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Decades ago, the City of Schenectady was home to good-paying jobs, world-renowned innovation, and a terrific quality of life. The City of Schenectady – our City – proudly led the world.



That was then, this is now. Today, our City has seen four years of declining property values, rising taxes, heightened concern about crime, streets in disrepair, and hard-working taxpayers disenfranchised by a Mayor who, sadly, doesn’t listen and appears unable to meet the serious challenges we face.



I’m running for Mayor to make our City great again. As Mayor, I will provide the leadership we need to move forward, together, and provide a better quality of life for everyone. My focus will be people, not politics. My agenda will be real results and common sense solutions, not partisanship or ideology. And my promise will be to bring new leadership to City Hall that ensures every stakeholder has a seat at the table and every voice is heard.



Make no mistake: None of this will be easy, and it won’t happen by accident. We need to choose a new direction for a better Schenectady. It begins by electing a new Mayor because the current occupant of City Hall has failed us.



On Mayor McCarthy’s watch, taxes are up and property values are down. In fact, Schenectady has the highest property taxes in the Capital District, while our property values have fallen 20 percent. Even worse, in the past four years, unfair assessments have resulted in some property being assessed at 100 percent above the price the property was purchased and for which it can be sold. As Mayor, I’ll move forward with an immediate reassessment that’s fair for all homeowners. In addition, I will seek, with the City council, to renegotiate the City’s sales tax agreement with the County, since Mayor McCarthy left millions of dollars on the table that could dramatically reduce property taxes.



On Mayor McCarthy’s watch, crime continues to be a major concern for Schenectady families. Consider this fact: 93 percent of cities in the United States are safer than Schenectady, with violent crime in the city nearly triple the national average. To address the issue, we should establish a tip hotline; use county jail prisoners to clean graffiti from buildings and pick up trash on streets and in parks; and find ways to have law enforcement officers live in those areas of the city that suffer most from crime, as Union College effectively did in the College Park neighborhood when I was president.



On Mayor McCarthy’s watch, our neighborhoods and quality of life have declined. While downtown has been revived through the plans advanced by Schenectady 2000 (co-founded by Neil Golub and me), the neighborhoods are a mere shell of what they were—and far too many “zombie” houses and shells of buildings litter the landscape.



While there are no quick fixes, we can together chart a positive new direction for our City. I know what it takes to bring people together and lead large organizations because I’ve done it. As the former president of Union College (and Beloit College), I united divergent groups, balanced budgets, instilled pride, and revitalized the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. And as founder, chairman and president of the Help Yourself Foundation, a non-partisan, non-profit that helps at-risk children develop education skills and a lifelong love of learning, I have helped hundreds of children who would, in all likelihood, have fallen by the wayside.



Together, we can rebuild our City. Together, we can repair our streets and fix City Hall’s broken political process that has shut out taxpayers. Together, we can reduce taxes, raise property values, and institute a common sense reassessment that treats all equally and fairly. Together, we can move forward with smart approaches to combating crime that respects law enforcement and recognizes the importance of community dialogue. Together, we can rebuild our City and revitalize our neighborhoods. And together, we can—and will—make Schenectady great again.