After an unsuccessful bid for the Onondaga County Legislature, Democrat Timothy Rudd is running for Syracuse's Common Council. Rudd said he is not opposed to the idea of one day merging the governments of the county and the city.
Rudd said he opposes the current Consensus proposal to merge the governments.
“I think right now it looks like dissolving the city into the county structure, just adding a few more seats to ensure there would be some minority representation," Rudd said. "That could be tokenism very quickly. Just because you have a few minority seats doesn’t mean they will ever have access to resources or real power."
But he said ultimately, a new governing body would help enact Consensus’ other recommendations for service consolidation and more.
"If you don’t have a new government that has a more regional outlook, then none of these problems will be addressed," Rudd said. "Schools will remain unaddressed. The zoning restrictions will remain unaddressed. The revenue sharing of new development will remain unaddressed.”
Focusing on the needs of Syracuse, Rudd said he wants to create more jobs for the city’s youth.
“There’s no reason that we shouldn’t connect a population that needs more jobs with work that government needs done," Rudd said. "Whether that means that government hires people directly or whether that means that we require contractors to hire people from the neighbhorhoods.”
Rudd said there is no shortage of work that could be done in Syracuse whether it’s tearing down vacant homes, replacing sidewalks or adding trees.
"I see curbs that could be installed to make busy intersections more walkable," Rudd said. "Crosswalks can be added. This is all work that city residents can do."
And Rudd said there is no shortage of issues facing Syracuse.
"Whether its vacant homes or people living in homes that aren't up to par, with children being exposed to lead, a lack of employment opportunities for people, schools where half the students graduate and half don't," Rudd said.
But he said he is optimistic about the city's future with growing industries in the area around drones and sensor technology.
"There may not be the traditional manufacturing jobs that really allowed us to grow and thrive in the past, but there's going to be different jobs," Rudd said.
Rudd and Councilor Khalid Bey are running for two open councilor-at-large seats in November.
