Press release/provided photo
Batavia, NY – Genesee County and City of Batavia officials were pleased to host Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-24) this week for a tour of the City of Batavia Water Treatment Plant. Access to clean water is a public safety issue, so Genesee County has made upgrades to its water system a top priority.
Genesee County is undertaking a large-scale countywide water project to provide critical water security and resiliency to its residents, farms, and industries. This project will improve water quality for drinking water, increase the capacity to supply hydrants for emergency response, spur economic growth and job creation for New Yorkers, and help to guard the County against water insecurity.
This tour gave the Congresswoman a first-hand look at the County’s multi-phased water security
initiative and the threatened Batavia Water Treatment Plant, an aged structure that has outlived its
useful life. The Genesee County Water Project, now in its second of three phases, aims to provide
reliable water for the future generation of residents, farms and businesses.
“We appreciate Congresswoman Claudia Tenney visiting Genesee County and learning of our critical
public water project goals,” said Genesee County Legislative Chair Shelley Stein. “The County’s top
priority is re-investing in our water infrastructure, and we appreciate the Congresswoman’s active
interest in ensuring a reliable water future for the County. We look forward to sharing more of Genesee County with her.”
You can tell when no one in the room actually wants to be there with someone. I watched the full interview, and the body language alone makes it clear that respect is lacking — closed, uncomfortable, disengaged.
What concerns me more is the way Representative Tenney is presenting the supposed “$10 million secured for Genesee County” as a personal achievement. That funding was not a political favor; it was a public necessity tied to basic human rights and water infrastructure — work carried out by the military and funded by taxpayers. The water issue would have had to be addressed regardless of who held that seat. Claiming personal credit for it, complete with oversized signage bearing her own image, is performative and misleading. If anything belongs on that sign, it’s the people who actually did the work — not a politician’s face.
Clean water is a fundamental resource. Peaceful protest surrounding that issue is constitutionally protected, and standing against it undermines the very freedoms public servants swear to uphold. There has been no meaningful strain on police resources from protests in Genesee County, yet her public messaging frames them as a nuisance while pivoting into unrelated, inflammatory rhetoric about immigration. That reads less like governance and more like grievance politics.
I grew up immersed in immigration policy. My father, a Republican, Virginia-born federal immigration agent, was transferred from the Rio Grande border to help open the immigration facility on Federal Drive. He spent his career protecting national security. He — like every veteran and federal officer who truly understands the Constitution — fully supports the right to peacefully assemble. That is what they served for.
I am a Democrat because my D-Day First Wave great-uncle, a Purple Heart recipient who lived with war injuries from age 19 until nearly 100, believed fiercely in that freedom. When elected officials dismiss protest, distort democratic principles, or suggest political punishment for dissent, they dishonor the sacrifices that made those freedoms possible.
Censorship and control are not patriotism. They are not freedom. And they directly contradict the values the Republican Party once claimed to defend. The hypocrisy is glaring.
Leadership requires humility, accountability, and action — not constant attacks on Democrats, not self-promotion, and not fear-based messaging. If Representative Tenney wants to be taken seriously, she should stop posturing and start governing.
Respecting the Constitution means protecting the rights of the people — including the right to protest — not trying to silence them. Our service members grew up fast to defend those rights. The least we can do is meet them halfway by honoring what they fought for.
— Roberta White, Democrat