Assemblyman Scott Gray, thank you so much for a having us right here inside your family's flower shop.

- I'm glad to have you here today.

Thank you very much for coming.

- Tell me a little bit about this, this business.

It's been in your family for a long time, right?

- Four generations.

Wow.

So we started in 1918.

We actually started my great-grandfather, F. Burton Gray, started in Clayton, New York, and then he maintained that business while my grandfather went to Carthage and actually bought an existing flower shop there in Carthage, which was Klein's at the time.

And then my great, my great-grandfather came to Carthage to live with him.

And so then my father started this store, the Watertown store.

And then from there I grew it from the Watertown store back to the Clayton.

We went back to Clayton and then we went to Fort Drum.

So at the peak we were four stores.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- What does that legacy mean to you and how has it shaped your values?

- Oh, it means a lot.

I mean, and that's really how I got started in public service was, you know, the fact that I wanted to, the community was so, has treated us so well, our business very well.

I'm grateful for the community and for everything that they've done to make our business successful.

You know, we really worked hard to make sure that we put out a, you know, a good product that was reasonably priced and affordable for everybody.

And, you know, that was really my desire to get into public service was really to give back to the community.

So - Is there anyone in particular, past or present who really kind of influenced you to get involved or motivated you to get involved in public service?

- You know, I would say if I'm gonna credit anybody for my service, it would be Senator Wright, Senator Jim Wright.

So I was very close to him at the time and he kind of encouraged me to get involved at that time at actually had considered running for city council, Watertown City Council.

And then I was actually asked if I would consider running for the Jefferson County Board of Legislators.

So, and you know, he really kind of mentored me to this day.

He still mentors me.

So Jim is, I respect Jim a lot and he's, you know, he's taught me really how to take decisions and take, you know, ideas and, and really to try to execute 'em.

So, so he is been a great influence in my public service - And still is today - And still is today.

I still consult with him all the time, always talk to him.

Of course, Jim served in the New York State legislature for a long time and so he's, you know, just a little bit on him.

He's got a very rich history in terms of public service, right?

He started in CPS and Oswego County, so Department of Social Services went from Oswego County.

Then he went on to become an administrator down there before becoming administrator to Jefferson County, then the New York State Senate, and then on to the development authority of the north country.

So in terms of public service, he's got a wide, wide scope of service, if you will.

And so he's got a really, really, I mean, he's just incredibly intelligent.

So I use him today for back and forth and bouncing ideas, you know, with him talking through issues and trying to get to, you know, where should we take this, where should I go with this?

Or, you know, help me with this.

So tremendous influence then still is today.

- So those mentors can be so important.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Especially somebody with Jim's caliber.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- It will surprise no one that, you know, when I say that running a small business is not an easy task, but, but you managed to do that and, and your work on the assembly, how do you strike a a balance between the, - Between the two?

Yeah, so fortunately I have, you know, my wife is here and helping me with the business now.

So our family has always been involved.

It was family when I was growing up.

This is what we did.

We worked every holiday, you know, we would work right from Thanksgiving right through Christmas, all the holidays.

I remember getting off the delivery truck when I was younger and going to midnight mass.

And so that's exactly, I mean, that was just, and my grandmother, so it was back then, you know, you had the push button phones and the dial phones of course, and my grandmother would have an extension in her house and she would get up from the, from the dinner table to answer the phone for somebody.

My grandmother was extremely committed to to, to customer service.

And she was a wonderful person.

And she's, so, you know, her and my, I didn't work with my grandfather that much, but I worked with my grandmother and I worked with my father a lot.

So they were great.

Influences me influence on, you know, my time in, in the business.

- So when I've talked to lawmakers in the assembly, they often talk about still being so, so close to their constituents, right?

The smaller, smaller area that, that you cover and you talk about your grandmother's commitment to customer service.

A lot of being an a an assemblyman is, is customer service related, right?

What, what did you take away from, from her?

Right?

- And that's exactly what I draw to my public service, right?

To my, I I, so my private service, my private customer service that has really I think made our business successful.

We really have drawn that.

I drove it to my, to my public service, right?

And try to instill on my staff, you know, my, in the assembly office, that we have to have that same level of customer service and you know, we really drive that hard.

So it is important there.

So there's a lot of things in that, right?

Because, you know, the assembly, there's a move to take away outside income.

And so not to get into policy, but what I say is it is important that we understand the decisions that we make in Albany and how they affect, like, for instance, small business or whatever, whatever element of the pri public or private that you're in, that you understand the policy decisions in Albany and how they translate down to, you know, back into the community.

And I think that's why being in small business, you know, you understand the difficulties of trying to do business in New York, and I think it's critically important.

And the other thing is, I think you stay in touch with your constituents.

So, you know, it's, it's good that we continue to, to run the business.

You know, I continue in my public service to be out in the community because I believe our first six months, which is Albany session, we're very much in tune with trying to make things and make policy and, and decide on legislation.

The second six months.

What I like to tell people, it's my time to listen, right?

It's my time to interact with individuals.

It's my time to listen, to learn, and to understand what I have to do to advocate for them when I get back to Albany and what their concerns are and how to take those, this six months that we're in right now, take it back to Albany and make it benefit the district.

