MINOA — Minoa Mayor Bill Brazill has been elected the second vice president of the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials (NYCOM).
Brazill said “it’s quite an honor” and that he’s “overwhelmed and excited” to be nominated for and appointed to the position, which comes with a one-year term.
What typically happens is that the second vice president becomes the first vice president the following year and then the president of NYCOM the next.
Founded in 1910, NYCOM serves 575 cities and villages, ranging from the smallest village population-wise to New York City.
“I’m just thrilled,” Brazill said. “I’m eager to seize this fantastic opportunity for our village and myself.”
Brazill, who has been Minoa’s mayor since 2016, said he’s been attending NYCOM conferences for 22 years, going back to the time when he was deputy mayor and in the role of trustee. Last summer he was selected to sit on the 15-member executive committee that leads the advisory organization based in Albany.
Brazill said his involvement with NYCOM has given him, and by extension the village of Minoa, more of an in at the state level. He added that the leadership positions he’s held and his recent ascension in NYCOM gives him the opportunity to be closer to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and “right at the head table,” thereby facilitating negotiations that have to do with budgeting and other concerns or thoughts raised.
In that respect, Brazill said becoming second vice president will help with governing the village of Minoa and addressing issues when lobbying for its betterment.
“NYCOM is all about sharing ideas with its great seminars,” Brazill said. “Through the 22 years I’ve been going, I can honestly say I’ve learned something every time, and the thing that’s just as priceless is the networking, when we’re sitting at dinner and you’re sitting across from a mayor from Long Island or Buffalo or wherever and they’re telling you about the problems they have in their communities.”
With its educational sessions, the organization passes along information regarding new legislation and holds training workshops that give advice on how to fulfill municipal roles.
Excited to play an even more active role in the growth of NYCOM as a representative body, Brazill said he wants to make a point of traveling around New York State and seeing more of its communities, which he said will give him a chance to talk to more municipal officials and get a sense of challenges being faced statewide, which could be similar to or different from Minoa’s depending on their size.
Brazill was chosen from a group of five mayors who threw their hats in to fill the second vice president seat. He was picked by a committee formed by NYCOM’s president.
Brazill’s predecessor in Minoa’s mayor position, the late Dick Donovan, was the president of NYCOM from 2013 to 2014. Donovan was the first mayor to come from Minoa to become president of NYCOM and only the second to do so from the entire Syracuse area after the city’s former mayor Roy Bernardi, who was NYCOM president from 1998 to 1999.
With Brazill as second vice president, the president of NYCOM as of May 16 and lasting until May 22, 2025 is Village of Hamilton Mayor RuthAnn Loveless, while City of Olean Mayor William Aiello will be first vice president and Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan will be treasurer.
