by Enfield Councilperson Robert Lynch; January 15, 2026
I launched this website, bob-lynch-enfield.com, in April 2019. The website was born during my initial campaign for Enfield Councilperson. Back then, what I wrote was mostly introductory stuff. I provided information to inform you of who I was and why you should vote for me. It was a campaign website limited in its purpose. That’s what you’d expect.
And at first I didn’t write much about the events happening around us. Over time, the emphasis changed. This website evolved. Campaign victories left a void to fill. I filled it with news.
Among the initial essays I’ve raised from the dust is one I’d posted in September of that first year. I’d responded to a lengthy political commentary written back then by a former Enfield Town Supervisor who never liked me very much; a person best forgotten, someone no longer a community resident and whose words and actions I forgave long ago.
I revisit that essay because I quoted in its heading the words of a woman and political leader I respected then and respect even more today, former Vice President Kamala Harris:
“I was raised by a mother who said many things that were life lessons for me, including, ‘Don’t you ever let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.’”
The essay I wrote had attempted to carry forth Vice President Harris’ admonition as I addressed the troubling, untruthful insinuations that had been hurled at me. I wrote, “When anger overwhelms civility and reasoned judgment, facts get distorted, quotations twisted, and political ignorance rewrites the truth.”
One of my earliest news stories posted here came in January 2020. It reported the Tompkins County Democratic Committee’s endorsement of Tracy Mitrano to face Congressman Tom Reed in that November’s General Election. (Mitrano, of course, lost.) I happened to be a member of the Democratic Committee at the time. I’d voted on the endorsement. Was there a conflict of interest in my writing that story? You decide.
Over the years, I have employed this website to report on actions and controversies involving the Tompkins County Legislature, the Ithaca Board of Education, and here, most to the point, the Enfield Town Board, the governing body on which I sit.
Some have thanked me for the work I’ve done, for the information I’ve conveyed. Others have not. Many of my toughest critics hold positions of power and influence, either present or former, in local government. These people would rather I shut my mouth, exit my keyboard, and keep my thoughts to myself. They’d have me refrain from any attempt to report what I see and hear. They allege that any reporting I do compromises and conflicts with my governing responsibilities as a municipal leader.
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton helped frame the U.S. Constitution. They played key roles in the constitutional republic that they had helped build. But they also wrote much of The Federalist Papers, a series of advocacy essays that influence our constitutional understanding to this day. I would never place myself on an equal plane with the founders of our nation. But I never recall anyone challenging Madison’s or Hamilton’s written advocacy as a conflict with either man’s former or future governance. If any had thought of doing so, they dared not state it.
But maybe newswriting is different? Journalism was my first career. And the instincts engrained within an inquisitive reporter will forever rest within his being. More than any other attribute, my desire is to search for facts kept secret; uncover them, analyze them, and then share them with others. It defines the person I am. This talent, sharpened through experience, will never leave me. Understand that.
I have a style of newswriting some do not like. They find me too critical. I beg to disagree with those detractors. I take pride in how I practice my craft. I peer behind the curtain. I ask questions that maybe no one else will ask. I stand guard against fabrication, equivocation, or flawed reasoning, whether the words come from the President of the United Sates or from a town highway superintendent.
Some have labeled my writing “tabloid journalism.” I call it reporting and writing with candor, honesty and an edge. I do not refrain from calling events as I see them; from drawing conclusions as objective insight pulls me into them. I recognize nuance and respect context. I attempt to put matters into reasoned perspective. I attempt to tell you not just what happened, but also why it happened and why what happened should matter to you. That’s why the stories you read here may delve deeper into a controversial topic than those others write. And you may read stories here that you will find nowhere else.
Case in Point: On January 6 of this year, I wrote how the Enfield Board of Fire Commissioners had—in the words I chose—“ditched” The Ithaca Journal as its designated newspaper for publishing legal notices in favor of Tompkins Weekly. To offer perspective, I reported that in so doing, the Board of Fire Commissioners was “going to a place where Tompkins County (had) chickened out.”
I’ve been criticized for the comparison that I drew. One community leader did not welcome the candid assessment. It was bluntness with a sting, to be sure. It was also true. I stand by it.
As I’d reported in a story posted November 21, the Tompkins County Legislature November 18, in stand-your-ground defiance, put itself at odds with its County Attorney, its legislative clerk, and likely New York State law. Legislators defeated, two votes to 12, an otherwise-routine annual designation of The Ithaca Journal as the official newspaper, thereby denying the Gannett daily its monopolistic ability to extract tax dollars in exchange for publishing legal ads. Annual designation makes the Secretary of State happy, and counsel claimed that only the Journal qualified.
Defiant legislators that November night wanted state law updated, drawn into the 21st Century, to the era where online publications get more eyeballs than does a cranky old Fishwrap like The Journal. They’d punish a paper that charges exorbitant ad rates, gets delivered only by mail carrier, and no longer covers local news in the first instance.
I quoted one legislator this way:
“I think we all understand our right to protest,” Dryden’s Greg Mezey, leader of Tuesday’s anti-Journal rebellion, made clear. “I think sometimes as a lower level of government, we need to rise up and use our voice and our platform to encourage the state to move more swiftly.”
I granted the Legislature’s thumb-in-the-eye revolt against same-old, same-old more than 1,200 words. Tompkins County’s official post-meeting press release accorded the action 76 words. The Ithaca Times gave it 158. My story assigned the defiance top placement, as my news judgment dictated. The others buried the decision beneath the meeting’s more predictable actions.
