After taking the oath of office on New Year's Day New Norwich Mayor Robert Jeffrey promised to fight for the restoration of neighborhoods and businesses, saying his goals would be quality of life, public safety, and economic development. (Photo by Tyler Murphy)

NORWICH – At noon on New Year’s Day business and government leaders filled the City of Norwich Courtroom to witness new Norwich Mayor Robert D. Jeffrey take his oath of office.

He told residents the responsibility of the office is one he takes most seriously. “We need to be consistently good rather than occasionally great, and that is the standard that we will set ourselves to,” he said.

Jeffrey’s first remarks thanked the community for their support, and he said the messages received while speaking to residents were clear and his goals as mayor would reflect them, centering on restoring neighborhoods, public safety, quality of life, and renewed investment.

“I promised to make my inaugural comments very brief,” Jeffrey told the room, “But the primary subject and focus of my administration over the next two years is on quality of life, public safety, community development, and attracting businesses to invest here in the City of Norwich.”

“We will also continue working on the investments that have been made in our parks, the areas that the youth of our community play, and a place where adults find peace and recreation,” he said.

Jeffrey thanked the efforts of other groups and said the city would aid them any way they could. He pledged to stand up for the working class and take a firm approach to vacant properties, squatters, and absentee landlords whose properties have contributed greatly to neighborhood declines.

“Today, we recommit ourselves to cleaning up once vibrant neighborhoods,” he said. “We will demolish vacant properties, hold landlords that are destroying the quality of life here in our city accountable, and most importantly, we will help those that are looking to make a positive difference in our community.”

Echoing the shared concerns of many residents he spoke to on the campaign trail he added, “There is a sense of urgency to bring that pride back to our neighborhoods.”

Jeffrey said he had already reached out to work collaboratively with community partners, including local businesses, Commerce Chenango, Chenango County government and state agencies, to press for improvements.

“We will advocate for our community, for the attention from New York State, especially when it comes to the decaying infrastructure that they own, namely North Broad Street,” adding, “And we will push back when these agencies do not meet the expectations of our community.”

Jeffrey, who previously served seven years on the Norwich Common Council representing Ward 6, said he believes the city must refocus on “bread and butter issues” that residents feel most directly.

In an interview prior to the ceremony, Jeffrey said he served on the council from 2018 through December 2024, during which time the city adopted balanced budgets, made infrastructure improvements to water and sewer systems, and “paved millions of dollars worth of streets.” He also pointed to LED lighting upgrades and experience working on union and inter-municipal contracts.

Looking ahead, he said rehabilitation and development of housing will be a central goal of his administration, with an emphasis on stabilizing the tax base and supporting code enforcement.

“We need to focus on the neighborhoods and continuing to improve the infrastructure that we have here today,” he said.

Jeffrey said he believes expanding the tax base is critical to keeping the burden off city residents.

“We need to find other ways of generating revenue off of the tax base, so that we don’t want to put the tax burden on the people that live here,” he said.

He said improving the city’s housing situation is part of the foundation for long-term growth.

“The only way that we will be able to attract, retain and recruit new people to the city and Chenango County as a whole is by developing single family homes,” he said. “There’s nothing more important than having people take ownership in property, take pride in their property.”

Jeffrey said he wants to prevent a continued trend of converting single-family homes into multi-family units, and said the city should take action on vacant and dilapidated properties.

“We need to make sure that the neighborhoods are of quality,” he said, adding that efforts may include rehabilitating or demolishing deteriorated houses and preventing squatters from creating “toxic environments within our neighborhoods.”

At the New Year’s Day ceremony Jeffrey was sworn in by Chenango County Judge Frank B. Revoir and introduced at the ceremony by his father, who also has a long career in public service, and is currently a City of Norwich Supervisor and director of the Northeast Classic Car Museum.

Jeffrey thanked his father for influencing him to make a difference in the community through public service.

“Without learning from your time as alderman and your current role as city supervisor, I very well could not be in the role,” said the new mayor.

“I’d like to thank the voters and the residents of the city of Norwich for the trust they’ve bestowed upon me. It is something I do not take lightly, and I will do everything to the best of my ability to ensure that we continue to move forward,” he said.

He recognized city department heads, members of the common council and several former mayors in attendance.

Jeffrey has already met with community groups and leaders ahead of taking office, and they have the same goals.

He said “Other conversations were held about establishing a Chenango County Land Bank. That program will be very beneficial to attracting developers to the area for the development and creation of housing.”

He also spoke about economic development opportunities, including efforts to establish Norwich as a Brownfield Opportunity Area community, which could help position certain industrial sites for future development.

“We've got a lot of industrial sites that would be ripe for development. We just need to work on cleaning those up. Additionally, you know, we're going to have meetings with potential developers here in the city, and really kind of seeing what or how we can help them, how they can help us, and we're really excited about some of those opportunities,” he said.

Jeffrey said he is optimistic about ongoing downtown revitalization projects, including the planned downtown hotel and other DRI projects, which he hopes will attract visitors and help sustain economic growth.

Jeffrey closed his inaugural remarks by saying, “Together, we will all advocate for our community because at the end of the day, we all want to see better and do better. And that is my goal for the next two years, to make our lovely little corner of the world better than how we found it. So thank you, have a very happy new year, and now, let's get to work.”