Marty Nave, city councilor for the north side, speaks to the media. Credit: Courtesy of Marty Nave

Incumbent Democrat Marty Nave in January will begin his second term on the Syracuse Common Council.

Nave is running unopposed for reelection in the council’s first district, which comprises much of Syracuse’s North Side.

A lifelong Syracusan, Nave was deeply involved in the North Side community before seeking office, and regularly draws on his deep constituent connections in the council chambers. Nave has used his position to advocate for the city to dedicate more investment, development, and public safety in the North Side, which Nave and other prominent leaders say is often overlooked.

Nave chairs the council’s committee on Intergovernmental Service Consolidation. He is a member of the council’s committees on Public Transportation, Charter, Rules, Procedure and RFP, and Parks, Recreation, and Youth Programs.

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

Central Current: How would you vote on good cause eviction legislation if brought to the council for a vote tomorrow? 

Nave: In spite of its flaws, and in spite of how it protects government-supported non-profits, I will support it now. I support it, in spite of its flaws.

Central Current: How will you find millions in revenue to address the potential multi-million dollar fiscal cliff the city could be facing this next budgetary cycle?

Nave: I think we would have to do layoffs. And I’m starting at the upper tier of City Hall government.

There is a lot of waste. There are too many jobs that were created on the executive branch level

that I refer to as patronage, and there’s a lot of waste there on the executive level.

Central Current: Where might you look to generate revenue?

Nave: Right now, we have a number of buildings in our community that somehow slip through the cracks where they are past due of taxes — $60,000, or $40,000, $50,000 on some of our buildings. I find that some are in my common council district, where we should be seizing these vacant properties — they are now being inhabited by squatters, drug dealers and prostitutes.

We’re not aggressive. We are not aggressive at all in seizing properties that are passed due. And I’m not talking about $5,000. We have to seize these properties, and then we have to bid these properties, and sell it. I don’t understand why out of state companies, they get behind $40, $50,000 in their payments, and then make a minimum down payment. Yet they’re still in the hole.

And they’re using people. They’re using city government. There’s too much people who know how to use City Hall, they know how to use the government. They know how to get away with it, not paying their taxes. They know how to get through the system.

Central Current: The city has a backlog of properties in the foreclosure process that could help the landbank and other housing partners rehabilitate and build new housing. How will you help speed this up?

Nave: Well, let me tell you what I’ve been doing as a councilor. I see a lot of abandoned, vacant properties, and I immediately go see who the property owner is, and I’m amazed at the amount of back taxes. I’m urging the city to immediately, through the department of assessment, seize these properties. 

I will give you one suggestion. I went to a neighborhood meeting on Sweeting Street, and they were all complaining to me about a vacant house. Bad shape. Really awful shape. The person who owns the property, a large amount of back taxes due. I went to the city and asked Neighborhood Business Development, “Can we seize this property?”

Within days, the property was seized, and now it’s on sale for the Land Bank. A lot of times I will hear, “Oh, it just fell through the cracks, or we’re in the process of doing this now.”

And I stay on top of it.

Central Current: Mayor Walsh established protections and policies aimed at safeguarding Syracuse residents from over-encroaching surveillance technology in his 2020 Surveillance Technology Executive Order. The protections, though, are not codified into city law, meaning that a future mayor could strip the safeguards and set the stage for unrestricted and potentially intrusive and dangerous use of these technologies. Will you codify the protections and policies established in Mayor Walsh’s Surveillance Technology Executive Order?

Nave: I didn’t agree with what he was doing, maybe at the time, but now, when you have a federal administration that is going after people’s individual human rights and using anything to target people, you’re going against the Constitution of the United States. 

You’re invading people’s privacy. I don’t want any infringement of any person’s personal rights. In other words, I do not want someone to follow me, and photographing me if I go into a gay bar. You want to take a picture? They’re going to use that against me in some manner?

To attack me personally, or any elected official? 

We can’t be doing things like this. We are in much more dangerous times than we were five years ago. So I want to protect people. So I support codifying. 

I don’t want them going after protesters. I don’t want them to go after people who might, whatever, use Planned Parenthood. I don’t want people going inside or going outside and saying, “Well, let’s go spy on this guy. Who are the people that go in this bar, or in this restaurant?”

They used to do that stuff many years ago, if there was a gambling hall. What happens there is, like, I have a mosque [in my district]. Let’s say, “Well, we want to be able to see who’s going to the mosque, maybe they’re terrorists,” you know, that nonsense.

So, anyways, yeah, I support the mayor in what he did, and let’s hope it stays that way. But if we get a mayor of another political party, things are going to change.

Central Current: Now that the dust has settled, how would you evaluate the Council’s decisions during this year’s budget battle with the City of Syracuse? Do you stand by the cuts the Council made?

Nave: Yes, because we had to make a hard decision. At the end of the day, we’re still friends. We had to make some cutbacks. 

Unfortunately, there were some in the media that really used this issue, and they dragged it on. I’m not saying it was your outlet, but one outlet kind of kept on dragging it on and on. And what they did was, they only presented one side of the issue, and they made sure that they were not contradicting themselves.

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...