Copyright syracuse.com
Syracuse, N.Y. – One of the first things Syracuse’s newly elected mayor plans to do is advertise for someone to fill her previous position as deputy mayor. Mayor-elect Sharon Owens, who won her first bid for public office Tuesday, said she will need a deputy mayor who is steeped in economic development to complement her background in nonprofit housing and community service. By finding that person, she hopes to re-establish the yin and yang that has characterized City Hall leadership for the past eight years, when Mayor Ben Walsh drew on Owens’ experience at nonprofit groups to round out his familiarity with the world of private investment. Owens said she has some “ideas of individuals who would be interested,” but she will solicit outside applicants. “The mayor was the brain for economic development,” Owens said. “I know I need to fill that space, and I need that person next to me.” Owens, a 62-year-old Democrat, will take office in January as the city’s first Black mayor and its second female mayor. She spent the past eight years as Walsh’s deputy but had never campaigned for office. She was surprised by the name-calling and nastiness, she said. Owens’ leadership comes at a time of great transition for Syracuse. The elevated highway bisecting downtown will soon be taken down, making way for a new neighborhood. The massive chip fabs to be built by Micron Technology in nearby Clay will rise, spawning jobs. Owens wants to seize the opportunity presented by those changes. She wants every city resident to have a decent, lead-free home and a good-paying job. She wants to make sure all the teens and tweens show up for class and have recreational opportunities and summer jobs. She wants everyone to feel safe and no one to lose a package to porch pirates. But Owens is enough of a realist to see that she may have to play defense just to maintain the status quo. Federal funding cuts to a variety of programs that affect cities, the full scope of which has yet to be seen, could exert new pressure on a city that already struggles with structural budget deficits. Owens expects that one of her city lawyers may spend all their time keeping track of President Trump’s executive orders and evaluating the city’s options to adjust. “So how can city government really help in that, exploring what are the paths, particularly in the (next) three years under this administration, that we should be preparing contingency plans for and pathways for?” she said. Owens, a Geneva native, graduated from Syracuse University in 1985 with a degree in economics and a bunch of track-and-field trophies. Her first job out of college was running youth programs at the Dunbar Center on the South Side, and she spent the next three decades rising through a series of leadership roles at some of Syracuse’s most consequential nonprofit agencies. She worked as family services director at PEACE Inc., assistant director at Jubilee Homes, and homeownership center director at Home HeadQuarters. After a three-year stint at City Hall, working as deputy commissioner of neighborhood and business development for former Mayor Stephanie Miner, Owens returned to the nonprofit sector in 2013 to run Syracuse Model Neighborhood Facility, the nonprofit that oversees Southwest Community Center. She is credited with turning around the center, which had fallen on hard financial times as the programs it offered dwindled. Walsh recruited Owens in 2018 to be his deputy mayor. Owens said she and Walsh worked well together. But now that she is in the top job, Owens plans to set her own course. For the next two months, Owens plans to listen. She will convene experts on subjects like housing, job training, small business development, and youth services. She also plans to meet with neighborhood groups to discuss those issues. The advice and feedback derived from the meetings will help Owens set her agenda for the first months of her tenure, she said. The mayor-elect also has been invited to a three-day workshop for new mayors in December sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The program aims to help mayors home in on goals for their first 100 days in office. The Syracuse mayor’s job pays $150,000, about $5,000 more than Owens earned this year as deputy mayor, according to online salary records maintained by the nonprofit Empire Center. During her campaign this year, Owens has had several close advisors who will likely have her ear as mayor. They include Walt Dixie, her friend and former boss at Jubilee Homes, a housing and workforce training nonprofit; Monica Williams, a former Onondaga County legislator who is now the county’s chief diversity officer; and Rickey Brown, a minority business consultant and former director of the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance. Besides choosing a deputy mayor, Owens faces an immediate need to name a new police chief. Joe Cecile, the