Syracuse I-81 Local Hire Initiative Celebration and Progress Report - May 6, 2026
Syracuse I-81 Local Hire Initiative Celebration and Progress Report - May 6, 2026
On May 6, 2026, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), Urban Jobs Task Force, and City of Syracuse hosted a celebration and progress report for the I-81 Viaduct Project's local hire initiative. The event featured opening remarks, a panel discussion, and audience Q&A, highlighting the initiative's success as a national model for equitable hiring on public infrastructure projects.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Audience Question on Contractor/Subcontractor Equity: An audience member asked about efforts to support contractors and subcontractors for the I-81 project, particularly whether participants in training programs might later become construction business owners. Panelists acknowledged this as a gap and area of future focus, with Mayor Owens noting the need to lean into business development alongside workforce development.
Discussion Items
- Opening Remarks by NYSDOT Regional Director Elizabeth "Betsy" Parmley: Parmley thanked partners and emphasized that the I-81 project is about more than infrastructure—it is about correcting past injustices by reconnecting communities and providing local job opportunities. She noted that over 300 local hires have worked on the project, making it one of the first programs of its kind nationally, and that the Federal Highway Administration has published a roadmap based on this model.
- Urban Jobs Task Force Report by Deka Eisman: Eisman presented key outcomes from January 2023 to August 2025:
- 14.9% of all project workers are local hires (nearly meeting the 15% goal).
- Local workers earned over $10 million in wages.
- 31.45% of apprentices on the project are local hires.
- Approximately 80% of local hire beneficiaries are people of color.
- The I-81 project achieved more than double the local hire rate of the Lakeview Amphitheater and NYS Fair Expo projects, and had an 8% increase in wages for workers of color compared to the I-690 project.
- Apprentices on I-81 worked double the hours compared to similar projects.
- Eisman highlighted the need for continued improvements: enhanced individual impact evaluation, better contractor engagement, dedicated committees for childcare and minority contractor participation, independent oversight, and expansion of the "Big Table" collaborative.
- Panel Discussion: The panel included Mayor Sharon Owens, Al Marzulo (IBEW Local 43), Ebony Farrell (Syracuse Build Pathways to Apprenticeship), Betsy Parmley, and Becca Eisen (Urban Jobs Task Force). They discussed their roles and the collaborative governance model:
- Mayor Owens described the "Big Table" as a quarterly meeting of diverse stakeholders with structured milestones, launched at the request of Urban Jobs Task Force. She emphasized intentionality and the need for parallel business development.
- Al Marzulo shared IBEW's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how the union changed internal biases to participate in the Pathways program. He stressed that opportunity must be coupled with hard work.
- Ebony Farrell detailed the design of the Syracuse Build Pathways to Apprenticeship program, including paid training, case management, financial support for union dues and tools, mental health services, and follow-up support for up to a year (or until journey out). The program is in its 10th graduating class.
- Becca Eisen recounted her personal journey and Urban Jobs Task Force's advocacy, noting that the barriers to workforce equity are deep and require extreme intentionality and partnership.
- Mayor Owens added that the city used ARPA funds to compensate Urban Jobs Task Force for their partnership, while maintaining organizational independence.
Key Outcomes
- Celebrated Successes: The local hire initiative has placed over 300 local workers, with strong equity outcomes for people of color and apprentices. The model has gained national recognition and is being replicated in other cities.
- Identified Gaps: Panelists acknowledged the need to address contractor/subcontractor equity and business development, which was not prioritized in the initial phase.
- Continued Collaboration: The "Big Table" will continue to evolve, with potential application to other major projects like lead pipe replacement. Mayor Owens committed to expanding the model.
- Recommendations from Urban Jobs Task Force Report: Enhanced individual impact evaluation, stronger contractor feedback loops, dedicated committees for equity, independent oversight, and expansion of the collaborative structure.
Meeting Transcript
You want to take your seats? Good morning. Hello. Hello. It's coming. There it is. Good morning. May the fourth be with you. Yes! I've been waiting to say that all day. Um, good morning. Thank you all for coming. This is a beautiful turnout. Um, this my name is Tanisha Murphy. I am the public information officer for the New York State Department of Transportation. I'm the NC and moderator for this event today. Um, so this morning we're gonna have some opening remarks from the New York State Department of Transportation. We'll have urban jobs task force uh talk about their report, then we'll go into a panel session. Um, and then after that, we'll have some questions from the audience for the panel, and then finally we'll have closing remarks from the City of Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens. So let's get started with um the New York State Department of Transportation Regional Director, Elizabeth Betsy Parmley. Good morning, what a turnout. So thank you for having me today. Um I I don't feel like I deserve to be here because so many others did so much work to get us to this point, but I am honored to be here to celebrate this milestone, and certainly on behalf of Governor Kathy Hokel and Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, um, thank you for being here. So I want to start by thanking DECA Danzel and Aggie Lane and the entire Urban Jobs Task Force for inviting all of us here today on this day of celebration, reflection, and really hope for the future. Everyone's efforts to ensure local higher initiative was implemented on the ID1 Biaduct project and has now become a blueprint across the nation. I would also like to acknowledge Mayor Sherry Sharon Owens. Your leadership and partnership is what got us here today as well. So thank you. So we talk about the ID1 Bioduct project, and as an engineer, you know, I think of it as infrastructure, right? We're removing this aging infrastructure, we're connecting a community, but it is so much more than infrastructure, and that's why we're here today. We are trying to connect the wrongs of the past, removing a literal and figurative shadow over a vulnerable community. It will reconnect neighborhoods and essential services like health care and higher education. In the 1950s, a decision was made to just build a highway through a community without thinking about what that community wanted or needed. And now Department of Transportation, we know better, so we're doing better. Met with the community a tremendous number of times, and we heard loud and clear that the community wanted to be part of this project. They wanted jobs on this project. If we are building something in their backyard, then they want to be part of this project. So remembering the past injustices that happened during the initial construction of 81. We worked very closely with Urban Jobs Task Force and all of our community partners to figure out how to get a local higher initiative on the project. But as you can imagine, DOT, we are a big big government agency, we build bridges, we build highways, we don't do workforce development, so we didn't know how to do this. But we got to the table and we figured it out. And so to name a few people we collaborated with. And we formed the WorkSmart New York Syracuse Build Collaborative. And the goal of that collaborative was to increase the number of individuals working on the project and making sure they had the support so they could deliver and have a successful career and really remove those hurdles that traditionally prevented them from being on these construction jobs. So it took a long journey, and we're going back a decade, a decade that Urban Jobs has been working on this. And it was a we don't need to get into the details. Maybe you will DECA, but it was uh it was an interesting journey. There were uh pilot applications that were started on the federal government side called SEP 14, um, which would be a mechanism for federal aid construction projects to have local hire. That came out, it got rescinded, it came back out, but then all part of the bipartisan infrastructure law. DOT was allowed to have a local hiring preference put on our construction projects.
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