voting against. But only "some of those Republican legislators... tried to take away our right to vote"? Curious.

Let's check discussion of the motion:

Mrs. Brown stated there were over thirty people who came to speak for or against this and she would be voting in favor of Local Law # 1 for the Year 2004 to allow all the people of the County the opportunity to speak by casting their vote in November.

So... we weren't trying "to take away" the people's "right to vote"?

Mrs. Tytler stated she would be supporting Local Law # 1 for the Year 2004 and commented that this issue should make the voters of Cortland County aware of the job they have at election time of looking more closely at the qualifications of the candidates that are seeking to be elected for positions to serve the public.

Hey, good idea. Like maybe they should look with great care at people who vote one way, then try to score political points by castigating people of the other party who voted the exact same way for identical reasons?

The Silly Season ends in a week, and not a moment too soon!

PS: Here is an open invitation to any member of the Democratic caucus: you have all the space you need on this blog to explain to the voters how this isn't hypocritical on your part. We await your response.

Radio Spot #3

Radio ad on WXHC 10/27/05 and 10/28/05

Red = Bonnie Quackenbush
Black = Paul Allen
Blue = Kurt Behrenfeld

Promises Made...
Restructure county government.
Promises Kept...
We have better defined the Administrator’s directive and completed the management study which realigned job descriptions county-wide.

Promises Made...
Get projects done.
Promises Kept...
We built a new recycling center.

Promises Made...
Fiscal responsibility.
Promises Kept...
We have streamlined delivery of services through consolidation.

Not just financial successes, but successful government.

Promises Made...
To make government more efficient and effective.
Promises Kept...
Reduce tax increases by over 75% while improving services and more than doubling fund balances.

Promises Made...
Make government more accountable.
Promises Kept...
Establish audit committee for the first time.

Promises Made...
Use talents to improve government.
Promises Kept...
Create a forecasting model for the county to improve our ability to make consistently better decisions.

Your Republican legislature... Promises made, promises kept.

Not just financial success, successful government.

Radio Spot #2

Radio ad on WXHC 10/25/05 and 10/26/05

Red = Bonnie Quackenbush
Black = Kay Breed
Blue = Paul DiGiovanni

Promises Made...
More accessible county government.

Promises Kept...
Early morning committee meetings and evening legislative sessions so that working people can participate.

Promises Made...
Better approaches to public safety.

Promises Kept...
Enhanced 911 and improved dispatch software.

Promises Made...
Better managerial oversight.

Promises Kept...
Training and governmental accounting and computer classes for county employees.

Not just financial successes, but successful government.

Promises Made...
Better managerial oversight.

Promises Kept...
The home health agency has improved its performance on State surveys and its bottom line.

Promises Made...
Rewarding good performance.

Promises Kept...
We approved increased staffing for our model Hospice program.

Promises Made...
Better coordination of service delivery.

Promises Kept...
Social Services and the Health Department have worked together to improve quality of services.

Your Republican legislature... Promises made, promises kept.

Not just financial success, successful government.

Upcoming TV Schedule (Channel 2)

"Cortland County: Past, Present and Future" (Kurt Behrenfeld):

11/1 at 8:00PM
11/3 at 6:00PM
11/4 at 12:00PM
11/7 at 8:30PM

Scott Steve:
11/3 at 9:00AM

Paul Allen:
11/2 at 6:00 PM
11/4 at 1:00 PM

Paul DiGiovanni:
11/3 at 12:30 PM
11/7 at 5:30 PM

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Boy, did I get lucky! Today I celebrate my 15th wedding anniversary with Angela. This is our crystal (or watch) anniversary, so I am heading downtown to get one or both (she never reads this site, so it's not as if I am spoiling a surprise).

I hope this serves as a reminder to all of us that even in the midst of a campaign, there are many more important things in our lives.

(But of course I will be out campaigning today - why do you ask?)

UPDATE: Angela got me "Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3". They say the 15th anniversary is the "crystal anniversary" (yes, I had to look that up), but I much prefer this particular "golden" gift! Many thanks to Joe and Cindy Delaney of Trends for having helped me select a crystal gift for Angela - she loved it!

Economic Report Card

Cortland beat state and national unemployment rates

As of this fall 2005, Cortland’s year-to-year employment growth outpaced the state and most other regions in the State, with Cortland growing by 3.5%, compared to New York State’s rate of 1.2% and national rate of 1.9%. In fact, Cortland County’s rate of employment gain has consistently outpaced New York State’s since 2000. Cortland added 500 jobs this year alone.

