MONROE COUNTY, N.Y. — The votes are in: The Monroe County Legislature has voted against spending $1 million to fund a study on the feasibility of replacing RG&E with a public utility.

The Legislature voted 16-13 against the study Tuesday, after a lengthy public-comment period in which dozens of people signed up to speak, in favor and against.

Dozens were in attendance for Tuesday’s Legislature meeting — there was even an overflow room to accommodate everyone. Many came out to lift their voices on this hot topic.

Jennifer Goheen decided to sing the lyrics to a song she wrote in favor of the feasibility study, to hopefully get her point across to the Legislature.

“I wanted to put some fact and feelings into song because I like communicating that way,” Goheen said.

Legislator Carolyn Delvecchio Hoffman, assistant Democratic majority leader and representative of District 25, sponsored this referral to allocate $1 million in unallocated county funds for a feasibility study to determine if and how public power would benefit the community.

“This is some of the most hyped drama that I have seen around an issue in my legislature tenure,” she said. However, she added, “It is a very run-of-the-mill thing for us to be doing. … We are not voting to take over RG&E tonight; that is a long, complex process and until we get the study we won’t even know if that is feasible, (if)it’s something that we want to do, it it’s a price tag we are comfortable with.

That price tag is a concern that Republican legislator Steve Brew has: the cost of a study and if it leads to a takeover. It’s among the reasons why he voted against this public utility study in the past.

Brew acknowledges RG&E has had challenges and said he is aware RG&E is in the process of cleaning things up.

“I just think the proponents of the takeover of RG&E by the county (have) just a broad misunderstanding of the enormous amount of debt that would be undertaken by the county,” Brew said.

I spoke with Alexis Arnold, the communications manager for RG&E, at Tuesday’s meeting in advance of the vote.

Marsha Augustin: “Some legislators say it’s just a study, what’s the harm?”

Alexis Arnold, RG&E: “We don’t need a study to tell us what we already know. … we have served this community for 175 years.”

Prior to the vote, I spoke with County Executive Adam Bello’s office and was told that Bello was still against funding a public utility study.

Mohini Sharma, organizing director with Metro Justice, which has advocated for a feasibility study, said, “The county is giving to fear-mongering and not facts.

Voting against funding the study were Republicans Steve Brew, Frank Ciardi, Robert Colby, Tracy DiFlorio, Paul Dondorfer, Mark Johns, Blake Keller, Sean McCabe, Virginia McIntyre, Richard Milne, Kirk Morris, Tom Sinclair and Jackie Smith. They were joined by three Democrats: Michael Yudelson, Howard Mafuci and Legislature president Yversha Roman.

Voting in favor of the study were Democrats Rachel Barnhart, Lystra Bartholomew McCoy, John Baynes, Albert Blankley, Rose Bonnick, William Burgess, Santos Cruz, Carolyn Delvecchio Hoffman, Ricky Frazier, Linda Hasman, Susan Hughes-Smith, Dave Long, and Mercedes Vazquez Simmons.

In a release, president Roman expressed her vote against funding the study:

“In the last session and at the Ways and Means Committee two weeks ago, I voted in favor of a feasibility study for Public Power. I voted in the negative tonight to preserve the opportunity to bring the issue back to the Legislature for consideration in the current term. I hope to work with my county and city colleagues to address the pressing concerns the community continues to highlight in support of this study. Our community deserves the information with an unbiased lens necessary to make the best choices about our energy needs. The results of an independent study are not a forgone conclusion but I believe a study is the only way to get an accurate picture of the situation and get the best outcome for our constituents.”

RG&E Thursday night issued the following statement:

“We appreciate our local legislators speaking for the majority of people in Monroe County, acknowledging that this study would take funding away from vital services such as schools and public safety.  In the past year and a half, we have worked incredibly hard to improve our customer service, reliability, and resiliency. This has been a distraction and now our more than 800 Rochester employees can continue to focus on the work they do 365 days a year  to prove to our customers that delivering safe and reliable service is our top priority.“

Sharma from Metro Justice also released a statement after the vote:

“Tonight the County Legislature chose to put the interests of a multinational corporation over those of their constituents. Monroe County residents deserve a future in which we are no longer beholden to a profit-driven, foreign company for our basic energy needs, and we will continue to fight for that future.”