News Briefs:
Ithaca BOE Tightens Meeting Security
(Sept. 30): On exceedingly short notice, the Ithaca Board of Education this week moved its meetings, presumably indefinitely, out of Ithaca High School’s more spacious, yet less guarded, York Lecture Hall and into the somewhat more secure District Office Board Room.
Attendees Tuesday night found themselves squeezed into a space so tight that attendance nearly exceeded the fire marshal’s limit.
Never stated directly, though implied multiple times, the sudden switch presumably stemmed from the previous Friday’s scare in which as many as four local school districts, including Ithaca’s, were alerted to the possibility of an imminent school shooting, a threat later described by law enforcement as “non-credible.”
Unlike at prior meetings, those observing the school board’s deliberations Tuesday had to first “buzz-into” the district building. They were then greeted by a clerical gatekeeper, and required to place their names on a signup sheet.
At the meeting, Ithaca School Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown assigned the changes to “best practices.” He didn’t get specific.
“We used to have open access to buildings,” Dr. Brown recalled of one-time lax building security.
Later in the meeting, Brown also defended his limited notification during the short-lived Friday scare. “We don’t communicate to everyone in the community about non-credible threats,” the Superintendent insisted.
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ICSD May Move Money Vote to May
(Sept. 29): Maybe it’s that money-conscious Jill Tripp was voted off the Board of Education last spring. Or maybe it’s that the decisively-defeated May 2024 capital request is now far enough distant in memories to be forgotten. Or maybe it’s just—as it’s now argued—that time’s run too short.
Whatever the reason, it appears the planned December 9th referendum on the Ithaca City School District’s proposed $43.5 Million capital spending plan will now be postponed to coincide with the district’s annual budget vote next May.
Little noted at the time, a three-member committee agreed by consensus September 16 to recommend the referendum’s postponement. The full, nine-member Board will consider the committee’s request, Tuesday, September 30.
After the much-larger $125 Million capital request was shot down 16 months ago, some thought a referendum held apart from that on the budget would brighten the capital package’s prospects for passage. But administrators and committee members at their latest meeting focused more on logistics.
“We’ve been struggling with how we could do that in December,” School Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown told the Facilities and Finance Committee. How could all the customary pre-referendum meetings and mailings get accomplished, he asked, “noting that the board hasn’t ultimately decided on the actual scope of the project.”
“I’m in agreement with moving it,” Board member Karen Yearwood affirmed.
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Webb Distances from Ex-Staffer
(Sept. 27): Long-ago comments by a youthful candidate for Binghamton City Mayor, a former staffer of State Senator Lea Webb, has prompted Webb to distance herself from both him and his remarks.
Democratic mayoral challenger Miles Burnett, now 33, this week apologized for a comment he’d made on Facebook as a teenager, one in which he used the “N-Word” in a critique of song lyrics.
Burnett once worked on the staff of Senator Webb, African-American, but reportedly left the senator’s employ nearly a year ago.
“The video was deeply offensive and disappointing. We have real needs in the City of Binghamton. It’s important for every person pursuing elected office to treat people with dignity and respect,” Senator Webb said in a statement, reported by Vaughn Golden of The New York Post.
“When I was a 14-year-old child, I made a foolish social media post analyzing the lyrics of a song. I apologize for the offensive language I used. I am deeply sorry to all the people I’ve hurt and let down. It was a stupid thing to do and I would not make the same choice today as an adult,” Burnett posted September 23 on Facebook.
According to WSKG News, the 2009 Burnett remark was circulated anonymously to Binghamton-area media and no one’s taken responsibility for it.
Burnett faces incumbent Republican Mayor Jared Kraham in November. Republicans have made much of the Burnett teenaged remark. But Democrats allege Kraham has his own high-school era racial biases to address.
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ECC Key Staffer Hired
(Sept. 25): The person supervises summer camp… and does a whole lot of other things.
At its Board of Directors’ meeting September 25, the Enfield Community Council (ECC) announced the appointment of Spencer Van Epps as its new Rural Youth Services Senior Program Manager.
“I think they (preferred pronoun) will be an excellent addition,” ECC President Cortney Bailey said of the appointee.
