In the first quarter of this year, there have been only three donations over $200 from Trumansburg to the re-election campaign of our incumbent Representative in Congress, Michael Arcuri. The total amount of those donations is $2,400.

That’s more than what Arcuri’s Republican rival, Richard Hanna has obtained from Trumansburg. Although Hanna took more than half again as much money as Arcuri in general during the first quarter of this year, Hanna did not receive any donations over $200 from Trumansburg.

It seems that a general lack of enthusiasm characterizes Trumansburg’s role in the 2010 congressional election so far. Support for Richard Hanna is low, but support for Congressman Arcuri isn’t high either.

Three quarters of donations to Congressman Arcuri’s re-election campaign last year came from political action commitees. Only one quarter of donations came from individuals – and a good number of those individuals aren’t even from our district.

For example, there are the two checks Arcuri took from Robert Blancato, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, and has spent 5 of the last 10 years as a registered lobbyist. Also sending money from Arlington were Shawn Bullard, who works for the lobbying firm Duetto Group, and lobbyist Bob Gray, working for Strategic Insight. Arcuri took a $5,000 check from Gilbert Butler, an investment manager in New York City, a check from Patrick Foley, who lobbies for the firm Bolton-St. Johns, and Patricia Guay, lobbying with the Petrizzo Strategic Group for clients such as Agios Pharmaceuticals and Medica Healthcare Plans. The list of lobbyists counted as individual contributors to Arcuri’s re-election campaign continues on, and on. Search through that list, and you’ll see that even the 24 percent of donations that Arcuri took from individuals isn’t wholly comprised of fawning Arcuri constituents in our district.

Of course, many lobbying firms were quite open about handing money to Congressman Arcuri. For example, before he voted against climate change legislation, Arcuri took a check from Kelley, Drye and Warren, a lobbying firm that represents ExxonMobil. Arcuri also took money from the PAC for the lobbying firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, a lobbying firm representing Allstate Insurance, as well as the PAC for the lobbyists of Williams & Jensen, which represents pharmaceuticals giants Novartis, Amgen, and AstraZeneca.

Are you starting to get the picture of how Michael Arcuri could have seen his way to vote against health care reform? Yes, Arcuri certainly got some interesting telephone messages from Tea Party protesters, but perhaps more convincing was the $53,500 he received from medical industry PACs, and $15,000 from insurance industry PACs. That’s in addition to the amounts given by the lobbyists listed above.

Arcuri also took $10,000 in donations from the Blue Dog PAC. Arcuri is a Blue Dog himself, and along with rank-and-file members such as Arcuri, every single leader of the Blue Dog Coalition voted against health care reform.

Did Democratic voters here in Trumansburg think that Representative Arcuri would listen to them on the issue of health care reform, with the loud voices of all that corporate money competing for attention?

For the other positions, Democrat Debra Watkins and incumbent Republican Deborah Nottke were the victors. Cayuga Street Democrat Blake Reid made a respectable showing, however, behind Nottke by just 13 votes. We can look to seeing Reid give another strong run in a future election, I think.

There is a problem with the process as I experienced it today: Privacy isn’t great at the end of the process. You go in and fill in the circles next to the names of the people you want to vote for. That part is done behind a privacy shield. Then, however, you’ve got to go take your ballot out of a concealing folder, and feed it into the scanning machine. That takes place just one or two feet from where people are walking in the door, standing in line, waiting for their turn. The election worker can get a good glance at the ballot too.

In order to be private, the scanning machine needs to be operated by a voter, or started by an election worker who then walks away. Whichever way it works, the machine needs to be behind a privacy screen of its own.

As the campaign approaches its zenith, there are political lawn signs up and down our streets, and even a big billboard far outside of village limits on route 96. What’s more important, however, is the talk going on around town about the candidates. In a small community like ours, what people already know about a candidate is not easily overpowered by a quick investment in campaign gear.

This weekend, much of the talk has to do with Republican mayoral candidate John White, who is seeking to replace incumbent Democrat Marty Petrovic. The concern being expressed has to do with one of the hottest political topics in our region: Natural gas drilling, and the impact of its fracking technology on our local water supplies.

It seems that John White owns a good deal of land outside of Trumansburg – land that’s leased out to natural gas drilling companies. In order for those leases to bring a profit to White, however, there would have to be an arrangement for local water to be used, so that dangerous substances could be added to it for hydrofracking, in which natural gas is released through the pumping of the resulting mixture into the ground.

As Mayor of Trumansburg, John White would be in a position to lead the village into providing some of our water to natural gas drilling companies such as the one that holds a lease on his own property. It smells like a serious conflict of interest.

It’s a big deal how our zoning works, given that it governs much of how we can live in the village. Yet, only 2 people showed up to the December 14 meeting at which the zoning was discussed.

