Plattsburgh Mayor Wendell Hughes has been in office for just two weeks. Since he was sworn in, he has faced a number of immediate concerns including filling several critical city vacancies. WAMC North County Bureau Chief Pat Bradley spoke with the Democrat on Thursday.
Mayor Hughes had previously served on the Clinton County Legislature and says taking up the mayor’s seat in Plattsburgh has come with a steep learning curve.
It’s just so much to learn and it’s been a really great experience so far and we’ve got some great ideas and looking at everything in the city and everybody’s been amazing in the city. So I’m really proud to be mayor of the city of Plattsburgh with the folks behind me.
In his first few days, Hughes has had to address several key city vacancies. On January 9th then-city attorney Dean Schneller said he would not seek to renew his contract after serving the city since 2014. Hughes quickly appointed Justin Meyer to fill the position.
First I’d like to say how much I respect Dean Schneller too. Dean has been amazing for to the city and I hate to see him leave. After I was told that I started looking around. I got some advice from folks and I know Justin a little bit from sports and different things and I trust Justin and that’s a huge thing with me. And I know Justin is a good attorney. Corporation counsel is not an easy job. And that’s essentially why I went there. He was recommended by a few people that I respect highly. And I interviewed a couple people and Justin really interviewed well. So that’s why I chose Justin.
The corporation counsel, how important is that position for the city, because you moved on that more quickly than any of the other vacancies?
Sometimes I don’t know the legalities of certain things and I have to be able to depend on that person sitting to my side and he can advise me. I mean they’re involved with the land deals. They’re involved with every aspect of the city. So it’s a wide range. So it’s really important to have the right person as corporation counsel.
How much legal background do you yourself have?
I’m not an attorney. I know the rights and wrongs, but I also need to be advised. And that’s why we have a corporation counsel to advise, not just me, but the (Common) Council as well.
In late December, then-Ward 2 Jacob Avery resigned his common council seat. This week Hughes appointed James Evans to fill the term. All are Democrats.
His personality fits with the current council I think as well as anybody. I’ve had a lot of people, really good people reach out. No offense to anybody, but I was looking for somebody not just knowledgeable in the city, a lot of these folks a lot of knowledge with the city. But how do they fit with the current council? And that’s really important to me. I think we have a really good relationship going now and I want to keep that. And I think Jim’s got a different dynamic and I think he’s going to fit in very well with what we have now.
When you say he has a different dynamic, what do you mean?
Well, he’s fiscally conservative. His perspective is a little different on things and that’s always a good thing in my world. When you go wow, I never thought of that, that’s what I like. That’s a different perspective and that’s what I love to hear and Jim has that. And that’s what really impressed me with him. I’m really excited to bring Jim on. I think he’s going to be a great addition to what we have. I didn’t want to get into a situation where we had maybe some conflicts. We’re not always going to get along, but we have to be able to talk through things and I think that’s one of Jim’s things.
You could have held a special election for the seat. Why did you opt to appoint instead of a special election?
Do you know how much it costs for a special election! I think I can spend the money a lot better in the city of Plattsburgh than doing a special election. Listen, I firmly believe the folks in Ward 2 should pick their person and they will in November. But we’re not going to pay the extra money. It’s quite expensive to have special elections and I can’t come in here and tell you that I’m going to be financially, you know, fiscally responsible and do things like that.
The Common Council ratified Evans and Meyer at its Thursday evening meeting.
Other vacancies remain. Last September, the city’s police chief retired after holding the position for less than a year. On Wednesday the city opened applications for the position.
We’re going to put it out and we’re going to see how many people come in. I haven’t named a committee yet but we will have a committee. But I want to see how many applications. I’m not going to call a bunch of folks and bother them and find out we don’t have but one person put in or whatever. I want to wait and see. And we have until the 31st. We’ve got to advertise out to January 31st. Let’s see how many people. Hopefully we have twenty people put in and then we get this committee together and we can sit down and we can really hash it out! And the council’s going to be involved. I want the council involved. It’s a really important decision and I want to make sure we get the right person. I’d love to see twenty people. That would be awesome! But the reality is it may not be twenty.
The applications are due at the end of the month, January 31st. Isn’t that kind of a short period of time to get the applications?
We can always extend that. If we don’t get anybody, we’re going to extend it. We’re not going to end it on January 31st if we don’t get anybody. But I’m just going with the Civil Service.
Now obviously as mayor you would be working very directly and often with whoever becomes police chief. So, what do you want in a police chief?
I just want somebody that’s community oriented, that understands today’s policing. We have homeless people in the city. We have some drug issues. You know, we’ve had some murders in the county. We want to make sure that Plattsburgh is still safe. I mean, at the end of the day I want people to feel safe when they’re walking the streets. We have a really good young department. We need a leader that’s going to be dynamic in today’s world and can be that person they can look up to and follow. That’s the most important thing.
Before Hughes became mayor, his predecessor Chris Rosenquest formed a Charter Revision Commission.
The biggest thing was going to be the city manager and I think that should go to the voters. I want to get more involved with the committee. I need to stop and see them. They’re doing some changes on there that maybe I don’t agree with right now. Some proposed changes. Nothing’s finalized. They’re going through and they’re changing little things here and there. We’re not always going to agree with each other on everything either. I’m not saying anything bad about it but if you’re asking me my opinion that is my opinion. I don’t agree with some of it. So we need to work together at that and we need to put out something to the voters that we all agree with and something I can back as well. And if I can’t back it I think it defeats the purpose.
What sorts of things are you tentative about right now that they’re doing?
Well, there’s a couple things like a tie breaker and there’s a few things in there that they’ve changed. I may not agree with some of the language they’re using in some of it.
The chair indicated during their latest meeting that he has been in contact with you, a lot of it about if they can webstream, some of the procedural stuff and everything. So you are starting to interact with them?
We try to work with them as best we can. We’ve offered to livestream but there’s time constraints to that. If you want to come in at 5:30 at night, I have to order somebody in at 5:30 at night. If you want to come in during the 8 to 4 hours, we can do it every day any day you want. Our Community Development is advertising on the website for them. We’ve done a lot of things for them. I want to see it succeed. There’s no sense in going through this whole process and not succeeding.
Is it a little bit awkward having a commission like this reviewing the document that basically oversees how the city is run that was appointed by your predecessor?
This path has been chosen so we will walk down this path. Hopefully we can come together and we can come out with a good product to bring to the voters in November.
Hughes is serving his first four-year term.
