In December 2015 I retired from the New York State Court System after nineteen years as a County Court judge and acting Supreme Court justice.
I had been a lawyer for twenty years before that and had decided to retire from all legal activity and do the reading, writing and traveling that I had always wanted to do.
Throughout 2016 I realized some but not all of these goals and was intending to do more in 2017.
To my complete surprise, I received a telephone call from Mayor Stephanie Miner in November asking whether I would be willing to come out of retirement during 2017 and be the City of Syracuse’s attorney during her last year in office.
Throughout my life, I have known many public officials at all levels of government.
They have been Presidential candidates, U.S. Senators, Governors, Congressional Representatives, State Legislators and every Mayor of Syracuse during my lifetime.
I’ve known Stephanie Miner for twenty plus years.
I have often said of her, that she is one of the few public officials that has sought public office solely for the purpose of bettering the lives of those whom she serves.
Faced with a decision which could be popular or unpopular, she will always decide to do what she believes is right without regard for how it will affect her popularity or electability.
It didn’t take me long to accept her invitation and join her administration for the last year.
During this past year, I was amazed at how much she had been able to accomplish in two terms.
The Hotel Syracuse, which had been vacant for decades was reopened as part of her economic development initiative.
Under- utilized and vacant commercial buildings were converted to condominiums with 745 residential units added since 2010 enjoying a ninety-nine percent occupancy rate.
Hotels opened in the Armory District and the Redhouse Performing Arts center was relocated from West Street to the vacant Sibley’s building on Salina Street.
A land bank was established which acquired almost 1,500 tax delinquent properties that were either marketed to new owners, generating $ 880,000 in annual property taxes, or demolished if beyond repair.
A Municipal Violations Bureau was enacted to more expeditiously handle housing and code violations.
The mayor implemented Say Yes to Education which led to $ 7.3 million dollars in scholarship money that enabled 3,000 Syracuse City School District graduates to attend college.
She moved the Joint School Construction board to fully renovate four City schools.
These were simply some of the successes of her eight years in office.
Yet, none of these were highlighted in the recounting of her two terms as Mayor by the local newspaper.
Instead, they chose to portray her as negative, combative or an obstacle to development.
For over thirty years, the paper has covered disagreement between public officials with an intellectual vacuity that is both breathtaking and predictable.
When two or more public officials have a disagreement involving policy or philosophy, you can count on the newspaper to bemoan or chastise the fact that there is disagreement without ever analyzing the merits or correctness of the position of the parties to the disagreement.
Thus, in this instance the paper allowed its “guest columnist” to paint the Mayor as a negative obstructionist.
What they forgot, or didn’t think was important to disclose, was the fact that the “guest columnist” was her first mayoral opponent, whose philosophy and views were overwhelmingly rejected by city voters.
To support his critique, he cited the Mayor’s opposition to the DestiNY tax agreement, the City’s litigation with Cor Development over the Inner Harbor Development, and her strained relationship with the Wizard of Oz in the Governor’s Mansion.
So, let’s take a closer look at each of these issues and see what the “guest columnist” either left out or failed to see.
If one recalls the DestiNY tax agreement, it will be remembered that a court ordered the Driscoll Administration to give the Pyramid Companies a thirty year Payment in lieu of taxes agreement for a multi-phase expansion of its mall, which already had a fifteen year tax abatement agreement.
After it obtained its agreement and completed the first phase of the expansion, the company announced it would build nothing more.
If there is someone out there who still thinks that was a good deal, there is a guy named Ponzi who would like to meet you.
The City’s litigation with Cor over the Inner Harbor stemmed from Cor’s reneging on its commitment not to seek a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement and obtaining one from the Onondaga County industrial Authority.
At this writing Cor’s officials are scheduled to stand trial for, among other crimes, lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
One might want to factor that circumstance into deciding whether the City or Cor was truthful about the issues in their litigation.
The Mayor’s falling out with Cuomo stemmed from her public dissent about one of his policy proposals.
In typical Cuomo harebrained fashion, the Governor proposed that cash-strapped cities defer making their required pension contributions until future years when they would be required to make them along with interest payments for the unpaid years.
If that isn’t the classic politicians strategy to “kick the can down the road” for future generations to deal with, I don’t know what is.
Enraged by her public dissent, Cuomo and some of his local supporters, engaged in the kind of petty punishments that are typical of him and all too common today.
As the newspaper’s “guest columnist “noted Cuomo chose to locate those projects that are part of the “billion dollar” upstate economic revitalization in the suburbs, outside of Syracuse.
That means we didn’t benefit from the Film Hub which has sat empty since it opened and has no tenant on the horizon.
We also missed out on the Led light bulb manufacturing plant that Sorra, the company it was being built for, walked away from.
The Film Hub was the subject of litigation between Cor and the State, after Cor was paid fifteen million dollars to build it and was leasing it back to the State.
The Sorra lighting plant which was built for 90 million dollars, also by Cor, sits vacant. It will now have another fifteen million dollars spent on it in the hope it will make it attractive to another tenant.
As one who got a real up close look at bribery, extortion and corruption during the Alexander probe, it is clear to me that these projects are designed for nothing more than to generate bribes, kickbacks and political contributions.
It is no surprise that the “guest columnist” missed all of this, apparently still smarting over his electoral defeat by the Mayor.
The Mayor has a significant number of accomplishments including keeping the City solvent in the most difficult economic times, which will be her legacy when the history of these times is written.
They were apparent to me although I was a member of the Administration for only one year.
It does surprise me that the only newspaper in town, charged with reporting on civic affairs, either chose to ignore them or missed them entirely.
As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.
Happy New Year!