Entrepreneur. Family-man. Zealous community member.

That’s how Michael Heagerty pitches himself to voters in Common Council District 1.

“I’m in tune with what it’s like for an individual to have to balance all of these things It’s something different,” said Heagerty.  “I want to continue to be a voice for the people in my district —continue building relationships with these people and let them know I’m ready to work with them.”

Heagerty is running for a second term as District 1 Common Councilor. This time,  Heagerty is on the ballot as a Working Families Party candidate. He lost the Democratic line on the ballot in political missteps with filing the required petitions with the Onondaga County Board of Elections.  Heagerty is challenged by Republican and Conservative Party candidate Matthew Rayo. District 1 is comprised of the northern part of the city.

The general election is Nov. 3.

Heagerty, 51, grew up in Fayetteville and attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School. He’s been in politics about 20 years, starting out as a Democratic Committee member in Syracuse’s 17^th Ward. In 2003, Mayor Matt Driscoll appointed him Syracuse City Planning Commission. He served for five years.

In 2007, then-Common Councilor Jeff DeFrancisco, a Republicann, decided not to seek a third term. The Democrats, seeing an opportunity to win the 1^st District for the first time in 25 years, chose Heagerty as their candidate. He won the seat with 76 percent of the vote.  He is the first Democrat since business executive Nader Maroun to hold the 1^st District seat. In the upcoming Nov. 3 election, Maroun is running for the 5^th District seat.

Like his colleagues in the Common Council, Heagerty has spent a majority of his time dealing with hyper-local issues that matter to people in his district. One example is the instillation of traffic lights at several intersections in his district.

For his second term as the District 1 Councilor, Heagerty describes one of his main issues as attracting and keeping people in Syracuse. The city has lost more than 100,000 people from its peak population in the 1950’s.  

“We’re trying to do all this stuff to get people into the city, but we have to get the people who are here to stay,” he said. “We spend millions of dollars every year trying to get people to move into the city, but when I hear one homeowner or one business say ‘Listen, man, I’m out of here,’ I wonder now where does that leave us?”

He did not define any specific proposals.

In the 2007 election, Heagerty won his first term as a Democrat. But in the summer of 2009, he lost the party line because he did not get the required number of signatures from his district. In August, The Post-Standard reported that some of the 20 volunteers working to collect signatures for Heagerty strayed outside his district. Rayo, his opponent, challenged the signatures and found that 64 of them were invalid, one short  of the required number. To make matters worse, the one-too-few signature was his own: Heagerty had not signed his petition.

Heagerty shrugs off questions about the lapse, saying only, “I’m not a new guy on the block, you’ll find my name is on the ‘E’ line under Working Families. I mean if you want me, there I am.”

Now, he is running as the nominee of the Working Families Party. It’s unclear how his candidacy will be affected by his no-show on the Democratic Party ballot line. In his district, the voter enrollment shows 11,413 registered Democrats; 5,814 Republicans and 167 registered Working Families voters.

Despite this setback, Heagerty should still be favored in the election, says Jeffery Stonecash, a professor of political science at Syracuse University. “People usually vote along strict party lines,” he said. “But Heagerty will have a higher name recognition because he is established in the community.”

And Heagerty still gets the support of the Democratic Party.  “He is an excellent campaigner and we’ll still support him fully,” said Diane Dwire, chairperson of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee.  

On the business front, Heagerty has made a mark on the Syracuse area. In 1982, he got his start with Pastabilities, a venture he set up with family members, in Armory Square. From there, he has set up several successful bars and clubs, including the Palace Theatre, his flagship business;  the Zodiac club and the live music venue Styleen's Rhythm Palace. He also owns M.S. Heagerty LLC, a design and construction firm that has built more than a dozen businesses in the Syracuse area.

One of those was Hairanoia, a hair salon in the Hawley-Green Street neighborhood. Owner Michael DeSalvo, who has known Heagerty since the early 1990’s, credits Heagerty with helping to revitalize the Eastwood community. Heagerty helped DeSalvo set up his salon.

“He is a dynamic businessman with a community focus,” said DeSalvo.

Heagerty has also won recognition for his contributions to reviving Syracuse’s downtown area.  In 2005 Heagerty received an award from the Preservation Association of Central New York for restoring the Palace Theatre. In 2006 the Syracuse Post-Standard named him a “Person of Achievement,” the paper’s award for Central New Yorkers who have done good things for the region.  He received the award for his work to restore the Eastwood neighborhood, his entrepreneurial ventures in Armory Square and his community service.

In his re-election campaign, Heagerty says,  he still wants to work for a better community. “There is always something more to do,” he said, “and I want to keep the ball rolling.”

(Steve Doane is a senior newspaper major.)

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