RUNNING FOR: TOWN SUPERVISOR
Bio: Damian is a longtime resident of the Town of Clay and holds a BA from Fredonia State University.
Damian is a 20-year veteran of Town government (specifically for the Town of Clay) and has held several positions including Councilman, Liaison to the Highway Department, Deputy Supervisor and currently in his role as Supervisor to the Town where he was appointed in 2008 and elected in 2009. He currently serves as President of the Onondaga County Supervisor’s Association leading a group of nineteen elected officials. During his tenure, he has supported and advocated for smaller local governments and is committed to providing efficient governmental services. He has maintained a stable Town budget without compromising Town services and has delivered a 0% Town tax increase over the past 3 years.
He was an integral participant in bringing an Amazon Distribution Center to Clay resulting in a building that is the second largest of its kind in the world and now employs almost 2000 central New York workers. Moving forward, Micron a memory chip manufacturer has committed to build on a property in Clay that will bring chip technology to the east coast and expand the labor force by almost 40,000 over the next ten years; making Clay, a great place to live, work and raise a family. He is an advocate of green technology, having secured numerous grants over the years for various projects including upgrades to the Town highway garage and solar array systems located at town hall and the highway offices. He recently secured a grant to switch the town’s overhead lighting system to LED, saving taxpayers thousands of dollars. His long-range vision is sustainability for a cleaner, greener community for the future and beyond. To that end, Damian has secured a $2.9 million grant from NYS DEC for remediation of a Brownfield in the historic Three Rivers area of the Town of Clay. Thinking outside of the box the supervisor together with the town board is hoping to transform a 67-acre parcel on vacant land gifted to the town into a community wide green project. “Project green” hosts a community garden with a solar powered irrigation system, a fully functional greenhouse to accommodate individual resident garden plots and, the project will also host walking and cross-country skiing trails along with non-traditional outdoor recreational activities.
Damian is an advocate for the health and safety of his staff and residents. In May 2018, the Town of Clay received the Ken Herman Sr. Memorial Awardthrough Public Employer Risk Management Association (PERMA). The award is provided to a municipality that exemplifies PERMA’s mission to improve workplace safety and wellness through exceptional participation and utilization of PERMA’S programs. Accordingly, Damian was asked (by PERMA Executives) to lead a Pilot Member Chapter Program for the Northern Region and was honored for his exemplary high standards of partnership, leadership, and dedication in May 2019.
Damian continues to serve on a number of boards in both the Clay community as well as the insurance industry. His many activities have included serving as a community representative to the Airport Neighbors Advisory Committee, continues as a volunteer with Meals-on-Wheels. In addition, Damian shares a Board Member seat on the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority on a rotating basis where he has served as a member of the Governance and Human Resource Committee.
Damian is also an active parishioner St. Rose of Lima Church in the Village of North Syracuse, NY. He and his wife Mary Ellen have two grown children and several grandchildren of whom he is very proud.