current chief, will retire in January after more than 40 years. Owens said she will choose the next chief from within the department. She is nearing a decision. “I have a couple people to talk to,” she said. As she went door to door during the campaign, public safety and crime-related quality of life issues were the concerns she heard about most often, Owens said. Both violent and property crime are down this year, she said, but remain a problem. At the fire department, Chief Michael Monds “is going to stick around for a while,” Owens said. There will likely be other changes in senior leadership, but Owens said it’s too soon to say who’s coming or going. She plans to meet with the current department heads and directors this month and next before announcing changes. After eight years at City Hall, Owens is well-acquainted with the personnel. Many of them could make more money in the private sector, she said. Owens and her family live on Edgemont Drive, a quiet hilltop street near the eastern edge of Syracuse. Her husband, Shaun, 60, is retired from driving a truck for UPS. Her daughter, Simone, 35, is a poet and artist who lives downtown. Her son, Isaac, 25, an OCC graduate, is on the autism spectrum and lives at home. They are all members of Jericho Faith Ministries, a non-denominational church in Geneva with about 50 members. Her mother, Ester Daniels, 81, founded the church and is the lead pastor. Until recently, Owens had served as an assistant pastor. But the demands of campaigning have kept her away from services in Geneva, as will the demands of being mayor, she said. In Syracuse, Owens attends various churches. “I float around,” she said. “I love a good worship service, and we have some great churches in this community.” For someone who had never run for office before, Owens pulled off an impressive victory Tuesday. She achieved similar success in the Democratic primary in June. She did so with muted support from her own party. The party chose Common Councilor Pat Hogan as its designated candidate going into the primary, and some prominent Democrats declined to endorse Owens even after she won the primary. Of the 10 members of the all-Democratic city council, only five are listed on her campaign mailings as supporters of Owens. For every new mayor, the question of how they will get along with the council looms large. Owens said she is committed to ongoing dialogue with city lawmakers, to whom she will propose a budget in April. “I’ve always been about collaboration,” she said. One of Owens’ highest priorities is housing, she said. She has been critical of the city’s public housing agency, the Syracuse Housing Authority, and its executive director Bill Simmons. In concert with a private developer, the SHA has begun a project to replace 672 units of public housing in the East Adams Street corridor and build 600 additional apartments. After efforts stalled to develop a YMCA-anchored children’s center, Owens and other critics questioned whether SHA had enough management capacity to handle the project on top of running the authority’s housing portfolio. Owens this week said she will replace SHA board members as their terms expire in an effort to improve the leadership. She noted that only the board – and not the mayor – has the authority to hire and fire the director. “I have to act within the laws and the bylaws,” she said. “As people term off, I’m definitely changing board leadership.” Owens is considering other initiatives. She may propose a pilot program to buy vacant or run-down houses rather than wait for them to become tax delinquent enough to seize in foreclosure, she said. She is planning to boost the role of transportation planning at City Hall. With the pending demolition of the Interstate 81 viaduct, the potential for traffic disruptions is bound to surge, she said. Although the city school district is not managed by City Hall, Owens said she might ask the Common Council to create an ex-officio, non-voting position on the school board to be filled by a city government representative. That member could serve as a liaison between the mayor’s office and the school board. Any initiatives that Owens pursues would have to be approved and budgeted for by the Common Council. Earlier this year, tempers flared when the council unanimously voted to override Walsh’s veto and cut $16 million from his proposed budget. Two councilors – Pat Hogan and Chol Majok – ran for mayor but lost to Owens in the Democratic primary. Owens said she plans to meet with councilors in the coming weeks to discuss her ideas. She has already reached out to Common Councilor Rita Paniagua, who won her uncontested race for council president Tuesday. Paniagua is one of five councilors who endorsed Owens. “You know, the budget is a responsibility of both arms of the local government,” Owens said. “Let’s get together and start talking about what our collective priorities are.”
