The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
City of Oneida Ward 3 councilor candidates
The following are answers from the City of Oneida Ward 3 candidates to community questions. Each candidate has 700words.
How do you anticipate building a working relationship with the Oneida Indian Nation?
James Coulthart: There now seems to be established protocols in place for the City to work in cooperation with the businesses of the Oneida Indian Nation. I feel our continued approach with the Nation should be to treat it like any other business in our community. For instance, are they going about establishing or expanding their businesses with the same municipal approvals that other businesses need to? Do they adhere to local ordinances for health & safety, environmental impacts, traffic regulations, etc.? As with other businesses in our City, their employees travel the roads located and maintained by the City; the children of Oneida Nation business employees go to the same schools other children do in the City. The same fire/ police services are available to all in our city. My expectation is, just as with other businesses, there should be revenue to support services in place for the common good of all. Jason Tiffin: The working relationship with the Oneida Indian Nation and the City of Oneida is one that will have to be facilitated with NYS through our Supervisors at the County level. If elected, I would be all for having our councilmen sit in a session with our county reps, state reps and members of the Oneida Indian Nation to see if we can work together on improving our relationship with the Oneida Indian Nation. Together, we can hopefully work towards positive results that would benefit the citizens of Oneida for years to come. Joseph Zifchock: The Oneida Indian Nation is an economic force in our area. They employ the most people in our region, possess a wonderful brand and bring in the most visitors. I am running for office to grow the Oneida community. I would seek a relationship that would spur on growth in Oneida and will enhance the Oneida Indian Nation’s strategic direction. Perhaps it’s building housing to attract more workers to the area? Building businesses that supply goods at reasonable prices?
What would you do to support police and advocacy groups in the fight against the drug epidemic?
James Coulthart: Drug addiction and opioid abuse is unfortunately a widespread societal problem that impacts all segments of society. I feel resources and plans to attack the epidemic should start locally but be coordinated at the county, regional, and state levels to make the most of resources. The first step should be a public awareness and education program. Addicts need to know recovery begins with them and only they can truly change their behaviors. Community based organizations and medical entities should offer detox and rehabilitation assistance programs but the individual must want to control their addiction first. Law enforcement can play a role by establishing community watch programs and by fostering good relationships with populations who are more likely to become addicts. Next, healthcare professionals should be educated to spot and treat addictive behavior, and work to prescribe fewer prescription pain medications and encourage alternative therapies. Jason Tiffin: I support the police and advocacy groups in their fight against our drug epidemic 100%. Both should have ALL the available resources at their disposal to help them do their jobs to make things safer for us and to keep the citizens more informed. And if there isn’t something available to them, if elected, I will do my best to make sure they get what they need. Joseph Zifchock: The crisis exists not because of our laws, not because of our police forces efforts and not because of our judiciary. It exists on a many of levels. A few that affect us locally: lack of funding for the mentally ill (and addictive personalities) and lack of jobs and opportunities locally. I will continue to advocate for services and funding for the mentally ill both at the state and federal levels. More importantly I will work to bring opportunity to people to give them a sense of purpose and self-direction in their lives.
How do you plan on addressing the exodus of young people from the region?
James Coulthart: I am not sure there is a definitive way to keep young people here. Oneida does not have a diverse enough business base to employ all youth who may want to stay here. However, Oneida can accentuate and expand upon it’s real appeal: It is a great place to live and to raise a family. That means we should work on the quality of life issues that will be attractive for families who commute to Syracuse or Utica for their employment. That means investing in pleasant green spaces, offering community based family oriented programs and entertainment, schools and education programs, working on improving amenities such as the new library and civic facilities which families can use to build their own great memories. Jason Tiffin: The mass exodus of the younger people in the region may not be specifically the fault of the city itself, but if elected, I would be willing to entertain any ideas our citizens might have to bring them back here. With the new library coming, maybe we could offer some technical classes there to teach kids a skill or set of skills for them to use later in life. Maybe approach some of our businesses in town to see if they would be willing to offer internships to our younger kids, which again, would help the younger kids later in their lives. Also, improving the quality of life in the city may turn some heads and get the younger generation to say, “Huh… Oneida really isn’t a bad place to live and raise a family.” Our main goal should be to get people to stay and want to stay, not leave because the city has nothing to offer them. Joseph Zifchock: Simply put, give our young adults a reason to stay or come back to this area. My goal is to provide them with growth opportunities both personally and professionally. I want young families, professionals and tradesmen to feel that there are employment opportunities in and around Oneida. I also want them to feel that their families can flourish in Oneida – supporting education, delivering resources and exposing them to the arts. Our families need to feel safe and secure and have great medical personnel and facilities close by. We have a good start, we just need to add to what we have.
