Meet the Candidates: Tompkins County Legislature District 4 – Rich John

By Rob Montana
Tompkins Weekly

With at least 20 people announcing their plans to run for Tompkins County Legislature in the fall, Tompkins Weekly will be offering readers an opportunity to learn more about the people who will be appearing on ballots in September and November.

District 4, which covers a portion of the City of Ithaca, has been represented by Democrat Rich John since he was elected to the Legislature in a November 2016 special election. John is facing a challenge for his seat from Reed Steberger, who is also seeking the Democratic position on the ballot.
Here is what John had to say in response to our questions.

Tompkins Weekly: What are the top three issues facing Tompkins County?
Rich John: Housing, energy and criminal justice. We face significant challenges in each of these areas and the county legislature is working to find answers. The shortage of low-income and mid-range housing has existed in Tompkins County for decades. The Legislature has developed a housing strategy to expand our base of affordable housing which I support.

We are in the middle of a transformation of our energy systems. Again, the Tompkins County Energy Roadmap document provides a good description of our county energy usage, the renewable alternatives, and the possible methods to reduce energy usage. Getting our county to a more efficient sustainable energy footprint is an essential goal.

Our community is, frankly, in an opiate crisis. Tompkins is not alone in seeing misuse of opiates and heroin, but we need to address the impacts that are in front of us, including criminal activity, overdoses, and in some cases deaths. Deciding on the initiatives to implement and fund to try to meet these challenges is where we, as a Legislature, will need to make hard decisions.

I am generally confident in our ability as a Legislature to consider and respond to these issues. The Legislature is open, accessible and representative of a wide range of political viewpoints. We are fortunate to have an engaged, vocal, public that contribute to our discussions. We have broad, critical, and general fair media coverage. The experience and education of the volunteers that work on the many county advisory boards is continually impressive. The county departments and agencies that support the Legislature have demonstrated competence, innovative thinking, and a careful financial approach to programs and initiatives.

However, I offer three issues of a more national nature that scare me as they are largely outside of our control: Partisan division; lack of trust, and; ineffective change management. We have political parties that appear to be moving farther to the sides, leaving a middle that is harder to cross to reach agreement. The development of separate political facts and narratives, whether on the left or right, seems to be making the situation dramatically worse. A natural consequence of a lack of factual agreement and the inability to communicate across the divide is a breakdown of trust. Trust is a shorter way of explaining the consent of the governed. What we see is a national government that is unable to solve basic issues (see health care as an example) in any meaningful way. It is much easier to wreck stuff than to build, and what we are seeing is largely demolition. These national failures are having local impacts that make it harder for local government to operate, even if our local systems deserve a reasonable level of trust.

TW: What skills do you possess that would be an asset as a Tompkins County Legislator?
RJ: I have worked as a general practice attorney for over thirty years, including ten years as a municipal attorney. The essential role of a lawyer is to represent people and organizations in either addressing problems or attaining goals. The job requires listening, dialogue, understanding, analysis, and thought. Concise and clear communication is essential to being understood and being persuasive. Often, an attorney needs to help clients who are in a crisis, and perhaps none of the possible solutions are optimal. Helping a client find the best answer among the poor options requires realism and honesty. These same elements translate to working on the Legislature.

TW: What is something that would surprise people to know about you?
RJ: I am engaged in a start-up company, Triconic, to create a system for the certification of houses to energy efficiency and water conservation standards. The business is launching a database that will connect home inspectors to two of our country’s premier testing, inspection and certification companies, Underwriters Laboratories and Intertek, to evaluate the inspection reports and, if approved, issue certifications. Our goal is to provide a system of efficient and reliable energy ratings that can meet real world construction schedules.

TW: How do you balance the desires of your constituents and your own personal beliefs when making decisions as a member of the Legislature?
RJ: It would be easy to make legislative decisions if all I had to do was apply my own personal beliefs. We should all have our own opinions and beliefs. However, arriving at a personal view on an issue is only one piece of a legislator’s job. As discussed above in the answer to the question about skills, being a legislator is a representative role. The analysis of an issue needs to be non-ideological and take the whole district into account. Almost always, our actions as a Legislature either benefit or burden certain groups within our community. We need to determine and understand, as far as possible, what those consequences may be before voting.

As an example, the Legislature recently considered the issue of raising the age for tobacco sales. There are businesses in the 4th District I represent that are impacted. There is a large student population in the district that have had the right to buy tobacco taken away. There is an obvious health benefit to the extent that decisions about smoking are delayed beyond the teenage years. To arrive at my vote required a lot of listening, discussion, and thought. I visited with the impacted business owners. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Cornell Sun. I spoke with the director of our Health Department, Frank Krupa. I spoke with and read a lot of e-mail from residents. We received extensive comment at privilege of the floor. In summary, I worked to make sure I knew what people were thinking on the issue and took those thoughts into account. By the way, I voted in favor.

TW: Why should people vote for you?
RJ: I have shown up. I offer this statement in the literal sense that I have an excellent attendance record in the two years since I filled the 4th District vacancy. But I also mean it in the sense that I have been prepared, have participated, and made a meaningful difference in our debates and decisions. I have been given responsibility. I am serving as the chairperson of two committees, Public Safety and the Jail Study. Being named as the chairperson provides some recognition that I am able to add value to our processes. I have listened and learned. I have worked at this job and am good at it. If reelected, I pledge to continue to listen and learn, and to show up.