By Justin Leitgeb

Having conversations on all kinds of topics helps our village to move forward. I am grateful for the opportunity to engage in so many direct conversations with citizens and other candidates during the recent campaign for Village Trustee. While I did not win, I think that the benefits of having hard conversations lasts long after the events are over, and all of the voices involved shape the outcome for our communities. I feel that all statements - regardless of our own opinions or the tone in which they are made - should be listened to and discussed to see what their impact is on our vision for our community.

On a thread that I created to congratulate Renée Stetzer and Dan Keating for winning the election for Village Trustee , someone named Susan Killorin chimed in with several strong, negative statements. It appears that Susan Killorin is a pseudonym used by Jessie S Killorin Keating, the wife of our newly re-elected trustee, Dan Keating (Nextdoor requires the use of our everyday names). Given that her comments were originally buried in a long thread, and then deleted without clarification or retraction, I wanted to ensure that we had the opportunity to discuss them as a community. Here are all of the comments that she made:

Susan Killorin (SK) - “Here’s the thing: the election was close but despite their attempt to rally all the networks of the old guard, they still couldn’t beat Dan and Renée. Food for thought.”

SK- “I agree - and it’s time to take it forward - away from the white-knuckled fearmongers of the past to a hopeful and progressive future that represents the 21st Century.”

Another neighbor - “You’re sounding like a commercial for a major political party Susan … just sayin’ :-)”

SK- “Haha yes I suppose. But I’m tired of the pearl-clutching and feeling like I have to apologize for the behavior of the leaders here.”

SK - “Something tells me that [name of neighbor redacted by JL] hasn’t ventured much outside of Rochester, NY.”

Shortly after her comments were made they were deleted, and now it looks like her entire account is gone as well (it was created early this year, and mostly used to thank Dan Keating for some of his postings related to the campaign and events surrounding it, aside from the comments mentioned above).

While I believe that there is much room to improve our village many of the comments above are still unclear to me. Do any of our existing trustees, including the spouse of the person who made these statements (Trustee Dan Keating) agree with them? If any of our Trustees do agree with those statements, how will it affect their decisions over the remainder of their terms (four years in the case of Dan and Renée)?

The negative statements by Jessie Keating struck me as being a stronger statement of the perspective that I have observed in Trustee Dan Keating’s actions on our board, which I have commented on elsewhere (e.g., in terms of the nano-brewery appeal, which Dan Keating abstained from, and later criticized the other Trustees for their decision to appeal). In fact I have heard variations of those statements - including stronger formulations - in casual conversation from some of the same group of people responsible for Dan Keating’s campaign.

My disagreement with those statements (especially without consideration of who would be chosen to replace our elected officials, and how their platform would differ) was a part of why I ran for Trustee. While I would certainly make changes in our government, I am extremely proud of our village, and grateful for all of our leaders and the careful stewardship that has led to the success of our village today. I believe that if we don’t address statements and emotions such as this, we will see decreases in efficiency on our boards if their members are fundamentally opposed to one another, and perhaps more crucially, rapid, irreversible changes to the character of our village because of decisions that are based more on negative emotions rather than a careful analysis of the issues and our long-term plan.

In that light, rather than letting short, negative statements disappear, if they do represent genuine feelings, let’s talk about them so that we can continue to make our village stronger. Can anyone explain what they understand by the comments above (whether or not you agree with them)? What implications do they have for how we should govern our village? I’m looking forward to hearing your opinions and participating in this discussion.