Spencer comes to Enfield from another small town up north. Van Epps is a “very, very good fit, and will likely be here for quite some time,” Bailey predicted after the meeting.
It’s ECC’s second appointment of a Program Manager this year. Van Epps’ predecessor, recruited during the year’s first few months, resigned unexpectedly in May. The sudden departure forced ECC to scurry to save summer camp as it pieced together supervision and pulled one volunteer out of retirement.
Bailey said what particularly impressed her was Van Epps’ comment at the tail of the interview. “My dog’s my best friend,” Spencer said.
Welcome to Enfield.
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Lansing Face-off Fizzles
(Sept. 25): This is not about people, but rather principle. And voters in southern Lansing should not celebrate the announced departure of Democratic Party nominee John V. Dennis from this year’s race for the Tompkins County Legislature.
On Wednesday, September 24, Dennis advised the media that he would end his campaign for the District 7 seat. .He threw his support behind incumbent Deborah Dawson, who’d reversed course September 2, decided not to retire, and launched a write-in campaign for her reelection.
“As a candidate in this election since February, I would have been proud to offer my own experience and perspective in the Legislature,” The Ithaca Times quoted Dennis. “However, now that Legislator Dawson is in the race, I have chosen to defer to her proven record and greater tenure in elected office.”
It’s too late for John Dennis to pull his name off the ballot. So it’ll remain Dawson’s duty to advise voters of Dennis’ decision; and more importantly, to prod them to write-in her name instead.
Deborah Dawson arguably has served her constituents well during her eight-year tenure. Relative ability is not the point. It’s that democracy works best when candidates compete and offer voters contrasting choices. It dissuades apathy, motivates involvement, and prompts people to think.
Once again, a contest implodes; an incumbent’s coronation seems certain. / RL
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Enfield Harvest Festival
Capturing our 50th Annual Celebration; September 20, 2025:
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Not-so-Sweet 16
(Sept. 24): Dryden’s Mike Lane may retire from the Tompkins County Legislature later this year. fulfilling one of his long-time goals and resolving a pet peeve; that of containing the Legislature’s size and discouraging tied votes.
A proposed County Charter change Lane ushered through committee earlier this month and is now slated for a Public Hearing October 7 would limit future County Legislatures to no more than 15 members and require it always be an odd number.
The Legislature will grow from 14 to 16 people next year, a change recommended by an Independent Redistricting Commission after the 2020 Census. The Legislature held 15 members for decades until 2013.
The current County Charter allows for as few as 11 members or as many as 19.
“Why would 17 not be an option?” Lansing’s Mike Sigler asked Lane at the Legislature’s September 16 meeting.
“Well, it could be,” Lane answered. “But most legislatures, if you look around the state, are reducing their numbers, and I would think that going back to 15 would not be objectionable.”
The charter change would not affect this coming election cycle nor the next one, but rather kick in, most likely, in 2032.
While sounding good in theory, the limitations could wreak havoc in practice. The redistricting commission recommended the larger, even membership after finding it impossible to carve the county up otherwise and not split traditional “communities of interest.”
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Burger King Backpedal
(Sept. 17): In a reversal of a decision made a mere six weeks earlier, the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday canceled plans to move this coming winter’s state-mandated Code Blue homeless shelter to the former Burger King eatery on Elmira Road.
Instead, the County will quarter it at the Cherry Street building it bought last year, one it will likely rebuild into a future long-range shelter.
As Ulysses-Enfield legislator Anne Koreman explained in bringing her change-in-plans motion to the floor, the old Burger King would need plumbing, HVAC, fire alarm and restroom updates, with no time to finish them before cold weather sets in.
But the sudden change has spilled bad blood along the way. Tompkins County and the City of Ithaca had intended to cooperate on the Burger King venture. Tompkins County alone approved the latest move and media reports indicate City officials don’t like it.
Neither does one legislator.
“I don’t think we worked with the City, and that’s my biggest thing here,” Ithaca’s recently-elected Dan Nolan stated as he cast the lone dissent September 16 on Koreman’s motion. “I think this was an unforced error,” Nolan described the sudden reversal. “I don’t necessarily think we had to go about it this way.”
