Post-Standard article about County Executive candidates at Delavan Art Gallery

The following is a quote from an article just published about the recent appearance of County Executive candidates Magnarelli and Mahoney at Delavan Art Gallery to meet with ACLA.

"Magnarelli, Mahoney talk arts funding

Monday, October 08, 2007
JOHN MARIANI
POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
The scene: a three-deep semicircle of chairs surrounding a "hot seat" in the Delavan Art Gallery.

The players: the major party candidates for Onondaga County executive, Republican Joanie Mahoney and Democrat Bill Magnarelli.

The show: an unscripted discussion of county participation in the arts with the Arts & Culture Leadership Council, a group comprised of executives of Central New York's leading cultural organizations.

One after the other, Magnarelli and Mahoney took the hot seat last week to give their views on the role of the arts in Central New York and to say what they would do as county executive to foster them.

Culture and the arts are personally important to him, Magnarelli said. When he was 7 or 8 years old, his parents started him with music lessons; being Italian-American, he said, the instrument of choice was the accordion. He hadn't picked one up in 20 years, he said, but probably could still squeeze out a tune. More importantly, he said, the lessons gave him a lifelong appreciation of the arts.

Beyond his personal experience, the arts and cultural events are important to the lifeblood and economy of the community, raising spirits, entertaining tourists and attracting new residents, Magnarelli said. "If we're going to bring back downtown Syracuse," he said, "I don't see how we can do it without the arts."

The county should provide more financial support and make the grant process more transparent and predictable, perhaps by strengthening the Cultural Resources Council, so art organizations can plan better, he said.

Mahoney said she saw how important the arts were to economic development when her husband, Marc Overdyk, and his partners wooed Shell Oil Co. to set up a subsidiary in Syracuse. Among the things the people they were dealing with wanted to know about was Syracuse's cultural life, she said.

As county executive, she said, she would lean on alliance members to learn how decisions on arts spending are made and to help come up with a spending plan. She'd be willing to talk about increasing funding, she said. When one alliance member complained that politics plays too great a role in arts funding, she suggested setting up a dedicated pool of money for the arts and a bipartisan council to decide how to spend it.

Cultivating the arts could help retain young adults and encourage expatiates to return to Central New York, Mahoney said. Recent college graduates she's met while campaigning seem almost defensive about their decision to remain here, she said.

"We need to make this city, this region, cooler," Mahoney said.

The arts group will make no endorsement in the race, said Laura Reeder, its chairwoman. The forum was as much to let the candidates get to know the alliance members as is was to let the members get to know the candidates, she said.

For the record, the modified 2008 county budget being voted on Tuesday by the county Legislature includes $1.24 million for 17 arts and cultural groups. That would be a 16 percent increase from this year. It doesn't include $74,000 in extra money the Legislature proposes to set aside in contingency accounts...."

Read the rest of the article on Syracuse.com