The From the Lobby podcast features a behind-the-scenes look at politics and government from New York State to Washington, DC with Jack O’Donnell, an Albany insider and Managing Partner of O’Donnell and Associates, a top lobbying firm that helps clients all over the country cut through government red tape.

Don’t be stuck on the sidelines. Get a front-row seat to what’s happening in politics with Jack! From the issues that affect taxpayers and business owners to the history of the budget process in New York, Jack has the knowledge and depth of experience to cut through the rhetoric and tell you what’s really going on.

 Summary of this Episode

Guests

  • Maurice “Mo” Brown: Newly elected member of the Onondaga County Legislature.
  • Alec Lewis: Vice President and Director of Campaigns at O’Donnell and Associates.

Major Topics Covered

Transition into Public Office: Mo Brown discusses his initial months in the county legislature, emphasizing the learning curve and the newfound access to influential figures for advocating community improvements.

Housing Crisis in Syracuse: The conversation highlights the severe housing challenges in Syracuse, underscoring the urgency of addressing rental market issues and the county’s role in alleviating the crisis.

Infrastructure and Community Development: The federal grant awarded to Syracuse for the community grid project is discussed, focusing on the historical impact of highway construction on communities and the efforts to rectify past wrongs.

New Generation of Political Leaders: Mo Brown, along with other young progressive leaders, is portrayed as part of a wave aiming to bring fresh ideas and approaches to local governance, despite facing challenges in altering established procedures.

“I’m a big dreamer. I’ve always been a big ideas guy, I don’t think we should limit ourselves.” – Maurice “Mo” Brown

Full Transcript of the Episode

Note: This is a generated transcript. Please excuse any typos.

Joanna Pasceri 0:06
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to From the Lobby with Jack O’Donnell, a podcast that gives listeners an inside look at New York politics with Jack, managing partner of O’Donnell and Associates, a top New York lobbying firm. I’m Joanna Pasceri, Director of Communications. In season four, we are continuing our series on winning campaigns with Alec Lewis, Vice President and Director of Campaigns at O’Donnell and Associates, Alec is fresh off several wins for our clients in 2023. And in this episode, back by popular demand, is one of those winning clients from last year, Maurice “Mo” Brown, the newly elected member of the Onondaga County Legislature. So how’s the job going? Let’s find out. Welcome Alec and Mo.

Alex Lewis 0:55
Mo. It’s great to have you on the show. Once again, I think this might be a record, I think this is your third time on the podcast. So it’s great to have you back.

Maurice Brown 1:05
I love it. Thank you. I feel honored to hold the title. But I’m glad you all want to hear from me.

Alex Lewis 1:10
We love hearing from you. And I think the first question which is most appropriate is now you’ve been on the job for a couple months, you’re in month three, I guess of your first term as a county legislator. So what’s it been like so far?

Maurice Brown 1:24
it’s been a lot of learning, a lot of education, learning, like what you can and can’t do. Learning, you know, who can help you and who can’t. A lot of the, you know, county work is run by department. So figuring out who runs those departments and getting their creative ideas. That has been fun. But the simplest way I think, or at least the biggest, you know, noticeable change. I feel so I’ve been organizing for a bit in this area. You know, I’ve made phone calls to John Katko. Rachel May, then Lima Magna Rally, Mayor Ben Walsh, etc. I’ve been doing this work for a while. And the biggest difference is that now when I call, they pick up the biggest difference. And I do like that, you know, even if we aren’t able to legislatively get things done, folks are willing to have the conversations that, you know, I think will improve the community. So I do appreciate that.

Alex Lewis 2:23
Talking about getting things done, you ran on many issues in your campaign, and one of the highlights of your campaign was housing, you really made it a central focus of your campaign. And now you’re about to have a town hall meeting on housing, why is housing so important to you? And for the Syracuse community,

Maurice Brown 2:42
The reason you know our campaign chose housing is because this area’s in a housing crisis. We’re at the top of you know, housing lists you don’t want to be on top of our rental market is second, I want to say in the like northeast only to New York City, as far as like income to, you know, the average housing price, and we have to do better by our people. So the county for too long, in my opinion has been out of that conversation. The city has been trying things on the federal government through HUD has been trying things the state has been trying things. But I think the county has an obligation to help in that conversation as well. So I want to facilitate that conversation and see, where are some ways the county can step up? And, you know, help us through this crisis.

Alex Lewis 3:31
And you mentioned the federal government, and today got some very welcome positive news that out hundreds of cities for $180 million to help the neighborhoods in part which you represent rise in sort of an ongoing renaissance that Syracuse is seeing, at least hopefully, we’ll see with the reimagination of it, one for our listeners who are not familiar with it one, can you talk a little bit about the history of this massive infrastructure project and your hopes for what this development can mean for the future of Syracuse.

Maurice Brown 4:05
You know, due to time, I’m definitely going to leave out some parts that I wish I couldn’t but historically in history, Syracuse isn’t different. This actually happened all over the country. But when, you know, Federal Highway Administration decided they wanted to connect. The Highways Connect, you know, New York to I want to say it was Seattle, you can do it without a stoplight. When that happened, they had to figure out where to put those highways. And far too often, like in the city of Syracuse, those highways went through the poorest the neighborhoods that didn’t really have the political will to defend themselves.

