Meet Saundra Thomas, District 40 City Council Candidate

Last week, we announced that Saundra Thomas will be running against current District 40 incumbent City Council Member Mathieu Eugene in the September Democratic primary. Thomas, who’s taken a leave from her job as VP of Community Affairs at WABC-TV to run for office, has lived in Ditmas Park for 14 years. We sat down with her recently to discuss her candidacy.

Why did you decide to run for office, and why for City Council?

I would say City Council came first because I wanted to represent our district, and I think there are families that are in need of a lot of things–people are struggling–so the desire to run for City Council was really the pointed response. As opposed to saying, “I want to run for something,” I specifically want to run for City Council in the 40th District. People need to have a voice, people need to have someone who’s solution oriented.

Did that decision have something to do with your opinions about the way Mathieu Eugene is or is not doing the job?

Well, I wouldn’t say that he’s not doing the job. What I would say is that my inspiration was really born of “I’ve been doing community work all of my life and I love the work that I have been doing,” and I took a look at our community and said, “What is going on here?” Here’s the deal–there are seven neighborhoods, and every neighborhood has different issues. Some people are doing better than others. The people who aren’t doing so well and the people who want to do better, I think they need someone who will represent them, a problem solver. I like to work on the ground for the people.

Can you talk a little about your background? What skills and experience do you bring that would allow you to address those concerns in the community?

I’ve been doing community work all my life. It’s at the heart of who I am. When I say all my life, I mean since I was a little kid. My first volunteer job was when I was like seven. I felt the need to really help and contribute in some way to people. Following a career path that took me into media, I really wanted to create programming for kids. I was a writer/producer, produced on-air topicals and things like that, but then I found out there was a position in Community Affairs and I went for it. I worked at Channel 7, running the Community Affairs Department. In that role, I’m working with non-profit organizations and people all over the tri-state area on issues that concern them, providing access to the television station, whether that’s promoting organizations and events or suggesting coverage for our public affairs programs or news programs on issues that concern the community. People believe that television has the power to change and it really does. So that’s the work that I’ve done for the past 12 years.

And board work–I chair two boards, I’m on several advisory boards–because I like doing the work that enhances quality of life for people. I like to create environments for people to really connect. I like to connect people and I like to connect with people. I love collaborating. Some of the work I’ve done with the advisory councils I sit on is coming up with solutions to issues. For instance, I’m on the Advisory Council for Services for the Underserved, which works with different constituents across the city, whether they’re homeless, people with mental health issues, and most recently, veterans. One of the things I’ve been able to do is being able to create partnerships with organizations like SUS to, for instance, do a veterans service fair last year.

You didn’t grow up in New York, though, did you?

No, I grew up in Boston. I always wanted to live in Brooklyn, way before it was fashionable. When I moved to Brooklyn, I lived on Avenue Z. No one lived there. Now, even that’s become popular. What’s interesting is the Brooklyn I live in now is exactly the Brooklyn I imagined living in. It has that incredible diversity, which I love, and the sense of community is there. We’re just in a transitional time in the 40th District, but does that mean people have to leave to have a certain quality of life? I don’t think so.

And, if you were elected, what do you think are some specific issues that you’d like to work on in your first term–in addition to getting acclimated to a new mayor?

The number one thing is looking at families, what they need and what they’re not getting. Families come in all different styles in our community. You’ve got single parents, you’ve got extended families, all kinds of families. One of the issues is affordable housing. People have to leave the district because they can’t afford to stay because of growth and change. Certainly the thing that moves me more than anything is education and our youth, making sure they have access to quality education and opportunities beyond their school life. Whether it’s after-school programs, job training programs–I’m interested in making connections between the private sector and individuals in the community to provide those opportunities to make sure these kids are ready for the 21st century.

In terms of education, Mayor Bloomberg’s certainly been criticized for some of the things he’s done during his tenure. Do you think any of the changes he’s made need to be undone? Is it a matter of changing the system or working within the current system?

