Mayor Brown and Joe Fusco

As has been reported in various news articles, Mayor Brown and former opponent Joe Fusco caused a bit of a scene at The Beeches fundraiser this week. What actually transpired varies based on who you talk to. County Executive Anthony Picente "left the room", and Representative RoAnn Destito "had already left by then". Sounds like a whole lot of "I didn't see nothin'!"

Mayor Brown went directly to the press and said (according to the Rome Sentinel):

"I called Joe Fusco out away from people. I said to him: 'I'm all done with your mouth downgrading myself and the administration. You continue do it day in and day out. I'm not going to tolerate it.' He looked me in the eye and said: 'I'll say what I want.' I said: 'Fine, but you'll never be mayor.'"

Joe Fusco had a slightly different story:

"The mayor approached me, and my wife was standing there along with several couples. He went into a tirade." He said the mayor told him "I'm not allowed to talk with his administration without his permission." Today he added, "I can do that. It's America. It's a free country."

That this comes a year in advance of elections doesn't seem a coincidence. Is Joe Fusco perhaps a convenient opponent to the current administration? After all Mayor Brown beat him once, what's to stop him from doing it again? So why not bring him to the spotlight as the front runner candidate?

Mayor Brown seems to have done a decent job as mayor, although property taxes continue to remain at extraordinary levels compared to property values. There certainly isn't the same push for jobs here that we had under Griffo, but Griffo was operating in crisis conditions with the base closures so I can understand his urgency. While perhaps less urgent in pursuit of job creation, Mayor Brown has provided steady growth for the city.

I don't know much about Joe Fusco, other than he's well known and respected within the city. If there is any substance to his complaints on the administration or if he's just taking the pessimistic view as Mayor Brown says is hard to tell.

I would like to see a third candidate emerge in the upcoming elections. There is nothing refreshing or progressive about seeing the same candidates arguing the same tired points election after election. We need fresh ideas to keep our little city moving forward. How can we contain or reduce taxes? In what new high tech ways can we continue to expand and attract business to the technology park? And how can we improve our quality of life year round to make this a more attractive place to live and to work?