Mo Brown, candidate for the Onondaga County Legislature's 15th district.

Maurice “Mo” Brown is a Democratic incumbent running to keep his seat representing the Onondaga County Legislature’s 15th district. He is running unopposed.

Brown is a veteran and a co-founder of Uplift Syracuse, an advocacy group dedicated to realizing progressive policies in Syracuse. 

He serves on the county legislature’s Facilities Committee and the Environmental Protection Committee. 

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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

Maurice Brown: I will not make up for a potential lack of funding for the aquarium. 

So, earlier this year, I wanna say in February, after the resolution to get more legislature funding — so, I am against the aquarium project full stop, right? I think it’s a waste of money. I don’t think we should be doing this. 

Earlier this year, we realized the project was short, financially. We needed money, and I voted against putting money into it. It actually never got to the floor, but I was really loud in blocking it from getting to a vote, and I put a letter to the editor saying that I would like to do a study to see what else we can use that building for. 

We’re building a building, that’s happening, you know, come hell or high water, and we’re already in a contract that we rushed into with a St. Louis contractor, vendor, manager — they’re gonna manage it for us. 

So, you know, that money is spent, but I think we could — I think that building could be used for something else. And what that other thing is, I don’t know, which is why I wanna see the study, but I think there are many other ways we could’ve spent the money, and all we’ve done now is built the building, or we’re building the building, and I think we can use it for something else. And if aquarium funding is short, I’m going to recommend we use the building for something else. 

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

Brown: So I would like to back up. 

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the county has built up a rainy day fund balance. And I think the fund balance has been built up largely off the tears of Black and brown children. We have been able to put hundreds of millions of dollars away because we didn’t put hundreds of millions of dollars into lead remediation. We didn’t put hundreds of millions of dollars into housing. 

And the people who struggle the most with those issues are black and brown children. A lot of them live within Syracuse. 

So, I think we have built up a nine-figure fund balance by charging our most vulnerable. I think the point of saving up all that money, the point of a rainy day fund, is for when it starts raining. I don’t know when we — I don’t know what a rainy day looks like to the other side or to the executive, but in my communities, it’s raining. And I think that’s the point, is to be a band-aid. 

Can we do this perpetually? No. You know, there’s a finite number. Need the federal government to do its job and, you know, come through, if you will. But if they don’t — when they don’t, because I’m not expecting them to — I would like us to be that band-aid, be that social safety net, that the county can be. 

Central Current: 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?

Brown: So the Environmental Protection Committee, of which I sit on — I believe that was 2011–passed a resolution agreeing to transfer Maple Bay, but we’ve not done it. A good amount of my colleagues are kind of derelict in their duties and just defer it to the executive. 

I don’t think it’s solely his decision to make. I think that he is a representative for the county. He is the chief executive officer of the county, but we are on the board. And good companies have boards of directors as well that the CEOs answer to, and the CEO, in my opinion, answers to the legislature. The executive comes to us for the budget. 

And I think there’s a talk of taxes and unpaid funds being talked about. If it has to do with money, it has to do with the legislature. And if taxes are the hold-up, then we absolutely should be part of that conversation. 

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

Brown: I think what the Department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is doing is criminal. I think it’s illegal. I don’t think that it’s something we should be supporting at all. 

Fundamentally I don’t think anyone is illegal, but I definitely don’t think anyone is illegal on stolen land. You know, the birth lottery is not enough of a reason to break up families in the way we’re doing. 

I can’t speak for Onondaga County specifically, but I know the State of New York, we pay more in federal taxes than we receive, and I do think at some point we need to discuss what a real succession plan might look like if the federal government is willing to break the law and hold federal funds in order to get their way. 

I think those are threats. I also don’t think they have the ability to do that, so I’m not like definitely worried about it, but to literally answer your question, no, I would still suggest not cooperating with ICE and believing in something. Having principles. 

Central Current: 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?

Brown: So I’m in constant communications with Micron officials. They have a government relations person that I speak to, and when my community comes to me with questions, I try to get them answers. 

I thought the environmental impact statement was inadequate. I think that we’re rushing the whole thing and I’m not sure why. 

What we’re trying to do is generational. The Micron promise, as I call it, is once in a lifetime. Should everything come to fruition, the Micron promise will say that a child who graduates Corcoran High School, in three years–in some situations less but in as little as three years — this child can be making $80,000, $90,000 in their own community. We’ve never been able to offer that to our young people. And that promise, I think, is worth pursuing. 

But like you said, if it comes at the cost of our natural resources, if it comes at the cost of Skaneateles Lake, if it comes at the cost of Lake Ontario, I don’t think it’s worth it. 

I think that our natural resources are what separate us. We are at the center of the state, which does help, we’re the center of upstate. But we are a hop skip and a jump away from some of the best wineries in the world, some of the best waterways in the world. And I don’t think we should jeopardize them. And I’m afraid that may be happening. 

And I’m learning, I’m not going to pretend to be an environmental expert, but one of the provisions is the amount of wetlands that Micron is going to destroy. They’re gonna replace it two to one. And I’m told that three to one would be better, just in — when you destroy wetlands, it’s not a one-to-one swap, in my understanding. 

I’m not an environmentalist, so if any environmentalist wants to destroy my argument, feel free to do so. But that is my understanding of it, is that two-to-one is actually not adequate. It should be three to one. Small things like that. You know, they sound boring, but those can protect a Great Lake. They can protect a Finger Lake, and I think that we have a duty to protect those. 

So, my plan is to stay hyper in conversation with Micron’s officials as well as the state officials at the DEC and things of that nature. And when things come up that I find fishy or I disagree with, do my research and get to the bottom of why they’re happening, if need be. 

Central Current: 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, is the last couple of words. 

Brown: No. I will stand by that. 

Also fundamentally my understanding of policing — so I’m not an expert, but I was a military police officer in the United States Army for a little bit, so I have a remedial, kind of high school level understanding — is there’s cooperation. And if you want help from my police department, you’ve got to give me information, and if you won’t even tell me what this person is suspected of doing, for you to expect us to just go along without telling that, I think that that’s not just. Might be illegal. 

I won’t, I’m not a legal person, but typically cooperation is both ways, and if they want our services, they have to work with us, and the judge needs to sign the warrant — not just an administrative warrant, like we need all of that information before we just rush in and break up families. 

That is unconscionable, unconscionable, and I will not be on board with any of it. 

And even in those situations where they do have a judges warrant and they are willing to, you know, provide information, the criminality is going to matter. If someone’s a criminal because they have overstayed their visa or they’re just here illegally, but they aren’t harming anyone, they’re just going to work — looks very different than if this person is, you know, on the Epstein list. If that’s the case, then yeah, let’s go get them. 

But we’re not going after people on the Epstein list, we’re going after people who are working in factories. And I think people deserve — if somebody wants to be here, working in a factory, but you know, they didn’t come here the right way or they missed a court appearance, I don’t think that it’s worth using government resources to track this person down. I think it’s a waste of money, and we have greater issues in our community. 

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