Ep. 7: Paula Kay on Her Full-Circle Career

Brian Cunningham: All rise. Quiet, please. Paula, thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me here. So it is your first term. Yes. Your second year. Yes. What's the biggest lesson you learnt so far in Albany? The biggest lesson I've learned is time is not my own and to relax about it. Yeah. Get my work done. Do what I can control for my district. Yeah. And keep on moving. Speaking of timing, it couldn't have aired a better time. just came off the headwinds of the US sports overseas and I'm looking at your bio and I noticed something I did not know about you, which is that you actually played drum roll blease. I played women's ice hockey at Wesleyan University. I was the captain. Yeah. ⁓ I was a left wing. And ⁓ I came off a figure skating background my entire life and transitioned to ice hockey in college. That's incredible. What some lessons that you use from ice hockey or playing sport up here in the legislature? I hope you don't throw anybody against the walls of I try not. So working as a team, figuring out how to nego negotiate work together to get things done. Yeah. It's so important. Yeah. And we and we know that. Yeah, no, it's it's super important 'cause there's a lot of big issues, particularly those like of mental health. And I know that's something that you and I pick care about. ⁓ whether it's talking about my nine eighty eight bill, which is seeking to make sure we have a dedicated streamline for funding for that service. But you've been working at it from a different angle. Can you tell me about what you've been working on with mental health? Sure. So I've been working on a c a couple different pieces, ⁓ making sure that state employees, municipal employees have access to mental health services, both in corrections, counties. ⁓ we have I I represent ⁓ two counties, Sullivan County and some of Orange County. We know throughout the state that we just have a lack of mental health services. So I'm working wherever I can to figure out ways to increase ⁓ access to mental health in schools too for students and for for all employees. Love that. Now we talk about mental health, we know that up here it's very stressful. And you know that not only from being a member for the last two years, but you also had this unique thing in your bio I know this as well. Which that you worked for your prior two predecessors in psychovacity, ⁓ which I thought was fascinating. What was the difference in terms of like one I and I was a staffer myself, ⁓ for a state senator. ⁓ what's the difference between as you you evolve into your role as a member, being the staffer for the member and actually being a member? And how were their styles different? 'Cause I read no two members are the same. Correct. So I I worked for both Jake and and Aileen Gunther. Aileen ⁓ took over for Jake after he passed in office, which was Tragic. ⁓ there's a huge difference between being a staffer and a member, but being a staffer, you do you learn a lot of the ropes. You ⁓ actually I I know some of the members from when I was here. Yeah. And you do learn some of the ways to get things done. As a member, one of the great things that I do have is a fabulous staff. And I get to lean on them. ⁓ when I need to, which is really wonderful. We wouldn't be where we are today without the people who we work with, ⁓ both up here in Albany and in our district offices. And for me, it's been a great learning experience ⁓ working with my staff because they open my eyes to different issues in in ways that maybe I didn't see previously. Yeah, that's fair. I know that you did some work in the early stages of the World Trade Center. Was that ninety three? No, was that three? Okay, yeah. So I was working for the New York City Council. Yeah. And I was the under Speaker of Peter Vallone. Under P yes, under Peter Vallone. Wonderful man. Absolutely wonderful man. ⁓ and I was counsel to the Committee on Housing and Buildings, who and the chair was Archie Spigner from Queens. When the bombing occurred in 1993, I was working with Archie. And the day after the bombing, he said, let's go see. We need to we need to find out what this is, you know, the impact. And he had us ⁓ go down into the bowels of the World Trade Center. And that has impacted my life to this day, what I saw, the destruction. and one thing that an important thing that came out of that, there were many important things, but one was that the stairwells in ⁓ mo in high rise buildings in New York City were not required to have any sort of reflecting lights. And the New York City Council we wrote a bill and required that people would be able to see in the event of an emergency to get down walk stairwells. It's incredible how sometimes we don't realize the moments we're living in and how we're actually creating future situations that occurring just by like making sure we have thoughtful getting down, not only sitting here in Albany, but getting down into to describe the pit essentially where the disaster happened to kind of figure out what went wrong in that day and how could we fix that. Yes. I know that