Luke Dougherty (left) answers a question for Monica Williams, county legislator for the 16th district, at a Southside TNT meeting.
When a frustrated resident complained about projects being ignored at a recent Southside neighborhood meeting, Luke Dougherty sought compromise:
He pursued the concerns of Charles Pierce-El, a community activist and president of the South Side Homeowner Association, with questions for details. “Can you name one project? Can you give me one project?” Dougherty asked Pierce-El.
And then Dougherty brought the discussion back to the agenda of the monthly meeting of the Southside Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today group. That night’s agenda included a discussion on projects the group would pursue with its grant money and a presentation on removing ash trees destroyed by the emerald ash borer, a non-native insect.
“I need to know now if there’s a project that you want pushed forward,” Dougherty told the group.
The meeting is an example of an average day in the work and life of Luke Dougherty, the city’s community engagement director. He is responsible for overseeing the TNT groups and working with neighborhood groups and associations.
For Dougherty, his job is in line with a family tradition of government service. For the TNT groups, his job is a chance to relay community concerns to government officials. And Dougherty has been lauded overall for his efforts as a newcomer to the scene.
In his family’s tradition of government and politics, Dougherty can count his uncle, Steve Dougherty, a city court judge, and his father, Robert Dougherty, the common councilor from District 3, including the Southside and the Valley. Both are Democrats.
Luke Dougherty volunteered for them when they were campaigning for their positions. “It was certainly something that gave me a view into that world of politics and what it meant to run for public office,” he said.
Luke Dougherty grew up in Syracuse’s Valley neighborhood. He graduated from Corcoran High School. He received his bachelor’s degree in elementary education at American University in Washington, D.C., and his master’s in public administration at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He has worked at public schools in Washington and the city of Syracuse Department of Aviation.
From January 2010 to May 2012, he was the neighborhood revitalization specialist for the administration of Mayor Stephanie Miner. He started as the community engagement director in May.
What’s a typical day like as community engagement director? It depends, he said. he has events Mayor Miner asks him to attend, TNT meetings or neighborhood group meetings. “I try to get them to call me with things they need,” said Dougherty. “People don’t always know who to turn to when they have a problem.”
His earlier experience working with neighborhood revitalization gave him a head start with TNT. “I was already familiar with some of the TNT groups. I also made a lot of contacts with a lot of different agencies, a lot of different associations,” he said.
At TNT meetings, he lets the facilitators do the talking. “They don’t need some guy from the city telling them, trying to lead their meetings,” he said. “I don’t think that’s very valuable.”
Residents and coworkers agreed that Dougherty keeps residents focused at TNT meetings. Corey Driscoll, the Division of Code Enforcement’s director, was impressed by how Dougherty got residents at a Northside meeting back on track after the discussion shifted away from a Save the Rain presentation.
“It’s that type of skill that’s going to allow TNT to move forward and not just be a complaint session,” Driscoll said.
And residents say Dougherty is a reliable and efficient leader. He notifies the groups about upcoming speakers, said Mike Behnke, president of the Sunnycrest Park Association and TNT facilitator for the Eastwood and Valley neighborhoods. “When we’re scheduling for our agendas, he makes sure that we have enough time to fit in the person or the agencies we want in,” Behnke said.
Dougherty also thinks about speakers pertinent to the Southside, said Lori Covington, the coordinator for the Southside Family Resource Center of P.E.A.C.E. Inc. “He’s probably the first hands-on person I’ve seen in a long time,” she said.
Sometimes, she said, she has brought younger residents to Southside meetings because she was drawn to Dougherty’s leadership style. “I thought that he could really inspire our younger people,” she said.
Pierce-El, president of the Southside Homeowners Organization, said Dougherty is working diligently to meet the needs of the residents. “Luke is new at this,” he said. “He’s very open-minded. He’s a caring person. I think he’s a good appointment for the city. He has the people at heart.”
Dougherty said the job can be challenging because of low attendance rates and lack of diversity at TNT meetings. The biggest challenge, he said, is that TNT dates back to the 1990s. “I absolutely don’t know everything about these neighborhoods. I don’t know all the issues, I don’t know all the people,” he said.
Ultimately, Dougherty said, he has two goals: to be a city resource for the neighborhoods and enable them to voice their concerns. “I hope that I can help people’s voices be heard,” Dougherty said, “and get in contact with the people they need to get things done.”
(Madina Toure is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
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