- Certainly as a small business owner, that gives you unique perspective that many lawmakers simply don't have it.

It also probably gives you a, a bit more of an edge when it comes to really identifying some of the challenges facing small businesses, particularly in upstate New York.

Yes.

What are some of the biggest challenges right now?

- Yeah, so I will tell you, so what I say often in Albany is that there's a lot of people that don't understand how to sign the front side of a paycheck, right?

Because that, I think that's critically important, not only to sign the backside if you're cashing one, but you sign the front side if you're trying to make payroll.

And I think that's critically important.

So, you know, decisions when it comes down to insurance, right?

In the cost of insurance, whether it's workers' comp or whether it's, you know, unemployment insurance, whether it's, you know, automobile or business insurance, all of those decisions translate down to the local level.

And so you see them in policy and then you see them in implementation.

And I think that's what is important with remaining in the private sector as well as the public sector.

So - Having grown up in, in Jefferson County and, and really being embedded in this community, when you go back to Albany, what do you, what do you tell your colleagues about this part of the state and, and what maybe do they get wrong about this part of the state?

- Yeah, so there is, you know, that's an interesting question because you know, a lot of times, you know, the other side of it is a lot of the upstate lawmakers go to Albany and they'll complain about New York City.

And I will say to the upstate lawmakers, listen, they don't understand upstate and our way of life up here and our rural nature, and we don't understand their urban nature.

So, and I said, our job here is to listen to them and to understand what their challenges are, and we hope that their job is to listen to us and understand what ours, I think there is a disconnect in Albany between upstate and downstate.

There's no question about that.

And the most that I try to do is to make sure that the north country is represented and we understand that, you know, other policy makers and other legislators understand the upstate challenges that we have that is very prevalent in energy, the energy sector, right?

We are the generation portioned and then New York City, obviously the consumer portion.

So there is a give and take in that policy discussion that I think really we try to educate the downstate lawmakers so they understand what the challenges are.

We invite them up here, right?

You know, I represent the power project in St. Lawrence County, so we invite them up there to, to do this.

We, and we just try to get them to understand.

But the flip side is that us as upstate lawmakers, we also have to understand their challenges, right?

MTA is a not a foreign concept to us, but it is not a way of life for upstate in New York, right?

Mass transit is not a way of life.

That is the being down in New York City.

MTA is everything to them.

We fund MTA to a great extent.

And the, and the other thing is we try to get capital money for our infrastructure up here.

So that is the give and take between upstate and downstate.

And a lot of people despise for some reason or another may despise or disdain downstate.

But the fact of the matter is there's really revenue, downstate revenue supports the entire state.

So it's a critical, it's critical.

So it's, it's important to look at the whole, the entire state and to understand the different pockets and how they are differ from each other - And how they can be symbiotic and support each other too, it sounds - Like.

Absolutely, absolutely.

It's important that we bring it together so we make sure that it's working for everyone and not just for one section or one sector of New York state.

- Yep.

This part of the state is, is obviously close to the Canadian border is as, as well.

And we have a different relationship, I think, with our Canadian neighbors than other parts of the, of the state.

Certainly do, we do as, as we've gone through this bit of a, of a, call it a hiccup, if you will, with trade negotiations.

How is that impacting what you do and, and, and, and how do you see our relationship with our Canadian neighbors?

- So first, I have a great relationship with our Canadian neighbors.

I have met with, you know, John Bellos over to Gananoque Judy Spears, mayor of Frontenac Islands.

I have addressed the EOMC, which is the Eastern Ontario Mayor's Conference, the mayor, you know, all the mayors in Eastern Ontario.

And really the message is, we, we are greater than just the current rhetoric out there, right?

We have survived a lot of things, you know, going back to what the war of 18, 18, 12.

And so we've survived that.

We have survived COVID.

So we have survived these incidences in our time, in our history, and we still have remained very close, very good neighbors.

We have a lot of commonality.

We share a border obviously, and we have a lot of common interest along that border, especially along the St. Lawrence River.

So my message is stay calm, stay friendly.

You're welcome here.

Hopefully we're welcome there.

I met with the mayor and of Cornwall up in Messina.

So I am constantly reaching out to them to make sure that essentially for the general public that our message remains on a positive note and that we will, and there is so, and there's policy issues that, that concern us.

There's no question about that.

We have seen human trafficking on the northern border.

We're seeing it coming across the water, you know, we're seeing, you know, people abandoning boats, you know, trying to get across, you know, we see people smuggling and trafficking people.

We, there's concern over whether it's, you know, fentanyl coming across.

So, so are there, there are legitimate concerns, but those are issues that are not insurmountable.

We can work through those issues, we can work together and the Canadian government, to their credit, came to the table and committed $1.3 billion to ensure greater security along the border.

That doesn't mean we can't be friendly, right?

And so we have to look and we have to be friendly and we have to keep working through all those issues, but we have to remain very positive.

- That's something been great.

Thank you so much for your time, my and for joining - Us.

My pleasure.

Yeah, my pleasure.

Thank you very much.