Susan V. John has represented the 131st Assembly District, incorporating parts of the City of Rochester and the towns and villages of Chili, Churchville, Mumford, Riga, Rush, Scottsville, and Wheatland since 1991.
Susan holds a law degree from Syracuse University Law School. Prior to her tenure in the Assembly, Susan worked as an Associate for the Rochester-based law firm of Phillips, Lytle, Hitchcock, Blaine, and Huber where she practiced business and commercial law.
Susan currently chairs the Labor Committee and serves on the Judiciary, Education, Energy, and Libraries and Education Technology. She is a member of the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence Advisory Council and the Visiting Committee for the State Archives.
Susan chaired the Majority Steering Committee (2001-2002), the Governmental Operations Committee (1999-2000) and the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee (1997-1999). In 1998 she served on the first Legislative Joint Budget Conference Committee on Mental Health. In 1999 and 2000 she served on the Joint Budget Conference Committee on Education.
As Chair of the Assembly Committee on Labor, Susan authored The Empire State Wage Act of 2004, (Chapter 747 of 2004). This bill was passed in a bipartisan fashion and raises the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15 an hour. The minimum wage bill is part of Assemblymember John’s continuing efforts to help make New York more affordable for working families and reinforces her dedication to hardworking men and women. Additionally, to protect hardworking families Susan worked with her colleagues to pass the Home Inspectors Licensing Act, (Chapter 461 of 2004). This law protects a family’s largest purchase, their home, by requiring that home inspectors are qualified to make an inspection when homebuyers turn to them to ensure the safety of the house.
Susan has successfully advocated for funding for domestic violence shelters, breast cancer outreach and education, rape crisis centers, family support services, early direction childhood programs and teen pregnancy prevention. She currently sponsors legislation that would provide domestic violence victims with up to 90 days of unpaid leave of absence from work to address ongoing domestic violence. Also, she sponsored legislation that would require that all hospitals make emergency contraception available for rape survivors to prevent pregnancy and provide counseling to address the survivor’s long-term mental and physical recovery. With the help of women’s health care advocates, the emergency contraception bill is now law (Chapter 625 of the Laws of 2003).
As a strong supporter of quality and affordable health care, Susan has worked with her colleagues to improve access to health care for residents in Monroe County and across the state. When Genesee Hospital closed, Susan took a leading role in working with the state Department of Health to ensure that quality care would still be available to former Genesee Hospital patients.
Susan is a staunch advocate of the long awaited Women’s Health and Wellness Law which will improve access to vital health services for New York State women. This legislation, which was signed into law in 2002, includes many initiatives that Susan advocated for during the past several years that will bring affordable health coverage and expanded access to preventive screenings for countless women. Further, her emphasis on programs for pregnant and parenting women resulted in more support for community-based outreach services. She was, and remains, an advocate for treatment on demand.
To assure hospitals and nursing homes in Monroe County can recruit and retain qualified and dedicated health care professionals to tend to our loved ones, Susan fought in 2003 for upstate to get its fair share of state funding for staff investment. She secured $3 million to renovate the Rochester General Hospital Emergency Room and in 2005 she obtained $1.5 million for Highland Hospital’s emergency room renovations – helping to avoid “code red” situations that forced ambulances to take patients elsewhere due to overcrowding. In 2003, she also secured $75,000 for the Chili Fire Department’s Apparatus Exhaust Project to ensure a healthy work environment for firefighters. This year, Susan secured $50,000 for the Clifton Fire Department to purchase life saving rescue equipment to better protect the citizens of Chili.
In an effort to fight crime and take sex offenders off the street, Susan helped create the statewide Amber Alert, linking police with broadcasters to quickly spread the word about missing or abducted children. In 2006, she supported legislation that requires convicted sex offenders of all levels to register with the state and that the most dangerous sex offenders will remain registered for life (signed chap.1 2006). She sponsored legislation that will expand NY’s DNA database to include all persons convicted of felonies and serious misdemeanors (signed chap.2 2006). Convictions to be added to the database include petit larceny and those that involve violence, threats of violence, menacing of stalking behavior, or offenses against children. She also sponsored legislation to eliminate both the criminal and civil statue of limitations on Class B felony sex crimes. The bill would provide rape victims with an important opportunity to seek justice in rape cases. (A.11283 passed in the Assembly 2006).
Susan has been a longstanding advocate of protecting our most vulnerable citizens – the elderly and disabled. In 2006, she fought to ensure seniors and the disabled receive needed prescription drug coverage, in spite of the president’s Medicare Part D fiasco, which prompted the state to cover millions in emergency funding for medicine Medicare Part D was supposed to cover. This year, Susan sponsored legislation establishing the Prescription Drug Assistance Program to secure the lowest possible drug prices for New Yorkers. The comprehensive legislation creates a buying pool managed by the state to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. She also voted to restore over $26 million in funding the governor vetoed for Rochester hospitals and nursing homes during the next year.
