MyRye.com is entering the podcasting business with a new weekly podcast hosted by former Rye Mayor Doug French. Available on all major podcasting platforms, MyRye.com Conversations with Doug French will tackle the larger and sometimes intractable issues impacting the City of Rye through interviews with local, county and state officials and business leaders.
In Episode 21 of Season 1, French speaks to New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, who represents District 37 and chairs the Senate Education Committee, for a wide-ranging conversation about the issues shaping Rye, Westchester, and the Sound Shore.
They cover school funding, utility bills, housing costs, flood mitigation, nonprofit payment delays, and how local residents can get involved in state government.
This episode of MyRye.com Conversations with Doug French was produced by MyRye.com. Feedback and story ideas are welcome.
Main Topics Covered:
- Shelley Mayer explains her approach to public service, including the demands of late-night calls, family balance, and why she stays optimistic in a tough job.
- Foundation aid and school finance are a major focus, including the push to fully fund what the state owes every district and address inequities affecting Rye and other middle-class districts.
- Mayer discusses rising school costs tied to transportation, health insurance, and special education, and why she wants a fairer distribution formula.
- The conversation covers New York’s new “Portrait of a Graduate” approach, plus expanded focus on civics, financial literacy, and climate education.
- AI in education is another major topic, including concerns about overreliance on technology and the need to preserve human interaction in schools.
- Mayer outlines her fight against Con Edison rate hikes and explains why she believes the current utility rate-setting system is broken.
- The discussion turns to energy costs, renewable power, offshore wind setbacks, and why utility bills remain a major middle-class burden.
- Housing affordability and property taxes come up as major obstacles to keeping working and middle-class families in Westchester.
- Flood mitigation after Ida is a major regional concern, with Mayer describing intermunicipal work, state studies, and her push for a dedicated state flooding office.
- She also explains reforms aimed at speeding up payments to nonprofits that are already vetted and contracted by the state but wait too long to be paid.
- Local partnership and constituent service are highlighted, including work with Rye officials, school leaders, and county partners.
- Mayer closes with her new leadership roles in ethics and governance and as chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome to the podcast and why this conversation matters for Rye
03:41 – Foundation aid and the push to fund every district fairly
07:38 – What the “Portrait of a Graduate” means for New York schools
09:29 – AI in education and the limits of technology in classrooms
11:08 – Why Con Edison bills are so high and what Mayer is trying to change
15:13 – Renewable energy, offshore wind, and the root of utility costs
16:27 – Housing prices, property taxes, and keeping the middle class in Westchester
17:52 – Flooding after Ida and the need for regional mitigation
21:08 – Why nonprofit organizations wait too long to get paid
23:41 – Working with local officials across party lines
24:59 – How constituents can reach Senator Mayer’s office
27:41 – Ethics, governance, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
30:22 – How legislation moves from idea to law
33:05 – Lightning round on priorities, challenges, and public education
Watch:
Full Transcript [edited for clarity]:
Speakers
- MyRye.com (Doug French)
- NY State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
00:12 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Welcome to the MyRye.com podcast, Conversations with Doug French. I’m your host, Doug French, former mayor of the City of Rye, and this podcast is about the people and the issues that inform Rye and our local region. Our aim is to inform so you can engage on the matters that are most important to you. And we are here each week, so stay tuned each week for another topic. But this week’s topic in conversation is New York State Senate solutions. What is our state government working on? What specifically impacts Rye in the Sound Shore region? And how local residents can have a say and influence on these issues. Joining me is the New York State Senator, Shelly Mayer. Senator, welcome to MyRye.com
00:53 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Thank you, Doug. It really is a pleasure. I’m so glad you’re doing this.
00:56 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Well thank you. And as I say in my intro, this podcast is about the people and issues that impact Rye and the surrounding region. And that would be you. So it’s a pleasure to have you. Thank you for being here. And I will interchange if it’s okay with you, referring to you as Senator and Shelley, since we know each other.
01:10 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Shelley. Shelley is good.
