Charlene Tarver, a Democratic candidate for the Onondaga County Legislature's 16th District. Credit: Courtesy of Charlene Tarver

Charlene Tarver is running for a position to represent the Onondaga County Legislature’s 16th district. Tarver will face Nyatwa Bullock in the district’s Democratic primary. 

She has a background in law and public policy and worked as a tax and business attorney in cities across the United States. She is the founder of the Women’s Economic Institute, a nonprofit organization that increases leadership opportunities for women and girls of color. 

You can read more here about Bullock, Tarver’s opponent. 

Editor’s note: Central Current accepted responses to its question-and-answer series in written form. 

Central Current: As a legislator, how do you plan to make housing more affordable in Onondaga County? 

Charlene Tarver: We must eliminate the housing bureaucracy and build, build, build. Housing affordability requires greater housing access, inventory, and investment; especially in low-income neighborhoods with an AMI below 70 percent. The average median household income in Legislative District 16 is approximately $25,000. The county can help make housing more affordable in these neighborhoods by allocating dollars to infill housing projects, remediating lead in existing housing stock, helping our seniors age in place through grants, and having the city and county collaborate to increase community and local developers’ access to land bank sites.  For the past 4 years, I’ve been working with LISC NY and St Nick’s Alliance on a $42 million mixed use senior housing micro community on the city’s Southside. The project has a ground floor food and retail incubator and would help address food and retail insecurity while creating jobs and supporting local small business growth. Once elected, I’ll fight for the creation of a County Housing Czar that can help developers navigate permits, variances, site plan review and approval, and community outreach and engagement. CNY has a lot to offer and there’s a great opportunity for more public-private partnerships to help build housing better, safer, faster. 

CC: What’s one thing the county could do that it isn’t currently doing to prepare Central New York for Micron’s arrival? 

Tarver: In preparation for Micron, the county must do a better job of 1) addressing the city’s poverty and mental health crisis and 2) increasing its investment in small business growth and workforce training. We can’t prepare for Micron without the county strategically addressing poverty, job creation, and livable wages.

Small business is the backbone of America, because local hiring and manufacturing stimulate the local economy. Once elected, I’ll champion below market rate brick and mortar rental spaces for small owner-operators; access to affordable capital; and forgivable low-interest loans and grants to help offset the costs of equipment, supplies, bonding, and staffing. I’m also committed to working with state elected officials and groups like Goldman Sachs to secure more affordable healthcare, dental, and optical insurance plans for small business owners and their workers. I-81 and MICRON must both mean local jobs, local contracts, and local opportunity for local small business owners. To that end, I fully support positioning CNY-based MWBE and veteran-owned businesses so that they have access to free, competitive business development training and viable contract opportunities.

CC: The Democratic caucus has set transparency as one of its top priorities. In your capacity as a legislator, what is one way you’d like to make the county more transparent? 

Tarver: The aquarium is a great entertainment venue, but it should not have been financed and constructed at the expense of our residents’ quality of life. Onondaga County must be more transparent in how county revenues are disbursed. The county has an operating budget of close to $1.6 billion and a population of approximately 479,000 residents. Syracuse is the only city in Onondaga county; and despite having a population of 143,000-147,000 residents (approx. 30% of the county’s total population), Legislative District 16 has the highest child poverty rates, lead levels, and unemployment; and the greatest food insecurity, homelessness, and crime. A lot of these socio-economic conditions stem from low-wage jobs, outdated housing stock, and limited new investment in the most vulnerable neighborhoods and zip codes. Greater transparency would ensure more equitable disbursement of county funds, so that all residents share in the county prosperity. 

CC: The Democratic caucus has a majority for the first time in decades. Do you think the majority has done enough with the power it has? Why or why not?

Tarver: Short answer, yes! The Democratic caucus appears to be working hard to make great strides in a short window. Holding public hearings, calling for transparency regarding philanthropic contributions to the aquarium, and urging a referendum on term limits for the County Executive are all examples of great strides. With that said, the next budget cycle must focus on the county doing its fair share to reduce lead, poverty, and food deserts. We can’t be a world class city, in a world class county, with outdated infrastructure, technology, and housing. And the city cannot continue to serve the lion’s share of the county’s poor. The Democratic caucus is doing a great job thus far, but there’s much, much more to be done to improve the quality of life for our most vulnerable county residents, more specifically our seniors, youth, and veterans.

CC: In local public hearings, constituents have raised concerns about the environmental impacts of Micron and wastewater treatment. Do you believe the county has done enough to protect our water resources? If not, what’s one specific thing you would change? 

Tarver: I urge the County to enter into a collective benefits agreement with Micron that makes Micron responsible for more than acting in “good faith.”  We need to ensure that the highest levels of environmental testing are done, and that at every level there is full transparency about the waste treatment chemicals and processes to be used and their life expectancy. Micron must commit to not only helping improve the quality of life through job creation, housing, and transportation here in CNY, but through its environmental record.

Onondaga Lake is a clear example of what can happen when things go wrong and corporate responsibility is not taken to task. Onondaga Lake is one of the worst polluted lakes in the nation, due to industrial contamination. A recent news story further confirmed continuing mercury contamination. Our children’s children should not bear the brunt of cleaning up Micron’s environmental contamination because we failed to do our due diligence.

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Leila Adelstein is a newsroom intern reporting on local news and writing features for the Central Current. She will be a junior at Hamilton College in the fall where she studies Public Policy and Studio...