(Annie Knox)
After reading six years’ worth of government minutes, Toby Shelley came to a conclusion.
“A lot of the decisions with public safety weren’t the most informed,” said Shelley. That realization, he said, helped shape his decision to run for the Onondaga County Legislature in November. And his prepping by reading the minutes, say friends, family and colleagues, is classic Shelley: Methodical, low-key and persistent.
Shelley, a deputy sheriff for Onondaga County, running for the District 6 seat in the county legislature. He’s running on the Democratic, Working Families and Veterans parties lines against Republican opponent Mike Plochocki, former mayor of Marcellus. The two are vying to fill the seat vacated by James Rinehart, R-Skaneateles, who is retiring.
The election is Nov. 8.
District 6 includes the southwestern part of Onondaga County, including Marcellus, Skaneateles, Spafford, Otisco and a small southern portion of Camillus. The district has a strong Republican majority with 41 percent of the district registered Republican and 26 percent Democratic. A total of 19,631 residents are registered in District 6.
In his campaign, Shelley stresses his 27-year record of public service.
A road patrol officer, he’s a 17-year veteran of the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department. He has logged almost 20 years as a volunteer firefighter for the Otisco Fire Department. He’s spent 27 years in the military, including five years on active duty and 22 years as a firefighter in the 174th regiment at the Air National Guard. His military career also involves a tour in Iraq from 2006-2007.
That experience, he said, gives him deep expertise in managing public money in a key area. A third of the county budget is allotted to public safety, said Shelley. For 2011, that’s about $110 million.
Shelley, 45, also stresses his role as a cattle farmer. He, his wife and their two teen-age children live on a 50-acre farm in Marietta that’s been in his family for 200 years. They share the place with a cat and two Australian blue-heeler herding dogs and 24 cows.
The farm is central to his identity, says Shelley. Every year he gets anxious about whether it will break even for income. But, he said, the farm offers solace even when its cows get sick and its equipment breaks down, he said. “It gives you peace of mind,” he said. “It gives you time to think about things.”
The family has needed that peace and quiet recently, he acknowledges. In March, Shelley’s son, Joel Shelley, 24, was shot by state police in Tioga County after troopers said he pointed a gun at a trooper on Route 34. Joel Shelley in jail awaiting trial.
In what friends describes as his characteristic stoicism, Toby Shelley talks little about the incident. The only good thing to come of it, he said, is that now more people recognize his name.
Shelley’s run for county legislature is his second Onondaga County race. In 2010, he ran for county sheriff. but lost to his boss, Kevin Walsh, a Republican who has held the office since 1994.
For the legislature race, friends and family say Shelley brings a lifelong commitment to public service, a methodical approach to solving problems and an intense energy to get things done.
As a child, Toby Shelley was constantly looking after goats, rabbits and pigs on the family farm, recalled his father, Kenneth H. Shelley, 71. “He can’t sit still,” said Kenneth H. Shelley. “He couldn’t as a kid.”
Toby Shelley agreed. “I can’t sit around,” Toby Shelley said. “I don’t watch TV. People talk about that show ‘Friends.’ I’ve never seen it.”
Wendy Colucci, his campaign manager, describes Shelley as stoic. “It’s a big deal for us to get him to smile,” said Colucci. And his dry sense of humor can be hard for others to catch, Colucci said.
An example: While knocking on doors on Male Avenue on Caamillus, Shelley asked a white-haired resident how she was doing. “Not too good,” she said, “hanging in there.” Replied Shelley: “Better than the other option, I guess.”
In his campaign, Shelley calls for the county to cut spending by:
- Consulting public workers about how to save money in their fields — such as, Shelley says, asking the snow-plow driver which types of trucks will be the most effective.
- Charging surrounding counties for sheriff department’s Air-1 helicopter flights to those counties.
- Downgrading the Air-1 helicopter from what he calls a “Cadillac model” to one that’s cheaper to operate.
- Selling the Convention Center but preserving the War Memorial.
- Implementing a plan for the sheriff’s department to get rid of 40 take-home police cars and re-allot others, saving the county over $1 million, he said.
To encourage ideas for saving money, he suggests adopting a reward program like that of the military. “If you think of an idea to save the military money, they’ll give you a cut of the savings,” he said.
As an example of poor spending decisions, Shelley cites the legislature’s decision to take away the two police cars previously allotted to patrol the town of Clay. Instead of saving money, Shelley said, the loss of the two cars increased the response time for 911 calls from Clay and made more work for sheriff’s department to respond to them.
For his candidacy, Shelley wins praise for his commitment. Rick Noreault is the political coordinator for New York’s CSEA union, which endorsed Shelley. The union, said Noreault, sees Shelley as legislator who “would stand up and be willing to go to bat for the middle class.”
Dan Salvagno, a friend of Shelley’s from Solvay, praises Shelley’s background in law enforcement and the military. That, he said, outweighs Shelley’s inexperience in government office.
“He’s got the experience to do the job even if he doesn’t have the pedigree,” Salvagno said.
(Annie Knox is a senior majoring in newspaper journalism.) This story was corrected Nov. 2 to reflect Shelley’s proposal to sell the Convention Center, not the Civic Center.
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