Most recent DOL statistics:

National unemployment rate – 5.1%
New York State unemployment rate – 5.2%
Cortland unemployment rate – 4.4%

• Cortland has gained 500 jobs since the same time last year
• Financial sectors gained 100 jobs since the same time last year
• Professional and business services gained 100 jobs since the same time last year
• Information sectors gained 100 jobs since the same time last year
• Leisure and hospitality gained 200 jobs since the same time last year

Recent highlights include:

• Barden Homes, the Northeast’s leader in pre-engineered homes, recently completed a $6.5 million 100,000 sq. ft. expansion and is now the anchor for a new Upstate homebuilding business park that is attracting customers and contractors from Canada and across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast
• Essex Steel, New York State’s only manufacturer of steel buildings, recently completed a $2 million project to locate its new 30,000 sq. ft. corporate headquarters in the Finger Lakes East Business Park
• BorgWarner Morse TEC has invested $30 million to open a powder metal production facility that created nearly 250 new high-paying manufacturing jobs.
• The 433,000 sq. ft. former Smith Corona manufacturing plant -- renamed IndacomPlace -- is now completely full with more than 20 companies occupying industrial and warehousing space, including a number of small manufacturers who relocated from out of state.
• The Marietta Corporation, the world leader in the hospitality amenities industry, purchased the 440,000 sq. ft. former Rubbermaid facility and made a $25 million investment to locate high speed bottling lines there for the retail market. The company has added nearly 150 manufacturing jobs in the past year at the new site, and has exceeded employment commitments to Empire State Development.
• Pall Trinity Micro has continued to grow, recently making a 75,000 sq. ft. expansion into new offices at Indacom Place. PTM recently won a prestigious award from the NYS DEC for environmental achievements.
• The 144,000 sq. ft. former ASSA International building was redeveloped as the Cortland Commerce Center. Anchor tenants included Intertek Testing Services, which made the site its North American operations headquarters and WebClothes, which opened its global E-commerce distribution operation there.
• Buckbee Mears transacted the sale of the 367,000 square foot facility to International Electron Devices, based in New Delhi, India. The $15 million deal closed in October 2004.
• Precision E-Forming was created and financed as a management buy-out of a division of Buckbee Mears’ electroforming division, which was relocated here from St. Paul, Minnesota. The new company is enjoying great success and growing rapidly.
• The 75,000 sq. ft. former E-One facility was purchased by Bestway for a new $3.5 million manufacturing operation that will create composite materials for the homebuilding industry. Bestway also recently completed a $1.7 million business expansion for its wholesale lumber operation, which processes wood products and distributes them to 350 retail operations through the northeast. The company also relocated its Carolina-based woodworking operation to Cortland, creating 90 new jobs. Bestway is completing work on a new $1 million intermodal rail center at its Luker Road operation to accommodate another new project, a $2 million new investment to manufacture modular homes, which is expected to create another 75 new jobs
• The Cortland Companies and Cortland Cable, which specialize in the manufacture and custom engineering of cables and ropes for the marine and aerospace industries, continued to expand with the acquisition of Puget Sound Rope, based just north of Seattle, and the acquisition of Cortland Fibron, BX, based in London, England.
• Albany International continued to make significant investments in its world-class R&D Center and expanded production facilities at its Cortland facility.
• Cooper Hand Tools completed a multi-million capital improvement project that completely realigned its manufacturing floor, improving safety, quality and efficiency.
• WetStone Technologies, a cutting edge computer forensics company, made a $3.5 million investment in a new corporate headquarters in the heart of downtown Cortland.
• New Monarch Machine Tool secured a $2.7 million CAPCO investment by Advantage Capital, as well as an additional $500,000 investment by RAND.
• Square Deal Machining made a major expansion, moving a significant operation to Marathon in Cortland County from Pennsylvania.
• Ames Linen Service purchased the former 70,000 sq. ft. Tuscarora building in the City of Cortland for an expansion project.
• Cortland Memorial Hospital completed an $11 million expansion, renovating its emergency services, laboratories and radiology/diagnostics services departments, successfully completing a $3.5 million capital campaign facilitated by the allocation of $750,000 in Empire Zone community development project credits.
• The BDC worked with USDA/Rural Development to help secure a loan guarantee to leverage private sector financing and public funding to open a new $3.5 million new Cortland Sports Complex. Fundraising for the project was facilitated by the allocation of $500,000 in Empire Zone community development project credits
• The BDC worked with USDA/Rural Development to help secure a loan guarantee to open a new Center for the Arts in Homer (www.center4art.org)
• The Cortland County Zone Advisory Board approved a total of $400,000 in direct equity tax credits to Hope Lake Investors for qualified equity investments in a major development project being proposed there.
• The Cortland County Empire Zone created 355 net new jobs in the past year

