Democratic Candidates Address Housing, Data Centers, More

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
ONEONTA

With less than a month before the November 4 local elections, Oneonta county, city and town Democratic candidates, and one independent, held a forum addressing issues from affordable housing to data centers and more on Saturday.

Candidates Dan Buttermann (mayor), Will Rivera (town supervisor), Jill Basile (incumbent county representative, 14th district), Michele Clapperton (county representative, 13th district), Eamonn Hinchey (county representative, 4th district), Teresa DeSantis (town board), and independent Mike Forster Rothbart (incumbent city council, 7th ward) spoke. Around 25 people attended the October 11 event at Wise Guys Sammy’s hosted by the Oneonta Democratic Club in downtown Oneonta.

“I’m running because I am really concerned about proposed data centers,” Rivera, the Town of Oneonta supervisor candidate, said in his opening statement. Rivera said the issue has come up repeatedly in conversations with voters.

“They’re worried because of the lack of information, and I believe government should be open, transparent, and work for the people,” Rivera said.

At a Town of Oneonta board meeting last week, representatives of Eco-Yotta Inc. billed their renewed proposal as “agribusiness,” requesting a Planned Development District as opposed to the previous request of expanding an industrial district.

Eco-Yotta representatives told board members they hope to conduct artificial intelligence research linked to farming, using the computers’ heat to grow hydroponic crops. See the article on page 2 for further project proposal details.

DeSantis, who was present at that meeting, called the proposal a confusing “hodgepodge” of ideas with “no clarity.” She told the audience that the “underlying problem is the zoning codes,” with PDDs “used continually for spot zoning.”

“It’s like hitting a whack a mole that keeps popping up again and again. There should be a moratorium on PDDs,” DeSantis said.

Mayoral candidate Dan Buttermann said he was running because “we’re at a critical point in our communities, the town and the city do these things together.” Calling for cooperation between the two, Buttermann said he’d hope to bring people together if elected.

Asked about the Oneonta municipal airport, Basile, a current Otsego County board representative running for re-election, said, “Our budget is so bad right now that I cannot support the county trying to take over an airport.”

Hinchey, the 4th district county representative candidate, said it was similar to other issues like the Eco-Yotta proposal and potential “c-store.”

“These are land developers that have a lot of money” that “don’t have our town in their mind,” Hinchey said, instead “catering to a group of people that aren’t addressing any of the problems that we have in this area right now.”

The candidates discussed housing issues.

Buttermann said “RSS is one part of the solution, and also rehabbing homes is another part of the solution.” He said he sees homes in disrepair around town, adding that he wants to see “partnership with local, responsible developers working to rehab those properties.” Buttermann said he’ll reserve final judgement on the RSS proposal until it is further along, but that he hopes it will succeed.

Rothbart said, “I’m a strong supporter of RSS, and I strongly support this project.” He added that it cannot be the only solution, calling for use of blended properties, fixing vacant ones, or encouraging affordable housing development by giving vacant lots to developers who commit to keeping prices below a certain threshold.

DeSantis was apprehensive about the RSS project. “I’m worried about the fit of that project in that spot to the community. It does also concentrate one use into that area,” she said. DeSantis preferred single- or two-family homes, or a “Cooperstown model,” “workforce housing” of 10 to 20 units that are “very low key.”

Clapperton expressed support for the RSS project. “What I discovered” at a recent meeting, Clapperton said, “was people like to complain about the homeless…what they don’t want to look at is solutions.”

Asked about immigration enforcement, Rivera told the crowd he was proudly Latino and “what is happening to our community is inhumane and without due process, and I do not stand for that. Period.”

Buttermann answered by sharing that the one of best days of his life was when his wife took the oath of citizenship. “It makes my children first generation. And the asshole in the White House wants to take that away from them. And I say: f*ck you.”

If elected mayor, Buttermann said, “There’s no way I will ever cooperate with ICE in any capacity, unless there’s an arrest warrant.”

Throughout the event, several candidates called for updated comprehensive plans for local municipalities. After taking additional questions from the audience, candidates spoke with residents.

Gary Maffei, a steering committee member of the Oneonta Democratic Club who co-moderated the event, told AllOtsego it went well. “The candidates were very engaged, and the public seemed interested.”