League of Women’s Voters to Hold Candidate Forum at GIAC on June 8

By Matt Dougherty

This is an important election season for everyone living in the City of Ithaca as every seat on the Common Council and the office of the Mayor are up for grabs for the first time in ten years on November 7.

To provide voters with more information about the candidates ahead of the June 27 primary, the League of Women Voters of Tompkins County has announced they will be holding a Candidates’ Forum for every candidate who is participating in one of the five contested Ward Primaries for City of Ithaca Common Council on June 8 at 7:00 p.m. at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC). The last date to register to vote in these primary elections or change your party is June 17.

In addition to the League of Women’s Voters, the event is being co-sponsored by Your Voice - Your Vote: The Tompkins Civic Engagement Coalition. With their support, organizers of the forum hope to reach out to and involve groups of people who do not normally vote, or who believe their vote and therefore their voice is of no consequence.

All candidates will give their opening Statements in the Gym and this portion of the evening will be Live Streamed on YouTube. Full details will be posted at https:// lwvtompkins.org/.

Questions to candidates can be submitted both now and during the event at lwvtompkins.info@gmail.com. After making their opening statements, candidates for the First, Second, and Third Wards, along with their audiences, will move to different rooms in GIAC for a question and answer period followed by final statements. Fifth Ward candidates and their audience will stay in the Gym. Video recordings are planned for this portion of the Forum and will be posted at https://lwvtompkins.org/.

The rare opportunity to reshape local government in its entirety has seen progressive forces band together to move the City of Ithaca, which has been a longtime liberal democratic stronghold, further to the left.

New York State’s progressive third party, the Working Families Party, has endorsed nine candidates in contested primary races for a spot on the Common Council. They have also endorsed Robert Cantelmo in his uncontested run for Mayor. The party usually cross-endorses the Democratic candidate to provide whoever wins the primary with an additional line on the November ballot but has also been known to support progressive challengers to more liberal democrats. The third-party has grown in influence over the years and in 2022 received support from over 13% of voters in Tompkins County, which was the highest percentage of any county in the state.

Additionally, five of the nine Working Families Party candidates have received endorsements from the Ithaca Solidarity Slate, which is supported by local activist groups such as the Ithaca Tenants Union and the Democratic Socialists of America. In 2021, the Solidarity Slate managed to get Fourth Ward representative Jorge DeFendini and Second Ward representative Phoebe Brown elected to the Common Council. Both are running for reelection this year, with Brown vying for the two-year term in Ithaca’s First Ward as a result of redistricting.

The two incumbent slate candidates are hoping to welcome three additional slate candidates — Kayla Matos, West Fox, and Dr. Nathan Sitaraman — to the Common Council if they’re able to win upcoming primary elections that are taking place on June 27.

In a city that has taken pride in professing leftwing values, the primary races will be a defining moment that will see Ithaca’s residents decide whether or not they want to see the city move further to the left.

The primary races have seen issues raised regarding renter protections, improving public transportation, taxing Cornell University — which occupies roughly 60% of tax-exempt city property — and cost of living concerns due to skyrocketing housing prices which have made Ithaca the most expensive small city in the country to rent a one-bedroom apartment, according to a recent survey by Dewllsy.

A one-bedroom apartment in Harold’s Square on the Commons has prices ranging from $2,155 to $3,240 per month. The Ithacan has one-bedroom apartments ranging from $2,898 to $3,200 per month. And the City Centre complex has one-bedroom apartments ranging from $2,895 to a whopping $5,735 per month. In Harold’s Square, The Ithacan, and City Centre, even the lowest-priced studio apartment would cost

$1,590, $2,285, and $2,608 per month respectively.

In a city where the renter population is double the national average at 74% with the average individual earning about $41,786 per year, the housing prices mentioned above are a slap in the face to renters. High housing costs have left 56% of renters cost-burdened, meaning that they’re paying more than 30% of their income on housing, and 41% of renters are severely cost-burdened paying more than 50% of their income on housing. Increasing housing costs have also resulted in a growing population of unhoused individuals, which has prompted local officials to debate whether or not they should enforce a camping ban in certain areas of the city. As a result, housing issues are sure to be a major factor when it comes down to who voters will choose to support.

In response to these housing issues, Solidarity Slate candidates have advocated for policies such as the Home Together Tompkins Plan, the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, and Good Cause Eviction. The latter of which has been held up by the New York State Supreme Court after it ruled that local Good Cause Eviction laws are preempted by state law, meaning that they can only be passed at the state level.

Almost every candidate has made negotiating a higher contribution from Cornell as part of the universities’ Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) a major part of their platforms. The Solidarity Slate website lists “Tax the Rich — And Cornell” as one of their major priorities. They say that funds from Cornell should be used to lower the tax burden on renters and homeowners and make public transportation through TCAT free.

Before announcing her run for local office, Fabrizio wrote an article in the Ithaca Times explaining that“if all property were taxable in Ithaca, the city tax rate would drop more than 50% and the Ithaca City School District tax rate would decrease 45%.” and that “If all Cornell property was taxable at the same rate as all homeowners pay, Cornell would owe the city $33 million, the county $15 million, and the school district $46 million.”

