From Sky news.

This is connections.

I'm Veronica Volk.

This hour, we're going to bring you a special behind the scenes look at a day in the life of two of your local government officials.

If this were a documentary, maybe it would open like this.

A few wide shots of Albany, the Capitol building, the bustle on State Street.

Open to the Legislative Building.

Then cut to the inside of a modest office.

Zoom in on a few framed photos, some flags, memorabilia to set the scene, and at the desk, someone's on the phone, or tapping out emails or flipping through a stack of papers.

They call out to a staffer in the next room to draft a press release.

Set up a meeting.

Have a quick strategy session.

This is a state Assembly member, and if this were a documentary, we'd follow them from their first cup of coffee in the morning to the late night votes, and we'd watch for those small human moments that get lost in the noise of politics.

This isn't a documentary, obviously, but I want to try to capture that spirit this hour.

So we've invited two of our local assembly members here on the show today not to campaign and not to talk about the news of the day, but to talk to us about a day in their life.

So often we only hear from politicians and officials when things are either really good or really bad.

So so much of governing happens in the in between.

So joining me today to talk to us about what life is really like on a day to day basis.

We have Assembly member Josh Jensen of the 134th district.

Josh, thanks for joining us.

Happy to be here.

And Assembly Member Jen Lunsford of the 135th district.

Thank you so much, Jen.

Thanks for having me.

And of course, we invite you, our listeners, to call in with your questions at 1844295 talk.

That's 825 5 or 5 852639994.

You can email us at Connections at cyborg or comment on the YouTube live stream.

So first of all, welcome back to the program.

You too.

You were both on together last in February of this past year, I think, and, you made quite a stir with some of your comments.

I, Assembly Member Lunsford, I seem to remember some sort of viral Screaming Eagle Star Spangled Banner soil program.

Yeah, that one really went.

That's the most viral I've ever gone.

Yeah, it did numbers on our Instagram.

But you also said something else that our and I'm going to quote you, it said, you said regular people mistake press conferences and tweets for work.

But much of the work we do is stuff you don't say, not because we're being secretive, but because it happens on the phone or it happens in conversation.

So let's start with just the most basic of questions, which is what is that work?

A little civics lesson, maybe right at the top.

What is the power of your office?

So we can start with you, Assembly member Johnson, what is your job?

Yeah.

So we are, Jan and I and, 211 of our colleagues in the, state Senate.

In the state Assembly, we are the, the folks who make the laws for New York State and send, good proposals and sometimes not so good proposals, to the governor for, for that office signature or veto.

That's our job description.

But when you talk about what our job is, what our role is, it's a lot more than those things.

Yes.

It's lawmaker, but it's also advocate.

It's cheerleader, it's champion.

It's, psychologists sometimes.

And that's just in our official duties.

It's also doing everything else that you do as a member of a community or a parent.

A child.

And so, a lot of people will come up to me and say, oh, you're just a politician, I always do.

I'm not a politician.

I'm a public servant.

Because it's really about what can we do to ensure that we're living up to the trust.

That 134,000 some odd people put in us to be their voice in state government?

And that's just not one thing.

Anything you want to add to that?

Broad strokes.

Yeah.

So I think people don't realize how much, constituent work we do, how much work we do, helping people access government and I wish people didn't have to call me because their unemployment benefits were late or because their insurance company denied something they shouldn't.

But that's the kind of thing my office fields every day.

And while I have staff that deals with a lot of that, there are plenty of times where something has to escalate.

And I'm the one on the phone sometimes with, an agency head, sometimes with a, private corporation, because as much as I don't have control, sometimes I can have a little influence.

You know, twice in the last year, I've had to call, insurance companies to get, cancer treatment for children that they were denied.

And I got involved because it involved Medicaid, and I was able to do that, but that required, you know, my work on the phone.

You know, we, help people make connections sometimes, you know, you'll have a meeting and six months later, you have another meeting.

I go, oh, my God, you got to meet this other person.

And then we facilitate work because we put those two people together.

I often describe my office as the hub of a wagon wheel, where everyone comes to me, and then I can help people make connections out in the real world.

Yeah, that's really so from a very helpful PDF on the, State Assembly website, it reads under the responsibilities of the New York State Assembly member advocating for people who are living with difficult, I found that so profound because first of all, and all of us.

But, that's what you're describing.

People are calling your office for help navigating not just a government bureaucracy, but really just all these other aspects of their lives.

And a lot of times it's not just things that have to do with state government.

You know, before I got elected, I worked for over ten years for state Senator Joe Rowback and certainly, with his reputation, his work in the community, he, he knew everyone, and everyone knew him.

And so people would come into his office, call him, email him, when they needed help with anything.

We had one person, one time call because her dog ran out the front door in winter and didn't know what to do, and it was her best friend.

And that's when you're out there.

When you're when you're a good public servant, when you're present in the community, people are going to turn to you because you're are the most recognizable person in public life.

And for me, being six one chubby with red hair, I tend to stand out in the community.

And so people come into my office looking for help on things that I don't have any control over, that have nothing to do with government, but just feel like they're in a safe place to ask for that help.

So when you say, come into my office, do you mean your district office?

Yes.

I don't have a lot of my constituents just coming up, randomly to my Albany office.

But, you know, I'm right on Ridge Road.

Kitty corner from the Grease Ridge Mall.

So a lot of, you know, I'm between a subway and a Salvatore's.