01:12 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Okay. Before we get to the legislative policies and actions, I did want to touch on the human side of public service in balancing all of the demands. You’ve held many leadership roles and continue to do so. You have many responsibilities. So if you could just share with us your thoughts. After a long day, you’re home and you get yet another call about taking on a new assignment or tackling a big issue. Can you take us into that moment?
01:36 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Well, one is I love the job. So I do it because I really think I can make a difference. And I have a lot of energy and passion for it, which I try to show so that people aren’t cynical about what it’s like. I mean, my job is to serve people and so you gotta like it and you gotta like people and not be intimidated by differences of opinion. So I start with that frame, and I’m a very optimistic person, even in the face of many challenges that everyone has. personal policy, the world. I start with a very positive view every day. But at the end of the day, yes, I’m tired. I give a lot of, I say a lot of calories out. And if I’m sitting down with my husband, having a glass of wine dinner and then like the governor’s office calls, yes, my heart sinks, like she’s gonna veto my bill, which sometimes they call it like eleven o’clock at night and tell you with no chance to fix it, which I always say, why didn’t you call me earlier? I would have fixed it with you. Or the majority leader calls and there’s something that is unfortunate that requires thoughtful consideration. So I try to balance the best I can, like everyone else. You know, I have a wonderful family. I have five grandchildren, three kids, all married, and complications of personal life. I’m very, very fortunate that I have been able to sort of pull it all together and not fall apart. at anything. And you know, in this scheme of things, I’m just a very fortunate person, in what I have and what I get to do. And so I have not been thrown by those calls late at night, but sometimes your heart does sink. There’s no question about it.
03:05 — MyRye.com, Doug French
That’s great, yeah. And you have a great team just working and setting this up.
03:08 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
I have a fantastic team.
03:10 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Our first grandchild – coming up on a year now – has totally changed our lives. Nothing like nothing like grandchildren.
03:14 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yeah. It’s very fulfilling.
03:18 — MyRye.com, Doug French
So let’s talk about the areas that you’re specifically focused on, education. When people talk about education, that’s one of the core reasons why people move to Rye. So you’re the education chair. So if you could walk through some of the accomplishments and what’s happened from this past session as well as some unfinished business.
03:32 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Well, I’m gonna go back a little before this past session. So when you know, I ran after George Latimer became county executive, he had been the senator for this district. And of course I grew up here, I knew the Sound Shore well, but not as well as when I had the opportunity to represent it. So as education chair when we got into the majority in twenty nineteen, our first priority was to get the amount of foundation aid which the state owes every school district in the state fully paid. It was just completely ignored for many years. Governor Cuomo disagreed that it was owed, even though the court said it was owed. And it took us a few years. So we were finally able to get every school district, including Rye, what they owed. Then fast forward, even if you get what you owed and it’s based somewhat on property wealth, districts like Rye don’t get as much as districts like Port Chester, for example, next door. So Rye doesn’t always have enough money to do the things it needs to do to be such an exemplary school district, which I’ve had the opportunity to go to every school and see and meet with the superintendent. And they got into a little back and forth with the City of Rye about the Playland issue, and one year was short. I was able to get additional money to sort of bridge that gap. That wasn’t easy because Rye is not one of the state’s most needy districts, but it’s my district and I cared about it and I did not want services to be cut. And you’re absolutely right, people. Doug, people move to Rye for the school district, and I know that, but they pay exorbitant property taxes, school taxes. And so my job is to get as much state money to every school district and then to fight for a fairer distribution, which is still on my list. For example, the costs of transportation, health insurance premiums, special ed in a district like Rye and many other middle class districts are tremendous burdens. And I’m very committed to working particularly on the health insurance premiums because this is a problem for a district like Rye, every district. Transportation, as I said, and the cost of special ed, which you know from your experience, the world has changed about special ed and it’s much more expensive. And many more kids are in that bucket. So we have to do better, but we have made significant progress. We have changed what’s called the regional cost index for Westchester, which was previously lumped with the rest of upstate New York. Last year we got that closer to the New York City regional cost index. That pushed more money into districts that were owed additional foundation aid. So we have continued work to do, but we have made really substantial progress. Although not every school district adopts it, universal free breakfast, free lunch for every school district in the state, and we’re moving towards full day pre-K for four-year-olds by two years from now for every family that wants it. Again, not every district and Rye is going to have its challenges like others in having these things come to pass. But we are putting more state money and taking the burden off property taxpayers and at the same time enhancing the experience of students. One last thing. I’m not satisfied.