I’ve been told that our mayor expressed the opinion that there isn’t any need for further input, given that so few people are interested. I don’t know for certain that’s actually what was said, but I have heard similar things being said by many elected officials here in Ulysses.

I want to suggest that our Mayor consider slowing down the zoning process, for the reason that he, and other members of the Village Board, may be overestimating the speed with which village residents can fairly be expected to become acquainted with, consider, and react meaningfully to a document such as the proposed Zoning Ordinance.

The Trustees of Trumansburg have a certain way of looking at village business, which is natural to their position: They have sought, and been granted through competitive elections, the privilege of dealing with the minutae of our community’s business. They know the ins and outs of what’s going on in our village, and are consistently focused upon the legislative matters that keep Trumansburg going.

Most of the rest of us in Trumansburg are not so focused. For some, it’s because they don’t care much. For most of the rest of us, it’s because of other factors.

The proposed zoning ordinance was last edited on November 13. The new version was posted online on December 7 – just a week before the meeting that apparently disappointed the Mayor. In that time, people have had the holidays to deal with – family coming in for Thanksgiving, and preparations for whatever winter holidays we celebrate. At this time of year, it can be especially difficult to make it out for a long evening meeting, especially one that requires a person to read a 66-page document in order to meaningfully contribute.

But, even if it weren’t the holiday season, many of us would have been hard put to make that December 14th meeting, and to prepare for it. That’s because, in these hard economic times, more residents of Trumansburg are working longer hours, sometimes working more than one job to make ends meet. For those of us with children, these village meetings are at bedtime, and practically impossible to attend at any time of year, especially when one spouse in a family is working at that extra job to bring in extra income to make up for losses elsewhere.

There’s something else the Village Board ought to take into account in its schedule considering the proposed zoning changes: The pace of a community like ours. Even for adults in Trumansburg who work simple 9 to 5, 40 hour work weeks, and don’t have children to take care of, it can seem rather rushed to post a document online and then have a hearing about it a week later.

People here know their neighbors. They like to soak in news about their community, contemplating it slowly, through discussions with friends in town, to see what the general consensus is. Most residents aren’t going to keep a watch on the official web site of the Village, and react immediately, as if their citizenship is as simple as a vote on Dancing With the Stars.

There’s no need to hurry a revision of our zoning ordinance. It would be nice if people had some time to consider the changes gradually, making sure that they understand what’s being proposed before they rush to an opinion. If it takes another 9 months, another year or two even, to pass some revisions, there isn’t much lost.

Let’s not interpret lack of physical absence at a meeting as apathy. Instead, let’s recognize the way that people in Trumansburg are really living these days – that’s what zoning ought to reflect anyway, isn’t it?

The Village Board met tonight to discuss the “crisis” with the EMS budget. Chris Thomas explained that because of decreasing volunteerism, the EMS budget would have to see an increase of 25% next year. The likely figure for next year will be $425,000. I’m guessing there are about 8000 people served by the ambulance. (Ulysses, Trumansburg, and parts of Hector and Covert) $425,000 / 8000 = $53/person/year. Please, let me pay it. Don’t start billing. Don’t get into bed with the damn private for profit insurance companies. I’ve been telling them for a year, and they still don’t get it. If we cost shift part of our $53 tax burden, onto the insurance companies, they will shift it back onto us in the form of higher premiums. The cost to the average family of four for health insurance is currently $13000. It is estimated to double in the next 7 to 8 years. $26,000 is nearly half of the average income of a Ulysses worker. That’s a real crisis. 18,ooo people a year die, in the US, because they didn’t have health insurance. That’s a real crisis. Some of those 18,000 died because they didn’t call an ambulance because they couldn’t afford it. That’s a shame.

There is no crisis in paying for our wonderful single payer ambulance. It’s the best value I get for my tax dollar. $53 and we get quick response from trained emt’s and nobody gets a bill. My neighbor that doesn’t have health insurance doesn’t need to fear a big bill when her kid has an asthma attack. If we go to billing, the insurance companies will raise premiums to cover the cost – plus profit! Then not only will the uninsured not call when they need an ambulance, but those of us that do have insurance will become part of the system that allows the insurance industry to make obscene profits.

The Village held a public forum last year to get feedback from the community on wether or not to go to billing. The overwhelming majority said NO! What part of “no” don’t they understand?

We have to tell them again and again.

here’s a link to the audio

Allen Carstensen

Upon looking for information about the village government on the official site, we see that Mayor Petrovic’s photograph is still “coming soon”, two years after he was first elected. The site informs us that Petrovic’s current term expires in 2008.

There hasn’t been anything listed on the Village calendar of “events and meetings” since May 9. Any residents looking for information about upcoming activities of their local government will find nothing, for the rest of the year’s calendar.

Minutes of the meetings of the Board of Trustees have not been updated since November 2007.

According to the Tompkins County Board of Elections, there isn’t a single Village position up for election this year. It shows.