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Up until 2010, Jeffrey Wright spent his entire adult life working for the city of Syracuse. Now that he’s retired from the municipality, which he served in a number of capacities, he wants to go right back to working. But this time, it’s in City Hall. As a member of the Common Council. As a councilor-at-large. And, no, he’s not crazy.
“Since my retirement I have taken two looks at running for office,” Wright, 56, said. “The first was to fill the vacancy left by Bill Ryan when he went into the mayor’s administration in December 2010. That was unsuccessful. The second time was last year, in the Third Council District where Bob Dougherty received the nomination over me. Being a party person, and the fact that I believe Bob would be an excellent representative, I didn’t force a primary.”
Now with the Democratic Party machine just starting to rev up for the September primary, Wright is gearing up by speaking with ward chairs and other politicos. “This fall I began touching base with a lot of the ward chairs in the city to discuss how they see the Council, what they are looking at for the city and the councilors-at-large,” he said. “The consensus is that I should seek the nomination, even expecting that there will be competition. It’ll be good to have competition. The city is predominantly Democrat, so there won’t be competition from Republicans in a citywide race, and that’s good for the party.”
Wright resides in the Valley section of Syracuse, in the 13th Ward, Fifth District. At the time of his retirement in 2010, Wright had been appointed by Mayor Stephanie Miner to help establish a permit consultation office to facilitate permitting throughout the city. Before that, then-Mayor Matt Driscoll had promoted him to Department of Public Works commissioner when Jocko Collins retired; Wright had been working as first deputy DPW commissioner since 2002.
And unlike some political appointments, Wright actually knew the work he had been assigned to oversee. He has driven snowplows and street sweepers, supervised street maintenance workers and spent some time at Buildings and Grounds. Growing up with a Teamster father—Charlie, 81, just retired as head of the Local 317 retirees union— Wright was well-versed in labor union matters, and it followed that he would rise through the ranks of the city’s blue-collar unions as well. Those unions are affiliated with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
“That all comes from a very strong union home,” he noted. “By 1980 I had become a steward in Local 400, which progressed quickly to the chair of the grievance committee. In 1986, when I became a crew leader, I also became a board member of Local 1773 right away, and then started handling grievances for that local. I eventually became president. It’s where I learned how to start dealing with budgets.”
In his quest for Common Council, Wright has identified two area of focus so far: budgetary matters and poor communication. “I learned a lot as an employee representative with the unions and at the same time I have learned an awful lot about how the city works,” he noted. “What I can bring to the Council is insight from all levels of the DPW—from being the person in the trenches to being the person making sure we have the resources and the revenues.”
He pointed to the communication gap between the Miner administration and the Common Council during the Ida Benderson Center debacle. That’s when, in October 2011, the city shut down the senior center at 205 S. Salina St., instead paying the Salvation Army to provide similar services. It did not go over well with seniors or the Council.
“That turned into a battle between that administration and the Council that I felt was unnecessary,” Wright said. “It seemed the Council did not know that funding had been cut and the center would be eliminated. There’s a lot of reasons that could happen, but it should have been clearly noted when the budget was presented. If it wasn’t, we have a communication problem.
“But second to that,” he continued, “there needs to be somebody who can look at budget lines and see if there’s an increase, a decrease, what something means if it’s not noted. I can bring that to the Council. I can’t do it for the whole budget but at least I can help councilors understand what budget lines mean and, when significant changes to budget lines happen, you’ve got to ask questions.”
At the same time, Wright has dealt with Mayor Miner one-on-one in his former capacity, and he knows it can be difficult speaking with her. “The mayor is a very tough person, but she has a very tough job,” he acknowledged. “There aren’t a lot of people that would be open to making the decisions she is making right now without a lot of political repercussions, and I give her credit for that.
“Could I find a way to communicate with her? I don’t know,” he added, “but I’ve worked within a lot of local union structures trying to resolve differences, and then in the administration side of things as a department head doing the same thing. Was it always successful? No. But I can tell you that under my administration at the DPW, I learned how to write settlement agreements {saving time and money come contract time, or resolving grievances before they ballooned}. It’s crazy that we did a lot of them, but it helped keep people working and it kept people in line. People need to do their job, but you also try to respect that people need a job.”
Two of the four councilor-at-large seats are available this election cycle. A decision by the 19 ward chairs that represent the city will be dictated by when the primary is held.
According to Dustin Czarny, the county Democratic Elections commissioner, the traditional primary date of September may be moved earlier to comply with federal law, so stay tuned. If you reside in the city, are 18 and haven’t yet registered to vote, you can do so at mydmv.ny.gov, download a form at ongov.net/elections or register in person at 1000 Erie Blvd. W.