06:37 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Sure.
06:38 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
With the results of many of our schools, not Rye, which has excellent results, but we put a lot of money into education. We need better results from some of these other school districts, and I’m pushing for that.
06:49 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Okay, great, thank you, thank you. I’ve also heard about the education department changing the region’s criteria and this portrait of a graduate. Can you explain a little bit about that?
06:57 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Thank you for asking, because I don’t think anybody really could ever understand unless they were in the weeds. So education policy is set by the New York State Board of Regents who are named by the legislature, the assembly, and the senate jointly. They don’t report to the governor. So she can’t tell them what to do as she would with any other agency like DOT, all the agencies you dealt with as mayor. So they have changed the requirements for graduation with a new thing called Portrait of a Graduate. Which is more of a holistic view of what you want graduates to know, including some things that I think we all agree were missing. Enough civics education, enough opportunity for kids who are not good test takers to excel in individual projects, for example, that can be judged for graduation and still have exams, maybe less requirement, but they’re still there and they have moved toward this portrait of a graduate and they are implementing it. The legislature has a love-hate relationship with the Board of Regents. There’s some things they don’t like us telling them what to do, and sometimes we feel the need to tell them what to do. We pushed, for example, for financial literacy and climate education to be included as requirements, and they have now adopted those over the next two years. They’ll be phased in at every level. That’s a very important thing. We need kids who know how to balance a checkbook if they still write checks or how to plan, how to buy insurance, how to understand how things cost. So we push in as much as we can to change what the Board of Regents do.
08:26 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Well, I think people don’t understand the compounding of money. And just getting that concept alone creates
08:31 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yes.
08:32 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Wealth. So absolutely, personal finance. That’s awesome. Thank you. And anything looking ahead that’s unfinished business that you wanna need to tackle that’s on your mind.
08:39 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Well, certainly AI, the role of AI in education. I mean, I personally think you got sort of two pieces. You can’t replace teachers and humans. And you have a grandchild, you know, this human interaction that creates personal growth and social growth and in many cases intellectual growth. But at the same time we need kids to understand how to use AI. It’s not going anywhere, it’s only gonna be more pervasive. So I think there’s two pieces. We’re struggling with how to encourage schools to adopt policies that include both those elements. I’m not a fan of all this technology in school districts. I think I want human beings as much as possible. As imperfect as human beings are, they’re different from having a robot. I mean, I just did a bill to prohibit a chatbot that they hired in one school district. So
09:25 — MyRye.com, Doug French
I saw that. Yeah.
09:28 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
AI will be a subject on the agenda for next year and also use of technology generally in schools. I think there’s other issues in the school space, less about Rye, but immigration activity within schools is something we did legislate about this session that hasn’t happened too much in Westchester in schools, but I think there’s a great risk of that happening in some of our districts with a high proportion of immigrant kids.
09:51 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Okay, well thank you for that. not just in the news but everybody’s feeling it in their own lives. The issues of affordability and energy are key issues. I know you’ve led the charge about Con Ed rate hikes, any legislative fixes or what’s on the plate for that?
10:05 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yes. So I like the compliment I get when I go to a supermarket and they say you’re Miss Con Ed. I think that’s very nice. Yeah, I get that sometimes.
10:12 — MyRye.com, Doug French
I haven’t heard that.
10:15 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
But I didn’t win all the battles, but we started a battle that we are going to win, which is changing the way rates are set in New York. And basically one of the key components of what I’m trying to do is change the current construct, which is Con Ed comes in with a return on equity. percentage that they want, maybe ten percent, which by the way, who’s getting ten percent on anything they have? Nobody, at least not
10:37 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right. Right.
