A real estate attorney, a business developer, a credit union CEO and a UPS worker.
These are voters’ four choices for the two at-large seats available on the Syracuse Common Council in 2007. The election is Nov. 6.
Democratic Party incumbents looking for re-election are Kathleen Joy, attorney for Mackay Services, Inc., and William Ryan, CEO of the Syracuse Fire Department Federal Credit Union. Challenging them are Green Party candidate and UPS worker Howie Hawkins and Republican Party candidate Bill Harper, owner of the Coffee Pavilion in downtown Syracuse.
The two who receive the most votes out of the four candidates will fill the seats. The four at-large councilors on the Syracuse Common Council are the city’s wide-angle lens. The other city councilors serve specific districts.
“We set policy,” Joy said. “As an at-large we get to see some of the issues that affect all of the districts, not just one particular neighborhood.”
Here are sketches of the four candidates:
KATHLEEN JOY (Democrat)
Joy chairs the council’s committee that handles economic development and the environment. She was appointed to fill a council vacancy in May of 2005. In November 2005, she was challenged in a special election and won.
“I legislate from the bottom up,” she said. “I don’t have my own particular agenda that I’m promoting. I think that is a strength that I have. People can approach me. When it comes to leadership and governance it is not just politics it is true leadership.”
History on the council
The council is a collaborative effort, Joy said. Projects are not spearheaded by one councilor.
The biggest issue that Joy has had to tackle is the expansion of the Carousel Center. She voted against it, which proved deeply controversial.
“While I was in favor of the concept of economic development it was the agreement itself that I objected to,” she said. “It was putting the risks before the city rather than spreading out those risks to some of the other agencies or back to the developer.”
Forging connections
She is a supporter of the $10 million Connective Corridor development project between Syracuse University and downtown. Joy served on the selection committee for the project. The city representation was split between mayoral appointees and Common Councilors.
“It is really neat for the city to have that kind of physical and practical connection with the university,” Joy said.
Eric Persons, the director of engagement initiatives for SU, praised Joy’s work on the project. She brought the needs and aspirations of the city to the committee, Persons said.
“When each of the design teams came, each approached it differently and some outlined economic development more specifically and she brought that to light,” Persons said. “The kinds of issues that motivated Kathy were really surrounding vision, practicality and feasibility for where the city is at.”
Issues in this election
The issues Joy plans to raise in this election are neighborhood planning, job creation and job retention. The city needs to try and create incentives for individuals and families to stay in the city, Joy said.
“We have a great first-time homeowner program,” Joy said. “I would like to see us implement a step-up program that would provide some of the same incentives for someone who wants to stay.”
BILL HARPER (Republican)
Harper, 48, faces an uphill battle, just as he did when he ran for the councilor-at-large seat two years ago and lost. His biggest problem: The party math. Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans in the city.
Those party labels probably will hurt Harper, predicts Danny Hayes, a political scientist at SU’S Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “Voters don’t think a lot about politics,” said Hayes. “We engage in very superficial ways. Party labels are the best way we have to make decisions.”
Harper is a native of Rome, N.Y. He earned his undergraduate degree at Lemoyne College. He has long played a supporting role in revitalizing downtown Syracuse. For example, he built a coffee bar, the Coffee Pavilion, in downtown.
On involving the constituents
Now, Harper describes the Common Council as reactive in responding to issues that arise. But, he said, he plans to transform it into a proactive council that controls the issues.
“We need to fix the problems, not extinguish the fires of problems,” he said. “Crime is not a problem. It is the consequence of the real problem: No employment opportunities for young people.”
If elected, he said, he plans to use the councilor-at-large salary to rent a facility and equip it with laptops and printers. A volunteer staff would build an e-mail database of people across Syracuse and solicit responses regarding issues that come before the council.
On the decline of Syracuse
Syracuse is underperforming and as a result the city has unemployment problems and problems of people working below what their education level dictates, Harper said. That contributes to deteriorating neighborhoods, he said. Students from these areas help create underperforming schools. The teachers are able, but they don’t have a lot to work with, Harper said.
“The only way to break that circle is to reverse it by having great employment, which leads to better neighborhoods, which breed better schools, the schools will graduate better students who will want to stay and create better businesses,” he said.
On the environment
Harper considers himself a “really aggressive environmentalist” and the first issue he wants to address if elected is the cleaning of Onondaga Lake. The current council has not gone far enough, he said. The lake made Syracuse prosperous economically and can save Syracuse economically, by attracting businesses to the area, Harper said.
Authorities on environmental policy have their doubts. The council’s current effort, which addresses the quality of water feeding into the lake, has led to considerable progress, Allan Mazur, professor of environmental policy at the Maxwell School, said.