recently as well, we've had downstate three casinos open up. And I know that upstate, ⁓ while this is new and exciting for I can have a detail at the downstate, we always know that things that happen downstate can throw off the pants from upstate sometimes as well. And I think as members, we're always trying to be mindful and how ⁓ our geographical differences. There we're one state, but we also want to make sure that we're doing all we can to support other parts in the regions. ⁓ what are your thoughts on the three casinos downstate? ⁓ I know you've gone through some of those casinos upstate as well and how they've been impactful and some lessons we can learn from that. So first I wanna say to you, Brian, as a downstate member, I I think you've always been so gracious and and and wanting to learn about upstate issues. And I really appreciate that because it's very important. We all work together. Yeah. Thank you. I represent Sullivan County, which was ⁓ it Sullivan County and Resorts World Catskill. If Resorts World Catsco was granted one of the licenses originally. Yeah. And we we are very concerned about the potential impact of the three downstate casinos on our local economy, on jobs. And on the revenue that comes directly to the county and the town of Thompson as host communities. Resorts Roll Catskill has been a great, a great neighbor for us in Sullivan County. They've been a year. They've been a wonderful partner with our not for profits. They provide ⁓ facilities for meetings. They are a ⁓ real part of our community now w and we don't want to lose that. Hmm. And I know you have some deep New York ties, not only work in the city council, but you also went to law school in Brooklyn. You went to a Brooklyn law school. Yeah. What what inspired you to get into law and made you want to practice law? Well, really interesting now because my life has kind of come full circle, ⁓ I went to law school because I wanted to work in government. I also had a private practice. And at the same time I I did work with ⁓ Jake and Aileen Gunther. Yeah. So I kept I kind of kept my out in and out. And now here I am, ⁓ full time working in in government for people. When the story's told at the end of the session, what is the one piece of legislation that you want to see get passed this year? ⁓ that you're willing to put it all out before? Well, I think what we were just talking about, the my hold harmless belt ⁓ you for ⁓ for Sullivan County and the town of Thompson to make sure again that that when the other casinos come online, that there is no reduction in in revenue that we we've really come to depend on for as host communities. So one thing that was interesting during the pandemic that I noticed that really drew that connection between downstate and upstate was food supply and getting food up and down the eighty seven. ⁓ we saw food price explode sometimes because the cost of fuel and trying to get food from downstate. And when I got to the state assembly, funny enough, one of the committees I didn't think I would sit on, but actually sat on, is the Africa Committee. I know earlier today at Economic Development, you passed a piece of legislation that would shrink in some of our food laws, like talk walking through that. Sure. So it's essentially allows supermarkets to give away food that is slightly expired but is still is still usable and good. Go to food pantries instead of throwing it in the landfill. People in my district are hungry. And I'm sure you see that too. And so anything we can do to help ⁓ our food banks and help our pantries and help people in need, I I think is so important. And this is just one small piece, but it's something that I feel very strongly about. Yeah, no, it's incredible. And I also know that During the pandemic, we drove on those roads quite a bit. And infrastructure going up and down also is a lot to be desired. what's the infrastructure looking like upstate? Where can we do more work to help support ⁓ those communities? Well, chips money and ⁓ today you might have noticed a lot of our insurance. A lot of our insurance ⁓ because all of our highway superintendents were here because we need more funding for local roads, both for ⁓ State roads like 87, ⁓ which is clearly a thoroughfare, and also our local roads, our local and county roads, which this year was a really taxing year because we had so many days that were sub-zero and very cold. And you probably noticed ⁓ driving around that hot holes are worse than ever. There's been freezes and heaves, and ⁓ there's a lot of money that's needed to get these roads back. Together. It's incredible when you ⁓ generally on Tuesdays we have advocacy, the amount of energy in this building, and we really realize at those moments, or at least for me, it becomes clear that we're really doing the people's work, right? And that people come and advocate their meets to their elected officials and we try to put that on steroids both in conference and floor and try to get a lot of stuff done. What are some of wh I guess my last question for you is the big issues of state this year, if you look at state budget, like