“We have to stop campaign contributions from people doing business with the county. I have taken no contributions from any corporation, any LLC, because I don’t want anyone to believe they could buy Michael Sussman, they can’t.” — Michael Sussman
This is Part 2 of our interview with Michael Sussman, candidate for Orange County Executive, continuing our coverage from Oct. 3.
Here we explore his plans to root out corruption, prioritize local needs, and build a sustainable, inclusive future for Orange County’s residents.
Ending corruption with accountability
Sussman criticized current county practices, citing a no-bid $800,000 IT contract awarded to a county official’s brother-in-law, where “the legislature in this county itself determined that those involved had not only failed to follow policy, they also lied. Nothing was done to them. There was no consequence.” His solution: “We have to create a county comptroller’s office to replace, in large measure, the controlled Department of Financial Services… so the person who has that office has his or her own political career to worry about has to answer to the voters.” He emphasized, “We have to stop campaign contributions from people doing business with the county… I don’t want there to be any perception that they might be able to.”
Sussman aims to reform the Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which has “been used to foster several major developers who have failed almost uniformly in meeting that mission” of job creation. He cited Danskammer, which “is employed by the data we got from the IDA one person and gotten more than $9 million dollars in subsidies,” CPV, a “major fossil fuel, polluting power plant” with “approximately $12 million in tax breaks” for 20 jobs, and Legoland, given “approximately $30 million in tax breaks” for seasonal employment in an environmentally sensitive area. Instead, “I want the IDA to support local businesses… which are going to have specific plans for how they would use the money to expand operations, to employ, train and employ people.”
Revitalizing small businesses and agriculture
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“I’m a big believer in the mom and pop store, because this provides a form of creativity and expression for our people,” Sussman said. He’d convene “village managers, the village mayors, the town supervisors” to plan economic revitalization, noting, “housing that’s built in villages that’s close to existing infrastructure is positive… It provides a population which will see that village as theirs, build that demand from those stores provide customers for them.” In Newburgh, “there are buildings that could be reconditioned through aggressive programs that will create a place for more people to live and support local businesses.”
To bolster agriculture, “I want to create a Commissioner of Agriculture in our county… We don’t have a beef processing facility in our county. We don’t have a dairy processing facility… agricultural leaders, they suggested county land at Stewart airfield be used for that kind of processing plant plants.” He also supports “irrigation projects of the Wallkill River” to prevent flooding, as “the kind of vegetable crop that could grow there could really feed the whole region.”
Protecting the environment
“We have 46 toxic waste sites in Orange County which had been unremediated since 2016… They need to be cleaned,” Sussman stressed. Opposing warehouse sprawl in Wawayanda, he noted, “you’re going to have an increase of 1000 trucks a day, and that produces what it produces” in pollution. His vision: “We have an awful lot of land in this county that could be used for wind development, that could be used for solar development. We have current warehouses that should have on them solar panels… We have fleets of vehicles owned by government which need to be on electronic vehicles.” He’d partner with “Greenway… a company that knows how to turn waste into productive material, recycle it, compost it, redevelop it, not use landfill so much.”
Enhancing education and youth opportunities
Sussman would expand early intervention services, as “there are still many children on waiting lists who are not getting whether it’s speech therapy, whether it’s behavioral modification services.” He proposes “a county wide forensics and Debate League… to give young people who have skills and want to develop skills in oral presentation and lawyering.” Additionally, “I want all of our departments to have mentorship opportunities at a high level… a shadow Commissioner who’s someone under the age of 30, who will learn the nuts and bolts of government.”
Engaging communities
To make government inclusive, “The county executive needs to be in communities on a monthly basis… part of my job is to be present, be visible, listen to people.” He’d create “a hotline… available for you if you have an issue you need us to deal with… and we will have to have an office of constituent services that responds to you on a timely basis.” On grassroots activism, “I’ve been a grassroots activist my whole career, and I think that there are throughout the county many organizations that need to know that they have someone at the helm of the county who wants to know what it is that concerns them.”
Sussman’s message to residents: “Hope is attained through learning about the people who are in your midst and coming to an understanding that you have things in common with them… Every culture here matters, and you’re sharing yours with us enriches us… The more open we are, the more alive we are.”
Visit www.sussmanfororange.com or follow “Elect Sussman County Executive” on Facebook to learn more.
