Homeless Encampment

The city of Ithaca has been revising policies to help manage the homeless encampments on the west end of the city. The policy was first proposed in July but needed revisions from the Planning and Economic Development Committee before it could be voted on by the Common Council.

The city of Ithaca has been working for almost a year to help find a solution to the issue of homelessness within the city. 

“The creation of this policy has been long overdue,” said 1st Ward Alderperson Cynthia Brock. “It’s really important that the city has taken this first step in creating a space for people who are unsheltered to be.”

Previous versions of the draft have proposed the idea of making the current encampments “red zones” where local law enforcement would be involved with removing residents currently living in the encampments. Some members of the council like 4th Ward Alderperson Jorge DeFendini have worried about these parts of the policy.

“If we were writing tickets, forcing relocations, arresting people for being camped on city property, that’s criminalization of homelessness,” DeFendini said. “We took that out of the policy because there was no consensus around it.” 

On Sept. 20, the Common Council finally voted to pass a final draft of the policy that finally

organized a designated area for homeless campers. The final draft has also cut the parts that included law enforcement being involved in removing residents within the current encampments. The council is looking to make additions to the draft in the future that would include having amenities like toilets, driving water and trash removal in the sanctioned area. The resolution for the policy also includes plans for the city to work with Tompkins Country to create a more permanent solution to this issue going forward. 

Wage Increases for council members 

 Recently, the Ithaca Common Council approved raising the salary of its alderpeople. This new action will raise the salary of board members from $13,141 to $17,191. This increase also has no bearing on benefits already awarded to those serving on the council like subsidies on insurance costs. The board also approved a $25,000 dollar raise for the city manager position, making the salary $185,000.  

The council also made the decision to reduce the salary of the mayor from $61,489 to $30,000 and the chief of staff position that earned $130,000 annually will be eliminated entirely.  

Changes in salaries were decided by using the Living Wage Calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which determined that the livable hourly wage in the city of Ithaca is $18.26 contrary to the $16.61 recommended by Tompkins County Workers Center. The mayor’s salary was reduced because the new city manager position will take on many of the mayor’s former responsibilities. All changes are set to go into effect once the first city manager takes office in January of 2024.

“The city common council members have been notoriously under-compensated compared to other legislators in the area,” Brock said. “I think this amendment brings us more in line with the town of Ithaca and county legislators.”

DeFendini believes that a wage increase is ultimately a good thing for the Common Council. 

“This pay raise was an effort to make Common Council more equitable and accessible for people within our community,” DeFendini said. “If you want a common council that looks like you, that reflects you, you need people who have a stake in the game.” 

City Manager 

The city of Ithaca is continuing its search to find the first candidate to fill the city manager position. Voters elected to have the position created in November of 2022 and since then, officials in the city have been trying to find the right candidate for the position. The city manager would be taking over many of the roles of the mayor as well as the entire chief of staff position. 

Ian Coyle, county administrator for Livingston County, has worked with the city of Ithaca through his private consulting firm to help find a candidate to fill the position of city manager. 

“Ithaca is one of many cities across the country moving to this form of government,” Coyle said. “I’m very much a proponent for the government that Ithaca is moving towards, it’s better to have a non-partisan, apolitical individual working to make decisions for the people of Ithaca.” 

Soon the Common Council is looking to review and conduct interviews with the most promising candidates for the position. The first city manager is set to take office in January 2024

November’s Common Council ballot 

 The primary elections for Common Council members took place June 27 and all current members are set to have their term expire at the end of this year. The general election will be taking place Nov. 7. 

In the 1st Ward primaries Kayla Matos defeated Cynthia Brock for the 4-year seat. Brock plans to continue her campaign for the seat as an independent. Phoebe Brown is also looking to obtain a second term to the two-year seat, saying this will likely be her last in the position. Brown will be facing Republican Zachary Winn in the general election. George McGonigal will not be running again for his seat as the 1st Ward Alderman. 

In the 2nd Ward primaries, Kris Haines-Sharp was able to defeat both Aryeal Jackson and West Fox for the Democratic nomination for the two-year term, in what had the largest election turnout with 741 total votes. 

In the 3rd Ward primaries, David Shapiro was able to defeat Nathan Sitaraman by a narrow publican seven votes for the Democratic nomination for the four-year term. Pat Sewell, a professor from Tompkins Cortland Community College is running for the two-year seat as an independent. He will be running against the Democratic nominee Pierre Saint-Perez for the seat.

In the 4th Ward, DeFendini is looking to keep his position in the four-year seat. He has petitioned to be on the ballot and is currently running for the position unopposed. 

In the 5th Ward primaries, Cornell University sophomore Clyde Lederman was able to defeat Jason Houghton for the Democratic nomination for the two-year seat. Houghton is looking to continue his campaign for the seat as an independent. 5th Ward Alderperson Robert Cantelmo was running unopposed for city mayor until Republican Janis Kelly officially started her campaign for the office earlier this month.