10:38 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Me. And then the Public Service Commission knocks them down to nine percent and then tells us, we did a great victory for you. But no, the nine percent on the delivery charge. So that’s you could turn your thermostat to zero and your bill is still gonna be so high. And for seniors, fixed income, middle income people. This was the number one complaint I got for the last year. was the price of Con Ed bills. So
11:02 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right.
11:03 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
We did get some victories in the budget and a credit to the people who really wrote the Public Service Commission proceedings and organized. We limited the ability to recover certain operating expenses, like we’re being charged for their attorneys and their and their witnesses in rate proceedings. That should be their problem, not ours.
11:22 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right. Right.
11:24 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
If they get more than their return on equity, instead of giving it back to us as a rebate on our bill, it was applied to the next rate increase. That got knocked out. So that was another one of my bills that got included in the budget. And also reducing financial burdens on ratepayers. We did give more time because what was happening was the time was so short that at the end they retroactively went back and increased your rate for a longer period of time. We got some changes to that in the time. But what I want is a new methodology for how the rates are set. And I’ve had a bill that’s passed the Senate every year, not the assembly. And I’m gonna continue to push for a complete overhaul. I think it’s a broken system, too many utility insiders, nothing against people who own Con Ed stock, but at the end of the day they’re gonna have to take more of the burden for infrastructure costs and less on people who pay the bills. And again, this is a middle class issue.
12:19 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right.
12:19 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
I don’t like the word ‘affordability’ because I think people just say I can’t pay my bill. I turned my thermostat on in the winter and I still can’t pay my bill. A thousand dollars in a house. You know, it was common.
12:30 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yeah, exactly. And I know in local government you have to sit down and look at these rate hikes and the math you gotta figure out, I think a clean sweep of looking at how we do this more straightforward fashion like you suggest. Yeah.
12:40 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Totally. And I would say I’m an intervener in another rate case. This is true and I’m a lawyer, I’ve been around a long time. It is so difficult to understand. It’s a secret jargon intentionally.
12:53 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yes.
12:54 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
It’s all insiders. Regular people ask regular questions and they just shut you down. And what I was most upset about in Con Ed, we had thousands of people go to the Public Service Commission and object, and they really minimized the opposition of ordinary people. And I raised this with the chair of the Public Service Commission. I’m offended for my constituents. They
13:14 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yeah.
13:14 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
This is not a joke to them. This is really serious. And people who are making eighty thousand dollars, ninety thousand dollars, they can’t afford this either. And then seniors and other people on real fixed incomes, let’s say they inherited a house in Rye from their
13:29 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yeah.
13:29 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Parents or grandparents. it is a disgrace and we need to change it and I’m gonna not finish fighting about
13:34 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yeah, well even higher incomes in Rye that I’ve talked to are still talking about it as well. It’s just the rates. So keep at it. Is there one factor that’s causing the cost so high, or is it a multitude of things?
13:46 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
It’s a few things, but I don’t think it is the states moving towards renewable energy because overall going forward we’re gonna have to do that. Yes, we need alternative sources of energy. There’s no question we don’t have enough. and there are good efforts underway in the state to do that. But you know, frankly, the federal administration shut down the offshore wind activity, which was, you know, on the way to being built off the Long Island Sound, you would not see it. It would have produced a great deal of energy. They shut that down. We have not maximized solar at a big scale. There’s an energy storage, so there’s more we could do, but in large part this is due to the rate setting methodology that New York uses. Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania has basically told his utility regulators, we’re not gonna accept this anymore. And the governor of New Jersey imposed a moratorium. I think we should step up in a very activist way against these rates.
14:40 — MyRye.com, Doug French
So you really are, what do you say, Miss Con Ed? Any other issues on affordability that you want to mention?
