Joseph Griffo

Early life

Joseph Griffo was born to Joseph and Betty Griffo in Rome, New York. While he was an only child, Griffo had a large extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins. His mother was a seamstress and his father worked as a meter officer. Griffo went through the Rome public school system and graduated from Rome Free Academy High School in 1974. He then went on to State University of New York at Brockport where he graduated magna cum laude in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. Griffo first served in government during his senior year of college at an internship with State Assemblyman James Hurley. After college, he served as Director of Community Relations for the City of Rome and as an Administrative Assistant to mayor Carl Eilenberg. Griffo’s first term in elected office was in 1989, when he won a seat in the Oneida County Legislature.

Mayor of Rome: 1992-2003

Griffo was elected mayor of his hometown, Rome, NY in 1991, and won two subsequent elections in 1995 and 1999. Griffo began establishing his fiscal conservative credentials during his time as mayor of Rome. He eliminated Rome’s special one-quarter percent sales tax. Also, Griffo “was able to prevent a tax hike there (Rome) in all but one of his years in office, despite the crippling loss of Griffiss Air Force Base in 1993 - perhaps the worst single economic blow the county has ever seen." Griffo managed to streamline the city government by consolidating departments and making services more efficient. He successfully merged the parks and recreation departments and handed over the city's weights and measures and emergency management departments to the county, resulting in massive savings in the budget. In order to prevent closures and service cuts, he privatized Rome Hospital, the Erie Canal Village and the city trash collection, which all went on to become successful business enterprises. Griffo accomplished all of this in a bipartisan way, as the city council was overwhelmingly Democratic during his time in office.

Woodstock ‘99

Griffo was instrumental in bringing Woodstock 1999 to Rome, NY. His driving effort to bring the concert to Rome earned him the nickname “The Rock N’ Roll Mayor.” The concert was held at the deserted Griffiss Air Force Base and served as a precedent to using the space for future concerts and events. Woodstock ’99 attracted over 200,000 people and poured much needed money into the local economy. The event was largely successful until the final day, when the audience, encouraged by the performing band, began making bonfires. As the crowd got more out of control, state troopers and local police dispersed the audience without further incident.

Oneida County Executive: 2003-2006

Griffo was appointed Oneida County Executive in June 2003 to serve out the term of his predecessor. Griffo then won the election in November 2003 in what was called an “honorable” and “responsible” campaign. During his time as County Executive, Griffo stayed true to his fiscal conservative principles. After raising taxes 16% for 2003, his predecessor announced that taxes for 2004 may need to be raised by as much as 26% due to skyrocketing Medicare costs and retirement benefits. However, after Griffo was appointed County Executive, he was able to balance the 2004 budget in such a way that taxes only needed to be raised 2.9%. Griffo also managed to deliver additional benefits to the county of Oneida. In 2005, he implemented a prescription drug plan that cut drug costs for Oneida county residents by up to 38%.

Conflict With Mayor Julian

In 2004, Griffo was forced to make a special 1.5% increase in sales tax for the 2005 budget in order to cover soaring Medicaid costs. Normally, sales tax revenues are split amongst state, county and townships/cities. However, in order to cover mandated Medicaid costs, the 1.5% increase would all go to the county government. Utica Mayor Tim Julian began claiming a share of the revenues. Despite being alone in his request as the Mayor of Rome stated he did not feel entitled to the revenues, Julian persisted in his demands against Griffo. Although Buffalo had won similar requests over a sales tax dispute with the county, Griffo remained adamant in refusing to split the revenues. Griffo tried to disarm the situation by offering the city of Utica $800,000 in debt forgiveness which Julian refused. Griffo eventually won out and the county did not split the extra sales tax revenues with Utica. In 2006, Julian decided to run against Griffo in the Republican primary for State Senator. While Julian lost the primary, he secured a spot on the Independence Party ticket and continued his campaign. A week before the election, Julian inexplicably dropped out of the race.

NYRI

Griffo helped stop the New York Regional Interconnect (NYRI) plan to run electricity from Canada through Oneida county. Concerned citizens feared the project would increase electricity costs in the area and pose health and safety risks to residents. A grassroots effort formed opposing the plan and Griffo supported the local effort with $50,000 of county money. Griffo also helped unite local and state politicians to help kill the plan.

New York State Senator: 2007-present

Despite an overwhelmingly Democratic year, Griffo was elected by a wide margin in 2006 to represent the 47th district in the New York State Senate. He replaced Raymond Meier, who was running for Congress in the 24th Congressional District of New York. Griffo was reelected in 2008. Among Griffo’s significant legislation was a law that created the website ResultsNY.gov where anyone could log on and see how state funds were being used. The bill was instrumental in improving transparency and accountability. Griffo also championed to reform state government by proposing bills that would create term limits for the Governor, Comptroller and Attorney-General as well as forcing vacancies at statewide positions to be filled through popular election rather than appointment by the Governor. Also, “His bills have included child abuse victim protection, a law to keep snowmobile fees for trail system use and legislation capping assessment increases for farmers.” Griffo has also continued making government more efficient through consolidation and eliminating waste. Griffo voted against same-sex marriage legislation on December 2, 2009; the bill was defeated. In 2011, he voted against the Marriage Equality Act, which the Senate passed 33-29. Marriage Equality Act and roll call

Role in investigation of Governor Spitzer

The Senate Committee on Investigations is considering investigating a controversial multimillion-dollar loan that New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer's father Bernard Spitzer gave him when he ran for attorney general in 1998, a loan Mr. Spitzer has acknowledged not being truthful about. Committee Chairman George Winner told The New York Post that subpoenas should be used to find out about the loans. Winner wrote to Griffo, who is the Chairman of the Senate Elections Committee, that an article profiling Spitzer in New York Magazine "outlined what may have been a willful effort by Eliot Spitzer and his father to circumvent campaign-contribution limits in New York state law and then conceal their actions." In 1998, Spitzer claimed that he secured the $5 million loan by mortgaging apartments his developer had given him, but later revealed that his father was actually paying off the loans and, therefore, financing his campaign.

Arrest Record

Griffo was arrested on August 1, 1988 after allegedly serving alcohol, or permitting alcohol to be served to minors at a party he hosted at the Erie Canal Village, in Rome, NY. His case was discharged under contemplation of dismissal...

Joseph Griffo, after his arrest, made inappropriate remarks about the officer who arrested him, Griffo falsely accused the officer of being 'disgruntled', despite the Rome Police having legitimate grounds for an arrest. .

Later the Rome Democratic Party hired attorney Robert Abrams to probe into Rome Judge James Kehoe's disposition of charges against Joseph Griffo. .

Impaired Driving Accident

Senator and former Rome city mayor Joseph Griffo was involved in a two-vehicle collision on East Oak Street, Rome NY. Law enforcers said the accident was Griffo’s fault, but he was not ticketed.

Police said the state senator caused the crash at the stop sign intersection at North James Street. The young female victim in the other car complained of shoulder pain, was later taken to Rome Memorial Hospital by a family member, police stated. The report said that Griffo "has a physical disability causing loss of vision in his right eye, which may have been a contributing factor" in the accident. Griffo "was determined to be at fault in regards to this collision," the report said, but he was not ticketed.

Inappropriate Twitter Remarks

On January 3, 2017, Senator Griffo made sexist and inappropriate twitter remarks to Melissa DeRosa, Chief of Staff to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Political Positions

Joe Griffo is a self-described fiscal conservative

Personal life

Griffo married his wife Lorraine Messenger in 2006 and they reside in Rome, NY.

Electoral history