Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Interview With Mayor Gerald Jennings and Mayor Matthew Driscoll

Aired August 15, 2003 - 15:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: New York Governor George Pataki says almost everyone in upstate New York now has their power back. For the latest, though, on the situation in that area, let's bring in two mayors, Gerald Jennings of Albany, New York, and Matthew Driscoll, the mayor of Syracuse.
Gentlemen, thank you very much. Mayor Jennings, let's start with you. It has to be frustrating. This was almost 24 hours ago. Can anyone tell you definitively what happened?

MAYOR GERALD JENNINGS (D), ALBANY, NEW YORK: No, and we really haven't had time to focus on that with the challenges we were presented. And I'm just hoping that we can clarify this, because, you know, it is 2003. There's absolutely no reason for this to occur.

KING: Well, no reason for this. Mayor Driscoll, if there is no reason for this to occur, as your colleague says, whose fault?

MAYOR MATTHEW DRISCOLL (D), SYRACUSE, NEW YORK: Well, I think we have an aged infrastructure, quite candidly. It's something that has probably not been looked at in many years. But obviously this illustrates the necessity to do that, because you can always replace a machine or a computer, but you can't replace a human life. So there is clearly a need to take a hard look at this infrastructure.

KING: Mayor Driscoll first, then I want Mayor Jennings to follow. Do you worry at all that with all of the attention on improving security at infrastructure, like power plants and the transmission grid because of 9/11, all of the focus on homeland security, that people have forgotten about the infrastructure itself?

DRISCOLL: Well, I mean, that's always been a concern of ours. We've really not forgotten. We are about 50 miles from the Fitzpatrick Nuclear Plant, and that's something that always has been a concern to people in this metropolitan area. So the infrastructure, along with the security issues, need to be looked at and really need to be looked at in a very hard and serious way.

JENNINGS: We have been looking at security issues. Obviously, since it started with Y2K. Obviously after 9/11, we had to put, at being the state capital, extraordinary amounts of money and time into developing a plan just in case something like this happened. And I'm happy to say -- go ahead.

KING: But, excuse me, sir, but with all of the money spent on security, are you worried that there is no money? Local governments are strapped for money. State governments are strapped for money. The federal government is running a deficit now.

If we are to spend all of this money now on the grid itself, and on new power plants, new transmission lines, where does it come from?

JENNINGS: Well, that's something I think the national and state leaders have to get together on. I don't feel that there's enough cooperation between the state governments to make sure that we don't have an episode like this again. And it's time they got into a room and decided, hey, look, how do we cooperate in a better way? What do we do to prevent this catastrophic from happening?

Money is always an issue, but it's a matter of priorities. This is life and death that we are talking about here. I don't mind spending extra money to bring in extra police officers, firefighters, paramedics in a situation like this. But tell me that we're going to address the problem directly and we'll all save money.

KING: But Mayor Driscoll, are you prepared to say to address this problem directly, are you prepared to tell the citizens of your city, guess what, your electric bill's going up?

DRISCOLL: Well, that is not something that I have control over, the electric bill. But I agree with Gerry (ph), and certainly other mayors across the country. We've had these discussions before.

Mayors like ourselves are really on the front line of delivering the services and making sure that people and their lives are protected. In many ways, the federal government does not always recognize that. You know the moneys trickle may to be the state level, but they don't make their ways to places like Syracuse and Albany. And that's really an important issue that needs to be addressed, because we are on the front light of providing the services and the protection that people have come to expect and certainly deserve.

KING: I want to close and give each of you 10 to 15 seconds. Everyone in your communities, lights back on, power back on. Anything you need that you're not getting?

DRISCOLL: No, here in the Syracuse metropolitan area the lights are all on, power's on. We can't really get a clear answer. We are told that we may see rolling blackouts in our downtown area; that lights will stay on, power will stay on.

We've not been able to get any clear answers. So if people do experience that, understand it's probably in a controlled environment.

JENNINGS: We are tolled totally back on. We have been since about 10:00 last night. Had a couple of episodes of rolling blackouts, but people have to understand that they're adjusting this grid, and we're asking people to cut down some of the use right now while we get through this crisis. And we need people to cooperate. And then we'll deal with this as everything unfolds, and hopefully we will get the true story on what really caused it.

KING: Just the fact that I can see both of you and not have to do this on the telephone is proof that things are better in your communities.

