In a contentious year for the Steuben County town, the two newly elected members of the Corning Town Council decided to host an informal town hall meeting earlier this month.
Incoming council members, Democrats Linda Shock and Lauren Gaige held the town hall meeting to engage with their neighbors and constituents about concerns and expectations ahead of their three-year term, which begins on Jan. 5.
The term is reduced from four years to three years for this term only because of the even year law that was passed by the state legislature in 2023. Some county and town elections outside of New York City were moved from odd to even-numbered years.
Shock and Gaige worked with town resident and community organizer Joan Rosen to produce the town hall.
“People have questions. People want to know what a town council does,” said Rosen. “The meetings have become quite contentious. And I think the biggest thing that people want to feel— the residents, I want to feel that our voices mean something.”
The town meetings are sometimes confrontational. In the past six months, there have been some outbursts by current council members toward town personnel, residents and other visitors during council meetings.
Through records reviewed by WSKG and interviews with several town residents and personnel, the contentiousness has been ongoing since the town supervisor was elected in 2023.
Last summer, the town supervisor Jennifer Mullen was arrested and charged with several alleged felonies, including grand larceny. She is still employed as the town supervisor and continues to run the town council meetings and heads the budget committee. Her court case is ongoing.
The town hall was held at the United Steel Workers Local 1000 union hall in the city of Corning. Approximately 20 people attended.
“I was thinking it was going to be [like] maybe a 20 minute meeting, because we didn't know,” said Shock. “We didn't think anybody was going to come. And it's been an hour and 45 minutes since we started. And I think it was fabulous.“
Shock, a longtime town resident and recently retired, ran to fill the seat of outgoing council member Republican Lon Fiscus.
Fiscus showed up to the town hall as a town resident to meet the new council members. He ended up participating from the audience alongside another current council member Republican Mike Brennan who also joined the town hall as a resident.
Both Fiscus and Brennan provided context to some questions their neighbors and constituents had about the town’s geographical boundaries and fire department tax levies as well as some town projects.
“It was nice to have people who have some tenure in that area to be able to speak to the realistic expectations and kind of give the history of some of the context to some of the issues,” said Gaige of Fiscus and Brennan.
Gaige challenged the seat of town council member Donna Gridley. She won by 27 votes.
Gaige said she ran to show her children that in order to see change, it is important to be part of the change yourself.
“I think we got a lot of really good information, and we're able to narrow down some of the topics that people are most worried about, so that hopefully we can really [hone] in on fixing some of the problems and make people more comfortable with the government,” said Gaiger.
Residents asked about town projects and finances. There were questions about the details and costs related to solar projects coming to the town and how combining services such as a community center space and snow plowing with neighboring municipalities could help the taxpayers.
Lifelong resident Ruth Plaisted says the town hall went very well and she wants the public to have more information about what’s happening with their tax dollars.
“I just want the town to go back like it used to be and where everybody was aware of what was going on, not a one man job,” said Plaisted. “They're not the CEO of their own company with a free running checkbook.”
Shock and Gaige will take their oath of office on Jan. 5 at the Corning Town Hall at 5:00 p.m.