In a little over a month, two new Syracuse Common Councilors will take their seats in chambers in City Hall. The political novices, both Democrats, ran unopposed in the recent election.
COUNCILOR-AT-LARGE-ELECT HANAH EHRENREICH
Ehrenreich acknowledged her inexperience for elected office.
“This is the first election I've won. I am reading tomes of information every day,” she said.
But she said her work in non-profits has informed her of the needs and challenges facing the city.
“Whether it's small grocery stores that connect to local food systems, whether it is fully redeveloped public and private housing that meets the actual needs of our community," Ehrenreich said. "When we think about them on a 10-year time frame, we have to think specifically about how we build a coalition, where we get funding from, and what we need to do.”
She said those priorities can help tackle the city’s deep and persistent poverty.
“But it also starts with not saddling people with debt that they cannot ever hope to escape," Ehrenreich said. "Medical debt is one of those things. Literacy is one of those things.”
Ehrenreich identifies herself as a Democratic Socialist, following a platform of beliefs that she said are the baseline of human rights.
“I care if kids can't read. I care that other children at school are hungry. I care that we have people in this town who sleep cold," she said. "I don't want any of that to happen. And the way that I can see to fix it is to create government and a society that is founded on human rights, that these things shouldn't exist.”
Ehrenreich said she ran for office because she felt moved by a vision for a better quality of life that includes parks, public art, better mass transit, and safer, walkable streets.
SECOND DISTRICT COUNCILOR-ELECT DONNA MOORE
Improving services and skills for the city’s most vulnerable residents is something Donna Moore has done firsthand as director of workforce development at the Northeast Community Center.
“Probably 80% of the people that come to us don't have high school diplomas. So we put a GED program in conjunction with the school district into our community center," Moore said. "We also saw a huge need from new Americans not understanding English. So we put an ESL class into our community center.”
Moore plans to bring that problem solving ability to the council for her Tipperary Hill district. She said the city needs to improve its budgeting process, and she hopes Mayor-elect Sharon Owens will be transparent. This year's budget process unfolded into an ugly battle between the mayor's office and council.
“I hope she will work closer with the council to create a good budget, a sustainable budget that's not going to raise our taxes," Moore said. "And that it's going to accomplish the things that people are asking for. Police response is a huge one in our community. It's just huge.”
Moore said the city is a little top heavy with administrators, and feels the mayor’s office has allowed too much spending.
“I've worked with budgets before. I understand that it's a really tough process," she said. "In a city where we are not flush with funds, we have to really be conscientious about how we're budgeting. Sometimes you have to lay people off. We do it in business all the time and the city up to this point has not seemed willing to do that.”
Moore’s other priorities include an ongoing focus on workforce development and better public transportation to help city residents get to jobs in the suburbs.
Moore said she's chatted with current councilor Pat Hogan, whom she succeeds, and plans deeper conversations in the coming weeks. She calls him a strong voice for the city and respects his work, though they don't agree on everything.
