Shawna Black talks next steps as new Legislature chair

At its Jan. 4 meeting, the Tompkins County Legislature unanimously elected Legislator Shawna Black to serve as chair of the Legislature for 2022, with Legislator Deborah Dawson serving as the vice chair. While it’s only been a couple of weeks since that meeting, Black is already hitting the ground running, picking up where previous Chair Leslyn McBean-Clairborne left off.

Black first came to Tompkins County about 25 years ago, when she met her wife, Margot, at Cornell University and decided to visit for the summer.

“And that ended up turning into two and a half decades,” she said. “And at some point, one of us or both of us had had accepted positions in San Francisco, and we were going to move out to the West Coast. And our jobs got rescinded due to the dot-com crash. And so, we decided just to make Ithaca — Trumansburg at the time — our permanent home. And so, we became long-term residents of Tompkins County back in … 2000.”

Prior to joining the Legislature, Black served as the executive director at a senior living facility, recruited bus operators for TCAT and worked at the Southern Tier AIDS Program. Her history with the Legislature began back in November of 2017, she explained.

“I actually decided to organize a group back in 2016 after the election, a group of around 400 people, to go to Washington, DC to do the Women’s March,” she said. “I was part of the organizing group for that. And after we did the March, actually, on the bus ride home, I started the group Rise UP Ithaca and the Facebook group. And a few months later, I met with Martha Robertson, and she encouraged me to run for the Legislature.”

Black’s first role on the Legislature was chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, and she later served as vice chair of the Legislature under McBean-Clairborne.

“The one thing that really drew me to Health and Human Services was that it really has the greatest impact as far as helping people that are in need,” Black said. “The department oversees the mental health, public health aspect, as well as works with all of the nonprofits, Youth Services, Office of Human Rights, veteran services. All of the departments that are really in my wheelhouse and that I really care about are located in that committee. And so, it was kind of a given that I would take that over.”

With Black’s election, the County Legislature has now seen two big firsts in just the past few years. When McBean-Clairborne was elected chair (full article at tinyurl.com/y44fpurr) in 2020, she became the Legislature’s first woman of color chair, and Black is now the Legislature’s first openly LGBTQ+ chair.

“I’m certainly honored to be the first,” Black said. “That is a single part of who I am. My wife and I were part of the Ithaca 50 back in 2003, and that was when the 50 people and 25 couples sued New York state for the right to marry. And so, that was an exciting time in history that we were fortunate to be a part of. But I see this as certainly an achievement in and of itself for me to be elected as chair. And I am the first, but I hope not to be the last.”

During her time on the Legislature, Black has formed personal connections with her colleagues, which she said has helped her grow as a public servant.

“Over the past four years, I’ve really gained the trust of my colleagues,” she said. “And that’s been done by really hard work, building relationships and really making those connections with my colleagues, regardless of their political party. It seems like in many legislatures, in many forms of government, you see so much arguing that they don’t really address the topics at hand. And I’ve really tried to create a situation where we are trusting our colleagues and, at all times, even if we disagree, we remain respectful of each other.”

So far, her colleagues have been “extremely supportive and very welcoming” regarding her election as chair, she said. Black added that she’s glad Dawson — a good friend of hers — was chosen as vice chair.

“The two of the two of us have really entered this as a partnership,” she said. “We work very closely together. We’re very good friends, and we disagree constantly, but it’s a very healthy disagreement. And it’s been really a pleasure to work with her for the past four years. And I see our partnership as really bringing a strong suit to the legislature.”

Black and Dawson have spent the past couple of weeks meeting with other legislators to discuss committee appointments and other changes to the Legislature, particularly the introduction of five new legislators. In the coming months, Black said her main focus — like all legislators over the past two years — will be the pandemic and the county’s continuing response to it.

“At this point, we’re not sure if COVID is ever going to go away,” she said. “But I feel like as a community, as a county, we really need to focus on ways to live with COVID and to normalize life for our constituents, for the kids that live here and for everyone because I think, over the past few years, it’s really taken a toll on everyone.”

Black noted that the pandemic has highlighted gaps in social services throughout the county, and she’s grateful for nonprofits like the Human Services Coalition, REACH Medical and others for helping to fill those gaps.

“The collaboration that these nonprofits have had, it’s really been incredible,” she said.

Besides the pandemic, Black also plans to focus on workforce development and diversity, equity and inclusion, which were two big priorities for McBean-Clairborne as well. She said at the Legislature meeting that she’s committed to leading “a workplace of choice where everyone feels welcomed.” On top of that, Black will continue the Legislature’s current progress toward equitable salaries for all legislatures with an upcoming salary study.

Another focus area of McBean-Clairborne’s Black plans to continue is the Legislature’s work surrounding the ongoing Reimagining Public Safety process, with a recent milestone being hiring the director for the new Community Justice Center.

Overall, while Black didn’t originally expect to see herself in government, she said that she’s acclimated to the role well and is proud of the role the Legislature has in the community. She said she’s looking forward to her new journey as Legislature chair.

“This was something that I never in a million years would have thought I would have been doing, but I have really enjoyed my time in the Legislature,” she said. “For me, personally, it is about going out, meeting constituents, serving our residents and really providing a face-to-face element to government. I think it’s very important to be out in the community, to be an active member — I have three kids that attend the public schools — and really engage and try and make our community a better place to live. And, for me, personally, this is a way that I can have great impact on that.”

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@vizellamedia.com.