So a lot of times I'm with people when they're waiting for their pizza order will come in and just say, like, oh, this is where his office is.

Is he here?

And I usually am.

And so sometimes that's the only way that someone's going to have an interaction with me.

And it's not about policy.

It's not about politics.

It's just they've seen my face, they've seen my name, and they just happen to want to stop in because it was convenient for them.

And I think, conversely to that, sometimes we, you know, we live in our community, we go to the supermarket, our kids go to camp.

I don't think I have walked into a Wegmans since taking office where I've not been stopped often in the cart area, like I frequently don't get all the way into a Wegmans and people will, stop and, you know, ask me a question.

Sometimes a real constituent question, where is it you're going to have to call my office, because I do not have the means to help you in this moment.

But I have had people come up to me at the Y come up to me, again, I actually just got up this morning dropping my son off at the Rochester Museum and Science Center, where he was starting camp this week.

And this is something that we, I think enjoy that people feel comfortable coming up and talking to us because they know that we're there to help.

But it's something that you don't turn off.

We are assembly people 24 seven.

Whether we're with our family or we are alone or we are actively exercising.

One time a woman gave me a hug in a bathing suit and I was like, look, again, I appreciate your help and I'm glad that you're happy.

But that's great.

So I mean, how much of that did you you both were came into office in November of 2020.

That got your reelected to office right.

So January of 2021, how much of that did you expect?

How much sort of actual access, face to face interaction with your constituents?

Were you expecting?

I mean, I, I expected a lot of it.

I you know, Jen and I both have different backgrounds.

Before we got elected the Assembly, I served for three years on the town board.

I'd worked for Joe Rowback in various capacities since I was a college intern.

So I'd seen it firsthand and certainly being a previously elected official, representing 25,000 people in the town of grease.

That was something that I expected.

The types of interaction is, what has continued to evolve and sometimes surprised me both for the good and for the bad.

Say more about that.

You know, a lot of a lot of things.

You know, even though we are state legislators, we deal with state policy.

A lot of what's going on and people's public consciousness is about federal politics.

And whenever a decision is made at federal, at the federal level, some people may think that I have a say in that, which I don't.

But it's also that to a little bit more tribalism, a little bit more inherent dismissiveness, just based on party affiliation.

So sometimes, I'll have somebody maybe reach out to my office after I send them out there, and we can't put our political affiliation on Mailer and and sometimes people, don't don't necessarily like my political affiliation, and they don't choose to learn more about why or how I express that affiliation and have some thoughts on what I should do due to myself because of that, affiliation.

Okay, I won't ask you to elaborate because this is a public radio.

Oh, that's anything you can imagine.

You or the listeners.

That's.

I've heard people tell me to do that to myself.

How often do you feel like a sort of translator for the Trump administration, for some of your constituents?

I don't feel like a translator.

Like Jen said, we are a source of information.

So a lot of times when the the big beautiful Bill was passing, people were seeing a lot of things on the news, hearing a lot of things, seeing things on social media.

And they didn't understand it.

So people will call and say, hey, what's what's actually happening?

Or they send me an email like, what's, what's how is this going to directly impact X, Y, or Z?

And for me, it's not about translating or being a messenger for any other elected official besides myself.

It's about providing accurate information so that people can be better informed members of our community.

And whether they like that information or don't like that information, they should expect that that truth and that from a trusted source like myself.

Assembly member.

Assembly member.

Lunsford.

Back to my my previous question about sort of the the the contact that you have with constituents.

Were you expecting that?

So I entered office, with a mindset that was very constituent focused.

And I think, Assembly member Jensen shares, constituent facing mindset, as, do you know, the entire Monroe County delegation.

And you can tell when an office is not constituent focus, is not outward facing is more inward facing or communications facing.

So I came into this from a role where I was a personal injury attorney.

So it was actually a very transferable skill.

I constantly dealt with people who were in crisis, who needed help, who, had my cell phone number, and we're going to call me with their issues.

And I, you know, had 100 cases in any given time.

So that wasn't, surprising to me.

I think what was kind of surprising to me, as much as I expected negative interaction, how little it takes to trigger a negative reaction, I think was surprising.

I put out a newsletter every month, and it's very vanilla.

Nine times out of ten it's like, hey guys, here's how you recycle your cans.

And there is, you know, reduce fees, an adult dog, dog adoptions, a lollipop.

And then someone would be like F.U.

Baby killer.

And I'm like, okay, let me know if you need help with the textile manufacturing stuff.

Like it's they're not, even responding from a content perspective to what I said, they're responding from the fact that I touched them at all, that any contact from me was going to trigger a negative backlash because I am an avatar of the government.

And I think that's part of what keeps me from taking it too personally.

They don't know me for the most part.

They don't know who I am.

And they, I think sometimes don't think of me as a human person.

But I represent the government and they're mad at the government, and that's okay.

And that's what my office is here for, too.

And I have to, I think, constantly remind my staff of that to who, you know, pick up the phone and do their best to help.

And they aren't the public figure, but they are the avatar of me.

So they end up having to eat any ire anyone has towards the government.

And that can be really emotionally draining.

So I have to do a lot of work around, you know, keeping my staff motivated and, you know, encouraged to keep doing this when people don't appreciate their work.

I think something that's hard isn't when someone's mad at you for a decision you made that you're comfortable with.

I made that decision.

But when you try really hard to accomplish something and either don't accomplish it or only accomplish a little bit, and then someone says, well, why didn't you get me all of it?

