Tompkins Weekly

City’s chief of staff embraces new role



By Eric Banford
 
On May 1, Mayor Svante Myrick appointed Dan Cogan the new Chief of Staff for the City of Ithaca. Cogan previously represented the Fifth Ward on Ithaca’s Common Council from 2002-11, and was Acting Mayor under former Mayor Carolyn Peterson from 2006-10.
 
“What appealed to me about the position was the thought of having someone who was very focused on the internal workings of the city as an organization,” says Cogan. “Any mayor is really pulled in multiple directions, with the external part of the job dealing with the public, with going to Albany and Washington, dealing with national media and all of things the Svante is so good at. And then there’s the legislative side of things, working with Common Council, running meetings, figuring out legislation and such. And there’s also being the manager of the city and the CEO of the organization that is City Hall. That’s a lot for any one person to do.”
 
When asked about his new duties, Cogan says, “Mayor Myrick has put a ton of energy into the external-facing stuff, and is looking for someone to help with the internal-facing stuff. And that’s the kind of stuff that I enjoyed when I was on Common Council. I like working with staff to make stuff happen, so I see that as basically my role now, to help move things forward.”
 
Cogan hopes he can help the mayor keep tabs on what’s going on at city hall, help things run more smoothly, increase efficiencies and help with communication. “Helping everyone know what everyone else is doing is always a challenge with an organization as busy and complex as a city is,” he says. “There’s really no time for all of the department heads to share everything they are working on, and sometimes there is overlap, so my job will be partly to be like a conductor and make sure everyone is reading from the same sheet of music.”
 
Because of Cogan’s experience on Common Council, he hopes he can be a liaison between city staff and elected officials. “I won’t necessarily be a single point of contact, but I would like as much as possible to be in the loop communicating with Council and making sure they understand the constraints on the city,” he says. “There are often trade-offs, and when you decide to do one thing then something else needs to move down in priority. That can be a hard thing to be aware of when you are not here day in and day out.”
 
Cogan grew up in California, but fell in love with Ithaca on his first visit. “I came to visit in 1991 when EcoVillage was getting started, traveling with a best friend who I grew up with in California. We’re friends with the family that started EcoVillage, and he fell in love with it immediately and decided to not go back to California,” explains Cogan with a laugh. Not being as bold, Cogan returned home and applied to graduate school at Cornell, getting accepted into the Engineering School for fall 1992.
 
After obtaining his degree in 1995, Cogan moved to Poland for a short time, headed back to California for a while, but eventually was drawn back to Ithaca. “After six months in California I realized that Ithaca was now my home, so I moved back and have been here since 1998,” he says.
Cogan started his career as a computer programmer during the dot-com boom, but that didn’t last long. “Pretty quickly I realized it was not what I wanted to be doing, so I quit and took six months to figure out what I wanted,” he says.
 
During a fortuitous lunch with a friend who worked at Taitem Engineering, he got into a conversation with Taitem’s president, Lou Vogel, who offered him a job. He started with the compapny in 2001 and has been there ever since.
 
Cogan eventually became a co-owner of Taitem, where he managed their Aeroseal division. Thanks to his focus on improving the energy efficiency of buildings, he was asked to manage the Quality Assurance program for New York State Energy Research and Development’s (NYSERDA) Multifamily Performance Program, which he has done since 2007.
 
The same year Cogan started working at Taitem he decided to run for Common Council, and he was elected in the fall, serving until 2011.
 
When Dan isn’t cruising City Hall, he likes to spend time with his 12-year-old daughter. “Being a dad is probably my primary thing,” he shares. “And on the more unusual side of things, I realized a lifelong dream and learned how to hang glide. I’ve been a hang glider pilot for four years now, and I’m really looking forward to getting down to Elmira where I fly and getting some flights off the mountain soon. I’m very cautious,” he adds, and then shares a wise quote to end our conversation. “You know what they say, ‘Launching is optional, but landing is mandatory.’”
Here’s hoping that philosophy serves Cogan well during his time at City Hall.

 

 

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