Mayor Matthew Driscoll at Syracuse, Gerald Jennings of Albany, New York, thank you both very much for taking time away on what has to be a pretty busy day. Thank you, gentlemen.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Driscoll>


Aired August 15, 2003 - 15:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: New York Governor George Pataki says almost everyone in upstate New York now has their power back. For the latest, though, on the situation in that area, let's bring in two mayors, Gerald Jennings of Albany, New York, and Matthew Driscoll, the mayor of Syracuse.
Gentlemen, thank you very much. Mayor Jennings, let's start with you. It has to be frustrating. This was almost 24 hours ago. Can anyone tell you definitively what happened?

MAYOR GERALD JENNINGS (D), ALBANY, NEW YORK: No, and we really haven't had time to focus on that with the challenges we were presented. And I'm just hoping that we can clarify this, because, you know, it is 2003. There's absolutely no reason for this to occur.

KING: Well, no reason for this. Mayor Driscoll, if there is no reason for this to occur, as your colleague says, whose fault?

MAYOR MATTHEW DRISCOLL (D), SYRACUSE, NEW YORK: Well, I think we have an aged infrastructure, quite candidly. It's something that has probably not been looked at in many years. But obviously this illustrates the necessity to do that, because you can always replace a machine or a computer, but you can't replace a human life. So there is clearly a need to take a hard look at this infrastructure.

KING: Mayor Driscoll first, then I want Mayor Jennings to follow. Do you worry at all that with all of the attention on improving security at infrastructure, like power plants and the transmission grid because of 9/11, all of the focus on homeland security, that people have forgotten about the infrastructure itself?

DRISCOLL: Well, I mean, that's always been a concern of ours. We've really not forgotten. We are about 50 miles from the Fitzpatrick Nuclear Plant, and that's something that always has been a concern to people in this metropolitan area. So the infrastructure, along with the security issues, need to be looked at and really need to be looked at in a very hard and serious way.

JENNINGS: We have been looking at security issues. Obviously, since it started with Y2K. Obviously after 9/11, we had to put, at being the state capital, extraordinary amounts of money and time into developing a plan just in case something like this happened. And I'm happy to say -- go ahead.

KING: But, excuse me, sir, but with all of the money spent on security, are you worried that there is no money? Local governments are strapped for money. State governments are strapped for money. The federal government is running a deficit now.

If we are to spend all of this money now on the grid itself, and on new power plants, new transmission lines, where does it come from?

JENNINGS: Well, that's something I think the national and state leaders have to get together on. I don't feel that there's enough cooperation between the state governments to make sure that we don't have an episode like this again. And it's time they got into a room and decided, hey, look, how do we cooperate in a better way? What do we do to prevent this catastrophic from happening?

Money is always an issue, but it's a matter of priorities. This is life and death that we are talking about here. I don't mind spending extra money to bring in extra police officers, firefighters, paramedics in a situation like this. But tell me that we're going to address the problem directly and we'll all save money.

KING: But Mayor Driscoll, are you prepared to say to address this problem directly, are you prepared to tell the citizens of your city, guess what, your electric bill's going up?

DRISCOLL: Well, that is not something that I have control over, the electric bill. But I agree with Gerry (ph), and certainly other mayors across the country. We've had these discussions before.

Mayors like ourselves are really on the front line of delivering the services and making sure that people and their lives are protected. In many ways, the federal government does not always recognize that. You know the moneys trickle may to be the state level, but they don't make their ways to places like Syracuse and Albany. And that's really an important issue that needs to be addressed, because we are on the front light of providing the services and the protection that people have come to expect and certainly deserve.

KING: I want to close and give each of you 10 to 15 seconds. Everyone in your communities, lights back on, power back on. Anything you need that you're not getting?

DRISCOLL: No, here in the Syracuse metropolitan area the lights are all on, power's on. We can't really get a clear answer. We are told that we may see rolling blackouts in our downtown area; that lights will stay on, power will stay on.

We've not been able to get any clear answers. So if people do experience that, understand it's probably in a controlled environment.

JENNINGS: We are tolled totally back on. We have been since about 10:00 last night. Had a couple of episodes of rolling blackouts, but people have to understand that they're adjusting this grid, and we're asking people to cut down some of the use right now while we get through this crisis. And we need people to cooperate. And then we'll deal with this as everything unfolds, and hopefully we will get the true story on what really caused it.

KING: Just the fact that I can see both of you and not have to do this on the telephone is proof that things are better in your communities.

Mayor Matthew Driscoll at Syracuse, Gerald Jennings of Albany, New York, thank you both very much for taking time away on what has to be a pretty busy day. Thank you, gentlemen.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Driscoll>