I asked for A, B, and C, and you only got me A, and I was like, well, I had to split my wrist to get you a, and they just they don't understand why you weren't able to deliver the whole thing.

That's actually the biggest challenge for me is explaining to people how no matter how hard I worked and how much I wanted to do something, I was unable to deliver that thing because I'm disappointed in that too.

And that is a big gap for me.

Yeah, and suddenly Member Lunsford touched on it.

And I think we both have exceptional staffs.

And so in my thing, you know, I always tell people who say what you want to me, but treat my smart, treat my staff with respect because they're here to serve you.

You got a problem with me?

You got a problem with the way I voted?

Fine.

Tell me that's my job.

I'll come in.

You can yell at me for an hour.

Tell me how stupid I am, I don't care, I mean, I care, but like, that's my job.

Like, I signed up for this.

But you don't treat the people who are here doing a job for you in that respect.

And that's, you know, that's something that I've had to talk to people about.

And once explained like that, a lot of people understand it.

But you bring up an interesting point about staff and there's just like a lot of stuff actually, that I want to talk about and get into.

And we got comments already coming in.

But one thing I want to touch on, researching this hour, I came upon this article from New York Focus and it came out December of last year.

It's about the conditions in Albany during session, and it reads as negotiations over state budget reached a fever pitch in March, a visitor to the New York State Assembly offices might see something surprising cuts and sleeping bags.

They're evidence of a work culture that former Assembly employees say is punishing, all consuming and low paying.

The article is mostly about staffers.

And obviously your staffers aren't on the mike right now, so maybe I'm asking sort of the wrong people to answer this question, but what is the work life balance like for people who are working in this space?

If I could, that article first off came out just before there was another cost of living increase.

There's actually been since I've come to office, several cost of living increases for staff, but that's referring to internal staff who work in Albany for the body of the assembly.

And those are different than the people who work for us as elected officials.

Thanks.

Things.

So there are plenty of probably well over 100 employees of the assembly body who are attorneys, who are communications people, who maybe work for the speaker's office.

If you watch the assembly session, there's people behind the rostrum who are doing things around indexing and clerking.

Those people have a different, work experience than the people who work in our office.

The function of the way we do the budget is very unfortunate, and the time constraints are something we cannot control.

And it results in people having to frequently work nearly 24 hours a day, literally sleeping under their desks for sometimes weeks at a time.

And it is horrible.

I see some of our staff, in the assembly sometimes, at our 8 a.m. conference and then at our 11 p.m. conference, and then they send me an email at 3 a.m. and I'm like, I don't know how you're able to do this.

However, second, six months of the year are pretty chill.

They don't really have a ton to do.

They work less than regular hours.

While it is very demanding and horrible and punishing during the budget, there is a extremely calm time of year where none of us are there.

My staff rarely works an evening, rarely works a weekend.

If I have an event, I'm frequently alone.

I much to my staff's I think annoyance that I do it myself.

Many people do travel with staff, but I make sure that if I have a staffer that has to do Saturday hours, like I'm having an event this Saturday about textile recycling, I'm going to have some staff there.

I'll balance that out with them later in the week and be like, it's, you know, 2:00 on Wednesday, we're done for the day.

Go home.

I make sure to even out people's time so that they aren't working terribly overtime.

And the way we pay in the assembly, our staff can't get overtime.

So they get what's called comp time, so they get their time back.

And I also that I'm different than my other colleagues.

I don't mandate that they use that time for other sorts of things.

But some other people do.

So getting and I appreciate the clarification, getting back to the spirit of the question, and I do want to talk about the calendar a little bit, because that is a major part of the job, right?

You're you're in session six months out of the year, essentially from, January to June.

What is that time like for you in Albany?

It is.

No day is the same.

You know, you're going to you're going to have an outline of a day.

You may have a schedule, about what's going to happen, but it also is so unpredictable because and I'll give you an example, we don't find out when our committee meetings are for a week until Friday before after 5 p.m.. Now my office, we typically book meetings out between 2 and 4 weeks in advance, and then all of a sudden, if I've booked at 10:00, but then I have a 10:00 health committee meeting, well, then that meeting has to change.

But I'm also the ranking member of the health committee, which means I have to have a pre meeting either that morning or the day before with the seven other Republicans on the health committee, so that they can be briefed on what the bills are.

And we can talk about any questions that the members have, which also means we have a set time for that meeting on Mondays.

That means anything else has to be changed.

Not just for me, but for the seven other people.

So a lot of it is hurry up and wait.

We know when session is going to start, although it's assembly meantime, which means bank on between 45 and 45 minutes and two hours after the scheduled start time is when we'll actually gavel in and we'll go until, the speaker decides that we're going to call it a day, which could be 30 minutes.

It could be five hours, which also means you can't necessarily schedule meetings in the evening, or if somebody is going to do an off the floor meeting, which means instead of meeting you in their office, in your office, they come in and will meet with you outside the assembly chamber.

And everybody stands along a rope.

And essentially, you know, like a bunch of autograph seekers at Bill's camp, except it's advocates and lobbyists and constituents who are just trying to get five minutes with a member of the state Assembly of the, state Senate.

And this is how many days a week?

Depends on the time.

I think we had 71 days of session this year.

And, in January, it could be anywhere from 2 to 3 days.

February it goes, you know, typically three.

But once we hit March, it's 4 to 5 days a week.

If the budget's late, it could be five.