14:46 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yeah. Well I think and anyone from Rye understands this. Okay, I had a co-op in the city and I want to have a backyard, a great school district, you know, a wonderful community. My kids tell me now, like, why didn’t we go to Rye more often as kids? Because you never showed us this little jewel of that little downtown. So people want them. They want to move there. And then both the property taxes are extremely high. Services are excellent, the school district is excellent, but the cost of housing, the average cost over a million dollars in Westchester now, that really limits the ability to have truly middle class people or working class people like our firemen, people that work in our stores, live in our communities. And in a perfect world, Westchester would have middle class families and not only wealthy families. So I think the cost of housing is a real big deal and we try to incentivize you know, affordable rental. I’m in favor of having multifamily that’s like the new condominium type of thing where but Rye largely is single family homes, except with some exceptions, things that were built earlier and but I think the cost of housing is a serious impediment to our growth as a county and our community. And the beautiful city of Rye.
15:59 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right. So you mentioned downtown. Let’s focus on local Westchester and Sound Shore issues. flooding, you have not seen flooding until you see that little babbling brook roll through the center of Purchase Street. And I remember walking with Senator Gillibrand she said, that little brook creates all this damage. And so what can the state do, or what is the state doing when it comes to flood mitigation? Not just Rye with the Sound Shore, because it is a regional approach.
16:22 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
It is. And you know, really Steve Otis and I, after Ida, between Mamaroneck, Rye, which were there the next day meeting with people and their basements were flooded. That so much of Rye was deeply damaged by it. Mamaroneck, Port Chester, it was really a crisis. And two people in my district died from Rye Brook in Ida. So after Ida, we really worked with DEC, the State Department of Environmental Conservation, to do these studies which would lend themselves to multi-municipality requests for funding. And we have been able to get them to do more studies and to work with the City of Rye, Mamaroneck New Rochelle. to apply for funding and to get funding to begin to address systemic things. One of the problems with communities was that they didn’t want to work together. That has improved some as well. We are trying very hard to get money out the door. in Rye and elsewhere to deal with the structural problems. These are like you said, this is not like a simple solution. But we can’t risk this again and we’re gonna face it again. And it’s
17:28 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yeah.
17:28 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Not only the infrastructure of the downtown, it’s also people’s homes, access to power, everything else that got shut off. So the whole flooding, I have called for a state office of flooding that would be at a cabinet level officer. I did it after Ida. I pushed hard. My bill got vetoed once. I’m not finished with that. I think that a place like Rye should know exactly who to go to, how to get answers both short term, like during the crisis, and then going forward. How do we get money for pipe removal and pipe enhancement? How do we get money for actual stuff going into the Sound. Each of these things, you should have a place you can go instead of having to go to five agencies, some federal, some state. And that’s not the way it should work. And by the way, we’re not the first state to have floods. So we should use
18:16 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right.
18:17 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
The knowledge that other states have and have a more sophisticated approach to preparation and mitigation.
18:23 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Well I try to just inform, not advocate, but I could not agree more because I always said when I was in office that flooding is a regional problem and yet
18:31 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yes.
18:31 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Each little municipality is looking at their own little pet project. It’s not that we need to mitigate it in a much larger coordinated fashion, so I think you’re exactly right. I’m also part of the Business Council of Westchester, the Not-for-Profits Committee, and one of the issues that keeps coming up is that these not-for-profit organizations that provide great services can’t get paid. So can you update us on that?
18:50 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
So I’m very frustrated by that. And you know why? And you will understand this, Doug. So you have Rye ACT or or one or a group that is in Rye.
18:59 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Exactly. Yep.
19:00 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
They do great work, they have a contract with the state. They’ve been through the vetting process. We’re not starting from the beginning here. They’ve been vetted, they’ve been approved, their finances. Then it takes a year to get the money. Meanwhile, they employ people or they employ kids, and during that time they don’t get the money. So last year or two years ago, Assemblywoman Paulin and I did a bill to fix it. The governor vetoed it. She made some objections. We have addressed her objections. We did two bills that passed both houses. And basically they say that within 30 days after an award, they gotta start paying. And if they’re not going to pay, they gotta explain why and set a schedule. And then, you know, in a perfect world there’d be consequences to the state if they didn’t pay. That’s hard to get But we need a system, an actual system, so you know I’m hiring Shelley Mayer. I’m gonna hire you thirty days from now because by then I will have the money to pay you. And we have after school programs, we have these great anti-drug programs in Rye and other programs that really bring value. It’s not fair that you wait a year. And you’re doing a service traditionally the government would do, but no longer, you know, the government doesn’t do them all. So I am hopeful and we are working on the governor to try to get her to sign these bills.