Maurice Brown 4:47
So here in Syracuse, where that happened was the 15th Ward. The 15th Ward was a vibrant neighborhood near downtown Syracuse. And when the decision was made to bring the highway in the 15th Ward was chosen as the place it should have gone. And what it did was it displaced many of the residents, almost all of them, mostly black, but it wasn’t a diverse neighborhood. There were, you know, different ethnic groups represented in the 15th War. But it did two things, one, two people in the neighborhood, they were forced out of their homes to leave. But also due to redlining, there wasn’t really anywhere for them to go, they weren’t able to move to the surrounding suburbs up to it and, you know, Clay etc. So it created a harsh situation that we’re trying to undo today. So what the community grid is going to do is remove that highway that, you know, went through the 15th floor, and there’s an attempt to connect those communities. So what the federal grant that was awarded today is going to do is help that you know, connection. So it’s gonna help, you know, build homes in those neighborhoods, build stores just help revitalize that neighborhood in a way that I think is long overdue. I’m very glad that, you know, Secretary Pete Buttigieg, he’s come, he has visited Syracuse and spoken to it. Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, I’m glad that our federal partners are all on board, because we all recognize this was a wrong that was done. And we’re gonna make our best effort to write it. And I appreciate the federal government, you know, coming through on that promise.

Alex Lewis 6:29
And you mentioned your background as an organizer in building partnerships. And you have done that already, with Emily Essi, another client of ours, and congratulations to Emily on flipping the County Clerk’s office to the Democrats, as well, along with new city auditor, Alex Marion, you and Emily and Alex are really part of this new generation of younger progressive changemakers in Syracuse. So Mo, when you think of yourself and Alex and Emily, as these younger progressive changemakers in the city of Syracuse and Onondaga County, what are your hopes for what you could accomplish together working collaboratively?

Maurice Brown 7:11
I think, you know, the sky’s the limit. I’m a big dreamer. I’ve always been, you know, big ideas guy, I don’t think we should limit ourselves. I think the area in which we connect the area in which we are all excited is that we kind of don’t know any better. So what we’re running into a lot, or at least what I’m running into, I’ll speak to my experience, but I’m sure Alex, and I’m sure Emily could say the same thing is we’re running into a lot of people that will say like, you know, we’ve never done it like this, or, you know, this is not usually what the procedure has been. And that’s good, because the procedure has not worked. What we have been doing has not worked for the Syracuse community. So we need to change something. It’s frustrating. And you know, it is going to be hard because, you know, change is always met with conflict. But I think that, you know, you need a fresh set of eyes on the problem, and you need people who are going to say, Okay, this hasn’t worked, let’s try this thing. People that are gonna say, okay, maybe that new thing didn’t work, let’s try something else. You know, you can’t just get so stuck in your ways. And I feel at the county level, especially, but you know, the city and the county clerk’s office, I’m sure they’re dealing with it as well. A lot of folks are reluctant to change, but we have to embrace it, you know, we need better the folks elected us because we are bringing in those new ideas, and we have to fulfill the promise we made to them through our oath of office. So

Alex Lewis 8:41
When you think about the future of Syracuse and Onondaga County, what are your hopes for what you can accomplish realistically over the course of your term in the county legislature?

Maurice Brown 8:52
Yeah, so even as I was running, I always said, you know, this is not going to happen overnight. The change that I’m talking about the change that we need that we deserve, is not going to happen. Just like boom like that. It’s going to take a long process, it’s going to take commitment from several people was going to take building those relationships and creating that rapport on several levels. So for this term, I’m working on building those relationships. I’m working on establishing that rapport. My townhall is going to be one of a couple that I do, because I think we need to have the conversation. We haven’t even had the conversation about what does transformative housing looks like. For this region. We haven’t had the conversation about you know, what does transformative transportation looks like for this region. And we need to start having those conversations you know, you kind of have to crawl before you walk in you got to walk before you run. And we are at the crawling stage unfortunately. However, I am definitely going to crawl you know, and I hope before long will be running, but you can’t get the steps if you try to run before you’re ready to walk you will fall over So I think these two years is going to be about, you know, setting that framework setting that foundation so that we can build going forward. Well,

Alex Lewis 10:08
I wish you immense success as you continue your hard work, going and crawling to walking to running. I think you’re probably walking by now. I think you’re selling yourself. That’s, yeah, absolutely. So again, my wish you nothing but the best over the course of your legislative. I know, we’ll be in touch down the road. Thank you so much for joining us once again, from the lobby, and I’ll send it off to Joanna to close out our program.

Joanna Pasceri 10:33
Well, thank you, Alec, and Moe for that update. Keep up the good work for the people of Onondaga County. And to stay up on what’s really happening in politics. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and sign up for our Monday morning memo Jack’s weekly newsletter with great political content and analysis. It’s sent right to your inbox. Just subscribe on our website at odonnellsolutions.com. That’s odonnellsolutions.com And for daily updates follow us on Instagram, X and LinkedIn at O’Donnell and Associates. Thanks for listening, everyone. We’ll be back From the Lobby with Jack O’Donnell.