I think a couple of years ago, we were there for ten days straight because we we gaveled in over the weekends, which also makes it tough when you don't pack enough clothes.

And then back after the budget passed, goes back down to 2 or 3 days and then the end of session, it's the same thing.

You're there until the speaker says you're not there anymore, which our spouses probably really greatly appreciate.

Yeah, I but I hope my spouse is listening so you can hear someone else say this, that this is true, I swear.

No.

And I mean to put a little human element on it.

Like there are times it is, unexpected.

April, we know we're supposed to have two weeks off in April.

They usually try to align it with the school calendars in the last three years, we have lost our two week break.

And it is not unusual to be at the Colony Mall, Nordstrom Rack and see a couple of my colleagues and we're all shopping for an extra shirt or extra pairs of underwear because we got stuck there.

And that's a real thing that happens, on a pretty regular basis.

How do you how do you manage?

How do you manage that?

I mean, it's like you're you're in the headspace where you're like, this is the job and this is what I'm here to do.

Or I think both of us have the world's most supportive spouses and could not do this without the world's most supportive spouses.

What's very challenging for me is my spouse is also a, person with an important job that has a lot of travel.

We both independently are married, are platinum members because of how much we travel.

So that means that when I'm home, I don't get to travel anymore because that's when my husband has to do all of his traveling.

And in recent years, as he has risen in his job and has had four board meetings, we've had more conflicts.

And I don't have family here that can help.

My mom lives in Utah and my mom has had to fly out a couple times so that I could go to Albany and my husband could go do what he need to do, which frequently is in France.

My son spent a week of school with me in Albany last year because we had a conflict that couldn't get covered.

There's frequently times, especially in April, when we get stuck there, that there are kids because we run into childcare problems and there's nothing we can do.

We, during the budget, frequently have a puzzle going in the back just so people can, you know, take a little break because, again, a lot of hurry up and wait.

Am I son wrecked that puzzle?

I mean, he did almost that whole puzzle by himself, but it's a real thing, you know, we have stacks in the back.

Not exactly.

The most luxurious snacks are Sysco brand Imperial Raisins, but, they feed us because we're just stuck in this room.

And I know Assembly Member Jensen and I are goody two shoes who sit on the floor for most of the time.

A lot of our colleagues hang out in their offices, but I take my work.

I sit on the floor.

If we are supposed to be in session, I am on the floor and I do my work.

Though last year I also did a cross stitch of the New York State Capitol skyline because we were hanging out so much and I just needed something to do with my hands while I was listening.

There is a lot of downtime and a lot of triple booked up time, and you kind of can't predict when that's happening.

Yeah, that's and that's the truth.

And, you know, the joke I always make is I don't like hot coffee, but sometimes, I just end up drinking, way too much, way too late in the evening, because that's what's in the members lounge.

And it's the thing I don't have to pay for in a vending machine.

And so I drink a bunch of hot coffee way too late that I can't sleep, which only exacerbates the next day's problems.

But for me, it's important to be on the floor.

And I think it's good in this context, because talking to a majority and minority member is, you know, I have to make sure that I'm on the floor because I may be debating a bill.

You know, the minority leader may ask me to debate a bill.

If it's a health bill, I'm probably nine times out of ten going to be the one debating it.

I may have questions that pop up.

I may have a constituent local thing that I need to make sure I ask a question on.

But then also, because I am a member of, you know, the minority leadership team, I also may get called back to to maybe figure out our strategy on how are we going to react to this, this issue, maybe meeting with, with other members of the House.

And certainly more often than not, if I want to talk to one of my majority colleagues, the best place to find them is going to be in and around the chamber.

And for somebody who, you know, in my office here at home, I don't have a whole wall full of all the pieces of legislation that substantially change state law.

So if I have a good idea, if I have something that I think will make the state better, I'm going to have to find somebody in the majority, either a friend or somebody that I know shares my view of it and say, how can we work together to maybe get this bill introduced and find a way to get it passed?

But the best way to do that is when they're on the floor, because the distractions are less than when they're in their office.

It's a good point.

I was going to ask how much of the work is like set up in these sort of meetings, these committee meetings, these debates, and how much of it is just like happening in those conversations where you're sort of like.

And also how often do you two see each other when you're in Albany and, and tell me what that's like?

So, very little work happens in committee meetings.

Committee meetings are really putting things on the record.

They're the actual work of government.

Everything else happens beforehand.

So, you know, when I said and on my previous, show here, that so much of the work is things people don't see, you elect me so that I can go in the back and talk to the people who put bills on the floor.

You don't elect me to go stand outside and yell at the building.

And I think it's funny with some of my colleagues are outside in the front yelling at the building, I'm like, that's you.

You're yelling at you.

You get to be in here.

What are you doing?

But, you know, we need a balance.

Being seen, participating in things, because otherwise you kind of don't get credit.

There are plenty of things I have done where I have worked myself to the bone, passing someone else's bill, because it was important that my people and I get no credit for it.

But I also, I think, have a problem taking credit for things because I'm, I'm I don't care if I get credit, I care that it gets done.

But that might mean that I'm, talking to the chair of a committee at their desk in the chamber.

Then I'm talking to the program and counsel in the back.

Who's the one holding up the bill?

Because they have some structural issue with the weights fitting into some other thing.

A lot of that is me poking people.

I have literally been walking to the bathroom.

Seeing the council for Ways and Means have been like, I need the thing and I'll be like, yes, I know about the thing, and that's how I get the thing done, because he just needs to be.

