www.thefreemansjournal.com/2008_03_23_archive.html -
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Published on: 3/23/2008
Last Visited: 8/29/2008
A year ago, Dave Brenner had a cancer scare.He'd just turned 72, too old, he was told, for that particular operation.A second physician, however, discovered his heart was as strong as that of a 50-year-old.His cholesterol level was fine; so was his blood pressure.Today, you'll see a David W. Brenner who's fully recovered, brimming with the energy and vitality that carried him through 33 years at SUNY Oneonta, a career he juggled with 16 years on the county Board of Representatives, including three as chairman, and 12 years as mayor of Oneonta."I've always had a lot of energy and stamina," he said the other day in an interview in his modern Central Avenue ranch home, surrounded by hills, in the Town of Oneonta.
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As a SUNY dean, Brenner was dealing with tenured cats at that, a particularly independent breed.Yet his tenure at the county was characterized by steady progress from what, in effect, was a glorified highway department to a full-service modern government offering programs as varied as mental-health counseling to participating in a three-county municipal solid-waste authority - at the outset, even funding a Bookmobile was controversial."Some of us forget those early battles, and they seem sort of primitive now," he said, sitting behind a cluttered desk in his basement office, the bookcase behind him stuffed with political-science tomes, from half a shelf of Bob Woodward's burrowings to Lee Atwater's "Bad Boy" and Samuel G. Freedman's "The Inheritance," on one family's evolution from the New Deal through Reaganomics.Winning the mayoralty in 1986, he put City Hall on a business-like basis, raising the salaries of the city's administrators and, in return, requiring accountability.He developed an Administrative Manual, codifying policies.And he successfully negotiated a lion's share of the county sales tax for Oneonta.How did he accomplished that, a reporter from sales-tax-starved Cooperstown asked."Moral suasion," he replied, a twinkle in his eye, then threw back his head in a hearty laugh.
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Brenner's strategy: Don't just reslice the pie.Create a bigger pie - another percent was added to the sales tax - and give everybody a bigger piece.At that time, the towns hadn't been getting any sales tax, so supervisors were delighted by the relative pittance would now get.Cooperstown was in better financial and physical shape then it is now, so the sales tax wasn't an issue.Oneonta got millions in the new formula, millions it is still benefitting from today."When you look at problems of government," he said, "you have to look at what's best for the longterm."Dave Brenner's cat-herding training began early, in his Newburgh boyhood.
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Living in the southern Catskills, boys like Dave were naturally interested in the girls who came up with their families during the summer.That curiosity caused him to drive one day to a particular gathering spot, an old general store in Monroe.There he met his future bride, Lois, now his wife of more than a half-century.She was 16; he 17."I met this boy with a green cap and red hair," she told her mother that evening."And he had two of the cutest puppies in the back of his car."After military service, he and Lois married, he obtained his GED, and the two of them headed up to Oneonta - he had hitchhiked through the region some years before - to get his college degree on the G.I. Bill.He was the first family member to graduate from high school, much less college, and he told himself - if only he could get a secure job that would pay him a living wage - he would strive to get into public service, to give something back.He graduated, taught for two years at Schenevus, and was summoned back to SUNY Oneonta to supervise student teachers.Before too many years, he was director of records and registration, then registrar, dean, retiring in 1988 as associate vice president for academic affairs.
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Leaning back in his chair, Brenner begins recalling political battles and combatants of long ago.
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Still wet behind the ears, Brenner challenged Guy Rathbun - unsuccessfully - for the chairmanship.
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Calling a recess, Brenner button-holed him in the hall.
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Brenner reconvened the meeting and the historic structure was saved by an 8-6 vote.One of Brenner's finest hours came long after he retired from the Oneonta mayoralty in 1998.Just last year he was contracted by the Board of Representatives to study whether the county should shift to a county-manager form of government.His study - of a dozen other counties - was exhaustive.His conclusion: Yes, the county should make the shift.But, he said, the animosity among the 14 representatives - the Democrats had seized control by allying with maverick Republican Don Lindberg of Worcester - made it impossible to do at that time.Without a near-unanimous commitment, a county manager was almost certain to fail.That recommendation is still out there, and may be a future Brenner accomplishment.For now, he draws satisfaction from such projects as the war memorial in Oneonta's Neahwa Park.
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