Legislature Chair Dan Klein objected. Circumstances changed, Klein maintained. “I really don’t appreciate hearing that it was not done in good faith,” Klein stated.
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Dr. Brown’s One-Vote Win
(Sept. 10): Five-to-four votes don’t just happen on the Supreme Court. They occur on school boards too.
Tuesday, September 9, following an hour of contentious public comment, , the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Board of Education extended the administrative contract of Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown by an additional year, continuing it through June 2029.
And the vote underscored the fact that elections do matter and also that the returned leftward tilt of the ICSD Board’s majority may have saved Brown’s job.
In the taxpayer-revolt election of 2024, candidates Adam Krantweiss, Emily Workman, and Todd Fox won board seats. Each voted Tuesday against the Superintendent’s contract extension.
This year, incumbents Karen Yearwood, Erin Croyle, and newcomers Jacob Shiffrin and Madeline Cardona won. Shiffrin voted with Krantweiss, Workman, and Fox. But the others joined Board members Garrick Blalock, and Board President Sean Eversley Bradwell in supporting Dr. Brown’s extended term.
In fact, had Cardona not ousted incumbent Jill Tripp last May, the scales could have tipped against the Superintendent.
The Ithaca Voice, which reported these results, said the meeting room was packed and that as many as 19 attendees spoke to the Brown contract, nearly all of them opposing it.
Last year, Luvelle Brown, Ithaca School Superintendent since 2011, announced he would not seek nor accept appointment beyond 2028. But the political mood within the ICSD may have changed just enough to have rescinded that promise.
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Second-Thoughts; Dawson to Wage Write-in Campaign
(Sept. 3): Write-in campaigns are uphill slogs. (Remember Cortney Bailey seeking Enfield Supervisor in ’21?) But for Lansing’s Deborah Dawson, the benefits of incumbency may help.
The Ithaca Voice reports that two-term Dawson, a Democrat representing southern Lansing and its immediate surroundings on the Tompkins County Legislature since 2018, has reversed course, abandoned plans for retirement, and opted to wage a write-in campaign to retain her seat, albeit in a somewhat redrawn district.
As a write-in, Dawson will face Democratic nominee John Dennis, an environmental activist who founded the organization where Stephanie Redmond works. Additionally, an Independent candidate, Joshua Jahani, has filed to represent District 7 on the Legislature.
Dawson tells The Voice that the many planned retirements from Tompkins County Government—both legislators and top-tier administrators—prompted her to rescind her earlier departure plans. She’s also concerned about the local impact of Trump Administration policies, particularly at Cornell.
Deborah Dawson hails from the Legislature’s so-called “Sophomore Class,” an alliance of close-minded liberals that includes Ulysses’ Anne Koreman and west-Ithaca’s Amanda Champion each retiring this year.
But Dawson’s always been a budget hawk, a status that’s earned her the nickname of “Debbie Downer” (which she hates.)
Lansing Democrats may face divided loyalties here. But The Voice quotes the party chair as saying, “We do stand with John Dennis as the Democratic nominee.”
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Fire Tax May Rise 3.9%
(Sept. 2): It vastly oversimplifies, yet easily passes the “bumper sticker” test: A bad paint job may cost Enfield Fire District residents a tax increase.
Tuesday night, Sept. 2, the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners adopted a proposed budget that would increase the fire tax levy by 3.89 percent. The $644,631 Fire District spending plan, slated for a public hearing October 21, would carry with it a tax rate of about $1.95 for every $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Although it accounts for less than half of the $24,000 rise in the tax levy—and arguably might not have accounted for any of it at all—a $10,000 expenditure was set aside for the partial repainting of a fire truck, an 18-year old tanker whose original paint is starting to flake.
There was “some lack of attention in the preparation of the metal,” Commissioners’ Chair Greg Stevenson concluded.
A complete repainting of the tanker’s entire rear portion may be needed. Truck 621 is not scheduled for replacement until 2032.
After nearly two hours of number crunching in this, the second of two budget sessions, the preliminary 2026 budget passed the fire board, four votes-to-one. Commissioner Donald Gunning voted no. Gunning didn’t explain why.
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