We are just annoying.

People come and annoy me.

I annoy other people ever upwards into the governor.

Like we are just professionally annoying and a lot of it is about repetitive contact and that can happen in the members lounge.

That can happen in the elevator.

It can happen.

You know, I we have text threads all the time with other members saying, you know, like, hey, how is this thing going?

We may be working on strategy outside of Albany.

Like, for example, we frequently are dealing with nursing home issues.

We might be coordinating statewide, press conferences on one thing, and that work is being done in a text thread.

You know, if people watched me do my job, they wouldn't hear a lot most of the time, because a lot of times I'm sending an email or I'm sending a text, but I'm also moving the amount of work I have done on the sidelines at a soccer game or sitting in a parking lot.

You know, at the beginning of the show, you had a scene of us sitting at our desk working.

You'd be hard pressed to find me sitting at my desk in Albany unless I'm in a meeting talking this.

I took a shot.

I am almost never in my office because I'm so frequently on the floor.

And I say to people, if you're if you want to meet with me, meet with me, my district office, don't meet with me in Albany.

I can give you half an hour or an hour.

And, in district, I can't give you that in Albany because we're bang bang, boom.

And a lot of times I'm triple booked.

Committee meetings happen.

Suddenly we'll have a conference and I lose my time.

So you end up meeting with my staff, who are excellent.

No one should ever be insulted meeting with staff.

Staff?

Sometimes it's a better.

It's a better to have a meeting with staff than it is one of us, says the former staffer.

But yes, that is true.

That is correct that sometimes you are in better hands because you're talking to the person who's actually going to do it.

Like, especially if you're talking to my alleged director, who is I have a staffer who is permanent in Albany, which not a lot of people do.

She, is the person who handles all the budget stuff.

So you have a budget ask, you're going to tell me, and I'm just going to tell her, so you might as well just tell her directly.

I love the squeaky wheel theory of politics.

And and government in action.

And it's not just us upward, but it's also sometimes I tell people and advocates to be, you know, be so persistent in your advocacy to your elected officials that they want you to stop calling.

So they're going to respond to you or they're giving you an answer in some way, shape or form.

I say, don't.

I know it's not.

Don't be annoying.

But like, be persistent.

I want to just make sure, well, I want to take a break in a couple minutes.

But before I do that, I have a question in the chat from John in Pittsford, or.

I'm sorry, by by email from John in Pittsford.

It's a very basic question about how you decide what to wear.

And, how do you ever dress down at the Capitol, or is there like some sort of dress code?

And then there's a second question, which is, is selecting attire especially challenging for women?

And I do want to talk about sort of the way that your jobs are different because you are a woman and a man, and you talked about childcare issues.

You talked about maybe not taking credit.

I can see that.

You want to talk.

I could do a full hour.

Yeah.

I'm having the pack for Albany.

It's the most stressful part of my job I am because first off, you know, like, I like picking on Sunday night what I'm wearing on Wednesday.

You know, a lot of times we don't leave the building, which is helpful because.

And you don't worry about whether is the office cold or the building cold.

It depends.

The assembly chamber gets very cold over time, but also can get very hot.

And I sit directly under events.

There are women next to me that have like shawls on, but then there's people sweating.

The room is generally built for men with, jackets.

So if you have decided not to wear a jacket that day, which only women can, that's a double standard.

There's I what?

I've been trying to get my colleagues to embrace suit shirts, especially when we're in June.

I got great calves.

I want to show them off to whoever wants to see them.

Well, you've had the same sergeant at arms for 47 years.

His name is Wayne Jackson.

If he hears this, he's going.

Mr. Jensen, you're going to come home to a call from Wayne saying, don't you dare.

I've told him it's common.

Wayne is a hawk.

I watched him one time.

We have a very fashionable colleague who was not wearing, socks.

And I swear, from 50ft away when he was like, I see you don't have socks on.

Do you need socks, Mr. Varnell?

Is that like a is there a strike against you?

Is there like a joke written up?

So there's a dress code.

Men have to have a jacket and a tie on, to be on the floor.

And the pandemic did nothing to ease.

It actually did okay.

But I think more so for women.

Okay.

Jackets are the general rule, but in general, women have to have their arms covered.

There are some times where if you are wearing a very nice, very professional dress and your arms are uncovered, you might get a little leeway.

But I think it's just because Wayne doesn't know how to police women in this regard.

And I have one colleague who's really pushing the envelope with bolo ties.

I think he's just trying to see how far he can go.

But from what I understand, because we both took office after the pandemic that, things have gotten more casual.

And I think one particular way the Assembly has gotten much younger over the years, and people wear sneakers on the floor, and I swear to God, there's going to be a Wayne sized hole in the ceiling one of these days.

But blame him.

They're like fashions, sneakers or very like sneakers.

More expensive than my work shoes.

People are wearing, you know, high end fashion sneakers.

And that drives Wayne insane.

But I think all of us, we all have changes of clothes in our office.

The men very frequently will change out of their suits.

I usually stay in my clothes.

I don't usually bring play clothes to Albany.

Because if I'm back in my hotel, it's pajama time.

I'm not coming back out.

But one time I took the train.

I don't generally take the train leaves at 540 in the morning.

But I was just going up and down the day, and I was like, oh, I'm going to be such a smarty pants.

I'm going to wear my, like, most flexible work pants.

