A former Albany Common Councilor is hoping to win the race for Chief City Auditor.
Albany public school math teacher and coach John Rosenzweig is vying for the position of Chief City Auditor currently held by Dorcey Applyrs, who is running for mayor after Kathy Sheehan decided not to seek a fourth term.
The Democrat says he feels the time is right to make a run to once again serve the city.
"I have the opportunity to retire in the coming year," said Rosenzweig. "The fact is of my children being grown at this point, my youngest will be finishing his degree at RIT next year, and just looking for an opportunity to get back involved in service for the city. I think that I have a unique background and experience that I could lend to the Chief Auditor's office and bring the objectivity and the independence that's needed to help make city government work better for the people."
Sheehan is backing her Chief of Staff David Galin. Also running in June’s Democratic primary is Albany County Legislator Sam Fein.
The 54-year old Rosenzweig has been with the Albany City School District for the past 31 years. He attended the College of Saint Rose and the University at Albany. Rosenzweig says if elected, he'll be devoting all of his time to the Chief City Auditor post.
"I coached at Westland Hills Little League, and it's in the Albany public schools, both baseball and soccer for 13 years," said Rosenzweig. "I'm a creature of Albany. My experience, you know, working at Albany High School, you see the temperature of Albany walk in that door every day. And being tasked as an attendance officer, dealing with students that are facing chronic absenteeism, and there's a lot of underlying reasons why that happens. And the beauty of my role in the Albany City Schools is I get to work with families and make referrals from everything from housing issues, food insecurity, clothing. I get to work with the students on a more human level, let's say, and those experiences make me, I think, uniquely qualified to provide an independent auditor role that helps move city government forward so it's working better for the people.”
Rosenzweig also has the Albany Police Department's hiring and retention issues in his sights.
"One of the things that needs to be done is a deep dive into what are the dynamics at work here," Rosenzweig said. "What's going on on the job that would have us lose members, and what's prohibiting members from coming in and joining the ranks? I can remember a day in Albany where oftentimes we would take lateral transfers from other departments, where the city of Albany police force was a desired role in the Capital District. So we would get people from the sheriff's department or neighboring communities. Now that seems to be different, and I really think we need to look at that."
Rosenzweig, who served from 2003-2005 on the Board of Zoning Appeals and 2006-2013 as a member of the Albany Common Council representing the 8th ward, is backed by Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, who joined Rosenzweig at his February 1st campaign kickoff.
"You look at John's journey through life, through school, through public education, always giving back, always volunteering, always being that coach for soccer and everything else he got involved with. He was never afraid to walk away from a problem. He was always there to fix a problem, to stand there tall and just sit there and say, ‘hey, we got to figure this out,’" McCoy said.
Rosenzweig adds he also has support from Albany County Comptroller Sue Rizzo and County Sheriff Craig Apple.
