Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.
OPINION: How Do We Assess Congress?
If you look at the polls of how Americans feel about the job Congress is doing, they’ve been remarkably consistent for the last few decades. The institution’s favorability rating, as measured by Gallup’s monthly surveys, hasn’t been above 50 percent since 2003. These days the favorability rating of Congress is in the low 30s — though that’s […]
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
If you look at the polls of how Americans feel about the job Congress is doing, they’ve been remarkably consistent for the last few decades. The institution’s favorability rating, as measured by Gallup’s monthly surveys, hasn’t been above 50 percent since 2003. These days the favorability rating of Congress is in the low 30s — though that’s certainly better than the teens and low 20s it saw last year.
But this raises a question: How do we assess Congress? For many of us, I suspect the answer is simple: If it passes a bill we like, we think Congress is doing a good job; if it passes a bill we don’t like, we think it’s doing a poor job. In other words, we tend to judge Congress by how it’s performing on issues of concern to us. In a country as polarized as ours, it would be a minor miracle if Congress did enjoy majority support.
But there’s more that goes into how members of Congress are doing at their jobs than big-ticket legislation. Think, for instance, about so-called pork-barrel spending, which sends money to a project in a particular district or state. A lot of Americans don’t like it, since it smacks of insider horse-trading, but — and this is important — they tend to be just fine with it if the money is coming to a highway-repaving project or infrastructure improvement nearby. The truth is, legislators must be diligent in representing their districts and seeking projects for their districts and states. This is true for direct spending, as well as for bills that allocate money according to some formula; you’ll find intense battles within Congress over tweaking allocation formulas.
A lot of Americans also don’t much like that Congress is responsive to organized special interests such as business and industry, labor, professional organizations, farm groups, and veterans’ groups — you can come up with a long list. Watching members of Congress cater to particular special interests can be disconcerting, but in many ways, it makes the political world go ‘round — many Americans are members of one group or another with a presence on Capitol Hill. In a pluralist society like ours, with so many cross-cutting causes, it’s how the voices of both ordinary people and well-heeled groups get represented.
Over the years, I have also found that for many Americans, how Congress approaches the size and role of government plays a big part in how they judge it. I’ve had the experience on plenty of occasions of sitting down with a group of people and asking how they felt about the government. Almost invariably, they’d say that it was getting too large and needed to be cut. But when I went on to ask them what to do about it, I was struck by two things: they never volunteered cutting programs or spending that were helpful to them, and they always suggested solutions that required more government action to address. In effect, they wanted to reduce government by strengthening it.
It’s also fair to look not just at what Congress produces (or fails to produce), but also at how it goes about it. Congress has become too partisan, and there’s no denying that it has some bad habits, such as its reliance in recent decades on so-called omnibus bills. Power on Capitol Hill used to be more dispersed, with the various committees that dealt with specific appropriations bills offering multiple ways for legislators and interest groups to affect the outcome. These days, pretty much everything gets thrown into huge omnibus bills with hundreds of provisions, which tends to concentrate power in the hands of leadership and make it difficult for ordinary members to have an impact.
It’s issues like these that leave me disappointed that often, neither members of Congress nor most Americans pay much attention to institutional reform — to improving the workings of Congress so that they’re fairer and more transparent, are less partisan, respect the rights of both the minority and the majority, and represent the multiple voices of the American people. A Congress that can do that is worthy of respect — even if it doesn’t always produce legislation we like.
Lee Hamilton, 90, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south central Indiana.
Pinckney Hugo Group has promoted BRYAN SCHUMACKER to senior motion-graphics designer. He was previously a motion-graphics designer and has been with the agency for nearly four years. He has a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and mass communication from SUNY Oswego. Prior to joining Pinckney Hugo Group, Schumacker was a producer at WCNY. The firm has
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
Pinckney Hugo Group has promoted BRYAN SCHUMACKER to senior motion-graphics designer. He was previously a motion-graphics designer and has been with the agency for nearly four years. He has a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and mass communication from SUNY Oswego. Prior to joining Pinckney Hugo Group, Schumacker was a producer at WCNY. The firm has also hired SHAMIER JACKSON as an assistant digital-media strategist. Jackson has a master’s degree in public relations and a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a concentration in marketing, from SUNY Buffalo.