2006 Budget out before election

One of the cornerstones of our platform in 2003 was that we would have the budget out for your review before the election. The Administrator's budget was released on October 20, 2005 - the earliest in memory, perhaps ever.

Let me explain the process from here:

Mr. Schrader's budget is the default budget. Among the highlights are a reduction in the tax rate by about 2.9% and the introduction of capital project budgeting. Should the legislature fail to agree to modifications to his proposal, it will become the official 2006 budget. The legislature will soon begin "Annual Session", which is a series of meetings to address the budget and propose changes. We will analyze the proposed budget line by line, question Mr. Schrader on nearly all of it, and discuss with departments and agencies whether the budget meets their needs. As we go along, amendments to the budget will almost certainly be made, until we reach a final proposed amended budget.

A public hearing will be held, so that you can offer your feedback; this is tentatively scheduled for mid-November. At some point after the public hearing, a vote of the full legislature will be held.

So, while we don't have a final budget just yet, we have improved processes sufficiently that the Administrator's budget is ready for public scrutiny. This began with the Treasurer's Office getting its Annual Financial Update Document (known as the "AUD") completed in March. This allowed the independent outside auditor to begin his audit much earlier than he had in prior years; he completed his audit report in August and discussed his findings with the legislature in September. These were the two key pieces that allowed the Administrator to put together a budget based on sound, audited financial information, not mere guesses.

And that is how we got to where we are now. We look forward to your feedback.

Personnel Committee Accomplishments: UPDATED

Please note that the CSEA contract and the MSD study have been approved by all parties, a major achievement by the County Administrator, the Personnel Department, and the legislature.


MSD (Municipal Service Division) study
- Will set pay levels for county employees in line with the market
- The process was started in 2001 with a promised date of completion of 2003 by the prior Democratic-controlled legislature; it will be completed by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2005
- UPDATE: The MSD study was completed and approved on October 20, 2005, and works hand-in-hand with the new CSEA contract to ensure that our county workers will be paid a competitive wage, limiting, we expect, the exodus of workers that we train in Cortland to neighboring counties

CSEA contract and management compensation
- UPDATE: The union voted in favor of the new 5-year contract, and the legislature unanimously approved it on October 20

Revised the rules of legislature:
- Changed meeting times for committees to early morning so that legislators can attend meetings and still get to their jobs
- Each committee meets once a month instead of two
- There is one legislative session per month instead of two
- The time of the legislative session is Thursday at 6 pm, allowing people with jobs to work and still be legislators, and allowing citizens to attend
- Absence equals a "no" vote (it used to be counted as a "yes")

Rewrote the county e-mail policy
- to prevent abuse and wasted time at work

Budgeted for capital expenses in Data Processing
- Bonding for items such as computers and printers in the past was often done; many times, the life of the bond exceeded the useful life of the equipment, so we were still paying for things we could no longer use

Health Insurance Policy
- We changed carriers from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to RMSCO, saving over $1 million in premiums alone in the first year.
- County employees received a 10% reduction in health insurance premium.
- A stop loss provision was added; the absence of such a stop-loss cost the county $900,000 on a single claim a couple of years ago.
- We no longer have to float a "security bond" for health insurance (this was a $1.5 million bond with an associated annual cost of about $30,000)
- We retrieved $1.3 million from BC/BS in security holdings with more money still to be returned

Media & public relations
- Agendas are put out in a timely matter for the benefit of the media, the legislators, and the public
- Draft copies of meeting minutes are sent out via e-mail, usually the same day as the meeting, and posted timely to the county web site (http://www.cortland-co.org)

City, Towns, Villages, and Schools
- All taxing entities meet monthly to improve cooperation

