The Next "Guest at the Table" Adam Bello - Dom Genova Column
“A Guest at the No-Nonsense Roundtable” is a column that highlights a particularly interesting, informative or entertaining guest on “The No-Nonsense Roundtable” that I host Saturdays from 10 to 11 AM on NewsRadio WHAM 1180. The No-Nonsense Roundtable is about people you know and want to know more about, or people you do not necessarily know but should.
An important person to know, as well as a recurring guest at the No-Nonsense Roundtable, is Monroe County Executive Adam Bello.
At 42 years of age, he has been in public office for 10 years: first as Irondequoit Town Supervisor at the young age of 32, then as Monroe County Clerk; Bello was voted into his role as Monroe County Executive in November 2019 just as the COVID-19 Pandemic hit.
Bello’s most recent appearance at the No-Nonsense Roundtable brought up questions related to his overall view of his role in County government as he sees it as County Executive, and also as he viewed his role in his last position as County Clerk.
He explained why he loved his former job and some of what he tried to accomplish:
“I love meeting people... It does sound like it could be a boring job… but you meet so many different people, and you try to use the job to try to impact something that’s going on in the world,” was his response. He explains that an instance of this is when he made efforts to attack the “Zombie Property” problem in the county. “Zombie Property” is when a home is vacated by the owners and the foreclosure of it is not completed, resulting in an abandoned building. “Zombie Property” can result in a decrease in property value and an increase in crime.
As County Executive, Bello talks about Crime and Economic Development but also the need to develop a long-term strategy to encourage young people to stay in the Rochester area.
“If you think about the University of Rochester, RIT, and the graduates that are coming out of these colleges and universities, they’re second to none across the world. We have, in terms of the country, one of the highest per capita numbers of college degrees and advanced degrees. We have a very educated workforce and out of that spurs this new innovative and entrepreneurial economy, and that’s really where I think we need to put some investment into. To try to keep these young people here.”
Our discussion also touched on the concept that there are alternatives to a formal college education, where young people can train for a job and a job is guaranteed for them at the end of their training. Bello said that the County is working on such programs.
One example he uses is Monroe Community College’s Optics Program.
“MCC has a program, it’s actually the only program in the world in Precision Optics Manufacturing that has a 100% job placement rate… That’s the type of program we should be supporting and growing and building because there’s hundreds and hundreds of vacant jobs right now, they’re just waiting for the trained workforce.”
When asked for his biggest hope for the year he responded:
“That politics gets settled down and we continue to work together to get something done.”
This is a statement I believe we can all agree with.
Hear this and more. Adam Bellow’s interview can be heard by going to www.NoNonsenseRoundtable.com or scanning the QR code here:
~ Dom Genova is a former car dealer who made his living as “The No-Nonsense Car Dealer.” Genova is the No-Nonsense Roundtable, a one hour show broadcast of iHeart’s 50,000 watt station in Rochester NY, NewsradioWHAM1180. Some of his guests are famous, others you may not know but should know. The radio broadcast is every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and is available later as an iHeart podcast or YouTube. Both can be found on www.NoNonsenseRoundtable.com.
*This article was written by Dom Genova with the assistance of Steffan Weber-Horst, intern of the No-Nonsense Roundtable and student at SUNY Brockport.
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