I was at a friends for dinner tonight when the phone rang. We figured it must be one of those telemarketers because somehow my buddy never really got around to adding his number to the do not call list.

Turns out it was a personal invitation to join a town hall meeting by NONE OTHER THAN MAGGIE BROOKS. We were so honored. “Our County Executive” called them up and invited us to a town hall meeting. Well, on speakerphone the call went. We scrambled around looking for a recording device because I sensed a blog post but to no avail. So we listened.

Very pleasant people. None of that coarse culture the D&C keeps talking about. The key message keeps coming back to: can school districts afford to simply tighten their belts by a mere 2%? Everyone does it. The town hall meetng was located in the middle of Potemkin village. It was very slick - complete with feigned pauses, engagement and humor - It was very slick in that to the untrained ear it almost came across as genuine.

Well - turns out Maggie was indeed a telemarketer. We, of course, were not buying what she was selling. Staged town hall meeting? No confrontational questions. The Town Hall meeting had the air of a Disneyland visit. Fantasy land. No one gets angry or upset in Fantasyland. Utter lack of community involvement or engagement is ignored in Fantasy land. Every one is happy. We just buck up little buddy, turn that frown upside down and be happy.

What a bunch of crap.

Well - my notes are incomplete but reader Charles also got a call. Ya know when the recording devices don’t work the old pencil and paper seem to work just fine. Check out these very detailed notes from the comments section of my post about Legislator Bill Smith’s lame answers to the Democrats. Read all the rest of this post.

I’ve reposted the text below which is all from reader Charles. Thanks Charles.

My wife is listening in right now on one of those Maggie Brooks phone calls. It started out with mostly women who have been able to ask questions, and they seem to be queued up. All the questions have been softballs, with a caller saying she’s had to cut her budget, why shouldn’t schools. Maggie’s sales pitch seems to be during tough times we all have to cut our budgets and it’s only a 2% cut. Maggie says the county will help schools adjust their budgets because the county has cut budgets of its departments so successfully. What she didn’t say, but seems to be the implication, is that the county’s help won’t be supplementing deficits left by her plan, but helping them to reduce staff and programs, I guess. Just what we all wanted. Of course, she’s not acknowledging the effects of the cuts in budgets of county departments. Try asking someone who needs emergency housing or public assistance how that’s working out.

During the course of this call Maggie asked callers the following question (not quite a quote) - During tough times (the phrase was repeatedly used) governments, families and businesses have all had to cut 2%. Shouldn’t schools be able to cut 2% without hurting education. Press 1 if you agree, press 2 if you don’t. My wife is telling me that the question was even more slanted but she didn’t write it down as it was being asked. Who here thinks this slanted poll will be used by the Republicans at some point this week?

Ruth on the phone asked why there can’t be time limits on assistance provided to the poor, elderly, etc. This is a real compassionate crowd.

Now there’s a man asking about a commission that had been put together by prominent business people - and their recommendations. If he knows about this report he must have been primed with the question. She says they’ve tried to incorporate those recommendations. What a surprise.

Eugene from Irondequoit says he just moved to Rochester from Buffalo. He said in Buffalo they shut down libraries. He’s asking if she’s going to harm students or intellectual pursuits. Now he’s asking about whether she’s considered privatizing aspects of the county. What a surprise - Monroe County has voted to privatize the golf courses here and the quality of the courses and revenue stream have both improved. The landfill has been privatized and again all is better. She also mentioned privatization of home health care. She says they privatized information services and formed a partnership with a local development corporation. A prize to anyone who can figure out what company that is and how much they have contributed to the Republicans.

Chris from Webster is on the line. This is about the third or fourth man in a row. He’s saying the focus is on schools being asked if they can cut 2% out of their budgets. He says if the problem is unfunded mandates, why are we going after school budgets. Wait - how’d he get on the line? He asked if the real issue is unfunded mandates, why isn’t the solution addressing those? She answers we woudn’t be fighting amongst ourselves if the issue of unfunded mandates was addressed at the Albany level.

Now there’s a question about the schools’ lawsuit.

Kim from Penfield started asking Maggie, compared to the rest of the world we’re so far behind in education, why would we want to cut that. Guess what - she’s the first caller they lost!!! Maggie responds that the county has cut its workforce by 11%, frozen wages, etc. I think she forgot about things like the Water Authority.

Ann on the line is asking whether the school districts will be raising property taxes to offset the Medicaid swap. She says the schools will say in the spring that the evil county executive took away their money. Maggie asks what will the schools tell you about why they raised property taxes last year and the year before. She notes that folks can vote on a school budget, and asks us to listen to how schools are rationalizing their school budget.

They took my wife’s question by computer, and said they’ll get back to her with an answer, but she never made it into the virtual town hall discussion. In taking the question they asked her what her name was and what her question was. Maybe the woman who got cut off gave a softball question, but then asked a tougher one when she got on.

I think (and I could be wrong) that these “callers” were all set up with questions, even the ones addressing concerns with the plan, so that Maggie could give a half hour or 45 minute prepared speech. No questions about why the Dems were excluded from the process, no questions about why schools were excluded, no questions about the effects on county departments of the cuts she’s so proud of, no real confrontational questions. Or maybe we’re just very polite around here. I’ve read that in the D&C.

Here’s a question for all of you - what questions would you ask Maggie Brooks about all of this? Maybe that can be made into a thread.