20:13 — MyRye.com, Doug French
That’s excellent. Any other local issues that you’re working on in Westchester that you want to mention or I?
20:17 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Well we you know, over the years that I’ve represented Rye since twenty eighteen, we’ve given funds for various things, the salt shed, not very sexy, but you know, things that where money was needed and the
20:26 — MyRye.com, Doug French
But needed. Yeah.
20:29 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
City came to us. Now for that brook behind where the Y is,
20:33 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yes.
20:34 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
We are likely to be giving money towards the repair of that stone wall. I mean that hits the library, that hits the Y. That brook is, you know, multipurpose, but the Y was very damaged in Ida and we want to be helpful to them. We’ve met with them and done a walking tour. Anything I can do where I have allocated capital and the city of Rye comes with a request, I am trying to be as helpful as possible. We know that’s the government’s role to be helpful.
21:02 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right. So how’s the partnership going with the local officials, the school boards, the county officials? How’s that going, the partnership?
21:08 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
I think it goes very, very well. I mean, my style is I don’t care about partisanship once we’re elected. That’s off the table. We work with everybody. Our goal, our obligation is to serve everyone. It’s a privilege to have this job. It’s not up to me. It’s not about me. So we work well with this mayor of Rye, this council now, the county executive, obviously, the county legislators. We really try to be on the same page, and I would say compared to some of the other localities in the state, we are much more. unified. Of course I work very closely with George who updates me on the Rye world every day of
21:43 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Yeah.
21:44 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
What I missed in Rye and what I should have been at. he’s
21:46 — MyRye.com, Doug French
And he’s committed to this podcast, so we just have to nail down a date.
21:49 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Good, good. But he really, I mean he really has Rye at his fingertips and he’s been extremely helpful to me in making sure I understand at a granular level sort of what the issues are and I really appreciate his partnership and friendship. I rely on him. Although we disagree regularly.
22:06 — MyRye.com, Doug French
And that’s another podcast. We could do a full hour on that I guess. But if I’m a resident I and I like when you’re talking about I want to get involved. I mean what’s the best way? Is it to reach out to your office? Is there a site? How do people get involved?
22:17 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yes. Sure. So my office was in Port Chester much more convenient to Rye as George’s was. But frankly it is very hard to take a bus to Port Chester and I represent a diverse community from Yonkers to Pound Ridge. It really is a crazy length of district. And so it’s important to me to have bus transportation available to my constituents. And we have a very nice office. So now I’m on Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains next to the fire station. And if you email my office, so it’s S Mayer M-A-Y-E-R at NY Senate dot gov. Your email will get to me, get to my fantastic staff. I really do have an exceptional staff. And if it’s something we can, we try to get back if we can help and you live in the district, and even if we can’t help, we try to tell you. So I think I have a pretty good reputation. Some things get dropped, there’s no question about it. But I try to be present and to be responsive. That’s my job to do as much as I can for individuals. You know, some people say I wouldn’t ever think of reaching out to my senator for something like that. Well, if it’s a problem you can’t solve, you should feel free to reach out to your senator and your assemblymember. I work very closely with Steve. Obviously as a former Rye mayor, he really also has a feel for Rye.
23:30 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Well, I know I think Sophia may be out on vacation, but she was texting me even on vacation. So yeah, your staff is terrific. So I’m gonna let you take a break and I’m just gonna let our remind our audience if you have a topic or a person you’d like to hear are on the MyRye.com podcast, Conversations with Doug French, simply email me at French at MyRye.com or just let me know around town. We are here once a week and you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, YouTube weekly. can also find us at MyRye.com with links to all of those formats. So please share, like, subscribe, and leave a comment. Our conversations are timeless. So listening to a past podcast on topics of interest really get you up to date with the experts on the local and regional issues that matter most to you. And now we’ve got a little bit of time left. We’re gonna try to hit a couple of big blocks, so we’ll just maybe keep the answers short.
24:22 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
I’ll be shorter.
