The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Democratic candidates participate in town hall
ONEIDA, N.Y. >> Democratic candidates for office in Oneida sat down and told residents a little about themselves and answered the questions on their minds.
Candidates included mayoral Democratic candidate Jim Chamberlain, city court judge Democratic candidate Melissa Stearns, Madison County Supervisor Oneida Wards 1,2,3 Democratic candidate Margaret Milman-Barris, Madison County Supervisor OneidaWards 1,2,3 Make a Difference party candidate John Nichols, Madison County Supervisor OneidaWards 4,5,6 Democratic candidate Joseph Magliocca, Madison County Supervisor Oneida Wards 4,5,6 Democratic candidate A. Max Smith, Common Council Ward 1 Democratic candidate Alan Cohen, Common Council Ward 2 Democratic candidate Mi
chael Bowe, Common Council Ward 3 Democratic candidate Jim Coulthart and Common Council Ward 5 Candidate Randy Jones.
First tospeakwasStearns. Stearns outlined her qualifications and reasoning behind her running.
“I’m running for Oneida City Court Judge and I’ve been working in public service in Madison County for the last 23 years,” Stearns said. “The last 11 years, I’ve been working in the Supreme Court as Judge Donald Cerio’s principal law clerk, which is a fancy title for court attorney.”
Stearns said she does everything needed behind the scene so Cerio can spend more time on the bench, from reading motions to legal research and analysis.
“I prepare a lot of decisions for him and any decision he works on, I review as well,” Stearns said. “There’s nothing that comes out of his chamber that we both have laid eyes on.”
Stearns said she deals with a high-volume caseload andmore complex cases.
“I’m not intimidated to handle that kind of caseload in the Oneida City Court,” Stearns said. “All of the things I do as Judge Cerio’s lawclerk, a full-timecity court judge does for themselves. They don’t get a law clerk or attorney; they do it all themselves.”
Stearns saidNewYorkwill be facing changes with the implementation of bail reform and reforms to discovery. Because of these changes with no case law to make a decision, Stearns saidOneida needs a judge who is used to writing decisions that can hold up to appeal.
“I am that candidate,” Stearns said. “I can handle those duties. I have a long record of successfully writing motions that can hold up to appeals.”
Being a candidate for a judicial office, Stearns can’t comment on things outside a judge’s scope, such as taxes, infrastructure or capital projects. After her speech, Stearns joined the audience.
One of the first questions asked of the audience was asked of Milman-Barris: What have you done in the past to address the issue of getting affordable childcare to low-income families, and what would/could you do if elected?
Milman-Barris said the issue of affordable childcare is important to both the city of Oneida, MadisonCounty and across the country.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about and working on for a little while now,” Milman-Barris said. “Unfortunately, there’s just not enough childcare available in Madison County.”
Milman-Barris said that licensed childcare centers only meet 27 percent of the need inMadison County and if the ones not open to the general public are taken out of the equation, that number drops to 21 percen.y
“In Madison County, for every five kids that have two working parents, only one of those kids can go to a licensed childcare center,” Milman-Barris said. “I don’t see how you can talk about economic development without also talking about childcare.”
Milman-Barris said besides being on the board of director for Celebrations in Canastota, she worked to bring the Oneida Area Daycare Center to the front of conversations at theMadison County Board of Supervisors when it was under threat of shutting down.
The next question, for Cohen, asked about what other money-saving ventures the city of Oneida could take similar to the solar farmand street lights.
“A mini-hydro electric plant is a real possibility,” Cohen said. “I’ve spoken to our city engineer and talked to him about that, as well as an anaerobic digester for the waste-water treatment plant. It reduces solid waste and as a by-product, you’re producing biogas that can be converted into electricity that can reduce the cost of government. There are a significant amount of things that can be done, and that’s just two. There’s awhole lot more on the horizon.”
The whole group was asked what could be done about the Oneida Hotel and what they would like to see happen to it.
Milman-Barris said she’d like to see a center for youth to have activities. “Especially for pre-teens and teens,” she added.
Nichols said while there are some choices where to eat in Oneida, there aren’t many. “I wouldn’t mind seeing it restored to something attractive,” he said.
“Aproposed project for the OneidaHotelwas included in the city’s downtown revitalization initiative grant application last year,” Magliocca said. “A potential renovation was included for that structure, but what I’d like to see? I remember when it was a banquet facility. I remember there were active bars and restaurants there. I think it can serve in some capacity as that anchor again.”
Smith said when he becamemayor, the Oneida Hotel was the forefront of his mind about what could be done. “I had hoped it was delinquent on taxes, and the city could take ownership but that wasn’t the case. The building was completely up to date,” Smith said. “I met the owner and encouraged him to work with us to get something done.”
Smith said he had seen architectural plans drawn up for the building, but there were challenges like a lack of parking and it being economically unviable without grants or other assistance.
Chamberlain said he can envision things like office space, restaurants, a beauty store, first floor retail, and age-restricted apartments.
“It was booming once and I think we can still do something,” Chamberlain said. “It’s going to take good dialog with the owner.”
Cohen saidwhile there are a lot of wonderful ideas for the building, it all boils down to the owner of the Oneida Hotel.
“I’m hoping we can work with the owner and that we could do something,” Cohen said. “I don’t think there’s anybody at this table that doesn’t want to give the owner the support he needs so he can move the building forward and be something spectacular again.”
Bowe said everything seems to come down to money.
“Something needs to be done, and we need to get creative,” Bowe said. “We need to, as a council, work with the owner to find some means to do it.”
Coulthart saidhewants to see the blue facade removed from the building and look at some mixed-use of the facility.
“I like the idea of office space or some boutique stores,” Coulthart said. “But as Max said, there are some real-world problems tomake it happen.”
Jones said he doesn’t have any specific idea for the building and if he did, he would have bought it years ago.
“I do believe that at some point, the money will come in,” Jones said. “That building, in my mind, would be the start of giving downtown Oneida its identity. I think downtown will improve on itself, homeowners will start to improve themselves and the money to look for to improve one building can be used to look for more and just continue down the street.”
Jones added that he does not want to see something like apartments in the Oneida Hotel.
This is the first year New York state has access to early voting. For more information and early voting schedules, read online at oneidadispatch.com