Do you favor or oppose a state constitutional convention and why?
James Coulthart: Another way to look at this question is,” Does the State of New York function as well as it should to serve the needs of it’s residents?” I am certain all would agree that there is plenty of room for improvement. Some things which need a deeper look into include: funding of Medicaid, levels of taxation, providing repairs to our aging roads/bridges/ transit systems, equity of services provided to Upstate and Downstate counties and municipalities. All this said, a constitution convention should protect the institutions which are performing well and protect our excellent public service unions and teachers unions. Jason Tiffin: The NY People’s Convention outlines at least a dozen issues that could be addressed at the constitutional convention. The list includes strengthening public worker protections by preventing changes to employee pension contributions, giving equal rights to women and the establishment of an environmental bill of rights. A nice thing about the necessity of a constitutional convention is in its ability to reform the system and empower the people of New York to facilitate needed change. So, for that reason I would be for the Convention. On the opposite end of that though, the Con Con as it has been referred to, could cost the Tax payers up to and possible over, $100 million dollars, which could most certainly be used more effectively on other things our state needs. So, for this reason I would be against it.
Joseph Zifchock: The reasons for holding a state constitutional convention are many: First, reducing the extraordinary influence that our Assembly Speaker, Senate Majority Leader and our Governor have in our state budget process. Another is providing ethics reform in our governing body. Yet another is enacting long-term legislation in the area of campaign finance reform. However, I am against the convention due first to its estimated cost, right now projected at $335 Million. And secondly, and more importantly, due to how the 204 delegates could be elected to the convention. I am opposed to any elected official or state legislator serving as delegates to the convention (besides double-dipping on salaries it seems to me that this would be a conflict of interest.) I believe a more equitable approach would be to utilize a Mixed Member Proportional methodology that would exclude elected officials and state legislators. This would truly give state government back to the people. Also, we currently have another way to change the state constitution – by utilizing the Public Referendum process. We’ve amended the state constitution over 200times using this approach.
What experience do you have with multi-million-dollar budgets?
James Coulthart: I have served in mid-level staff positions within several multi-million dollar nonprofit agencies for 36 years. For the last four years I have been the chief executive officer for a nonprofit business association with an annual operating budget of a quarter of a million dollars. Jason Tiffin: I currently assist with an over a million-dollar operating budget in which the Chief of Operations, our Office Manager and myself, the Assistant Chief of Operations, all work together as a team to allocate money to the areas where they are needed most. This involves doing multiple needs assessment evaluations and then putting the results of the assessments into place to benefit not only our employees, but also the citizens of the county we serve. This will be very beneficial as a councilman as we need to do these types of assessments to figure out how the citizens of our city will benefit the most from the budget we come up with. Joseph Zifchock: After graduating from LeMoyne College with a degree in accounting I had the privilege of working for an international accounting firm, now known as Deloitte and Touche. I worked on subsidiary audits of General Motors, John Deere and Bank of New York to name a few. All of these businesses/ subsidiaries had budgets in the millions of dollars. I also audited Oneida Ltd. and later worked for them for 30years, leaving Oneida as the VP of Foodservice Operations in 2009. During my tenure at Oneida I worked in various financial capacities: Auditor, Staff Accountant, Financial Director for our Irish subsidiary, Corporate Manager of Financial Analysis, Planning and Control (producing, managing and analyzing a budget of $500million dollars.) In addition to my CPA, I earned a MBA (Concentrations in Finance/ Logistics) at Syracuse University while attending night school. In 2009 I went to work at what is now Eaton Crouse-Hinds. Crouse-Hinds’ business is in the oil and gas markets and has revenues around $2 billion. In my position I managed the world-wide cash flow for CrouseHinds. Crouse-Hinds operates in over 100countries. Now retired, I volunteer as Treasurer of the ARC of Madison Cortland counties, a $20million organization. In addition, on October 27th I was elected Treasurer of the ARC of New York, the administrative headquarters for the 48+ ARC chapters in NY State. Combined, this organization has assets and revenues of $1.2 billion and $1.8billion, respectively.