At this time when our returning service men and women need the support of our community, Susan was able to secure $50,000 for the Veteran’s Outreach Center in 2004. Rochester’s Veterans Outreach Center is the oldest community based veteran’s center in the nation. The Veteran’s Outreach Center improves servicemen and women’s lives by offering free veteran specific services through a seamless continuum of care designed to nurture individual potential and provide support in building a better future.
Her accomplishments while chair of the Legislative Commission on Solid Waste Management (1995-1997) included increased penalties for those who dump waste illegally. The Assembly passed her legislation to ban backyard burning, improve local control over land use decisions and establish a comprehensive waste tire management program. Susan demonstrated her ability to reach across the aisle to get things done, as she was the only Democrat who worked with Republicans to address this issue. She stood with the solid waste districts threatened with financial chaos and went to Congress to get them help.
Susan authored New York State’s Anti-Stalking Law, the Clinic Access/Anti-Stalking Law, and amendments to the Clinic Access/Anti-Stalking Law, which amends the definition of stalking in the first degree. She fought for over seven years to enact “Project SAVE,” which is dedicated to making schools, their students and staff free from violence. She sponsored the Sexual Assault Reform Act, a law that increased penalties for sex offenders, provided services for victims, and instituted necessary preventative initiatives. She fought to pass a law that created an additional city court judgeship in Rochester. Susan also sponsored legislation to govern state procurement of goods and services, protect a women’s civil right to breast feed her child in public, require health insurance companies to cover pap smears, reform the BOCES system, require disclosure of the potential hazards of breast implants, increase the criminal penalty for violating a court order of protection, and increase penalties for assault. All of these bills are now state law.
Susan is a longstanding advocate for quality and affordable day care. She has fought for adequate funding and safety, and has held the state Office of Children and Family Services responsible for following proper regulatory procedures. One instance of this was when, in 1997, the governor proposed changing the day care regulations without public input. Susan co-hosted public hearings across the state to obtain input from those who would be most affected by any changes. More recently, when Monroe County exhausted its childcare funds, Susan fought for state funding to allow Monroe County to restore planned cuts to childcare subsidies for families at or below the 200% poverty level. During the 2002-2003 State Fiscal Year, Susan fought for a final budget that made it easier for counties to get all the child care funding to which they are entitled. In 2004, Susan was able to secure $2.5 million for a child-care facilited enrollment program. The program will allow hard working men and women in Monroe County to provide quality child-care for their families.
Working with Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, community business and labor leaders, as well as New York State Legislators, Susan fought to increase aid in 2006 to Rochester by $17.9 million. This was a historic aid increase, jumping 33 percent over last year’s funding in the legislative budget. She also helped secure $61 million more for Rochester schools in the legislative budget. Funding includes: $26.5 million for capital improvements for aging school buildings, $25 million for school operations, $6.29 million to meet the district’s school nurse crisis, $4 million for Magnet Schools and $732,000 to expand the city’s pre-kindergarten programs.
Susan has fought to create jobs in the Rochester area. She helped create and expand Rochester’s tax-free Empire Zones, creates up to 4,200 new jobs while retaining another 3,200. She also helped establish and extend the Power for Jobs program to reduce energy costs for job-creating businesses, protecting 900 local jobs. And, as Chair of the Labor Committee, Susan will continue to work for the economic health of Monroe County.
As a New York State legislator, Susan has worked tirelessly with her Rochester colleagues to improve the economic and regulatory climate for businesses, both large and small. Whether responding to a call for help from a business owner unable to obtain an ABC license, lottery machine, food stamp certification or other necessary state approvals, or advocating legislation, Susan has been dedicated to addressing business concerns about New York State laws and regulations.
Susan has gone to bat for local companies such as Eastman Kodak Company, Hickey-Freeman, Bausch & Lomb, Wegmans’ Food, and the Genesee Brewing Company (now High Falls Brewing). Susan fought to secure funding vital to the continuation of the High Technology of Rochester Incubator Project, a center to help high-tech firms with technical and other support. In 2000 Susan helped secure $4 million in funding for the University of Rochester’s Biomedical Research Center. In 2002, Susan helped secure $4 million for the RIT Center for Biotechnology Education and Training, a proposed facility that would provide academic and career training in biotechnology. She is currently pushing to secure funding for the University of Rochester Biomedical Research Center.
Susan serves as an honorary Board member of the Girl Scouts of the Genesee Valley, the Advisory Board of the Pirate Toy Fund, is a member of the Greater Rochester Association of Women Attorneys and an honorary member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an honorary member of the Federation of Social Workers, honorary member of Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, as well as a member of the Center for Women Policy Studies Foreign Policy Institute for State Legislators. She is the first Assembly member to receive the New York State State Troopers PBA William Van Duzer Legislative Courage Award. Susan is a nationally recognized legislator; serving on the Women’s Network of the National Conference of State Legislators, The Governor’s Advisory Council on Domestic Violence, and has received many awards and recognition for her leadership on a broad spectrum of issues from law enforcement to social justice.
Standing Committee Assignments 2008: Education; Energy; Judiciary; Labor, Chair; Libraries and Education Technology.