24:23 — MyRye.com, Doug French
And then we’ll go to the lightning round and then we’ll close it out. But this has been a great insight. Really appreciate all your
24:28 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Thank you.
24:28 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Efforts in participating today. so ethics, governance, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, you’ve got some new roles happening. Can you just tell us what’s happening with those?
24:38 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Well, I’m co-chair of the committee on ethics and government operations. I’m chair of that and then I’m also the co-chair of the legislative ethics commission. And that is a bipartisan group of legislators and lay people who handle complaints under various provisions of the ethics law. I’m very impressed with how it works. It’s consensus driven, not partisan at all. My colleague in the Senate Republicans, who is my counterpart there, was Andrew Lanza from Staten Island. We work very closely together and think very similarly. I’m impressed. I have to say I was there in the legislature when as a staffer when ethics were really a problem and it is greatly improved now and we have people, I think the vast majority of them, whatever their party affiliation, understand their obligations and the rules of the road. And it’s a much better place in many regards. So I have that and now I’ve been named as chair of the Democratic Senate campaign committee, which is to grow the Democratic majority in the State Senate and make sure our incumbents get reelected and help new members who want to join our conference. And it’s a big task. I’m happy to do it. I care about the whole state of New York and I think that we’ve made a difference as a democratic majority.
25:51 — MyRye.com, Doug French
And so how do you balance the needs of your district with the political aspect of your new road?
25:57 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
It’s a little challenging right now during this election season, but you know, I have a great staff that is only government. They don’t do any politics. We don’t discuss politics in the office, we have nothing to do with that. So I’m gonna do politics, I’m sitting at home. And if I’m in government, I go to the office in White Plains or out in the community. And it is a challenge to do them all, but I’m appreciative that the majority leader had faith in me and I have a great relationship with all my colleagues, really on both sides of the aisle. In fact, one of my Republican colleagues called to congratulate me and I have a great deal of respect for her. We’re in a political world so we’re competing, but at the end of the day, we all have a job to do.
26:36 — MyRye.com, Doug French
So just to close out on the ethics side, just a small world. George actually appointed me when he was as county executive to the Westchester County Board of Ethics, I’m still serving. Such a small world. And finally, I just want to end with you know, how does the sausage actually get made? I saved this for last because that’s probably the least exciting, but it really it’s an art to get things legislation passed.
26:55 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yeah.
26:56 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Take us through the idea to the committee to get passage. How does that all work?
27:01 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Well, how it works is it takes a long term view and you have to be a consensus builder. I mean there’s a great advantage to not having any sort of enemies in this big legislative process. If you want to run the whole thing, run for governor. But otherwise it’s a team sport. So I gotta get other people on board with my ideas like for example the banning of cell phones in schools. It was the governor’s idea. Some people, including myself, wanted some modifications along the way. We had to work with all of our colleagues. To get an agreement. and then were ultimately able to get consensus among the Senate majority. I think most of the minority Republicans agree with it too, the Assembly as well. But then if there’s a roadblock, you have to think of a constructive way, and you know this, Doug, to sort of get around the roadblock. So maybe you have to modify your bill, you have to tone it down. Like when the governor vetoed my bills, I have to go back and draft them in a way that I think is gonna I don’t want to do the same bill and get vetoed again. The point is to make change. Change is incremental, change is not overnight. If you believe in that kind of democracy, which we’re extraordinarily fortunate to have, as imperfect as it is, the fact that we can make laws that change people’s lives. It just takes persistence, it takes a pretty positive attitude, and it takes a willingness to compromise. So there’s a number of things in this year’s budget I did not like. At the end of the day, the increased school aid for every district, two percent instead of the one percent that the governor proposed, was a win. There were other things in there that were a win, and there certainly were many other provisions that I liked. But the things that I didn’t like, okay, I didn’t like them. But they’re part of a bigger budget bill. This is a compromise. And at the end of the day, we needed a balanced budget, so you vote. I voted for it with no apologies. Maybe an explanation, but no apologies.
28:46 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Right, and really compromise. That’s the difference between a bill that stalls and one that actually becomes law.
