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Democrat Stephanie DeVito and Republican Michael Pettigrass are both running to fill the southeast Auburn seat, as current Legislator Tricia Kerr, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, is not seeking reelection. It is DeVito's first time running for the county body and Pettigrass's second, having lost the race for the former District 13 seat representing downtown Auburn in 2021.聽

Among the issues where the candidates differ is county leadership.

DeVito, who is executive director of the Auburn Downtown Business Improvement District and operations manager of the New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center, believes the county should have a professional manager like the city of Auburn. The Legislature chair has overseen day-to-day county operations since the body fired its last administrator in 2019 after only two years in the position.

While DeVito believes the county should be led by a professional who can manage an organization of its size, Pettigrass instead leans toward the idea of a county executive who is elected by the public.

"As a county resident and a taxpayer, I like the idea of people going to the ballot and casting a vote and deciding who they want sitting in the top seat of county government," he said.

DeVito and Pettigrass are a little closer when it comes to the county's funding of economic development agencies. The $375,000 that the county annually gives to the Cayuga Economic Development Agency is under scrutiny due to turbulence at the agency, as two executive directors have been abruptly fired in the last 18 months. The latter, Michael Miller, was then hired as interim executive director of the Cayuga County Industrial Development Agency. Legislator Robert Shea has since聽proposed shifting CEDA's $375,000 to the IDA in the county's next budget, which will be finalized at year's end.

DeVito said she believes it's "extremely important" that the county facilitate economic development. While "the jury's still out" on the way it will do that, she continued, she is confident the current Legislature and other stakeholders will make "the right decision." Pettigrass was more pointed in his comments, saying he suspects there has been a lack of communication between CEDA and the county. He believes a merger between the agency and the IDA is worth considering if it would save the county money and retain "the good people working at CEDA to get the best of both worlds."聽

Also on the subject of economic development, capitalizing locally on Micron's $100 billion investment in central New York came up in conversation with both DeVito and Pettigrass. DeVito, who is on the workforce development subcommittee of the county's Micron committee, said she believes the county is better prepared than others to benefit from the chip manufacturer building a megafab in Clay.聽

"We're continuously looking at how to position Cayuga to be attractive to Micron," she said. "How to improve the skillset of youth to be better prepared for the jobs Micron is going to look for in 10 years."聽

Pettigrass is similarly optimistic about Cayuga County's ability to benefit from Micron's investment. While DeVito focused on workforce, he stressed the need to improve the county's infrastructure for potential new residents. Broadband development in rural areas like Cato and Ira is particularly important, he said, as Micron workers could look to live in those towns due to their proximity to Clay.聽

"We have to make our area desirable enough to make it worth their drive," he said. "What is going to make someone drive that extra distance to live in our area or open a business here?"

Pettigrass also mentioned the importance of water infrastructure, and both he and his opponent identified the protection of Owasco Lake as priorities should they be elected to the Legislature. He supports the ideas of the state's Nine Element Plan for Phosphorus Reduction and making sure local farmers are kept in the loop instead of "pointing fingers." DeVito stressed the need to protect the lake and its watershed as a source of not only drinking water, but recreation and tourism. That priority is therefore connected to two others she would have as a legislator: economic and workforce development.

"Water is survival for us, but it also trickles down," she said. "If businesses don't have water, they can't do business. So I'm a huge advocate of trying to protect revenue streams for water at the state and local level. Because if they don't have that revenue, they don't have staff to test the water and can't purchase chemicals to treat it. So we need financial sustainability to keep water safe."

Pettigrass, a supervising guidance counselor at Auburn Correctional Facility, said fighting the opioid epidemic and reversing Auburn's sliding population would be two more priorities for him as a legislator.聽

"When we continue to lose people, there are fewer people to pay the tax burden," he said. "We need to reverse that trend by bringing jobs in that people feel comfortable having as careers."

The election, which will be held on Nov. 7, is for a four-year term. The number of county Legislature districts will decrease from 15 to 11 in 2024.