Beardsley Architects + Engineers
TRACEY A. CARR has joined Beardsley Architects + Engineers as senior architectural designer in the firm’s Auburn office. She has more than 16 years of experience in architectural design, drafting, and construction administration for commercial, educational, governmental, and residential clients. In addition to her work as an architectural designer, Carr is also a CAD-drafting instructor
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
TRACEY A. CARR has joined Beardsley Architects + Engineers as senior architectural designer in the firm’s Auburn office. She has more than 16 years of experience in architectural design, drafting, and construction administration for commercial, educational, governmental, and residential clients. In addition to her work as an architectural designer, Carr is also a CAD-drafting instructor at Onondaga Community College, teaching production technology and wood-frame construction drafting to first and second semester students.
SCOTT E. FOLTS has joined Beardsley as a senior architectural designer. He comes from Washington State, where he served as senior architectural designer for academic, manufacturing, commercial, and military projects. Folts has extensive experience with 3D visualizations and renderings, and virtual-reality design and presentation techniques. He brings to Beardsley a broad skill set and diverse background in all phases of design with more than 20 years of architectural design experience.
JEFF CARDINALI has joined Hayner Hoyt as a safety officer, where he will assist in planning and overseeing the company’s job-site safety efforts. He previously served as the director of safety for Demco New York Corporation with stints as the chief of fire for DeWitt Fire District and a fire safety inspector at Syracuse University.
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
JEFF CARDINALI has joined Hayner Hoyt as a safety officer, where he will assist in planning and overseeing the company’s job-site safety efforts. He previously served as the director of safety for Demco New York Corporation with stints as the chief of fire for DeWitt Fire District and a fire safety inspector at Syracuse University.
MARK MATUSZCZAK joins Hayner Hoyt as a project manager. He has more than 35 years of experience in the construction industry. Matuszczak previously held project management and estimating roles at O’Brien & Gere, Onsite Facilities Services, and Widewaters Construction.
TIM BRZUSZKIEWICZ, project superintendent at Hayner Hoyt, has been promoted to VP of operations. In his eight years with the company, he has demonstrated exceptional technical field experience and a high level of leadership. Brzuszkiewicz brings a passion for teamwork, coaching, and experience operating his own business to this position, where he’ll help oversee the management of all projects.
OLIVIA COAKLEY, MATTHEW MCHARRIS, and TAYLOR KERR are all joining Hayner Hoyt as project engineers. Coakley was an intern at the company in 2019, has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Le Moyne College, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering with a concentration in construction engineering and management from Syracuse University. McHarris was a field intern with the company in 2019 and has a bachelor’s degree in construction management from Utica College. Kerr has prior project management experience with O’Brien & Gere and has a bachelor’s degree in natural resource management and geographic information systems from Paul Smith’s College

JOSHUA NICHOLS has joined S.E.E.D. Planning Group as an associate planner in the firm’s Binghamton office. Before joining S.E.E.D., he worked at Johnson, Lauder & Savidge as a staff accountant. In his role, he will work alongside S.E.E.D.’s financial planners and Bloom Tax Partners’ tax planners to develop financial planning programs with specialized tax-planning opportunities.
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
JOSHUA NICHOLS has joined S.E.E.D. Planning Group as an associate planner in the firm’s Binghamton office. Before joining S.E.E.D., he worked at Johnson, Lauder & Savidge as a staff accountant. In his role, he will work alongside S.E.E.D.’s financial planners and Bloom Tax Partners’ tax planners to develop financial planning programs with specialized tax-planning opportunities. Nichols earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Binghamton University’s School of Management.

ROBERT MADLINGER has joined the Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) Surgical Group, where he will serve as the chief of trauma, acute care, and surgical critical care, as well as program director for General Surgery. He joins MVHS from St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson, New Jersey, where he was chief of trauma and surgical
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
ROBERT MADLINGER has joined the Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) Surgical Group, where he will serve as the chief of trauma, acute care, and surgical critical care, as well as program director for General Surgery. He joins MVHS from St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson, New Jersey, where he was chief of trauma and surgical critical care as well as director of advanced trauma life support. Madlinger was Commander of the 1st Forward Resuscitative Surgical Team, Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, New York, a detachment of Utica’s 865th Combat Support Hospital. He has served three tours in Afghanistan. He received his doctor of osteopathic medicine from Kansas City University of Medicine and Bioscience in Kansas City, Missouri. Madlinger performed his internship and residency in general surgery at St. Barnabus Hospital in Bronx, New York and also received fellowship training in trauma and critical care from Lincoln Hospital in Bronx, New York.

AARON C. RECORDS has joined Bousquet Holstein PLLC as an associate attorney in the firm’s brownfields practice group. He will guide clients in preparing and filing claims for the New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program tax credits, as well as defending their claims through the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s desk audit
Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
AARON C. RECORDS has joined Bousquet Holstein PLLC as an associate attorney in the firm’s brownfields practice group. He will guide clients in preparing and filing claims for the New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program tax credits, as well as defending their claims through the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s desk audit and full examination processes. Originally from New Hampshire, Records earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and creative writing from Colby-Sawyer College. He spent one semester abroad as a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Records earned his law degree at Syracuse University College of Law where he served on the Pro Bono Advisory Board, contributed to the Syrian Accountability Project, and was the editor-in-chief of Impunity Watch and the Journal of Global Rights and Organizations. After graduating from law school, he worked as an associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s New York City office in its State and Local Tax Income and Franchise department, assisting large clients with both income- tax consulting and compliance services.
SAMANTHA Z. KASMAREK has joined Bousquet Holstein as director of attorney recruitment and development. She will coordinate and support the attorney recruiting process as well as create professional development programs in a variety of formats that support all areas of associate attorney development. Kasmarek will also work to develop and implement a firm-wide competency model and expectations for associates as they progress on the pathway to partnership. Prior to joining the firm, she began her legal career as an attorney at Hiscock & Barclay (now Barclay Damon) in Syracuse where she concentrated on commercial litigation matters as well as torts, insurance, and products-liability issues. Kasmarek most recently worked at Syracuse University College of Law in its Career Services Office where she counseled students on career planning, and all aspects of securing legal positions, including judicial clerkships. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Le Moyne College and her law degree from SUNY Buffalo Law School.

Security Mutual appoints Gravely as CEO; Boyea to remain chairman
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York announced Thursday it has elected Kirk Gravely as the firm’s CEO, effective July 11,

Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties elects new board chair
UTICA, N.Y. — A former family court support magistrate will serve as board chair of the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. Jawwaad Rasheed

St. Joseph’s Health to require COVID vaccinations for all employees
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — St. Joseph’s Health is going to mandate that all its more than 4,000 employees get vaccinated against COVID-19. Employees who do not
Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.