I'm going to put a hoodie on and I'll just carry my suit jacket.

So I do so and I'm comfy and cozy on the train doing some work.

I get to Albany, I go to put on my jacket and I had forgotten to put a shirt on under my sweatshirt.

Oh dear.

So I had to call my chief of staff, who was out there at the time, and have her drive me to target so I could buy some tank.

I didn't use a hoodie jacket, I did not.

Wayne would not have had that.

So I had to buy some tanked ups.

And now there are several changes of clothes in my Albany closet.

Well, shout out to Wayne for holding high standards.

I typically come to the office in the morning in my suit, but without my tie.

And then I'll put my tie on for committee meetings or session, for that one time.

And that I did I did have a there was I, it was when we had a late schedule, change and we get text messages from the assembly letting us know when our committees are for the following week.

And so they sent it was for the insurance committee.

They sent it out.

But I also got a rules committee text.

And in my mind I didn't look at my calendar.

I just looked at my phone and I thought the insurance committee meeting was later in the day and I got the haircut.

So I had I did have a sweatshirt on and shorts, and I'm sitting in my office getting, you know, I'm like, I got an hour and a half to session.

I'm I'm fine.

I don't have a meeting.

I'm just going to work.

And I get the text saying that the insurance committee is starting in one minute.

So I had to make a determination.

Do I go to the meeting, be there on time?

Do I try to do some once of a of a mid change, get there late or skip the meeting completely?

So I showed up in a sweatshirt and shorts and felt terrible and probably more so than I should have.

But on behalf of the people of New York, I don't mind if you were a hoodie, as long as you show up on time.

I guess.

But it's it's one of those things, like, I call myself an assembly institutionalist.

I believe in the institution and that we should follow certain standards, whether it's on debate, whether it's showing up on the floor, being at a committee meeting and being dressed somewhat appropriately.

And I was like, I can't believe I'm the one who can't do both.

I couldn't be on time and be dressed.

No, I couldn't.

And your anti sneakers with suits, sneakers that aren't there are people who will wear obvious running shoes.

And when you say people are is this men and women or is it just okay?

They're like, I don't, you know, you want to wear a real fresh pair of Jordans?

I don't love it, but sure, whatever.

I'm not going to bemoan people style, but people who wear shoes that they've obviously gone running in with their suit or with their ensemble.

It's like I, I do have qualms about that.

Although I was a big hater of the sneaker dress shoes.

And then I bought a pair.

And although my wife gave me a lot of crap for it, I did enjoy wearing them.

I mean, those flaws are unforgiving.

That is no joke.

The amount of Assembly members who have been there for 30 plus years, you get knee replacements.

I don't know how people do this in heels, but, like, I just don't even wear heels anymore because I'll.

I'll do 12, 15,000 steps on a regular Albany day, and I don't leave the building that just back and forth to the lobby in the Capitol over and over again.

So like it's especially with people who then have to knock doors and, you know, we put miles and miles and miles on our shoes.

I taking care of your feet is really important.

And people don't realize like I've had plantar fasciitis for like a year and a half.

Now that just won't go away.

So someone made fun of my shoes one time online, and I was like, these are like $300 shoes, but they're like orthopedic.

Shut up.

I don't care, they're comfortable.

But, you know, you asked earlier about, you know, women and men, men can wear the same thing over and over again.

Women.

You know, if I'm in Albany and I am going to be pictured over the course of several days, and I want to eventually use those pictures, after a while, you start to look the same in all the pictures.

So I actually rent clothes during session.

I rent from I've.

Over the years I've used a couple different, organizations, but I usually rent like 2 or 3 different, jackets, maybe some different pants.

And it allows me to work in like unusual colors or, patterns.

And then I just own a capsule wardrobe of, like, navy brown, black and gray, and it lets me swap things out while creating some variety.

But it is something I think about probably more than I should.

It's a great hack.

And you know what?

It is something that, that I'm, I'm interested in talking about more about.

I'm late for a break.

So we're going to, we're going to take a quick break.

And when we get back, we'll talk more with our assembly members, Josh Jensen and Jen Lunsford.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Coming up in our second hour, we bring back a recent conversation on the success of the Village of Fairport.

How has Fairport grown at a time when a lot of places are struggling to fill old offices or old factory spaces?

One of the thriving parts of Fairport is a totally renovated old industrial space.

We're gonna talk about how they're doing it next.

Our.

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Oh we're back.

I'm Veronica Volk.

This is connections from Sky news.

We're in a spirited discussion about some of the day to day life of your local assembly members.

Here with me is Assembly Member Josh Johnson and Assembly member Jen Lunsford.

And also we want to invite your calls.

Of course.

Call us at 1-844-295-2825 5 or 5 852639994.

Or you can email us at Connections at cyborg or comment on the YouTube live stream.

Let's talk about food.

So first of all, what is there to eat when you're in Albany?

Because in Rochester we have an amazing plethora of choices of cuisine.

What's it like in Albany?

I tend to gravitate between eating very poorly or not eating, because we are always in such a 15 minute blocks of time, it's tough to really you have to make time to actually eat halfway decent.

I've actually changed hotels twice so that I could actually have the continental breakfast in the morning, because I know that I'll actually eat food.

But the past three years, I don't eat lunch.

I'll go down when I get to the chamber, and there's a fresh fruit platter and there's low fat yogurt.

I'll make myself a DIY.

Parfait.

But then a lot of times we there's events at night.

So there may be advocacy things.

