Mark Olson, current 10th district Onondaga County legislator

Editor’s note: Mark Olson refused to answer one question from Central Current about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because the question posed a hypothetical scenario. If you’d like to read about Olson’s challenger, Elaine Denton, click here. Central Current’s election coverage is supported in part by a grant from the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York.

Republican Legislator Mark Olson is one of four sitting county legislators facing a Democratic challenger this election cycle.  

Olson, who represents the Onondaga County Legislature’s 10th District seat, will face Democrat Elaine Denton, a former member of the Manlius Town Board. 

Olson has served as a legislator since 2022. He was the mayor of the Village of Fayetteville for 20 years and has been a member of the Fayetteville Fire Department since he was 14 years old. 

He chairs the county legislature’s Public Safety Committee. 

Central Current asked Denton and Olson six questions about the issues facing their district. Below are Olson’s responses:

Editor’s Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Central Current: How will you make up for the potential lack of funding for the aquarium?

Mark Olson: The legislature is done with any funding, public funding, towards the aquarium. I am on record as voting no for additional funding. There has not been any request and we have made it clear to the county executive that the legislature is done funding it.

CC: How will you handle the loss of funding to services like SNAP and Medicaid?

Olson: One of the nice things, when people talk about our fund balance, and how it’s excessive, you know, millions of dollars, that is the rainy day fund that we have set aside in case something like this was to happen. In my personal life, my wife is dealing with some of this already. The hospital is making plans to–should there be cuts in Medicaid and Medicare funding. So they’re making proposals and plans to cut staff and to cut labor and to make the adjustments. We are in a little different situation because we have this fund balance available to be used in case the federal cuts come through, the state cuts come through. What I’m hoping to see from the administration in the next few months is a plan that if those cuts do come through, how we are going to fund those. And I don’t want to see any program cuts, any staffing cuts, anything like that. So my hope is that we use that rainy day fund to fund those programs and get through this. 

CC: The legislature passed two resolutions to transfer a parcel of land along Onondaga Lake to the Onondaga Nation. As a legislator, do you believe you have a role in facilitating a transfer? If so, what is that role?

Olson: In doing some research, I found that back in 2011, the legislature did a resolution and then another one in 2016. I got on the legislature in 2022. But when we make, as a legislature, a resolution, we should stick by that. And we should make sure that we do everything that we can legally, and working with both parties–that is, the administration of Ryan McMahon and also the Onondaga Nation to make sure that we get this done. I know right now there’s some issues going back and forth about back taxes and some other issues. I hope that can be resolved, and I’m looking forward to, once the county executive has a resolution or has amendments for us to vote on, that we would vote on that. 

CC: As Micron ramps up, how do you plan to monitor and ensure that Micron lives up to its lofty promises to protect Central New York’s bountiful natural life?

Olson: So this is something that, just for context, here’s the people and the agencies that have reviewed this project from an environmental standpoint: the Town of Clay, the Town of Cicero, (the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency), (Onondaga County Water and Environmental Protection), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Empire State Development, New York Power Authority, New York State Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Wildlife, U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as many local NGOs and Micron. I’m not an engineer, I’m not a certified land planner or anything like that. But with all those agencies reviewing that, I have faith and trust that they are taking care that the environment, as well as Micron, is being looked at, is being worked on to make sure that we don’t do anything that would destroy our environment or our community. And I’m very confident in all those agencies, making the right decisions, and that’s what they’re trained to do and that’s what they’re there for to do, is to protect the citizens, to protect the environment, and to make sure that companies do exactly what they’re supposed to do when it comes to our environment. So I’m very comfortable with those agencies doing their job. I understand there’s concerns that there wasn’t enough time and there wasn’t enough public input, but when I look at that list and I look at the agencies that contributed to that DEIS, I’m confident that they will be able to make sure that we safeguard the environment for future generations, as well as making sure Micron meets their needs to keep our environment safe. 

It is not something that I, as an elected official, have the expertise. Those people are the experts. And we have to put faith and trust that they will do the right thing. 

CC: If ICE approaches Onondaga County and requests sensitive information to aid in what it says is a “criminal investigation” – and refuses to provide more details – should Onondaga County furnish sensitive data from a department like DSS to federal authorities with unclear motives?

Olson: That is a decision that’s not in the legislature’s or my purview. That is done by the Sheriff’s office and the administration. That question should be asked and answered by the people that have purview to make that decision. The legislature isn’t in that position to make that decision. 

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Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...