Fast-forward two weeks, and to the Legislature’s next meeting, December 2. Greg Mezey, who’d voiced rebellion a fortnight earlier, conceded defeat:
“It’s like falling on a sword,” Mezey said, “as much as it pains me to move [to reconsider.] “Friends, we had our opportunity to stand up to higher levels of government and protest… But here we are. This needs to pass.”
And pass it did, ten votes to four. Only Mike Sigler, Anne Koreman, Travis Brooks and Deborah Dawson held true to their principles. Dawson peppered her dissent with these words: “We really need to point out to Albany that The Ithaca Journal sucks.”
I heard the words, I recorded the votes, I read the room, I drew my inferences, I wrote what I had found and as I had found it. And when later the Board of Fire Commissioners took a divergent path, I drew a comparison. I stated it bluntly. I think I did good work. And well, I rest my case. (And lest you think otherwise, legislator Mezey was not the leader who faulted me for my reporting.)
With the turn of the calendar, the sands have shifted down at the ornate Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins Building, Legislative Chambers. With the start of 2026, fully one-half of the newly-expanded, 16-person County Legislature is brand new. Some venerated traditionalists have left. A few Young Turks have taken their place. And one of them is very young; he’s just out of college. I know when it’s time to say goodbye. As I‘ve appended to my final legislative story, dated January 9, I will no longer report on meetings of the Tompkins County Legislature. Let others do it.
Now to Enfield. Here lies a problem somewhat different.
Trust me, at every meeting of our Enfield Town Board, I wish there was some brave soul out in the visitors’ gallery with a pencil in her hand, a notebook (or a computer) on her lap, and an employer who commanded she be there. Sadly, there is no such person. But if there was, I would not need—nor choose—to report what occurred that night. I’d prefer someone totally impartial and detached from Enfield Government chronicle what we do every second Wednesday of the month. And let that person be as brutal as he or she wants to be regarding what I say and do. I’d welcome it. I can defend myself.
Yet for the mainstream Ithaca media, the reality is this: The Town of Enfield is the smallest town in Tompkins County and lies at the bottom of the informational food chain. It always has been. When I cut my teeth as a radio reporter in the 1970’s, it was like that too. Cover the Enfield Town Board only when nothing else is happening or when something big in Enfield blows up. (And back then, Ithaca Common Council met the same night.) Ordinarily, the best we could do is phone then-Supervisor Robert Linton the next morning and have him summarize what happened; that is, only if we thought of it.
I may never convince some of those I sit with that I do not write what I write purely to criticize or diminish them, to place their words, their actions, and their personalities in the worst possible light. That is not why I write about what we do. I write because all too often in Enfield government trees fall in the political forest and no one hears them crash. For those who do not know about or read this website, the refrain heard too often carries surprise. “When did you do that?” they say. “I didn’t know you were considering that.” The remark usually follows—often by months—some Town action that curtails freedom or raises taxes.
Much discipline goes into everything I write and post on any Enfield story. I cannot rely merely upon my mental recollection or on scattered, scribbled notes taken by me at a board table when I’m transacting business. Bias or selective memory may creep in were I to do so. That’s why it may be days, even weeks, before an action of the Town Board gets reported. I must revisit the meeting’s audio recording, listen and transcribe what was said, words spoken not just by others, but also by me. Did I get the facts right, the votes right, the quotes right, and did I place them in proper context? Trust me; it takes hours, sometimes days, to complete that task. It’s hard work. And I do it because nobody else will.
For months, indeed years, I’ve agonized over the conflict that lies at the heart of the decision I must make: How do I fulfill a self-set duty to provide Enfield’s residents, our constituents, timely, accurate information and at the same time honor my foremost responsibility to provide those in Enfield effective, impartial leadership without compromise. With the decision I have reached today, I conclude that I cannot do both.
I intend to serve out my four-year term as your elected Councilperson, a term running through December 2027. At this point, I also plan to seek re-election, barring the arrival of some unforeseen circumstance. So for at least two more years, and maybe longer, the conflict that I face is the conflict that I must resolve.
I will resolve it this way: For the remainder of my tenure on the Enfield Town Board, I will not report on Enfield political decisions and deliberations in the way I have done so for much of these past six years.
I will inform, but in a different way. As time permits, I will post Town Board actions or decisions on this website, doing so in a cold, factual manner, with each issue’s prioritization tempered by my news judgment. You’ll find little context; minimal controversy; and news that’s bland and oftentimes boring. Sorry, but expect it. It may not entertain. It may not sufficiently inform. But it may placate my critics. And it will make my own life a whole lot easier.
I make one exception to this general rule. Since my political committee owns this website and I control its content, I reserve the right to quote my own statements made at Town Board meetings as an exercise of my First Amendment freedoms. I may also write commentaries from time to time on issues I deem of importance to Enfield and Tompkins County.
Those who serve in local government; in Tompkins County Legislative Chambers, but also in Ithaca City Hall, should be damned glad that they serve now and not 50 years ago. Back then, The Ithaca Journal had perhaps a half-dozen news hungry reporters on its City Desk. And competing radio stations fought to be first with every story. No one, not in politics, business, or community leadership in general, stood immune from examination. None could get away with half of what they find possible to get away with today. An inquiring press does that, and democracy benefits.
I remember how it was. I wish it was still that way. But it is not. I’ve attempted in some slight way to fill the vacuum. But because of what I have written here, I can no longer step forward on my own and light that one little candle to help illuminate the darkness.
Good luck. I hope that before I leave elective office I spot that single lowly reporter sitting in the gallery of our Enfield Town Board, pencil in hand, notebook on lap. But that person cannot be me. I have standards to uphold, my character to defend. I have another job to do. And only I have the right to define who I am.
Peace,
Bob Lynch