There may be fundraisers where you're just eating a bunch of past appetizers or a d'oeuvres.

And if you want to actually have a real meal, you're going to have to usually make a reservation, find people you can you want to spend time with.

Because a lot of it, you know, when we're in the office, whether it's in Albany, whether it's here at home, you're out in public, you're going to events to a certain degree, like we're always going to be ourselves, but you're going to be a certain kind of yourself.

You're going to be on.

And so for me, the last thing I want to do, especially in a high stress, demanding place like Albany after a day of legislative business, like, I don't want to go to dinner and have to continue to be on.

I want to be with people who I trust, who I can say what I want, and I know that I don't have to worry about it going and being spread around and, finding, you know, I, I usually eat dinner when I do go out to have dinner with the same 3 or 4 people every night at the same 2 or 3 restaurants.

And in between that snacks, there's so much snacking.

And there's for years I've been, contemplating making a members lounge cookbook of all the things people put together.

Like like we don't have granola, but we have Nature Valley bars.

So sometimes people crush up the valley bar to create the crumbs for a parfait.

We.

When do you say, like, we have fresh fruit?

We get, like, the the Topps fruit platter.

That's, like, mostly melon, and it gets frozen.

So sometimes it's really bad, sometimes it's really good.

But it is a real, roll of the dice.

The quality of fruit you're getting.

We somehow get these bananas that are simultaneously brown and green.

I don't know how that happens.

But it's a lot of prepackaged stuff.

The Senate eats better than we do.

Shrimp cocktail in the Senate.

Majority really gets, like, cold cuts.

What people don't understand, there's fewer senators than us.

There's 63 senators and 150 assembly people.

And we get the same amount of money to, run our houses.

So they just have to divide the same amount of money over less people, which gives them more money per person in the food budget.

It even boils down to the water.

So we have a water jug in our lounge.

They have bottles of Saratoga sparkling water.

The fact they get sparkling water is a pretty big deal.

And then they wander over to us and take our food and and the thing is, Jen mentioned the the fruit.

There's also a vegetable platter.

But you want to be you want to be there, right, when a new one is being opened.

Because otherwise it's been out for who knows how long with who knows how many germs and people coughing on it and not washing their hands.

I'm getting I'm getting a real Parks and Rec vibe to our conversation.

When you watch Parks and Rec after being in office, it is so triggering because it's so real.

There's this one particular episode that I talk about all the time, where there's a woman and she has come to the Parks Department to complain about the slugs in her garden, and then they take care of the slugs in her garden, and then she comes back and she says, I didn't want you to get rid of all of the slugs.

And that's just the thing we say in our office now is, I didn't want to get rid of all of the slugs.

And I also don't want to complain about free food, but there's 150 of us and there's some staff, and we used to have this big bowl of just open peanut butter, and you'd be able to see people's knife marks in it, and it just grossed me out so bad that I want to say that one of my contributions to the state of New York was getting a single serve, peanut butter, because I was just like, guys, I can't or even the the nuts.

There's the nuts.

Oh, there's almonds, there's cashews.

And now they're on a little thing like what Wegmans has where you turn and it comes out.

But our first couple of years they were just out.

And I stopped eating them after I saw one of my male colleagues in the bathroom proceed to walk out without washing his hands, and then go into the members lounge and give a handful.

So we are all humans.

So it was like, like like bar peanuts.

That's gross.

Like out in a bowl.

Yeah, but it's it's a lot, you know, it's it's very interesting because we do a serious job, a sobering job.

But in of its face, it's a lot like college, in both the good and bad ways.

You're in a high stress situation with people you just got thrown together with.

And, you know, a lot of times you go to these events at night, the amount of times you're eating, like cheese cubes and cold spring rolls, that really starts to catch up with you emotionally.

And when we've been there for 4 or 5 days, if we're going to be there very late, they actually do bring in dinner, like if we're going to be there all night because of conferences.

And I usually joke that the news is going to be worse depending on how heavy the food is.

Like on Italian night, I'm like, oh no, something's happened to Medicaid.

They're going to fill our bellies with chicken parmesan.

So we have no fight left in us.

But for the most part, it is, it's a lot of takeout, and I think we all come home ten, 15 pounds heavier than when we get there.

And it's also, I mean, it's and I say this not just with everything that's happening, but it's it's a place where you need serious people because you have to have a level of self-control.

Whether it's your interactions with the lobbying class, whether it's interactions at, open bars, whether it's what you're doing in the evening when you're without your family, without your spouse.

And so you need serious people who take the job seriously and realize that this is just not a place to really relive my college days.

But it's the place where I'm here to do a job.

I'm here to advocate for my constituents, hopefully make the state a better place.

Well, this is serious.

The picture that you're painting strikes me less is like college life, even though I think there is some of that in there.

But it's also just like anybody who's had a job that was so demanding.

And you've worked extremely long hours.

I mean, as somebody who works in the media, I'm sure there are several people in this building who have had like, marathon days of covering things where you're eating, where you can, where you're changing in the bathroom.

I mean, this is just like the picture you're painting is just people who are working really hard, which is one of the reasons that I wanted to have this hour because, you know, some of the anger that people feel at government, some of the distrust of public servants, I want to like, demystify some of that.

So we're having fun talking about peanuts in a bowl.

But also like, this is a really human job and it's not a pretty one.

And I, you know, I love that.

You know, I've been I've been in some way or some way shape or form serving the public since I was 19 years old.

