The newest Onondaga County Executive is presenting a series of Town Hall Meetings in an attempt to reach out to public and get acquainted and also to learn what’s on their minds and to achieve community goals.
Ryan McMahon says in order for that to happen, he wants to be accessible.
“The great thing about being County Executive is that you represent every person in the county. I want to be their advocate at the county level and I want to bring that voice to Albany and Washington when I have to. And to do that, I need to know what they need me to talk about. I need to hear their voices at times.”
He says the poverty issues aren’t just a problem in the City of Syracuse, it also spans into the suburbs and rural areas.
“We are knee deep in the poverty problem because we’re the ones who have the responsibility and the task of dealing with Medicaid, dealing with temporary assistance with all of our programming. So this is what we do. So we need to instead of just administer these programs.”
…That’s why the County Executive wants to constantly be searching for strategies to address the root causes to poverty and not limit the discussion once a year when annual reports are published. McMahon also wants to modernize public infrastructure below the ground like water and sewer systems to improve neighborhoods and add jobs.
“And that goes into our second topic of economic development and what that looks like with a job retention-based strategy, reengaging with our businesses that are here to look at what expansion opportunities we have. Can we recruit suppliers of these businesses? Look at and specifically target economic clusters.”
McMahon already met with constituents in Fayetteville, Onondaga Community College and Southwest Community Center in Syracuse. His next stop is Thursday night at Skaneateles Town Hall at 6:30 p.m.
The dates and locations for additional town halls are as follows:
Tuesday, December 11th at 6:30 p.m.
Clay Town Hall
4401 Route 31
Clay, NY 13041
Thursday, December 13th at 6:30 p.m.
Cicero Town Hall
8236 Brewerton Road
Cicero, NY 13039
Monday, December 17th at 6:30 p.m.
Salina Town Hall
201 School Road
Liverpool, NY 13088