Joe Alati is the new Supervisor of the town of Mendon. Photo by John Alati
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
Hello Mendon, we’d like to introduce you to our new Town Supervisor, Joe Alati. His backstory boasts a rich diversity that seems certain to serve him well. His resume reminded us of the Beatles’ song where, “The long and winding road leads to our door.”
Our first encounter with Joe was a fateful one. Last July, the Honeoye Falls -Mendon Senior Citizens sponsored a luncheon at the Mendon Community Center. We were seated, with an empty spot across the table from us, when we noticed a gentleman looking out as if he were seeking a seat at which he could enjoy the festivities.
Deb made eye contact, waved him over, and a lunch with lingering ramifications was launched. We identified ourselves as writers for the local paper and we were surprised to hear our guest respond with, “I’m Joe Alati, and I’m the Democratic candidate for Mendon Town Supervisor.”
That was certainly a surefire set up for an interesting lunchtime conversation. We were immediately impressed with Joe’s passion for the community and vision for the future of the Town of Mendon. We made an appointment to meet at our house in the hamlet to discuss local issues and ideas.
In our second round of discussions we were increasingly impressed with Joe’s thorough command of community affairs, but it was also clear that as writers for the Sentinel it is imperative that we not align ourselves on one side or the other of local political issues or elections. Before Joe left we showed him our charity book signing project which has been autographed by members of various local government boards. Joe’s final comment was that, “If I work hard enough, I could be signing those books one day.”
Well, the work was done, the books are signed, and we’re here to share the backstory on the man we’ve elected to serve as our Supervisor for the next year. Joe grew up living in the city of Rochester through 6th grade and attending school at St Augustine’s. “Then we moved to Gates,” Joe told us, “where I went to Gates Chili Middle and HS from 7th through 10thgrade. When I was 15 our parents packed us up and moved to Lake Havasu, Arizona.”
There Joe lived through the rest of high school where he was an undefeated regular season wrestler, and was subsequently awarded a wrestling scholarship to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. “After a couple years of college,” Joe said, “I decided to move back to Rochester in 1977 to work for my grandfather at Sullivan’s Collision Service in the city.
Back in the ROC, Joe pursued a simultaneous career as an actor/model where he did a lot of work in and around the Rochester area working for Kodak, Sibley’s, Champion, Marine Midland Bank and others. A highlight from that era was when he appeared in a Rochester Telephone TV commercial where he skated down Main Street Rochester hauling a giant telephone! You aren’t always allowed to pick your co-stars when you’re in show biz!
But that risk acknowledged, Joe moved to Los Angeles in 1978 to try his luck at a career in Hollywood. He enrolled in acting school at night and worked on stars’ cars during the day. His claim to fame then was doing a Coca-Cola TV commercial in Acapulco.
“I enjoyed a little success in LA,” Joe told us, “but after two years in LA, the life style didn’t suit me. I moved back to where I always felt at home. I bought my grandfather’s collision repair shop, enrolled back in college and operated my business for 12 years. A teaching job fell in my lap in my 11th year as a business owner, and I thought teaching would be a nice part-time gig, along with operating my business.”
At that point, it became apparent that teaching was a full-time career so, after doing both for a year, Joe sold his business and taught at Monroe 1 BOCES for over 30 years. During that time, he was a Union Delegate and President. He also volunteered for the HF-L Program Budget Advisory Council and was elected to the HF-L school board. Joe retired from teaching in June of 2023.
Moving on to music, Joe shared that, “My dad was a music aficionado and a community education jazz educator. Music was my dad’s passion. Eastman was a school he wanted to go to but his family was unable to send him there. When my dad passed in 2000, I created an endowed scholarship in his name at the Eastman Community School. It is the Fred Alati Endowed Jazz Scholarship and annually gives away many scholarships to promising young students studying jazz at the Eastman. So now my dad’s legacy is a permanent part of the Eastman School.”
Let’s next move on to the Mendon connection which began as the last century drew to a close. Joe told us, “At that point in time my wife and I needed a new place to live with a great school system, and a place we could dig in and stay. We found a beautiful spot of land in Mendon, bought our 14-acre plot, put in a driveway the first year, ran water 1200 feet to our homesite, followed by utilities, and we built the home ourselves in the second year. We raised our two very successful children here and have been calling this home for 28 years. I retired after 30 years of teaching, and I now take care of my mom, and enjoy working in my 3000-square-foot garden.”
After a few years of retirement, Joe came to realize that he was not done working. This past January a friend came to him with the idea of running for Mendon Town Supervisor, and the time was right. Joe decided to throw his hat into the ring of local Mendon politics.
“I have spent much of my life as a public servant,” Joe told us. “Those years prepared me for this new job I have, serving the people of Mendon. I have always enjoyed making things better for those I work for and serve. I plan to improve how we communicate with the people as well as make the budget and other operations of the town government more transparent and easier to understand.”
“I want to work toward developing places in town so young families can get a start here in this wonderful place we all call home. Places our seniors can downsize in place rather than be forced out of Mendon where they raised their families. These long-term plans will help sustain Mendon as the place where we all would love to live well into the future.”
“I have studied the Comprehensive Plan for Mendon and love the ideas expressed in it. I will work with the board to update the plan as well as set a schedule to implement what was outlined for Mendon, especially for the hamlet. It seems that we need to concentrate some time and effort there.”
“I also plan to fully support our Fire and Ambulance Emergency Services to ensure they are healthy going forward. There are many things that have changed so quickly in all of our lives.”
“I have run for other elections and I have knocked on doors for other candidates, but not on the scale I tackled this year. I did not know what to expect when campaigning door-to-door. I found it invigorating and really enjoyed meeting so many people, hearing about and from them. During the campaign I learned so much about our town and its people.”
“Everybody absolutely loves living in Mendon. And I do mean EVERYBODY! It was so affirming to me, proving that I was in the right place at the right time. I loved to see how passionate people are about Mendon. It is inspiring and motivates me to do a great job for all that enjoy living here, and that I will do.”
On the morning of his swearing-in, January 1, 2026, Joe presented us with the following thoughts which he felt summarized his approach as he enters office…
“My hope and goal with this article is simple. To help your readers see me as a regular person just like them, wanting to keep what we have here in Mendon and allowing us to keep what we have by looking out for Mendon’s Future. Most oppositional people that meet me are seeing and believing in my high regard for our town. The more that get that message the better. “
“I want the people of Mendon to understand that my main goal and plan in leading Mendon has nothing to do with party affiliation. It is to take in ALL ideas, discuss and debate them with the board. Come to consensus and help the board make decisions that are best for our town. I will need to make hard decisions and accept the criticism from those that don’t agree. That is part of the job and I accept that.”
Please allow us to conclude by saying that while acknowledging all of the candidates in our most recent elections, we are enthusiastic about the choices Mendon has made. Earlier in this article we made reference to Joe’s comment that if he won the election, and was subsequently signing our charity book, it would mean that he had become the first Democrat elected in Mendon in 16 years.
We remember thinking at the time, “Joe seems really qualified, but he sure is facing an uphill battle.” That battle having been won, let’s all rally ‘round our new Mendon Town Supervisor and support him in facing all of the challenges which lay before him.
