Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens won the Democratic mayoral primary on June 25, 2025. She beat out councilors Pat Hogan and Chol Majok. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current

Editor’s note: If you’d like to read our other Q&As with other mayoral candidates, click the following links: Alfonso Davis, Tom Babilon, Tim Rudd.

Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens says she is ready for the job as the city of Syracuse’s chief executive after almost eight years learning about the transformative effects the office of mayor can have in the city.

Owens, a Democrat and longtime nonprofit leader, faces a crowded field of candidates, including Republican Thomas Babilon, and independent candidates Tim Rudd and Alfonso Davis.

In June, Owens overcame a contested Democratic primary election that featured Council President Pro Tempore Pat Hogan and Councilor Chol Majok. 

Owens said her experience in the housing nonprofit world, as well as her time working for the mayoral administrations of Stephanie Miner and Ben Walsh, have given her the tools needed to run for mayor. 

“I see the job day to day. I see the impact. I see the weight of it,” she said. “But when you’re able to do some really great things for a city that is really on the move, that is why I made this decision. I am not done. I have more work to do for this city and the people in it.”

Central Current asked mayoral candidates several questions about the issues facing the city. Here are Owens’ responses:

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

Central Current: If victorious, you will inherit an ever-expanding budget at a time when Syracuse needs significant investment and development. How do you plan to get the most out of the city’s dollars while maintaining affordability for constituents?

Owens: One of the challenges that will happen regarding affordability is the majority of our affordability dollars comes from [the federal government]. With this presidential administration, we’re really going to be keeping an eye on what they’re going to be going with [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] funding, particularly the entitlement [community development block grant] dollars, as they come to the city. 

The other entity that provides a lot of the subsidies that make housing affordable is New York state. We have a great relationship with New York State. Kathy Hochul and her team have been very good to the city, whether it’s the [Affordable Homeownership Opportunity Program] or the Housing First Community program. 

We’re going to continue to build our relationships with New York state. We’re going to continue to work through whatever comes our way with HUD.

CC: 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 Walsh’s Surveillance Technology Executive Order?

Owens: The surveillance Technology Work Group that was established out of that executive order needs to be maintained. So I absolutely support continuing their recommendations. Procedures need to be followed. To codify it into law I would absolutely work with the council, because that is the branch of our government that creates the law. But I would absolutely work with the council.

CC: Mayor Walsh has shied away from calling Syracuse a “Sanctuary City,” but that rhetoric hasn’t changed the federal government’s perception of our city. As federal agents and the U.S. Military flood major liberal cities, how will you prepare to protect Syracuse citizens from a potential federal occupation?

Owens: The first line of ensuring that our New American and refugee family members of our city is the mayor’s authority over the police department. We have a policy that if there are criminal warrants that have been issued, the police will engage as they do now on the federal level. We will not act as agents of [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. 

Who knows where the Trump administration will go with cities who take this stance. In the county, Sheriff Toby Shelley has taken a stand that he will not detain people on behalf of ICE. 

As far as mobilization into communities, like they’ve done in Chicago and other places, I’m going to be heavily engaging with the mayors of Buffalo, Rochester and Albany. I want to build a coalition with those mayors around many different issues: poverty, housing, and this threat from the federal government. We all need to collectively understand all of it. 

The New York Council of Mayors is a really amazing tool in New York state. I want to use that partnership to give me and my team of lawyers all the tools necessary to understand what rights we have as a city.

CC: The Columbus Statue, and the push for its removal, remain a sticking point among our community. Recently, County Executive Ryan McMahon inserted the statue into discussions with the Onondaga Nation regarding a potential land transfer that would return a parcel of land along Onondaga Lake back to the nation. As mayor of the city where the statue stands, you’ll have a unique position to work as an intermediary on this issue. How would you proceed with the Columbus Statue, and would you work to facilitate the stalling landback negotiations between the county and the nation?

Owens: In whatever way I can. The Nation has been clear about what their stance is. They feel there is no brokering to be done. There was a commitment made when the Onondaga County Executive came into office. 

As far as the statue in Syracuse is concerned, we are going to go through a process. I had hoped that we had been through this process before this administration ends. But here we are, and we are not. 

While other communities vandalized, decapitated, you know, threw statues into the water, Syracuse said ‘let’s get together and let’s talk about this.’ I really applaud our community for saying ‘let’s get to a table and let’s talk about it.’

I believe I’ve heard the Columbus Monument Association saying they have no issue with a Heritage Park. But it’s more than the Heritage Park. It’s about the symbolism of the statue as well. And I really applaud our native community, because they have been really forthcoming and engaged in conversations about the legacy of Christopher Columbus. 

I’m a black woman. I understand when Italian residents in our community talk about the legacy of persecution against them and why they began the process of erecting that statue. You’re talking about persecution, to somebody who understands the legacy of persecution of people in this country, we also have to tell the whole history too, and be able to respect all sides of that history and find a middle ground.

CC: What is your plan to develop more affordable housing in the city?

Owens:It is diversifying how we build housing so that the construction of that housing isn’t as expensive. It can no longer be as expensive as it is, because public dollars is what provides a subsidy to make it affordable. 

New York state is a huge partner, particularly with low income housing tax credits, which helps us develop property throughout the city. It is going to be a huge part of the East Adams neighborhood development project. It’s going to be part of the Maria Regina project. It’s part of the project with everything that Housing Visions does. So using those state resources that I hope are going to be able to maintain — because they’re taking a huge federal cut as well — and continuing to capitalize on the relationships that I have with state officials.

As we grow, we do not want to price out our community from housing that they can live in, neighborhoods that they’ve grown up in. We’ll continue to build upon those neighborhoods.

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Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...