Nodesia Hernandez, the minority leader of the Onondaga County Legislature, is running to retain her seat as the representative for the legislature’s 17th district. She is running unopposed. 

Hernandez serves on the County Facilities committee and the Ways and Means committee. 

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

Nodesia Hernandez, the minority leader of the Onondaga County Legislature Credit: Courtesy of Onondaga County

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

Nodesia Hernandez: Okay. So, we as a county legislative body decided that we were done with the aquarium, basically meaning — and this was difficult too, being the leader, because I sat in the room with the chair and the majority leader and discussed a lot that we were tired of this [aquarium funding], right? Even though I was not a county legislator when the money was allocated or when the vote passed to even build the aquarium. 

So what we decided as a legislative body is that we passed a local law basically saying that the county executive has to finish funding what he’s missing. Like 80 something million. He has the funding through private donors and through sponsors, or any way that he can find the means from his own private donors or people that can help support him with getting the rest of the money. 

We’re done with supporting it, as far as supporting it out of our $6 billion budget, or supporting it out of any fund balances we have, or supporting it from any money that we have as a collective, county legislative fund. 

So right now it’s being handled by Friends of the Zoo, and the donors are, you know, donating to him through that means. 

And we fought back and forth too about it being public, or public knowledge, or it being, you know, private knowledge. As a Democratic caucus, we felt that it should be public knowledge, but we lost that vote. So I don’t have any means to support that anymore.

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

Hernandez: You know, a lot of people say we didn’t vote on — we voted, as a Democratic caucus, “no” to the budget. 

We all know that there’s seventeen county legislators and only five of us are, you know, in the minority. We allocated for a lot of stuff within that budget ourselves. Like to On Point, to Good Life Foundation. I think I got an extra $50,000 for the Boys and Girls Club. 

But our point of saying no was to let them know exactly what you just asked. There’s a federal shutdown right now, and all of those departments are going to be cut. SNAP is at risk. Section 8 is at risk. We don’t have daycare. We have a 99 people waiting list of daycare right now. 

There’s so many things that are being affected already, and when the headlines read like we’re giving towards public safety, of course we need public safety, but a lot of the public safety issues deal with a lot of impoverishment, and a lot of our youth that are impoverished, they do things because they’re hungry and they’re trying — not to make it seem like that’s the right way to do it, but these are just some of the factors that play into our public safety needs. 

And, it’s so hard being in the minority, right? Because I would love that headline to read, $6 billion budget passed for Onondaga County, and most of the money is going to the Department of Social Services, right? 

So because our hands are tied in the minority, all we can do is–and we’re going to try to do this — is try to, you know, get some things through the committee and see if we can try to get some of that funding allocated towards those different departments through the committee. 

I did initially ask if more money can be put towards daycare. More money is put towards daycare, but we need even more money put towards daycare. 

It’s so difficult because we really don’t know exactly. We know our Medicaid and our Medicare because of the shutdown, right? But so many things are changing every day. We truly don’t know exactly what is going to be cut. We just know that this impoverished city is going to become more impoverished because the departments that need the money to help fund them are already kind of slacking. 

So what happens when they lose funding, or lose more funding, is going to be a crisis. We’re already in a crisis, right?

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?

Hernandez: You know, right is right and wrong is wrong and we call it Onondaga County because we stand on Onondaga Nation. This land belongs to them, and yes, we definitely should have a role in making sure that gets transferred back to the rightful owners. 

It’s like stealing, almost. We shouldn’t be stealing property that doesn’t really belong to us. 

I’m an advocate for that all the way, that if that is their land, we know this because we still have their names like Onondaga. Yes, we should. We should be rightful and do the right things, and we should call on justice and be just and do the justice things, and we should make sure that we are rightfully giving land back to those who it belongs to. 

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?


Hernandez: No, I do not support that at all. And I’m grateful for our Onondaga County Sheriff’s department that, you know, they said publicly that they will follow rules, but they’re not going to go out of their way to help ICE right now. 

What’s going on, from my understanding, is that a lot of times we’re detaining people that shouldn’t even be detained, right? No. We saw what happened over there in Cayuga County, and then a couple of days later, there was a sighting of ICE on the North Side. I don’t support that at all. 

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?

Hernandez: By making sure they keep giving us those environmental statements, right? The environmental impact reports.

I know it was kind of difficult for us. We tried to, you know, get our hands on the report, and we had — until the news got their hands and the news didn’t even get it late. We have to keep making sure we ask the right questions. 

We have to keep making sure that we get the reports that are deemed to be given to us. We asked for updates, so we have to make sure we remind them, and not let them forget and fall through the cracks, and keep reminding them to keep us updated on those environmental impact reports so we can take a look at them and make sure that they’re still being environmentally friendly when they’re building up there in Clay. 

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?

Hernandez: You know, it’s funny, you asking this question. 

So I get a lot of calls from constituents, and they’re concerned with two things. They’re concerned that ICE might do exactly what you said: ask for their records from DSS. So a lot of times right now, it’s causing a lot more impoverishment, because a lot of the new Americans, and you know, a lot of our immigrants are scared to even get SNAP and the support they need from DSS, because they’re scared that DSS is going to give that information out. It’s very difficult, you know. 

I will always vote “no” for things, but that department, you know, coming from the county executive and him publicly already saying he supports the initiatives of ICE, and he will cooperate with ICE. 

It makes it difficult because as county legislators, we really don’t — we can vote on local laws and all of that, but we’re in the minority, so our vote doesn’t hold any weight. 

And that’s, I think that’s the most scariest thing is being a county legislator in the minority, is that our vote doesn’t hold any weight when it comes to the embetterment of our constituents of our county. 

And I just wanted to go back to your — because I know you asked me what we can do formally with the Onondaga Nation. We need to make a formal agreement with the Nation. That’s what we need to do: to make a formal agreement with the Nation, and pass a non-binding resolution. And that’s scary too, because we’re in the minority. It’s just really scary.  to be brought before these people. So, sorry if that’s not an answer, but that’s just the way I process.

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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...