ITHACA, N.Y. — The City of Ithaca enters 2024 with a bevy of new faces on Common Council, all of whom were introduced Wednesday at the year’s first council meeting. Mayor Robert Cantelmo was sworn in during a brief ceremony held before the meeting began, and the six new members of council were officially introduced as alderpersons.
Kayla Matos (First Ward), David Shapiro (Third Ward), Patrick Kuehl (Fourth Ward), Margaret Fabrizio (Fifth Ward), Clyde Lederman (Fifth Ward) and Pierre Saint-Perez (Third Ward) were all seated for their first meeting. Incumbents Phoebe Brown (First Ward), Ducson Nguyen (Second Ward), Kris Haines-Sharp (Second Ward) and Tiffany Kumar (Fourth Ward) round out the current council, having all won another term in November.
As is customary for the first meeting of the year, Cantelmo delivered the state of the city address, detailing his priorities as he assumes office and recapping last year’s accomplishments at the city level. Specifically, Cantelmo listed all levels of housing, particularly aimed at low- to moderate-income earners, the Ithaca Green New Deal, the local transit system and job creation as his primary goals for his four-year term.
“These may sound like big challenges, and they are, but they also hold the potential to evolve our city for the better,” Cantelmo said in his address. “As we look to future economic opportunity for all, we must be guided by a clear vision. I ask my colleagues to work with me to develop an economic development strategy for the city to build an inclusive, affordable, sustainable, and dynamic Ithaca.”
Cantelmo is the first mayor under the city’s new leadership structure that now includes a CEO-style city manager who reports to Common Council. Former alderperson and Chief of Staff Deborah Mohlenhoff was appointed as the inaugural city manager last month and was in attendance Wednesday at the council meeting as well.
“Our city has turned a major corner, and we are poised to usher in a new era of efficient government, of responsive government, of transparent government,” Cantelmo said. “Our city manager and administration have my full support and I am eager to partner hand-in-glove with them on advancing the interests of our community.”
Along with Mohlenhoff sitting to Cantelmo’s left and beside council members, Assistant City Attorney Victor Kessler took outgoing City Attorney Ari Lavine’s normal place on the dais, to the right of the mayor’s seat.
Perhaps predictably, the new members influenced some measured discussion about some rather small details, most saliently the amount of time people would be allowed to comment for Wednesday’s meeting. Changes to the rules of procedure will be finalized in the coming weeks, Cantelmo said, with certain tweaks necessary because of the leadership and structural changes in city government.
During the public comment section, which largely focused on potential traffic changes to Floral Avenue, Ithaca Tenants Union activist Genevieve Rand noted that it is the first time in history that renters have held a majority on Common Council, which she celebrated considering the city’s disproportionately renter population.
Cantelmo also started the meeting by thanking and congratulating the outgoing members of Common Council, reading proclamations for former First Ward Alderpersons George McGonigal and Cynthia Brock, the latter of whom Cantelmo noted was the first Asian-American elected to council, former Third Ward Alderperson Rob Gearhart, former Fourth Ward Alderperson Jorge DeFendini, former Fifth Ward Alderperson Donna Fleming and former Mayor Laura Lewis, who served in the role since early 2022.
Additionally, Nguyen and Haines-Sharp were designated as acting mayor and alternate acting mayor, should Cantelmo be absent at a necessary meeting, out-of-town or otherwise incapacitated.
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