“It won’t be what the Indians would like it to be, but restoring to the level they had in 1700 would cost a fortune,” he said. “It’s absurd to spend the money on that.”
Harper also plans to promote solar energy as a part of his platform. Auburn, Rome, and Ithaca top the list nationwide for photovoltaic panels, he said. Syracuse, he said, lags behind.
Professor Mazur disagrees. “Your children would be dead before you paid off a solar system in Syracuse,” he said. “We have enormous opportunities for conservation and that is where we should be saving our energy.”
HOWIE HAWKINS (Green)
Hawkins, a founding member of the Green Party, has run for local or statewide office every year since 1993. While never elected, the issues he raises, like public power or the living wage, often become part of the city’s political dialogue.
“We get issues from the community,” Hawkins said. “We don’t just pull them out of a hat. We raise issues and they get talked about, but when they get implemented by Democrats and Republicans they are token and not real.”
One Green Party member is not going to change the whole council, but Hawkins will bring a needed perspective, former Green Party candidate Mark Naef said.
“He could make a huge impact on the city of Syracuse,” Naef said. “He’s lived in the city for as long as I’ve known him. In terms of knowledge base, I’m sure he is one of the most knowledgeable candidates.”
On running a grassroots campaign
This campaign differs from the campaign for Mayor in 2005, Hawkins said. He does not have the luxury of forums and communicating his ideas through the mass media, he said. So, to overcome the disadvantage that comes with a third-party candidacy, Hawkins plans to use door-to-door campaigning, targeting people in each election district.
“They vote for what they think the label stands for and not the candidate,” he said. “The difference in a local election is the one-on-one. The label falls away and you vote for the person.”
On the current council
“Don’t send a Democrat to do a Green’s job,” Hawkins warns. “They go halfway and don’t follow through on it. We have to elect people who articulate the city’s needs and then follow through on it.”
Because of the overwhelming Democratic majority on the council, decisions that are made in private by Democratic councilors become final without much public debate, he said.
“My voice would bring things to the public,” Hawkins said. “I would hold a Green caucus even if it’s just me.”
On public power
Once again Hawkins is proposing public power as a solution to the city’s energy cost woes. New York pays the highest electric rate in the country and public power could reduce the bill by 35 percent, Hawkins said.
“In Syracuse it’s difficult for people to pay their utility bill and also pay for their rent and their food,” Hawkins said.
On city rights
The county looks out for the suburbs first and the city second, he said. Hawkins is concerned that Mayor Matthew Driscoll is forfeiting the rights of the city and turning them over to Onondaga County. As a result city residents feel powerless, he said.
“They think ‘why should I vote?’” Hawkins said. “They don’t vote and they get less attention from the politicians. The less attention they get the less hopeful they become. It’s a vicious circle.”
WILLIAM RYAN (Democrat)
Ryan did not return multiple phone calls to his Council office and his home.
Ryan, an incumbent, was first elected in 2003. He graduated from Clarkson University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, management and finance, according to his Common Council Web site.
In more than 25 years working at the Syracuse Fire Department Federal Credit Union, Ryan has grown their assets to $45 million, from $2 million when he started, according to the New York State Credit Union League. In 2005, Ryan achieved a long-term goal of extending credit union membership benefits to every career firefighter in New York.
On the council, Ryan chairs the public safety committee. His role as chairperson of that committee has led him to assist in public safety initiatives in the city, such as the Onondaga County Community Anti-Drug Coalition.
He sees his role as working to improve quality and quantity of cooperation between the Common Council and the school board, lending a voice to the voiceless, and informing the citizenry of city business, according to the Common Council’s Web site.
On Destiny vote
Ryan was one of the councilors to vote down the Destiny proposal. He and other councilors in opposition wrote a Post-Standard op-ed piece to respond to criticism.
“We shared a common sentiment that while we all support creating jobs and strong economic development, the legislation had too many weaknesses to garner our support,” they wrote on July 7, 2006.
The op-ed cited the loss of potential jobs by voting down the proposal, but countered with the fact that the developer did not guarantee a use of local labor or that prevailing wages would be paid.
On residency requirement
Ryan addressed the city’s residency requirement in The Post-Standard on Feb.11, 2007.
He expresses an intention to adopt a resolution requesting the state rescind the residency exemption for newly hired police, fire and sanitation employees, similar to a 2002 bipartisan council resolution.
“This requirement will strengthen city neighborhoods once the new hires earning police and firefighter salaries purchase homes and invest in our city,” he wrote. “And the performance of these fine public servants will be improved because they will have a vested interest in the community.”
(Marc Peters is a senior in newspaper journalism.)
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