November Legislative Update
Dear Friends,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Though it’s a difficult time to feel thankful and optimistic about the direction of our country, I am confident in the direction of our community here. I know from my work at Foodlink that, year after year, as the requests for food assistance spike during the holiday season, our community comes together to support our neighbors.
Rochester is a resilient city. I am committed to working as hard as I can to keep fostering this resilience, and to make Rochester the best city it can be. I am thankful to each of you for being partners in this work.
There’s much more to say, and I am working on a longer piece to share in the next month or so. In the meantime, I also wanted to provide my monthly legislative update.
November Legislation
In our meeting last week, we committed much of our remaining American Recovery Plan (ARPA) dollars to critical workforce development programming. We provided grants to three different programs that serve a wide range of Rochesterians – Healthcare Workforce Resiliency (Ordinance 2024-364, beginning on page 52), Young Adults Manufacturing Training Employment Program (Ordinance 2024-365, beginning on page 54), and organizations like the Commissary that participate in the City’s Adult Workforce Development Services Program (Ordinance 2024-366, beginning on page 56).
Funding effective workforce development programs is always a good investment. These programs help people who have had barriers to employment develop career pathways in vital industries, like manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality. We will help community members obtain gainful employment, which is the best return on investment we can ask for.
As the Finance Committee chair, I will ensure that we wisely use every ARPA dollar that has come to us from the federal government.In addition, I will be sending a more substantive report on ARPA dollars in the coming months.
Once again, I am grateful to all of you and confident in Rochester’s future…which includes our two kiddos!
In every season, please know that I am glad to hear your ideas and concerns. In service,
