All it took was checking the mailbox one day when he was 10-years-old to spark Gary Morris’ interest in politics.
“I pick up the mail and I say, ‘Mom, there’s a letter here from the White House.’ She says, ‘Oh, it can’t be nothing important,’” Morris recalls, 36 years later. “It was a letter from Jimmy Carter thanking my dad for his service.”
Morris’ father had recently died from a heart attack. He had served in the Korean War. The letter from President Carter, recalled Morris, “That’s what really pushed me into politics.”
Now, Morris, a Syracuse businessman and party ward chair, is the Democratic candidate for Onondaga County Clerk. He faces Republican Sandra Schepp, a Manlius town councilor. This is the first open-seat election for the position in 16 years. The veteran clerk, Ann Ciarpelli, a Republican, retired in July. The election is Nov. 6.
The county clerk manages paperwork for Onondaga County, including deeds and mortgages. The clerk also issues passports and keeps the county’s historical memorabilia. The clerk serves four-year terms and earns $78,654 a year.
Morris’s candidacy was marked by controversy when The Post-Standard reported on Oct. 5 that Morris has filed for bankruptcy five times since 1986. Morris and county Democratic party officials have downplayed the bankruptcy filings as irrelevant to Morris’ qualifications for the clerk’s office.
Instead, Morris and his supporters stress his passion for local politics and his experience as a county budget analyst, as a businessman and in community organizations. Morris is also chair of Ward 1 for the city’s Democratic Committee.
“He absolutely loves politics,” said his wife Regina Morris. The couple has three grown children. “I think he loves politics second best to me and the kids,” she added.
Nader Maroun, a Syracuse Common Councilor, praised Morris’s hard work for the party. “He’s very organized in his recruitment efforts to bring people into the volunteer work of being a committee member,” Maroun said in an interview.
Despite the bankruptcy revelations, many Democratic party leaders are sticking with Morris. In an interview, Mark English, chair of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, said, “The mere filing of a bankruptcy is not a bankruptcy.” English added. “It is a legal remedy that is available to citizens of the United States.”
Vita DeMarchi was chair of the Democratic party when Morris was nominated to run for Onondaga County Clerk. The committee was aware of the bankruptcies during the selection process, she said. “I don’t think that bankruptcy should be judged as a character flaw,” DeMarchi said in an interview. “Otherwise, there would be a lot of businesses in the United States that would be subject to that character flaw and a lot of individuals for various reasons.”
But the bankruptcies have cost Morris the support of Democrat Tom Buckel, a former Onondaga County legislator. In an interview, Buckel expressed dismay over the party’s decision. “I am very sad that the party that I’ve loved and served all my life did not live up to its responsibilities in this particular case,” Buckel said.
In an interview, Morris explained the bankruptcy filings as the result of youthful hardships and bad economic times. Three of the five bankruptcy filings were dismissed for failure to complete requirements set by the court. Morris acknowledges these and the two completed bankruptcies, one in 1986 and another in 2004.
He filed the first bankruptcy, he said, when he was 20-years-old. “You’re looking at a man who was just out of high school, had some credit cards, was in college,” Morris said. “Met my wife and my wife got pregnant, came out of college, wasn’t working at that time, wound up living with my mother for two years.”
Morris owns G & R Real Estate in Syracuse. He attributes the 2004 bankruptcy to a decline in the housing market and a subsequent decrease in income. The other filings in 2003, 2005 and 2010 were for business restructuring while the housing market was down, he said, and were eventually dismissed.
All the bankruptcies were filed as personal, not business. But, Morris said, he files his taxes for the business as an individual and that is why he did the same with the bankruptcies. He was looking for a way to reorganize and pay off his debt, he said.
In his campaign for the county clerk’s office, Morris cites his varied experience in education, business and government.
Morris has an associate’s degree in applied science from Onondaga Community College, a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Le Moyne College, and a master’s degree in business administration and human resources management from the University of Phoenix. For seven years, Morris has taught business at Onondaga Community College and for five years at Cazenovia College.
His reason for teaching? “The students,” he said.
He opened G & R Real Estate with his wife, Regina, ten years ago. It specializes in home sales in the city, he said, and in the price range of less than $150,000.
In his political career, Morris ran unsuccessfully for Onondaga County Legislature District 14 in 2005 and 2007. The 2007 loss, he said, put him in contact with Republican Joanie Mahoney, who was then campaigning for county executive. Once she was elected, she hired him as a budget analyst.
For two years with the county, he managed $81.7 million of the $1.9 billion county budget. Michelle Magnetto, 42, of Syracuse, was a senior management analyst when Morris worked there. His business background, she said, made him an asset to the office. “Gary brought an outside view,” Magnetto said. “It was a unique perspective. He did things a slightly different way.”
He is a volunteer budget analyst for the Dunbar Association. He is also a member of the Syracuse City School District Educational Foundation Board, 100 Black Men and Knights of Columbus.
“I want to give back to this community in a way,” said Morris, “not only to justify my existence to myself, but to justify my existence to the people of this county.”
(Amy Lipman is a senior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and international relations.)
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