MUNIS (County's Municipal Software system)
- Completed accounting training for at least 45 employees
- Instituted procedures to ensure training of all employees (new hires and current workers)

Consolidation of purchasing
- For example, we instituted a blanket copier maintenance agreement and purchased all new copiers, while saving more than $24,000 per year

HAVA (Help America Vote Act)
- We are working with the Board of Elections to select new voting machines and ensure that the public will be included in the evaluation process

County contracts
- Standardized contract forms and instituted a review process for all county contracts

Department of Motor Vehicles
- Relocation is planned to make it easier on consumers to use local DMV. If we increase use of the local DMV office, we will capture a greater local share
- Drop boxes for DMV registration have been and will be added

Compensation
- Established a standard work day for elected and appointed officials
- Increased the time of service needed to achieve retirement benefits

Passed 4 Local Laws to Expand the Pool of Potential Workers
Local Law No. 1 of the Year 2005: A Local Law Creating an Exception to the Residency Requirement for Deputy Sheriff Titles for Cortland County
Local Law No. 2 of the Year 2005: A Local Law Creating an Exception to the Residency Requirement for Correction Officer Titles for Cortland County
Local Law No 3 of the Year 2005: A Local Law Creating an Exception to the Residency Requirement for Assistant District Attorneys for Cortland County
Local Law No. 4 of the Year 2005: A Local Law Creating an Exception to the Residency Requirement for Assistant Public Defender for Cortland County

Radio Spot #1

Here is the copy of the first radio spot which aired on Friday, October 21, and Monday, October 24.

Bonnie Quackenbush
Paul DiGiovanni

Promises Made...

Accountability in the Treasurer's Office

Promises Kept...

The Annual Financial Update Document was completed in the Spring

Promises Made...

Better legislative oversight of the audit process

Promises Kept...

The annual audit was completed in early September

Promises Made...

No more hiding of the following year's budget until after the election

Promises Kept...

The 2006 Administrator's budget was released on October 20, nearly three weeks before the election.

The Republican candidates for county legislature promised in 2003 to bring a new level of fiscal responsibility to county government.

One of the cornerstones of our platform was that we would tell you, as voters and taxpayers, what the budget would look like before we asked you to give us your vote again.

Getting a budget out before the election wasn't an idle promise, and it only happened because of the hard work of the legislature, county administration, and the dedicated workers in county government.

Together, we have transformed the outlook for Cortland County from bleak, to bright.

Your Republican legislature...

Promises made, promises kept.

Paul Allen - Mailer & Palm Card

Click on images for enlarged view:

Mailer





Palm Card

Palm Card: Kay Breed

Click on upper or lower image for enlarged view

Palm Card: Kurt Behrenfeld

Click on upper or lower image for enlarged view

Palm Card: Scott Steve

Click on image for enlarged view

Palm Card: Paul DiGiovanni

Click on upper or lower image for enlarged view

Palm Card: Bonnie Quackenbush

Vote for


Q




Bonnie Quackenbush
Cortland County Legislature
5th Ward
for
Quality
Quick Response
and
EQuity of Government

November 8, 2005

{BACK}

Vote for

Bonnie Quackenbush

and you vote for years of
caring and coordinating:
the skills needed to
represent you and your concerns.

• 38 years - Cortland County resident
• 20 years - Parent of three beautiful boys: Bob, Ed and Dan
• 10 years - Science Teacher, certified in 7-12 Earth Science, Biology, English
• 8 years - Den Leader, Pack Master at Barry
• 3 years - producer of STORYTIME, Mon-Thurs 7 p.m. on CH 2
• many years- Events Coordinator:

• Music On The Mountain for The American Cancer Society, 1988
• NYS Siting Commission Hearing (liaison), 1989
• Ithaca Festival, 1990
• Chautauqua in Homer, 2003

Q-GOALS

Keep Cortland Quaint

And increase Business Quantitatively

While improving Quality of Life

Questions and Queries:

Q4U@usa.net or 756-8334

DiGiovanni Speech at CCPR Forum

Good evening. I am Paul DiGiovanni, a physician and County Legislator from the City's First Ward, and the Majority Leader. I am married to Angela, a pediatrician, and we live with our four kids at 5 Ridgeview Avenue. Next week, on Thursday, the 27th, we will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. So, First Ward voters, as you see me out on the trail next week, please remind me that my anniversary is on Thursday - don't let me forget!