28:51 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Exactly.
28:53 — MyRye.com, Doug French
And I think what people don’t realize is it really is the three branches of government at every level. It’s not just the federal, but you have your assembly and your Senate and your executive branch. Yeah, go
29:02 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Exactly. And let me just add,
29:05 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Ahead.
29:05 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
I fight with the executive branch. People think, you’re all one party. I fight with the Department of Transportation every week about not getting enough roads redone in Westchester. Not enough fixed. So, you know, our job is to fight for our district. And like you said, there’s three branches. At the end of the day, we gotta do the best we can for our districts. And that I’m proud that I try to do that.
29:25 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Well Senator Gillibrand gave me the best advice. She said, Mr Mayor, plow the streets, repair the streets, and pick up the garbage. Everything will be
29:33 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
They’ll be fine.
29:34 — MyRye.com, Doug French
All right, so lightning round, just you know, one word answers if you if you could. So what keeps you up at night?
29:40 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Mistakes I might have made.
29:42 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Your proudest accomplishment in the Senate so far?
29:45 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Full funding of foundation aid for every public school in the state.
29:48 — MyRye.com, Doug French
The biggest challenge in your current roles.
29:50 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Frankly, the impact of the federal administration’s cuts on New York gonna be a huge challenge.
29:55 — MyRye.com, Doug French
So let’s talk about a one word that describes working with Washington, D. C. right now.
29:59 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Not a functional relationship.
30:01 — MyRye.com, Doug French
What’s the current state of the state of New York State Senate?
30:04 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Good, good. You know, full of new voices with a goal towards consensus.
30:08 — MyRye.com, Doug French
W we do the students inside of Albany with the League of Women Voters. any advice for future legislative leaders?
30:14 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Get involved. Get involved. Run at a local level. Get on your library board. That’s what I did. Didn’t get on at first, but ultimately got on. Get involved in your community. That’s where you can make a huge impact. You know this better than I
30:28 — MyRye.com, Doug French
What’s the biggest kitchen table issue in the 37th district?
30:32 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Energy, food and housing. Sorry.
30:34 — MyRye.com, Doug French
Three would it’s okay. One word of the current state of public education in New York.
30:38 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Improved but inadequate.
30:40 — MyRye.com, Doug French
What’s your favorite thing about the Sound Shore?
30:42 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
The Sound. The Sound. What an extraordinary resource.
30:46 — MyRye.com, Doug French
And it looks beautiful. It really does. It looks great. Yeah.
30:49 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
My gosh. That Rye beach is, you know, pretty fabulous.
30:52 — MyRye.com, Doug French
And then what’s the one word that’s gonna guide you in Albany this year?
30:55 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Thinking of my district, really we’re gonna have a very difficult year and I gotta do the best I can for everyone in my district.
31:03 — MyRye.com, Doug French
So any final messages that you’d like to leave listeners with?
31:06 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Well again, thank you for the opportunity to serve, and the opportunity to give my voice on behalf of the people I serve. I really do consider it a privilege. I’m a true believer in this kind of democracy and we’re lucky to have it. It’s not an easy time to be in public life, but if you are willing to do it, you should do it. This we need new we need your voice.
31:26 — MyRye.com, Doug French
That’s great. Well, I can’t thank you enough, Senator. It was great to speak with you, get your insights and knowledge. Thank you for your long term of public service and continued success with that. I want to tell our listeners you can find the full episode transcripts of this episode and others at the MyRye.com site, along with local news and more, and all the formats for this podcast. Please follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcast and spread the word as we grow. Also, there is a new song and video out about Rye. It’s called I’m in Rye and It’s Alright. It’s by it’s
31:57 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Yeah.
31:58 — MyRye.com, Doug French
By Dogs on the Run. It’s a great listen. We have our own theme song here at the MyRye.com podcast Conversation with Doug French, but it is a good listen. So thank you all again for listening to the MyRye.com podcast Conversations with Doug French. We are here weekly, so we will see you next week. Thank you.
32:13 — New York State Senator Shelley Mayer, District 37
Thanks so much.
