The Importance of a Visionary
On November 2, the City of Oneonta elected a new mayor: Mark Drnek. Drnek is the owner of Sweet Home Productions- a small media company located on the City’s Main Street and he is the current 8th Ward Alderman on the City Council.
From the beginning of the Campaign, Drnek began doing what he knows best: sales. Selling a vision for a community as diverse as Oneonta can be a challenging endeavor. The needs of the City’s eight wards differ and, in many cases, clash with one another. Issues around housing, climate change, economic development, job creation, and the provision of services to disadvantaged residents are divisive to say the least.
Drnek’s core vision was based on bringing 1,000 new residents to Oneonta. 1,000 new residents have the potential to bring life to businesses on the City’s Main Street, encourage the development of new housing projects, and potentially address the labor shortages experienced by several area employees.
On the flip side, adding 1,000 new residents presents new challenges to the City including addressing housing shortages both for renters and for buyers, addressing limited alternative transportation options, increasing the water and sewer infrastructure in the City, and working with NYSEG to address electric capacity issues.
Naturally, the question is how will Drnek achieve this vision? Drnek was wise as a candidate to leave the answer open. In a weak mayor system, the mayor’s role is to enable City Staff, subject experts, citizens, business owners, and other groups to identify the path forward to that vision. Economic development leaders like Daniel Doctoroff prioritized surrounding themselves with people who have the skills necessary to achieve broad visions. The willingness to surrender control, in a certain way, is an essential part of leadership in a weak mayor system.
To jump back to reality for a moment, we need to realize that the wheels of government move slow. It may often feel as if solutions are proposed and not acted upon. However, as time progresses, the urban environment evolves. We saw this with the City’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative. For a time, it felt that progress was slow. Yet, if we look Downtown, we now see 100 new units of housing coming online, new facades on many local businesses, and an increased sense of vibrancy along Main Street.
Achieving a new vision requires a sense of faith. Yes, there will be adversity. Yes, there will be pushback on housing projects or new economic development. Yes, there could be budgetary constraints that snarl key infrastructure investments. But, faith in our community is not ill placed. Oneonta is blessed to have the one-two punch of Mark Drnek as Mayor and Greg Mattice as City Administrator. The City is fortunate to have a talented Community Development Director Judy Pangman and a defacto City Planner Stephen Yerly. These staff members will be in the trenches moving the City one step closer to Drnek’s vision.
If I were to make one concluding point about the importance of a visionary-it would be the ability to sell our residents on an idea. The citizens of Oneonta will be the main driver of change in our community. Maintaining the relationship of trust between government and voter is essential to the success of any government. Drnek has made a career in building a sense of trust between him and his customers. It is my hope that he will continue to emphasize the concept of trust as mayor.
