Cody Kelly, a Republican, is the incumbent Legislator for the Onondaga County Legislature’s 14th district and is running unopposed. He is the Chairperson of the Health and Human Services committee, Vice Chairperson of the Environmental Protection Committee, and also serves on the County Facilities committee. This interview has been edited for clarity. 

Cody Kelly, the Onondaga County Legislature’s 14th District representative.

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

Cody Kelly: That is in the County Executive’s prerogative. The legislature voted that we will not be ponying up any additional money on that project, so if there are any shortfalls, they won’t be coming from the legislative branch. 

Central Current: How will you handle the loss of funding to SNAP and Medicaid? 

Kelly: We are projecting that our federal aid is going to be increasing next year. So, you know, there are obviously going to be a lot of ongoing conversations with regards to the federal government, but those issues will be handled on a case by case basis, and at the moment, I’m not aware of that having affected any of our programming at this time. 

Central Current: The Legislature passed two resolutions in the past to transfer land to the Onondaga Nation. As an Onondaga County Legislator, do you believe you have a role in facilitating that transfer? Why or why not? And if so, what is that role? 

Kelly: Yeah, any land transfer would come to us. That’s an issue I’m not well educated on, so — I know those conversations have been ongoing for a long time. I would be hesitant to say too much without having all the information. 

Central Current: In a hypothetical situation where federal funding for Onondaga County is conditioned on the basis of the County Sheriff’s office cooperating with ICE’s operations, would you be in favor of supporting that collaboration? Why or why not? 

Kelly: I think the Onondaga County Sheriff’s office should follow the law, and we as a county support them in doing so. 

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

Kelly: There have been and will continue to be conversations between all levels of government. So one of the things I’ve done in the last few years was welcome the Army Corps of Engineers to a Town of Clay town hall meeting to ensure that people were able to raise their concerns and speak with people involved in all of these ongoing decisions. So in the future, I will continue to work to ensure that everybody has a seat at the table, that they are meeting all the standards set forth in the environmental impact statement, and that everything is being monitored. That we’re able to monitor in terms of our air quality, our water quality, mitigating traffic. Trying to mitigate, to the best of our ability, things like noise pollution and light pollution. But making sure that you know these are things that go well beyond my desk at the County Legislature. But that’s why the role of collaboration between all these different entities, like the DEC, the Army Corps of Engineers, New York State, Onondaga County, Town of Clay — everybody has their part to do and my role is part of that collaboration. 

Central Current: Okay, one more question. If ICE approaches Onondaga County and asks for sensitive information to aid in what it says is a criminal investigation, and refuses to provide more details, should Onondaga County furnish information from a department like the DSS to federal authorities with unclear motives?

Kelly: That to me sounds like a legal question. Again, I’m not a lawyer, but I would anticipate that Onondaga County complies with all legal requests. And those, you know, carry with it some level of process, so there’s a bar that needs to be met for something like that to happen, and I wouldn’t want to comment any further.

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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...