Because of an obvious pattern, one must questioned Supreme Court Justice John Ark ruling to circumvent party rules that stipulates, if in the event, [which means probably like a pandemic, such as Covid-19] and democratic county legislators are not able to cast their vote for commissioner of board of elections within forty-five days, the party’s caucus then is charge with selecting the next commissioner of the board of elections.

Despite party rules, where obviously the clause was incorporated for sudden events like a pandemic that would prevent the normal process, Justice Ark chose to ignore the county attorney’s motion to dismiss.

Justice Ark like those local judges before who ruled against Mayor Warren’s quest to reform the city’s broken education system and that of City Council ‘s and the majority of Rochester citizens overwhelming ballot box approval to conduct a police accountability board with teeth, all seem to have a pattern to rule against legislation aim to secure justice ‘for’ or ‘improve’ the livelihood of minorities living in the city.

They seem to look for any reason to prevent or slow down meaningful progression for social, financial, and educational measures for the city of Rochester minority residents.

In late February Former Commissioner Colleen Anderson resigned.

“LaShana Boose is the deputy commissioner,” Monroe County Legislator Vince Felder said. “So, ordinarily when the commissioner resigns, the deputy becomes commissioner. Some people did not like the process and claim we must have a convention which is not true,” Felder pointed out. “At the end of the process, after going through all the interviews at the last minute, when it was time to vote to choose someone, they decided they didn’t want to do that, they wanted to have a convention on March 7th.

“However according to state law after forty-five days, if the party does not make an appointment; it falls on the democratic party in the legislature to make the appointment,” Felder continued. “So, Chairman Wells was aware the time had expired and moved to pivot the process, according to the rules. Now the same people who wanted to shut the process down, who didn’t want to make the appointment earlier are now complaining somehow we are taking away their right to vote and talking about being disenfranchised, which throughout the process until up to forty-five days nobody ever stopped them from voting on anything.”

“Deputy Commissioner Boose has been in that position for a little over two months and she had to deal with region wide pandemic and all the staffing issues around that, “he pointed out. “Adjust to all the orders the governor had made in regard to the primaries and prepare for them in terms of polling sites and early voting. She deserves to be in that position, but because the politics around it, people are more interested in trying to score points rather than doing what’s necessary and what’s proper and supporting a person who actually has been doing the job. And done it well. But we got to go through the process and I’m confident when our process is finished, she will be chosen without anyone putting their thumb on the scale or any kind of corrupt intent because she’s the most qualified and because she’s doing the job and performing well in that position. But it is the process of it all and we have proof we filed a thorough and open process.”

No-pun intended, in respect to the recent unjust murder of George Floyd, but it feels like the local judicial system in Rochester has their knee on the minority community necks.

The county attorney has appealed the decision. A ruling is expected to be announced tomorrow.

Article by Author Rodney Brown, executive director and owner of Southwest Tribune Newspaper and Brown Publishing LLC