I think you could take a little bit from the current system and work with some of it. I’m not going to say “undone,” but, look… education, in my opinion, is the most important issue in America in the 21st century. If a large percentage of the population is not getting equal access to quality education, we’re going to have a problem because this generation is going to grow up without being competitive. That’s a real fact. I think, as an optimist (or maybe a realist), we’re in a really incredible, transitional period. So we have to take a look at everything that’s been done–whether it’s the past 12 years or what the new mayor is going to have in mind–and I don’t think we have the solution. I do think that schools used to be the magnet to the community. What’s great about the 40th District is that there’s so much richness to the community, we have to get back to that. It answers the question about job opportunities, about after-school programs, youth engagement. Getting buy-in from all of the different stakeholders–parents, teachers, principals, shop owners–adds to the strength of the school. I’ve seen it in my neighborhood at PS 217, and you’ve got a very diverse community there.

It’s one of the most diverse communities in the city and even the country–but while it’s a wonderful thing, that diversity also presents a lot of challenges for community leaders. How do you bring those communities together?

I think everyone wants the same thing. I don’t care what your family looks like or where they came from. We all want to be able to know we can pay our mortgage and pay our rent. We want to make sure we’re not going to get pushed out of our homes and/or our apartments because people feel like they’ve got to blow up the prices. I think people who own businesses want to be able to see their businesses be successful. We have a lot of history of businesses being here for years. I live with a small business owner. I know it’s a struggle. People want to know their kids are safe, that when they’re going to school they’re not targeted, and when they get to school, they’re learning something. In many cases, especially in our neighborhood, where you’ve got a lot of immigrants, a lot these young people will go and get an education and then come back, which I think I so important. How do we make sure everyone gets taken care of? You have to have a sense of how to make people connect with each other, and that’s one of the strengths that I have.

When you say “make people connect,” you mean creating situations in which they can discover connections they didn’t know were there?

Absolutely. I’ve seen it happen. At the television station, we had town hall meetings all over the tri-state area. The last one I held was in February at the Brooklyn Museum, which is always the largest turnout because Brooklynites show up! What was always amazing to me was that people would bring up issues that were driving them nuts, and someone in the room would say, “Wait, we’re dealing with that in our organization,” or, “We’re dealing with that on our block.” A lot of time, it’s about giving them opportunities to connect. Ultimately, we want the same thing. Some people are in different positions than others. One of the things I love to do is respond to the needs of the community. Come to me with a problem; I will try to solve it. If I cannot, I will find someone who can. That’s my thing.

How do you bridge that gap between giving people the opportunity to talk about solutions–like Council Member Eugene’s gun violence or traffic calming forums–and action? It’s a democracy but it’s also a bureaucracy, and that can be frustrating. Especially coming from the private sector, how do you think you’ll work within a structure like that to actually get things done?

I think it’s a challenge and I’ll know more about it when I’m in there, but I’ll never let bureaucracy stop me from moving forward with what I believe. I could have stayed right in the comfy arms of ABC, but I so strongly believe that I have something to offer the community. I don’t have any illusion–it’s going to be a challenge. In terms of things like having forums, I’m a person who thinks a lot about what’s going to happen in the end. What are we doing this for? Because if we don’t understand the objective, then I don’t see the point. If the objective is to get people to talk about gun violence, then maybe that was accomplished. But we have to be careful because sometimes conversations take place afterwards that we don’t know about. We don’t always know what’s not going on. I don’t think I would do anything if I wasn’t sure of the objective. I’m not going to do it just to do it.

One of the things I’m going to do in the next few months is a listening tour, meet-and-greets in different neighborhoods. I’m going to meet up with people because I want to hear from the constituents. Maybe they’ll say, “We hate those forums!” I don’t know. I’d like to get to know that stuff. But I know how to listen. I think it’s important to engage the community. The more communication we have, the better off we’ll be. I hope to connect with as many people as I can and tell them why they should vote for me. It would be an incredible honor to be able to represent our district, to do the work that it takes to make sure everyone has the resources, their voices are heard, and that they’re happy.