As Mayor Kathy Sheehan winds down what will be a 12-year tenure, four Democratic candidates are eying Albany City Hall’s top office.
“Albany is worth fighting for,” said Dorcey Applyrs.
The Capital City’s current chief auditor has set up shop on Madison Avenue.
“I’ve been a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” Applyrs said.
The mom of two credits her humble beginnings in Washington, D.C. for her interest in public service, which started after earning a doctorate in public health at the University at Albany.
“I started doing HIV work on Clinton Avenue,” she said. “That’s how my advocacy and policy work began.”
Applyrs says public safety is the common concern in Albany and believes involving people from all walks of life in identifying solutions will be key.
“It’s important to make sure that we’re bringing people together, including our neighbors, our residents to contribute to solving some of our challenges, which are all solvable.” Applyrs said.
In the Pine Hills neighborhood, a political newcomer is throwing his hat in the ring.
“I’m the oldest of six,” Dan Cerutti told Spectrum News 1 while standing outside his childhood home on South Main Street. “My father was a brick layer; my mother was a waitress. We learned hard work.”
With a degree in applied mathematics and master's in computer science, Cerutti spent more than three decades building businesses across the country before returning to Albany in 2016.
“It’s a chief executive role,” he said. “The mayor’s job is to lead, to bring people together, to make tough decisions and to get things done.”
Like each candidate, improving public safety is one of Cerutti’s top priorities.
“Help these people on our street, to get them the treatment and the housing that they need,” he said. “To rebuild the police force, I want to put 30 beat cops back in our neighborhoods.”
A few blocks away on Central Avenue, “I’m ready,” Corey Ellis said. “I’m more seasoned now, I’ve learned a lot of things.”
Ellis is a familiar face in Albany politics and is looking to continue his mission of strengthening the Capital City’s future. It all started with bringing Little League to Arbor Hill.
“The council member at that time questioned me why I was doing that, I said I played on this field, my father played on the field across the street and it’s vacant and kids are wondering why they can’t play,” he recalled of his decision to run for a Common Council seat.
The Common Council president says addressing public safety concerns starts with providing a good quality of life.
“Crime is the end result, the end result, of things not being taken care of at the front end,” he said.
And near Whitehall Road, “I tried to get away from it, but I couldn’t,” said Carolyn McLaughlin, who is looking to add mayor to her public service resume which spans more than three decades with stints as Albany’s Common Council president and as a county legislator.
“I’ve looked at Albany from very different perspectives,” she said. “That has prepared me to now take the leadership role.”
Like her opponents, the lifelong Albany resident says public safety is what she’s hearing about most from her neighbors.
“Let’s try to incentivize our police department, members of the police force to live in the city of Albany,” McLaughlin said. “Those who have decided to work here have made a professional commitment, I’d like to see if they want to make a personal commitment.”
Voters will reduce the Democratic field to one after the primary on June 24.