Thanks to the Cortland Citizens for Progressive Reform for hosting this forum. This is the democratic process in action, and I hope that it will serve to educate and inform voters. I am confident that if my record, and the record of this legislature, is the basis on which citizens cast their votes, that I will be representing the First Ward again for the next two years.

"Success has many fathers, and failure is an orphan". It seems that the challenge this campaign season is not to run away from a record of failure. On the contrary, the competition this year seems to be to determine who deserves the credit. And that's because there is so much credit to go around. When you consider the sad state of the county in the fall of 2003, when our local paper characterized our future as "bleak", I think it is hard to overstate the success of the past term.

I part company with those who believe the Administrator deserves all the credit. Yes, the Administrator deserves considerable credit, but so do we. And to clarify, by "we" I mean the current legislators - on both sides of the aisle. We are a collection of varied talents who have complemented one another quite well. I will be happy personally, and for the people of the County, to welcome back such superb legislators as Carol Tytler and Dan Tagliente. Carol herself spoke of the bipartisan approach that has led to many, many infrastructure improvements and how the legislature has worked with department heads and others to accomplish many good things. 

But this is a campaign, and deserving legislators who have earned reelection but who are faced with contested races in November - myself included - owe it to the voters to clarify the role we have played in the success. This I shall try to do.

The proper role of the Administrator is to put policies into operation. The proper role of the legislature is to set those policies. There are policies that we individually and as a group have introduced, independent of the Administrator, that have contributed to this successful term. I have helped to achieve positive reform in several areas. As Chairman of the Health Committee, I have helped to clarifiy the proper role of the Board of Health and improved its working relationship with the Health Committee. I have pushed for and helped to facilitate the introduction of a new provider of pre-school services; this provider is on track to open in January. I am happy to report that the Home Health Care agency has not only addressed all deficiencies, several of which had been repeat findings on state surveys, but has gone from costing taxpayers over $200,000 a year to likely turning a small profit. I was the Chairman of the committee that investigated the Treasurer's Office and the prior legislature's failure of oversight. The independent auditor noted that operations were "much, much improved". Oversight of departments by the legislature across the board has been strengthened. I have pushed for interdepartmental cooperation, and I am pleased by the model developed by Health and Human Services.

I am an active legislator with a restless mind, always seeking a better way. There are many things I see that still need to be done, and that I will work hard to get done, given the chance. Thank you.

Candidates Forum Speech - Paul DiGiovanni

I want to thank the League of Women Voters for sponsoring this forum and the Area Agency on the Aging for hosting it. I also want to express my regrets that my baseball buddy - and opponent in my legislative race - John Troy cannot be here tonight, as he is at work, teaching. John is a good man, and the citizens of the First Ward have two good candidates vying to represent them. I have corresponded with him, and he has agreed to us having a forum for First Ward voters. Details will be forthcoming as the arrangements are worked out.

I hope that when the voters, in the quiet of the voting booth, make their choice, that they will reflect on the record of achievement of this legislature. Two short years ago, as I was running for the office that I now hold, the local paper carried a headline that read "Cortland County Future Looks Bleak". The sub-head stated "Budget requests will put county over its tax limit; service and job cuts loom on horizon". The article noted that Moody's had just downgraded our bond rating and that a double-digit tax increase was likely. An entire division of the Health Department - Environmental Health - was considered a likely candidate to be cut to make ends meet. There was open discussion of raising the constitutional tax limit. I had to wonder why I wanted this job after reading that article, which read like an obituary.

Well...

What a difference two years has made!

The structural problems of unfunded mandates and ever-rising Medicaid costs still exist. Yet a new legislature took over and look where we are today! In 2004, we spent about 12% less than the prior legislature's budget allowed us to. We ran a surplus of $4.8 million. We bolstered reserves to nearly $9 million. And our first budget, in 2005, raised taxes only 2.9%, 2% of which covered the Medicaid increase alone. We have successfully lobbied to cap the growth in the local share of Medicaid - not a final solution, but a good first step.

We haven't cut services. On the contrary, we are funding things such as county road construction that we hadn't funded in the budget in years. We are working on a 20-year plan to address infrastructure so that long-neglected bridges, culverts, and highways will be maintained and replaced. We look forward to going back to Moody's when it is time to do so and saying: "Here's our financial status. We have more than 10% of annual operating expenses in reserve. We think you'll agree that you should raise our bond rating". And returning to that article, the prior Chairman of Budget & Finance, Mr. Van Dee, stated his hope that the budget would be out before the election. It wasn't. The administrator's 2006 budget will be out on October 20. We keep our promises.

