Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 6

6 A TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2009 DemocratandChronicle.com DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE Democrats seek quick pact on budget ANDREW TAYLOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Congressional Democrats pushed to wrap up negotiations on a budget that would help President Ba-rack Obama's ambitious goal of overhauling the health care system. Negotiators from the House and Senate met Monday, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, confirmed details of a tentative pact reached last week that would prevent Senate Republicans from delaying or blocking Obama's plan to vastly expand government-subsidized health care. The $3.5 trillion plan for the budget year starting Oct. 1 embraces several of Obama's key goals, including health care reform, funds for domestic programs and clean energy, and a tax increase for individuals making more than $200,000 a year or couples making more than $250,000. But the plan would al low Obama's signature $400 tax cut for most workers to expire at the end of next year.

Even after squeezing the defense and war budgets to levels that are probably unrealistic, the plan would cause a deficit of $523 billion in five years. "I think this is a good budget," Conrad said. But, he added, "Much more will have to be done to get us on a more sustainable course," including slowing the growth of benefit programs like Medicare and overhauling the tax code. A drive by moderate House "Blue Dog" Democrats with support from Obama to require tax cuts and increases in federal benefit programs to be offset with higher taxes or spending cuts was snagging the talks most of the day on Monday. The House moderates were searching for ways to get a balky Senate to go along and enact such a "pay-as-you-go" requirement.

DEM0CRATANDCHR0NICLE.COM Click on this story to read Mayor Robert Duffy's State of the City address. 4 surveillance cameras, adding to the 50 that already monitor problem street corners. Deputy Executive police Chief George Markert said the goal is to have 100 cameras by July 2010. In the most emotional moment of the evening, the crowd rose and cheered Officer Anthony DiPonzio and neurosurgeon Paul Maurer, both seated in the front row. DiPonzio was shot in the back of the head, allegedly by a teenager, while on the job on Jan.

31. Maurer was assigned to his case. Duffy's wife, Barbara, presented DiPonzio's parents with a key to the city. "I love comebacks," Duffy said, "and Tony DiPonzio is one of Rochester's all-time comeback stories." Throughout the address, Duffy spoke of a city coming back. Nowhere is that more critical that in troubled city neighborhoods.

The city has targeted portions of Beechwood, City FROM PAGE 1A Union headquarters under construction downtown, the emerging new look of Manhattan Square Park, the re-opening of Durand-Eastman Beach. And he highlighted what might be less visible: falling crime rates, rising graduation rates, and efficiencies that have cut city government expenses by $13 million since he took office in 2006. "So to all the naysayers who talk our city down," Duffy said, "I repeat Na-thanial Rochester's request. 'Look More consolidation is on the way, as the city plans to merge the six offices that have overseen city parking lots, garages and enforcement. And Duffy returned time and again to the three pillars of his administration: Economic development.

The administration claims to have helped attract or retain rr A iK.ii.ii ii mm mniy. the city. Struggling neighborhoods aren't the only ones coming back. Duffy also touted new housing downtown that could push the number of center city residents from 4,000 to 4,750 this year, if projects are completed and occupied as planned. Typically, it takes a population base of 5,000 to 10,000 people to attract new retail downtown, said Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, president of Rochester Downtown Development Corp.

That level remains a couple of years away. Still, she said, strengthening downtown is necessary to sell the region to new employers and residents. So far, downtown's growth has largely pulled from the suburbs. "In the end," she said, "we have to grow the region." in 75 years, Duffy said, another mayor will deliver a State of the City as the city celebrates its 250th birthday. The speech likely will trace Rochester's progress from mill town to manufacturing hub and to however Rochester remakes itself yet again.

"I am very confident that an audience in 2084 will remember this time in our history," Duffy said, continuing later: "How will we achieve this destiny? Look around. Success won't come from Albany or Washington. "We'll create it here, working together. Every family, every resident must play a role." BDSHARP(S)DemocratandChronic le.com JAY CAPERS staff photographer Anne Kress is hugged by interim president Larry Tyree after she was announced as the new Monroe Community College president on Monday. am very confident that an audience in 2084 will remember time in our history.

How we achieve this destiny? Look around." MAYOR ROBERT DUFFY more than 350 companies and 14,000 jobs in four years. Education. Duffy said 52 percent of city students still fail to graduate. He wants to guarantee a job for every city student who stays in school, and pay for the initiative with some of the $119 million the city provides the district annually. School Board President Malik Evans said later, "I'm an advocate for jobs for kids, but it's everyone's responsibility not just the school district or the city." Public safety.

