ONONDAGA COUNTY — Dave Knapp, the Onondaga County Legislature’s representative for the 12th District, is running for reelection to his position this election cycle.
The redrawn 12th District contains the entire towns of LaFayette, Tully, Fabius and Pompey as well as the greater Jamesville area of DeWitt and a small southern part of the village of Manlius. Though he’s been introducing himself to the new residents who live within his jurisdiction, Knapp said the new layout of the district marks a return to what it looked like about a decade ago, back during his early years on the legislature.
Knapp was elected legislator in 2011 and he first took office on Jan. 1, 2012. Right away he was asked to preside over the legislature’s ways and means committee—an assignment he said was like “drinking from a fire hose off the bat.”
While also heading up the budget process, that committee addresses any legislation with dollars attached to it that goes to the various committees of the county, leading Knapp to realize just how much funnels through its membership.
He kept that role for the next six years until he became majority leader after the 2017 election, serving at that capacity for 11 months.
He was then unanimously elected chairman of the legislature by his peers when former chairman Ryan McMahon became county executive. With the help of the 16 other legislators, Knapp was forced as chairman to steer the legislature through the age of COVID and the remote meetings, unprecedented circumstances and challenges that came with it.
“The county government kind of lives on sales tax so that was crazy figuring out how much money we were gonna have with everything shut down,” Knapp said. “It was a very, very challenging time, but we got through it. We’re in pretty good shape now because we were smart then and cautious.”
In the dozen years directly preceding his tenure on the legislature, Knapp was on the LaFayette Town Board as a councilman and then deputy supervisor. He said the experience of being on that board eased the transition when it came to wrapping his arms around the ins and outs of his legislator role. Additionally, those 12 years taught him how “every penny counts” with town government budgets and what the needs of individual towns are, he said.
Knapp graduated from West Point in 1984 and served active duty as a captain in the United States Army until 1989 before he went into the reserves.
After his military commitment, Knapp went back to his roots on Route 20 in LaFayette, returning to the family dairy farm he grew up on that his older brother had since taken over. He was also able to raise his kids there and peel off some acreage that they could call their own.
Because his ancestors started out as farmers in the area back in 1804, Knapp not only feels a strong bond to Central New York—he also contends that agriculture has been in his blood forever. That was why former County Executive Joanie Mahoney approached him in his first years on the legislature with the idea of creating the Onondaga County Agriculture Council.
“Agriculture is very important to the county and to New York in general,” Knapp said. “Every generation gets a little bit farther away from the farm, and so we want to educate folks where their food comes from, support local farms that exist, encourage folks to go into farming and promote local agriculture.”
Knapp jumped at the chance to spearhead the council’s “Buy Local. Buy Onondaga Grown.” campaign as well as its efforts organizing the ON Farm Fest that opens up select farms for tours, demonstrations and chances to clear up misconceptions about farming life.
He also separately took up the torch once held by his parents when he began running the LaFayette Apple Festival they were on the original committee for. That festival, which brings together nonprofits, artists and other community members, just celebrated its 50th year in October.
Knapp’s personal emphasis has been on sprouting urban agriculture with such efforts as the provision of grants to both Dr. King Elementary School in the city of Syracuse for a raised bed with corn, beans and collard greens and Brady Farm on the south side so its owners could buy their first tractor.
He said reviving agriculture education in schools teaches kids how to grow their own food if need be and how they don’t need to be traditional farmers to work on a farm; instead, they can weld machinery or develop farming technology like GPS guidance and temperature sensing.
Knapp said he appreciates the 12th District in large part because of the “picturesque” countrysides it contains, adding that the 12th District geographically encompasses around 17% or 18% of the land mass of the county because there are less residents per square mile.
A Republican, Knapp said he seeks to work with Democrats as closely as the members of his own party.
“I have great respect for our founders who designed a system that forces compromise if you want to get things accomplished,” he said. “I’m a firm believer though that we have much more in common that we agree on than we don’t, so it’s about finding those areas.”
The sediment buildup in Jamesville Reservoir and the algal blooms that arise with the lessened depth and heightened warmth of the water are just a couple of the issues Knapp wishes to tackle going forward as legislator, he said.
Among other efforts, he intends to maintain his focus on helping fellow veterans. Initiatives pursued in his time as legislator so far include making burial plots free at the Onondaga County Veterans Memorial Cemetery, building a chapel there and sprucing up its welcome area with service flags, and increasing the staffing for the Onondaga County Veterans Service Agency.
