Mayor Jared Kraham: The Incompetent Con-Man Series, Part 4

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Everybody knows former Police Chief Joe Ziksuki. And many are familiar with the City’s Economic Development Director, Sarah Glose—hardworking, competent, and highly visible. But aside from those two, can you name another department head in Jared Kraham’s administration and something excellent they’ve accomplished in the last four years?

I’ve asked about two dozen folks that question the last two weeks. Not a single person could name one department head and a notable achievement. Most couldn’t even name a department head.

There are a few reasons, I think. 

REASON #1

Jared is like his former boss and mentor, Rich David: he wants it always to be about him. There is no team, no visionary leaders, no effective managers in his administration. It’s all Jared.

Jared is knocking down blighted structures and locking down nuisance properties.

Jared is repaving streets and fixing sidewalks.

Jared is running the senior centers and handing out school backpacks.

Jared is helping young entrepreneurs start new businesses.

Jared even posted this month that he expanded women’s access to healthcare. Go figure.

Everybody else, the hundreds of public servants and their supervisors and managers, are largely invisible, rarely given the mic at press conferences (if they’re even invited).

REASON #2

Jared can’t seem to sustain leadership across his managerial team—and he doesn’t want the voters and taxpayers to know that. It’s not like he was a newcomer to the Mayor’s Office when elected in 2021; he inherited the team he helped Rich David build over two terms.

Which raises even more questions about why top management positions have been in a constant state of flux or vacant these last four years under Kraham’s ‘leadership.’

The Law Department? Forget about it. We’re already on our third Corporation Counsel, who is serving as “Acting.” While I have no animus or knowledge of the three lawyers in the department, their combined experience in service to Binghamton residents is the lowest in decades.  Also worth mentioning that under Sophie Bergman (political appointee and Corp Counsel #2), the City incurred massive, unprecedented bills for outside law firms to help provide legal expertise.

Public Works has been without a Commissioner for years. While one individual served as “Acting Commissioner” for a couple years, the position is listed as currently VACANT in Jared’s 2026 Budget. The Public Works Commissioner manages sanitation, streets, lights and signals, water, central garage, and more. Not an executive position you want to fill temporarily or leave unfilled—both of which Jared has done.

There is an Acting Parks Commissioner—well, there was an Acting Parks Commissioner until just recently. Jared is now apparently searching for his third Parks Commissioner: another executive position listed as currently VACANT in his 2026 Budget.

The Deputy Engineer’s position is also listed as VACANT in Jared’s 2026 proposed budget. Kraham is also searching for a new candidate to manage the millions of dollars in federal housing funds Binghamton receives annually to strengthen our disinvested neighborhoods and help our vulnerable residents. Both senior positions are posted on the City’s website with other executive positions. Did you know we were without a full-time Water and Sewer Superintendent? Join the club.

The long-serving Comptroller under Rich David bailed in the middle of Jared’s first term. It’s not clear if there is a Deputy/Assistant Comptroller—there is no mention of the Deputy on the City’s website (which was there previously), but Jared’s proposed 2026 budget suggests the position is filled. Who knows.

We do know that Police Chief Zikuski spent four years dogged by controversy and finally resigned just recently.

In addition to the invisible, there are also the incompetent. Anybody paying attention knows that the two executive positions most critical in the face of our severe housing crisis are (1) the Director of Building and Code and (2) the Director of Planning, Housing, and Community Development. Both have demonstrated poor performance and a lack of vision for years.

Four years into a housing crisis, and I bet you can’t name Kraham’s Director of Housing or any of their accomplishments.

Four years into low-income tenants paying sky-high rents for units that don’t comply with health and safety standards, and our Director of Building and Codes is still out there peddling lies that proactive rental inspections and licensing programs are illegal and unconstitutional. Meanwhile, dozens of municipalities across New York use them and hundreds have been operating for decades across the country. This is the guy whose salary jumped from $72,500 in 2023 to $85,800 in 2024 after he eliminated two of his code inspectors, reducing his code enforcement capacity by more than 25%.

REASON #3

The third reason, I think, why I couldn’t find a single person who could name a department head in Kraham’s administration and one of their notable achievements?

Because the mayor’s office has been controlled for twelve years by broadcast media and journalism graduates: Rich David, Jared Kraham, and Megan Brockett Heiman.

All three of them had zero private or nonprofit management experience before assuming either the Deputy Mayor or Mayor position.

So of course they’re always going to lean on their media training and keep the focus on the mayor: the emotional story, the perfect camera angle, the occasional lie or misdirect to land the scene, everytime.

Bad news? Change the narrative, even if it misleads voters. Worse news? Bury it. Local media is dead, so that’s all too easy these days.

But when the setlights go dim and the background actors paid, it becomes obvious that the focus on the mayor is not only because they’re public relations managers who thrive with a camera trained on them—a penchant for slick words and the perfectly-timed head tilt.

It’s because they need you to forget that a mayor’s most important role is to be an effective executive that inspires, retains, and celebrates managerial excellence.

Jared has no vision other than to spin the mundane as marvelous, to turn mediocrity into magnificence with the magic of social media and polished messaging. Those who have been in City Hall for a while know the sad emptiness of it all.

For example, Kraham touts his work to certify Binghamton as a ‘pro-housing’ community, per a new state program that gives Binghamton an edge in seeking state housing grants. Great, but 356 other communities in New York also have the Pro-Housing designation and the state is reviewing another 180 letters of intent. This is an administrative task completed in an afternoon, but Jared frames it like some outstanding achievement.

For those department heads who stay, most are uninspired or largely checked-out or both.

Many others have left, a clear indictment of Jared’s failed leadership and inability to retain a high-performing management team.

And over four years, Jared hardly ever celebrated his managers, not even the few senior team members that have been serving with excellence and who deserve the recognition.

Because it’s always about Jared, co-splaying in front of the camera all the governmental roles his executive team and their staff carry out on a day to day basis, invisible without recognition.

Meanwhile, behind the media wizard’s curtain, Jared’s house of cards is on the verge of collapse. 

The next few years will be very challenging due to significant federal cuts. We’ll need a team of proven public sector managers inspired by an executive’s bold vision and a shared duty to serve with excellence. Not an executive team of public relations managers who distract us from discussing real problems and potential solutions with soundbites and stagecraft.

Let’s hit the reset button come November, and then demand better from a new mayor.