The Police Department has grown from 705 to 790 sworn officers since Duffy took office. And police soon will put up 25 "I this will Dewey-Driving Park, Marketview Heights and Jefferson Avenue for intensive investment. The plan has $5.5 million available in city funds, $6 million in matching grants and could soon add $17 million in private financing. That includes a proposal to leverage $14 million in private funds for a $16 million lending pool to fix up vacant but viable single-family homes, said Bret Garwood, director of project development for 7 V.IUCli: Dell ll "It was difficult time last year. It was painful, but we've come out a better college," Tugel said.

Kress will start in her new job on July 6 with an annual salary of $215,000. Details of a three-year contract must still be worked out. The contract of interim President Larry Tyree expires May 17, but board members want him to stay on through the end of August to help with the transition. "If I accept the offer of the board, my role will not be an on-campus role. My role will be as an adviser or consultant available to the new president at her beck and call," said Tyree.

Tyree was president of Santa Fe College from 1990 to 2001 when Kress was advancing from being a teaching assistant in English at the school to becoming an administrator there. "I identified and recruited her as a candidate for this presidential search," said Tyree, who was on the committee reviewing her doctoral work. "She is extremely bright and she has the gift of being able to translate her intelligence into practical activity that benefits organizations," Tyree said. Kress will not officially take over as president without the approval of the State University of New York board of trustees. According to Dennis Golladay, vice chancellor for community colleges for the SUNY, Kress must travel to Albany for interviews with senior administrators and John J.

O'Connor, officer in charge at SUNY. O'Connor will make a friend at the Bluewater Resort on Saturday night. She left to return to her own hotel room but never made it back. According to witness statements from young men who were staying at the Bluewater Resort, Drexel went to their hotel room about 8 p.m. Saturday but left about 10 minutes later to return a pair of shorts to a friend with whom she had traveled.

Two of the men stated that Drexel had been arguing with her friend because Drexel had been wearing her shorts and Great rates with an added bonus. Peace of mind. Biography Anne M. Kress, newly appointed president of Monroe Community College. Age: 46.

Family: Husband, Ned Davis; daughter, Harper Davis, son, Penn Davis, 6. Education: University of Florida, Gainesville bachelor's degree in finance, 1985; bachelor's in English, 1987; master's degree in English, 1989; doctorate in higher education administration, 2007. Work experience: At the University of Florida, Gainesville August 1988 to 1989 and August 1990 to December 1993, teaching assistant, English. At Santa Fe College, Gainesville, Fla. progressed from adjunct instructor in 1989 to chairwoman of the English department in 1998, to associate vice president of information management and education technologies in 2002, and to provost and vice president for academic affairs in 2005.

DEM0CRATANDCHR0NICLE.COM Click on this story to view a photo gallery of the day's events at MCC. recommendation to the SUNY board of trustees, which also will interview Kress in a closed-door executive session, possibly as soon as mid-May. The SUNY board would vote on her appointment during an open portion of the meeting. BLOUDONiSDemocratandChronicle.com the friend wanted them back. Dawn Drexel, who arrived Monday in Myrtle Beach, said she does not believe her daughter ran away, adding that she just "wanted to get away and have fun with her friends." The 17-year-old's parents are in the middle of a divorce and are selling their home, Dawn Drexel said.

"It's not like my daughter to not call and her clothes were still at the hotel room," she said. VFREILEDemocratandChronicle.com CLVARGASiaDemocratandChronicle.com MCC FROM PAGE 1A president of the Faculty Senate, said she was thrilled by the board's choice. "There was a noticeable energy in the room in the forums when she was there, much more excitement. You could feel the difference," Tugel said. Kress, 46, MCC's fifth president and the first woman to lead the school since it was founded in 1961, sees herself as the face of the college in the local community and beyond.

"My job is to be Monroe Community College. That's what I represent, whether it's internal or external, to have an understanding of the internal constituencies and where they see the college moving, to have a vision myself of how we can get there," she said during a news conference after the board meeting. R. Thomas Flynn retired as president in August 2008. He was replaced by interim Larry Tyree.

An initial search for a new leader at MCC started in the fall of 2007 with committees sifting through applicants and recommending two finalists to the board. But the board voted to add two names on their own, triggering accusations of favoritism. The board never voted on the recommended candidates and neither of the finalists considered won a majority of board support, making it necessary for a new search, which led to the selection of Kress. Missing FROM PAGE 1A Sunday and left Myrtle Beach on Monday. Family friend John Hahn, 20, a Marine who is stationed in Camp Le-jeune, N.C., learned that Drexel was missing early Sunday and drove 2 Vz hours to Myrtle Beach to file a police report.

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