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Running Man Veteran candidate Joe Nicoletti isn’t worried about the future: He wants to be mayor for now By Walt Shepperd
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oe Nicoletti believes he can win the city of Syracuse’s coming mayoral election for two reasons: He has an incredible amount and range of experience in governance and civic administration, and his age. At 69, he notes, he is younger than Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
“Hey, they all wanted to be president,” he reflects. “I just want to be mayor.” At his age, he observes, he doesn’t have the future to worry about. “I’ll be the mayor for now,” he projects, “and leave this city booming for the future.” Approaching the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, he has the Working Families Party nomination, assuring him of a line on the Nov. 7 ballot. He is also billing himself as the real progressive in the race, with a campaign slogan of “We are as strong as what the least of us has.” His relevant experience, he maintains, included tenure on the Common Council and state Assembly and a stint as an administrator at City Hall under former Republican Mayor Roy Bernardi. He has also logged extensive mayoral campaign experience, although not, he insists, the four previous shots The Post-Standard attributes. When cited as contemplating switching parties to run as a Republican in 2000, a move state Sen. John DeFrancisco is credited with crushing, Nicoletti says it wasn’t real. He says this time will be the fourth. What is your job description for Syracuse mayor? I know this can be a better city. I could tell you that it is important to have a mayor who is a communicator, a consensus
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8.16.17 - 8.22.17 | syracusenewtimes.com
builder, a cooperator, a dreamer, someone that can deal with all the contested people, someone who can take themself out of the universal equation and do it not for themself but for the people they represent. The man or woman must be compassionate. He or she must be dedicated. But also a mayor must be experienced. A mayor must have relationships and a mayor must understand that it’s great to look to the past, but it’s more important to look to the future. Should we metropolitanize the city and county governments? If you’re talking about the model that’s been suggested to us, I don’t believe that model will work. And I say that respectfully. I believe that all good sharing of services doesn’t go from the top down, but rather comes from the bottom up. I’ve learned that, not only in the classrooms, but I’ve learned it through experience. I also believe that if we’re going to talk about sharing services in a massive way, that the school district needs to be on the table. Unless we can deal with that, I don’t see us making much progress. I am one that believes that the first day in office that my conversations with the county executive will be, “How do