David Capria, left, is the Democratic candidate for Clay town supervisor. Joe Bick is the Republican candidate for the seat and has been filling in for current Supervisor Damian Ulatowski, who has been on leave. Capria and Bick serve on the Clay town board.

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One local race in Clay could have an outsized effect on what Micron’s move to Onondaga County looks like in the future. 

The race for Clay town supervisor is likely to be the most important race at the town level in this election cycle, said Kevin Ryan, the Republican commissioner for Onondaga County’s Board of Elections. 

“Right now, the composition of the Clay town board is such that whoever wins the Clay supervisor’s race is going to control Clay government,” said Ryan. 

As Micron moves into the town, any rezoning proposals will have to go through the town board. 

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Both candidates for supervisor — Joe Bick and David Capria — currently serve on the town board. Neither candidate has a primary challenger, setting up the race to be decided in November. 

Whichever of the two is elected will leave his town board seat open. The town government will have a chance to choose the replacement. Either way, the board’s membership will temporarily be split, 3-3.The supervisor has the same voting power as any other board member, but has additional influence over how policy, staffing, and departmental decisions are implemented. 

If the two parties don’t agree on a town board candidate, all decisions will have to be bipartisan — when motions tie, they fail.

If the board cannot decide who to replace the winner, the seat will go vacant for a year. A special election could then fill the seat. The board members interviewed for this story thought it was likely that it would be left vacant. 

“We’re going to hit that after the election, no matter who wins — myself or Joe,” said Capria. He said he wasn’t sure that they would be able to agree on someone, as no side would want to choose to be in the minority. “Even though it doesn’t affect that much [right now], I think it will in the future.”

How the vacated seat is filled depends on whether Bick or Capria wins. If Bick wins, his term would have expired at the end of 2026, so there will be an election scheduled for the seat. If Capria wins, there will be a special election for his seat.

Bick has been filling in for the current supervisor, Damian Ulatowski, for several weeks, while Ulatowski is on a leave of absence. Bick also filled in for around 90 days last fall. He said he did not know how long he would be there, but he did not plan to officially take over the role before the election, as it would require him to leave his town board seat. Bick declined to say why Ulatowski needed him to fill in. 

Asked if the takeover might have any implications for the election, Bick just said that he thought it proved he was able to do the job. 

Republicans had a majority on the Clay town board for more than 30 years. Recent elections have changed that. 

Clay has become much more Democratic in recent years, said Dustin Czarny, the Democratic commissioner for the county’s elections board.

“We swept the Clay Town Board last year,” he said, adding that Democrats running for state office like John Mannion and Chris Ryan have also won there in recent years. 

In a 2024 special election, Capria became the first Democrat elected to the town board, replacing Kevin Meaker, who left the board to join the Onondaga County Legislature. In 2025, a blue wave led Democrats to take the county legislature for the first time in decades. Democrats also picked up two additional seats on the Clay town board, leaving the board split. 

The supervisor has no more voting power than a seventh member of the town board. But that person is in charge of overseeing town hall and executing the will of the board. They would have some discretion in choosing who to hire and can develop policy unless given direct guidance by the town board. 

Ulatowski decided not to run for re-election. 

The current town board often votes unanimously. While the board is split between Republicans and Democrats, it attempts to reach consensus — much like they did when the board had six Republicans. 

There are already some differences in the two parties’ ideas of how Clay should develop as Micron comes in. Preparing for Micron would be a “Herculean task,” said Democratic town board member Ryan Russell. 

There is “a lot of uniqueness” that comes with Micron, said Russell, and the Town of Clay does not have a lot of examples to look to in order to figure out how best to handle its arrival. 

Both parties agree that Clay needs more affordable housing. But what that might look like is likely to be a partisan issue. 

Much of Clay is currently zoned for single family homes or agriculture. Rezoning for additional higher density buildings is likely to be a partisan debate, said Bick and Russell. It was likely Democrats might want more apartments or multi-family housing, said Bick, adding that he thought the town had already approved a lot of apartments. 

“We’ve seen a lot of proposals for rental housing that really, for lack of a better term, screws the people who are living there,” said Bick. He said he wanted to provide more affordable housing, but specifically “owner-occupied housing.”

Rezoning agricultural land for single family housing would increase the number of cars on the road, said Russell. Expanding the road to accommodate more cars would only work to a certain extent, he said. 

“Once you hit a certain point, accidents and traffic is just so much worse,” he said. 

Russell believes the solution to be a combination of more high density housing and public transportation, he said, adding that both things might become partisan votes.

Another possible zoning change would be to allow for smaller lot sizes for houses. Currently, there are places in Clay that aren’t connected to the sewer system. Those areas are zoned to require five to 10 acre lots, so that there’s room for septic systems, including leach fields. But Capria said he would like to change that to allow for smaller lots and smaller houses in those areas. 

Capria said he’d also like to allow more pre-manufactured homes to be put up in the town. One has already gone up on the street where both Capria and Bick live. 

Other things may come up as well: Capria said he hopes to get exemptions to laws that require that building permit fees need to be spent on administrative tasks related to construction. He believes the town will need new fire departments, and he would also like some of the money for parks, among other things.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for New York state,” said Capria. “It’s going to be a lot of money to offset the cost of that, like hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Bick said that it would be more practical to waive building fees and use another fee.

“Whoever the Clay supervisor is will have a big impact on Micron in the coming years,” said Bick. “That person will have to make sure that residents in Clay are protected and that residents in Clay get the things that the state and the federal government and the county have promised to Clay. That supervisor will be charged with holding those people accountable.”

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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...