The power to remove Cornell’s tax-exempt status lies with the state government and is out of local control, but the local government does have the authority to negotiate an increased PILOT from the university. Under Cornell’s current PILOT agreement, they contribute just $1,575,204 to the city, but Fabrizio has said that the city should ask for a minimum contribution of $8.25 million.

An overview of each race and the priorities of the candidates can be found below.

The First Ward

Ithaca’s First Ward will see a primary race for the 4-year term between Southside Community Center Deputy Director Kayla Matos and longtime Common Council member Cynthia Brock. Matos has received endorsements from the Working Families Party and the Solidarity Slate. During a Solidarity Slate rally in April, Matos said she decided to run to bring “real change and real representation” to the city. She continued by saying that she is a “progressive democratic socialist that wants resources fairly distributed.”

Matos has told the Ithaca Times that the most important issue the city currently faces is a lack of affordable housing. Her top three priorities if elected would be to create a more affordable housing market, increase support for community organizations, and assure that the city continues to “see out the process around reimagining public safety.”

If elected, Matos says that she would work to incentivize more affordable housing by looking at adjusting tax abatements currently in place in the city. Additionally, Matos said that she is interested in increasing the amount that developers have to pay if they do not include affordable housing units within their developments.

In response to questions regarding Cornell University’s contributions to the city, Matos said, “Cornell University has to contribute more to the city. Cornell is one of the city’s biggest stakeholders, and with owning about 60% of Tompkins I do believe that the university could do more to support the city that their students and faculty are a part of.”

When asked how she plans on balancing accomplishing the goals of reimagining public safety with addressing what some residents perceive as an increase in crime, Matos explained that she views crime as a direct result of a lack of resources. According to Matos, “addressing such things as an increase in affordable housing, creating more access to mental health services, and providing our community with more food programs so that we are not food insecure are steps in the right direction that leads to a decrease in crime.”

Despite not receiving endorsements from the progressive groups looking to capitalize on the transitory state of local government, Cynthia Brock has built a reputation as a dedicated city official who knows how the gears of local government operate. She is hoping to bring a sense of stability to the Common Council as the city works toward hiring a permanent Chief of Police and its first City Manager. In February Brock told the Times, “I was thinking about this transition for the city and felt that I had something to offer in terms of both institutional knowledge and attentiveness to the nitty gritty of city operations.”

Brock recently told the Ithaca Times that “The most tangible measure of our community’s success is how we support our most socially and economically vulnerable.” Brock said that her top priorities include addressing “Housing shortages, flooding, the growing number of unhoused, development and affordability, [and] disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-income communities.”

Regarding the issue of flooding, Brock said, “The majority of the new First Ward is in the 100-year flood plain, and our vulnerability to flooding is increasing with climate change and our warming environment. We need both short-term and long-term plans to address and mitigate the impacts of climate change on residents.”

If re-elected, Brock has said that she would incentivize affordable housing by seeking to eliminate tax abatements for developers, and “urge Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency to stop granting tax abatements to housing development projects that do not demonstrate a significant community benefit.” She would also work to increase partnerships with the county to assist the unhoused community, as well as “fund and manage our regional assets such as our waterfront parks, natural areas, and recreational resources.”

Brock has said that “any City policy on homelessness is incomplete without the partnership and commitment from the County… We need a system of wraparound services at approved encampment areas to ensure that residents’ needs are met while they wait for housing to become available.” Brock added, “The City does not have the resources, jurisdiction, or expertise to address these challenges alone.”

When asked if Cornell should contribute more to the City, Brock said, “Cornell’s contribution to the City does not come close to adequately compensating the City for the services we provide.” She continued saying that the university should contribute more funding towards the fire service that the city provides, as well as more funding to maintain city roads and infrastructure that serve Cornell’s campus. According to Brock, “It is absolutely fair and reasonable for Cornell to contribute more than $1.6 million to the City of Ithaca.”

The Second Ward

The Second Ward will see a race for the ward’s two-year term between community organizers Aryeal Jackson and West Fox and current Fifth Ward representative Kris Haines-Sharp. Sharp was appointed to fill the seat previously occupied by Mayor Laura Lewis in the Fifth Ward in February and has said that she would work on behalf of both landlords and tenants to increase the amount of affordable housing in the city. Jackson has recently received an endorsement from former Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick who said that she would insist on instituting a living wage for all workers and address housing issues that are displacing communities through gentrification. Fox has obtained endorsements from the Working Families Party and Solidarity Slate and has prioritized a message of grassroots movement building in their campaign.

Sharp has told the Ithaca Times that the most important issues the city currently faces are housing affordability, implementing reimagining public safety and the Green New Deal, along with addressing the risk of flooding. If elected, Sharp said that her top priorities would be “supporting city workers, listening to constituents and being responsive to needs, and voting in accordance with my values of integrity, compassion, and honesty.”

In regards to increasing affordable housing, Sharp said that she would advocate for inclusionary zoning to “require developers to set aside 20% of their units for lower and moderate-income people.” She continued saying that in her position on the Program Oversight Committee for the CHDF, she will “support funding projects that create affordable housing that will remain so in perpetuity.”

When asked if Cornell should contribute more to the City Sharp said “Yes, Cornell should contribute more…the financial burdens on the city are disproportionate to the amount Cornell contributes.” In addition,

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