OPINION PAGE – CITY OF ROCHESTER
I glanced when the phone rang a couple weeks ago, and the caller ID tagged the call as coming in from Louisiana.It was one of those wonderful electronic voices telling some juicy tidbits about a City of Rochester resident that happens to be in his first run for City Council in our lovely community. Wow, the scandal I was hearing about – this Robot Lady sure knew a lot about THE TROUBLE … RIGHT HERE IN ROCHESTER CITY … LOTS AND LOTS OF TROUBLE !!!
I quote some of the shocking, juicy, robo-call soundbites: “fat cat politicians abusing taxpayers;” “it happened right here in Rochester;” “he went on a luxury taxpayer-funded junket…attended by nearly a dozen of his political cronies” “he arrogantly defended his decision to drain the taxpayers dry…thinks he’ll get away with abusing local taxpayers.” That’s a lot of serious accusations in a 1 ½ minute robo-call.
I was a bit taken aback after hanging up. This was new in the local elections of my small community. I must admit, I was not happy; I may be odd, but I don’t like robo-calls. I really don’t like a Louisiana Robot, 1,100 miles away, accusing and lambasting a neighbor, less than a mile from me without any local fingerprints left behind. Was she doing these calls on her own? Is someone paying her for her time? Has the Louisiana Robot ever been in Rochester? She asked me to call this local fat cat abuser and even gave me a number. I did call him. I also called a few others to get a fuller story.
Seems like the “luxury taxpayer funded junket” was a car pool to a conference in Chicago. Seems it was a $12,000.00 total expenditure that drained us “taxpayers dry.” My wife and I will still need to look over the ballot and see who and what we are voting for. Having moved to the City of Rochester when we were married back in 1974, we have a love for this community, but really aren’t too involved in local politics. Last time I got stirred up was decades ago when the city council was thinking about not allowing canine residents to join us for a walk in the park.
I’ve asked if anyone knows who might have hired the Robot from Louisiana. No one can tell me. That’s a phone number and name the Robo-lady didn’t give me.
So I write this as a real person, with a real name, writing from a real house in the City of Rochester.
STOP IT !
Please, let’s keep local politics – local – open – face to face –people to people, without any anonymous accusations of our neighbors.
I doubt anyone running for City Council is doing it so they can be “fat cats,” “abusing local taxpayers”.
– Richard Dalton – on Fourth Street
