After 16 years, the city of Auburn has a new mayor.
After 4-term Auburn mayor Mike Quill announced he would not seek reelection, Democrat city councilor Jimmy Giannettino decided to seek a new role in city government. Born and raised in Auburn, Giannettio said there is something about his hometown that keeps him wanting to serve.
“I value what Auburn is and what it has to offer,” Giannettino said. “And as I talked to folks that were currently in office and some of the challenges we were facing as a community, I felt that I wanted to do my part to address those challenges.”
For Giannettino, the biggest item to tackle is the city’s water quality. He said threats to the Owasco Lake environment are jeopardizing the city’s access to clean fresh water and working with the state has not brought enough significant changes so far.
“We all felt that we are just at this impasse where the right things are not being done to protect our water quality,” Giannettino said. “I am hoping we can work through those things. We have to work through those things. Our economy counts on it, our access to safe drinking water and obviously for future generations.”
Giannettino said addressing quality of life issues is also a high priority.
“We really can’t progress forward collectively as a community when there are segments of the population who are suffering from things like addiction and homelessness and mental health issues,” Giannettino said.
Another thing Giannettino said could be a turnaround for the community is the growth of the tech industry in central New York.
“I honestly believe that Micron presents an opportunity for all of central New York to really address the issues that we’ve been dealing with in the past two to three decades when industry started leaving the northeast,” Giannettino said.
Giannettino has been in office since January 1.