what are the things that members like yourself upstate are looking at specifically the support on sure. So child childcare. ⁓ number one. My office is childcare. When I worked here at as a staff member and I was traveling back and forth, my kids were very little. And that was one of the most difficult things and I can't imagine how you do what you do. I'm challenged by it. I mean, one, we're very grateful to speaker Hasty and his leadership and allowing ⁓ that workplace balance with ⁓ helping with the childcare center here in the second capital. But certainly there's a a need for normal for normality for your kids as well and waking up in the same place and not having this crazy lifestyle of always being in the car. So ⁓ free childcare is essential. ⁓ the workforce is essential. ⁓ but also having after school. I think we talk about childcare in such a a limited way piece by piece, year by year. So one year's after school, one year's childcare. And the reality is, you know for working families like ours. ⁓ you got two kids, right? ⁓ or the the bigger kids now, but they're still your kids. They're still my kids. Always will be. But you you think about that holistic trajectory of health and care for that child throughout their entire journey and almost like how do we really help a state government plug in on those things? It's so important. And I I think it's something that also can bring us all together. Yeah. Because everyone has parents. Yeah. And a lot of people have children. Yeah. And We all want the best for the people that we know and so abstractly for everybody. Yeah. It's funny the other day I went I saw my mom and ⁓ I had my kid with me and it was a but it was long weeks where you're just like everything is going at a hundred miles an hour. And I looked at her and I said, I'm not sure how you did it with less money, less education. And ⁓ at some point my dad and my mom realized that their relationship romantically couldn't work out. ⁓ so she defaultly became a parent ⁓ in the single way parent household of trying to manage that on a day to day basis. ⁓ he was present when he could. ⁓ but just the day to day grunt of being a parent on is super hard. And ⁓ shout out to all the parents who have done it masterfully and those who have failed at it because not because they wanted to, because parenting is hard and we just gotta figure out how to do more as a seek to support parents. We absolutely do. Yeah. Speaking about mental health, I do I do have a bill that I think is really important and it's something that I carried over from my predecessor, partially because ⁓ my legislative director ⁓ felt that it was something I should look at and it and it's really critical to the Hudson Valley and it's a climb deterrent fencing on all bridges in the New York Bridge Authority. and those are bridges in the Hudson Valley that carry thousands of people every day. And we've had some horrible situations on those bridges where people have either attempted or taken their lives. And the impact of that not only on the person who is having a an emergent problem, but on emergency service and on people who may happen to be driving by and see it is really it's a very, very difficult situation. So this bill does require funding for the for this fet special fencing. But if we just save one life, it will be worth it. Yeah. I worked in balance for a long time. And one of the things we've always talked about was how one bullet impacts many lives. And we talk about the person who's experiencing mental health trauma. person who's witnessing someone take their life, the emergency workers who then have to help with the cleanup process of that. In the family, there's tons and thousands of friends and family who didn't even know the person being impacted by their mental health. ⁓ it's one of the things that, you know, recently in the line of work we do ⁓ with demands that we have, ⁓ my wife has really pushed me to think about therapy and how that looks practically in terms of my work and making sure that when I come home, come home much lighter and then I lack the office. Your wife is a very smart one. She's I mean, I I was very lucky to marry my wife, ⁓ and very lucky to have her counsel, even when I don't want to hear it at times. Go and tell her I said that. That's the most important time to listen. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ but this is good and I really appreciate the conversation. I appreciate the time. I think that's really gave me some insight into who sits across me in the legend of the chamber. I think the purpose of this show has really been to humanize the legislative body, to get to know the people because we're more than just people in suits taking votes on the floor. Were people that leave the floor and have real life of action for real communities we serve. Last year for you know, talking to all of us newbies and bringing us in and that didn't go unnoticed. That was really special. I appreciate that. Yeah. I wish somebody grabbed me when I came and so I was like, whatever I can do, I help everybody figure it out. It was yeah, it very meaningful.