Our success has been the result of hard work. Not wishful thinking, not a hope and a prayer, not dumb luck - but hard work. I have poured over documents, spreadsheets, web sites, and pamphlets. I have taken trips where my wife would drive and I would sit in the passenger seat so that I could read up on something of importance to the county. I have spent hours with the Administrator, the Auditor, the Clerk of the Legislature, and fellow legislators. Perhaps the most useful time is time spent with the department and division heads, who at first were quite frankly wary of us new guys, fearful, I think, that our approach to the fiscal crisis would be to slash and burn. It took some time to develop the trust that we now have, but I am confident that the strong bottom line is not a thin veneer hiding problems that are as bad as ever, but that our improved fiscal situation is, as our outside auditor put it, the results of operations being "much, much improved". Our department and division heads deserve their share of the kudos for improving operations.

I want the citizens of this county to reflect on the progress we have made and the team that has made it possible. It has taken dedicated leadership, diverse talents, and driven people who want what is best for the county. Changing horses in mid-stream when the path we have steered has led us out of the bleak future feared in 2003 to the bright future we now foresee is not something that I hope voters will want to do. I thank the First Ward for having given me the chance to work for them, and I hope that they will give me two more years to continue this record of success.

Candidates Forum Speech - Bonnie Quackenbush

I AM PROUDLY RUNNING FOR CORTLAND COUNTY LEGISLATURE. And you need to know who I am and why I will be an active, concerned and strong candidate.

First and foremost, I am a proud mother of three amazing boys: Bob, Ed and Dan. It was the day after my two oldest sons (Bob and Ed) graduated from High School this past June that I received a call asking me to run for the County Legislature, Ward 5.

I am a Secondary Ed. Science teacher and have my Bachelor’s Degree and Masters Degree from SUNY Cortland. I am certified in 7-12th grade General and Earth Science, Biology and English (with a mere 3 credits lacking for Physics certification). I am also working toward Special Ed. Certification for my current place of employment, George Junior Republic.

I also taught at the college level. In fact, my first teaching experience (while working on my Graduate Degree) was at Cayuga Correctional Facility, a medium security prison, teaching Geology 101. Two years ago, I taught at SUNY Cortland: it was an Integrated Earth Science and Biology course for soon-to-be Elementary Ed. teachers.

For eight years, I was a Cub Scout Den Leader and Pack Master at Barry Elementary.

For three years, I have produced my show STORYTIME at Time Warner’s CACTV. It airs on Channel 2, Monday – Thursday at 7 p.m. with the idea that if no one else will read to the children, then I will.

For two years, I chaired Chautauqua, an annual event sponsored by the Cortland County Council of Churches.

My children and I were acolytes, and designed and planted the Children’s Garden, at Grace Episcopal Church.

I was the Ithaca Festival Coordinator in 1990, concentrating on making the Festival accessible to the Differently-Abled.

I helped organize the Cortland County/New York State Energy Fair (1990-1992).

I was Liaison between citizen groups and SUNY Cortland in September 1989 when the NYS Siting Commission came to Cortland.

Oddly enough, I managed and played in Steve Southworth and The Rockabilly Rays from March 1986-November 1988.

And recently, I became a block captain on the South side Neighborhood Watch.

OBVIOUSLY, I have already been active in the community as an entertainer, producer, promoter, mediator, gardener, reader and teacher. I am ready to take all these managerial and creative, problem-solving skills to another level. I am ready to put a public name and face on the efforts I already make in order to create a better world here in Cortland and enhance the sense of community and responsibility we all have to each other and to the future.

If you want a passionate supporter of children, the Differently-Abled and those in need, if you want a relentless promoter of Cortland County business, tourism and geologic attributes, if you want a diligent, slightly obsessive perfectionist manning the time-lines and other details, if you want a creative problem-solver to save money on current programs and create projects that we will all benefit from in the future, if you want a caring soul who will sit and talk (and boy can I talk), then I am your Legislator.

You've come a long way, baby!

This was from September 2003 - how things have changed!

(Click on either image to enlarge to readable size)