Life long resident of the Town of Colonie, Tim Nichols is running for re-election for his position as an Albany County Legislator against Republican opponent Todd Drake.
The Albany Legislature is a policy-making body for Albany County overseeing the Albany County’s District Attorney’s Office, the Albany International Airport, the County Jail, the Albany County Sheriff’s Department and several other agencies. The Legislature is also responsible for implementing various social service programs. Nichols is hoping to win the Independence Party Primary on Thursday, Sept. 10th. In New York State, candidates win the cumulative votes from each of the party line their name appears on. This is known as “fusion voting.” Winning the Independence Party Primary would give Nichols extra votes in the general election. Nichols spoke about some of his accomplishments during his time in the Legislature. Speaking about some of his proudest accomplishments he mentioned his leadership in stopping the privatization of the nursing home. “We came very, very close to seeing the nursing home be transferred to a for-profit company,” Nichols said. “The problem with that is there’s no guarantee that the people who have no place else to go would have bee taken care of by this new nursing home, and that’s the whole purpose of public nursing is to be there for people who have nowhere else to go.” He said it saved jobs and helps to ensure that people who lived and worked in the district and paid taxes for years would be able to have public nursing available. “Meantime they say nothing about the jail,” which he says could close several jail cells to save money. He uncovered a proposal to discuss the prevention of the privatization of the nursing home which he said was hidden from the Legislature because the County Executive Dan McCoy favored the move to privatization. Last year, he worked with the Legislature to pass a bill that would ban tobacco sales in pharmacies noting that, “adults usually don’t start smoking, it's mostly kids,” who are vulnerable tobacco industry’s advertising. Massachusetts has this law in almost every town. While the Legislature passed the bill, McCoy vetoed it. The issue of limiting the number of new smokers is very important to him. He also worked to ban the use of e-cigarettes wherever real cigarettes are banned. Asked about an claim from rival Todd Drake that he opposed a Town of Colonie initiative to prevent sex offenders from living in hotels and motels, Nichols said he opposes a Colonie law that puts a limit of 28 days on the amount of time that someone can stay in the motel room. “We’re the only municipality, I think, in New York State that has such a law,” he added. “Unfortunately, the Town of Colonie does not have any public [supportive] housing The Town of Colonie has very little affordable housing,” Nichols said explaining that many people living in poverty cannot afford to live in an apartment and thus live in hotels and motels. "No one wants to live in a motel, but it beats living on the streets," Nichols said. He said he does not support public housing, but he does support supportive housing and incentives to offer housing for low-income people. Nichols said he feels the Town of Colonie should have stepped up its code enforcement, rather than place a cap on a number of days people can stay in hotel or motel rooms. “What you’re doing is disrupting peoples’ lives every 28 days,” Nichols said. “What does that do? How does that solve any problems?” When asked what, aside from his time in public office, would set him apart from his rival. Nichols emphasized his involvement in the community. Recalling his time spent in County Legislature meetings and town board meetings, he said he's proud of his willingness to ask questions about initiatives to ensure that people know what a certain policy would really look like and how it would affect people. Nichols said that he is in the majority party which means that he has influence in the Legislature’s decisions and would be able to ensure that the suburbs have representation. Arguing that a legislator from the minority party would not have a lot of influence to make decisions that would benefit the city and the suburbs. He mentioned that he has not seen Mr. Drake at town board meetings or the County Legislature meetings, which are open to the public and allow for public comments, and said he feels that if someone wants to run for office they should be involved in the community. Nichols said he’s never been contacted by Drake about issues nor has he seen Drake speak in meetings about issues he thinks are not being handled properly. He said he’s all for people trying to get involved in public office but thinks they should be articulating their complaints or raising issues. “I think it’s important to have something that you don’t like. What is it about Albany County that’s so bad that you have to get this guy out office?” Nichols said. If re-elected for another four years, Nichols said he has several new plans to help bring revenue to the suburbs of the County without raising taxes. |
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