And I'm 36 now.

But I also know I can only do this in just like something that year said talked about her husband and her mom flying in from Utah.

I can only do it because I have a supportive spouse who's agreed to be on this ride with me, and in his sacrifice, some of her own things she wanted to accomplish to help me fulfill this dream.

The fact that my my parents live 15 minutes up the road from us.

My in-laws live 15 minutes down the road from us.

My sister in law lives 15 minutes, down 390 from us.

And she's watching my kids today because she's a teacher.

So I'm lucky in the sense that I do have such a strong support network that in the summertime, in the fall time when we're not in session, I'm not having to drive to Albany.

I can go to more night events, I can go to more weekend events because I know that Casey is going to be there.

And but if she has something going on that my parents, my in laws are there to provide that support.

But that's also why when we're in session, I go to very few night events.

I go to very few weekend events because I have six year old twins.

I want to make sure that I'm not just doing my job as an assemblyman, but I'm doing my job as a dad.

Yeah.

Same for me.

It's, it's very hard to justify weekend and evening events, particularly during session, because I just don't get to see my family very often, you know?

And I have, I've entered the youth sports part of my parenthood, which is sucking up every moment of my life.

My son has practice four nights a week, every week of August.

When did we forfeit our lives to.

Oh, man, is all like some money grab?

I play travel hockey, so I don't really have a leg to stand on in that respect.

Let's see.

Do you guys mind if I ask you some just rapid fire questions?

What is on your desk right now in Albany?

It is a million post-its that have been jotted down and discarded.

There's some, half use chopsticks in several drawers.

Hopefully there's no liquid left in a cup.

Hopefully.

I actually did do the dishes before I left.

I do have a staffer there.

But we always have a puzzle going in our office, for downtime.

Sometimes I take meetings around the puzzling table.

But there's, you know, pictures of my family.

There's a lot of art my son has made while in Albany.

Because he comes and, you know, doodles things.

But I'm actually not at a desk very often.

I have four desks, and my car is my desk as often as not.

So I try to not keep anything.

I have to really use in a desk, because I will forget it in one of those four places.

I have, I did at the end of session the last day, I did purge my desk.

But typically what's on it is every handout I got in a meeting for the preceding month in some unorganized, organized manner.

My laptop, because I'm simultaneously doing work on my laptop and the desktop computer.

I've got a notepad that has, all my prep for debates.

It's got briefing memos on it.

It's got our, our budget or end of session, analysis is analysis.

And then probably, couple different, pieces of plastic cutlery from something that got eaten.

And I'm like, I don't know when I'm going to get another fork.

So I'm just going to leave this here and I'll wash it if I need to in the bathroom.

To be clear, I have reusable because I'm on the Environmental Conservation Committee, but we have to wash our dishes in the bathroom in tiny little sinks.

And it has been no fun zone.

It is.

It's a rough situation.

And see, once again, the difference between the Assembly in the Senate, the Assembly side of the legislative office building only has a bathroom, but the Senate side, they have a external part of their bathroom where they have a sink and a drying rack.

And the only reason I know that besides being a Senate staffers, my Assembly office is actually a Senate office.

So I have I'm right outside one of the nice.

I can go walk all the way down to the other side of the building to use that if I need to.

We're going to have to have some of our state senators on to, defend, defend their, their lives in Albany, train or drive to Albany.

I drive, drive by myself.

Yeah.

Because we both have to be available to come back for kids if we have to.

The train schedule is terrible.

It is 540 in the morning or late for conference.

And also, the thing I hate, one of the things I hate most in this world is not being able to control when I come and go places, so not having a car or being relying on somebody else to get someplace would drive me absolutely wild.

And the amount of times we get stuck in Albany past when we expected to.

So then you miss that train, and then you might have to end up there overnight again.

Neither of us stay close to the Capitol, so we drive to our hotels.

I purposely stay far away, so I'm not staying in the same places.

Lobbyists.

I want to be alone once again.

Once I'm in my room.

That's it.

You're never seeing me again.

Like that's.

You're not getting me back out.

Do you work in silence or do you like to have some music?

Depends what I'm doing.

Like when I'm prepping for debate, I like to have something on in the background, but it don't depend on it.

This year, it was when I was prepping for the Medical in dying, debate, which I led.

I had episodes of The West Wing playing in the background.

I was going to ask you guys about the West Wing because like, that show came out in 1999.

It's very formative for for millennials.

Right.

So what about your job is like the West Wing versus what is not nothing.

Nothing except the issues.

When you go watch it, you're like, man, I just had this conversation last week.

Nothing, nothing changes.

If somebody who's worked not just as an elected official, but I worked six months in the Bush White House as an intern.

The most accurate, political show is Veep.

That's great.

That is great.

That's a great note to end on.

I just want to thank you guys so much for coming in.

I really appreciate it.

And thanks to the team here at Sky that makes the show possible.

I also want to thank Susan Burton.

She's a journalist and the host of the podcast The Retrievals from The New York Times.

It is a riveting series, but I also completely ripped off her documentary scene setting for the intro of the show.

Speaking of podcasts, you can subscribe to connections and never miss an episode.

You can find us on Apple, Spotify, the NPR app, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thank you so much again, Assembly member Josh Jensen from district 134.

Happy to be here.

And Assembly Member Jen Lunsford from district 135.

Happy to be here.

I appreciate you guys so much.

I'm Veronica Volk, thanks for listening to connections.

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