Feb. 8—PLATTSBURGH — If elected City of Plattsburgh mayor, Wendell Hughes hopes he can look back four years from now and say “look at what we’ve done.”

“That’s essentially where I want to be,” Hughes said on the steps of the Clinton County Government Center, where he announced his mayoral candidacy Wednesday morning.

“I’m so sick of negative politics; I want more positive. I don’t want to be complaining and complaining about things; let’s fix them and let’s move forward.”

A LEGISLATOR

Hughes is currently the Clinton County Legislator for Area 8, which covers parts of the city and Town of Plattsburgh. He was first elected in November of 2020.

He assured that his campaign would not interfere with his work as legislator.

“My area comes first and foremost because I took an oath to represent those people in Area 8.”

He said he decided to run for mayor on Saturday after learning current Mayor Chris Rosenquest would not seek re-election this November.

“My campaign for mayor will focus on building a strong team to move this city forward over the next four years. I aim to bring a vision of unity, progress, innovation to the forefront of the city’s future,” Hughes said.

“Together, I believe, we can build a city we can all strive to live in, regardless of political affiliation; a city we can all be proud of; (and) a city that will work collaboratively with other governments, our business community, our community agencies and our state and federal partners. I aim to leverage public-private partnerships in an effort to provide opportunities about being fiscally responsible, which is important to me.”

Because his decision is so “new,” Hughes told the media he doesn’t have a comprehensive plan of what his intentions are for the city yet.

He said he doesn’t have a timetable for when he will release his plans either.

“I have so many thoughts going through my head,” Hughes said. “I don’t want to sit here and start babbling to you, so … I’m trying to keep it simple today.”

Despite not having a definitive plan yet, Hughes said economic development and housing were a couple things he’d like to tackle in the city if he is elected mayor.

“Economic development is always huge, I mean … we always have to strive to provide jobs for our community,” he said.

“Housing is huge. Housing is just a huge problem we have here, but how, moving forward, do we do … just a good way for everything. It’s got to be affordable. We can’t do housing that nobody can afford; it’s not worth it. So there’s a lot of things that … I want to look at. Working in the county, I’ve learned a lot and bringing that over to the city, I think, along with the six members of the council, I think we can do really good things.”

Hughes said the city’s drug problem is also an issue he would like to work on. He said he would like to see more recreational programs created for kids that would keep them busy instead of hanging out in the wrong places.

“We got to take care of our next generation so that they can take care of us.”

INITIATIVES

Asked if there were any current city initiatives that, if elected, he would look forward to continuing on, Hughes said “I’m going to have to take them all on, whether I like them or not.”

“Working with the council, if I don’t like them, we’ll have to redirect in a direction that myself and the council agrees with.”

He said his door will always be open if the community wants to offer feedback as well.

In his personal life, Hughes has a wife, Pam, and two rescue dogs Asher and Marty. They currently live on the south end of the city.

Hughes is also a retired New York State corrections officer of more than 30 years.

Since his retirement, he said he has been actively involved in many events and organizations around the community, including the Clinton County Historical Association and the North Country Honor Flight.

He is also the president of the Noon Kiwanis Club in Plattsburgh.

He said in these positions over the past few years, he’s had the opportunity to build strong relationships with many community members and regional leaders.

This was made obvious Wednesday as fellow Legislators Bobby Hall (D-Area 10, City of Plattsburgh) and David Bezio (D-Area 4, Town of Plattsburgh) as well as city Councilors Julie Baughn (D-Ward 1), Jacob Avery (D-Ward 2) and Jeff Moore (D-Ward 6) were among those in attendance to show support for Hughes and his campaign for mayor.

Councilor Moore also read a letter of support for Hughes from Councilor Elizabeth Gibbs (D-Ward 3), who could not be there in person.

In introducing Hughes, Hall asked the people who supported his own political endeavors over the past two decades to now throw their support behind Hughes.

“Because he can do something that hasn’t been done in a long time in the City of Plattsburgh. Wendell is the type of guy that he can bring everybody together. He will make the people come together and he will really do a fantastic job, and we have the opportunity to get back to that,” Hall said.

“We haven’t had, in the city of Plattsburgh, in a long time, a mayor that has brought all the people together and Wendell can do that.”

CONSENSUS

Hughes also acknowledged that he has the ability to work and bring the whole council together, if elected. He said after he made his decision to run, he called each of the six councilors directly.

“I explained to them why, I think, going forward, I can be a positive influence on the council. and I think we can work together. I mean, there’s got to be compromises, and maybe there hasn’t been as much compromising, but I think moving forward, all six of them were just extremely positive about me doing this,” he said.

“So I just want to keep this positive. I don’t want to go into negatives. I don’t want to complain. We need to fix the problems. Some people say ‘well, we tore the Crete (Memorial Civic Center) down.’ We may have, but we can’t fix that at this point. Moving forward, what do we do with that? We need to come up with a comprehensive plan for what we want.”

Plattsburgh City Republican Committee Chair David Souliere IV reiterated Wednesday that the Republicans still don’t have a candidate for the mayoral race.

“We’re looking for a candidate that will promote the issues that city residents care about most: affordable available housing; access to youth recreation; public safety; and addressing of the migrant crisis and how it affects those issues,” Souliere said. “Once we have a candidate announced, we’ll make sure to let the media know.”

Plattsburgh City Democratic Committee Chair Sue Moore said no other Democratic candidates have come forward just yet.

“Wendell is a great guy. I’ve known him for a few years now. He’s got the qualifications, for sure. I think he’s a consensus builder. I think that’s going to be a big thing compared to the way things have gone, I feel, over the last few years,” she said.

“I’m really looking forward to helping him with his candidacy and running for office.”

Moore said the city Democrats plan to make their candidate endorsements at their meeting on Feb. 26.

Petitioning begins for all candidates on Feb. 27.

Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: CarlySNewton