“We are the ones that keep things on the radar.” Q&A with NYC Council Chief of Staff Samori Touré
By Carla Sinclair, Senior Communications Associate
Chiefs of staff and other legislative office leaders are crucial to the districts they serve, but often operate behind the scenes. ISLG’s Kriegel Fellowship for Public Service Leaders taps into their unique roles to offer professional development and networking opportunities so they can exceed in their current jobs and their future journeys as policy experts. We sat down with one of the Fellows to discuss the role, what Kriegel has offered, the importance of state and local collaboration, and much more.
Whether they’re drafting legislation, tackling policy issues, or out listening to their communities, the chiefs of staff and other legislative office leaders play a vital role in New York City and State. With roles as diverse in responsibilities as the array of public policy issues they delve into, these staff need to be policy experts, legislative wonks, effective managers, and much more.
To support their success as a legislative champion as well as a community advocate, CUNY ISLG established the Kriegel Fellowship for Public Service Leaders in 2020 as a professional development and peer-to-peer learning opportunity for legislative chiefs of staff. The Fellowship has expanded to help all legislative office leaders gain insight into the pressures that influence policy decision-making, enhance their policy knowledge and leadership capacities, and collaborate with peers to more positively impact the future of New York City and State.
ISLG’s Senior Communications Associate, Carla Sinclair, sat down with Kriegel Fellow Samori Touré, who works as the Chief of Staff the New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse, to talk about it all.
What is your name and role? What neighborhoods you represent?
My name is Samori Touré. I am the Chief of Staff for Council Member Sandy Nurse of the 37th District in New York City. We represent East New York; Brownsville; Bushwick, which is the larger portion of our district; Cypress Hills; and a little bit of City Line.
Tell me more about what your job entails. What does it look like day-to-day, or week-to-week?
Being the chief of staff is pretty much being a generalist, an all-hands-on-deck type of person. So, there's not necessarily the same thing day-to-day, but the foundation of my job is to keep the council member on track for her daily schedule, making sure that her priorities for the week, for the month—and the strategies around those priorities—are being met on a daily basis. That the day-to-day operations of the district office are moving smoothly, so that there's no hiccups. That in one, two, three, four months from now, everything is buttoned up and moving at the pace that it should be.
And when there are times where the council member can't be present, it's my job to make sure that the district team will represent her and her priorities. That means we're attending community meetings, that we're in communication on a daily basis with local stakeholders in the district.
I think there's beauty in structure. Without systems, things fall apart. How often have you seen a company that has bad customer service, bad operations? Those things matter in the public service sector, as well. You can see the friction. You can see things that are not going well behind the scenes. It's my job to make sure that things are buttoned up. It's my job to make sure that things are moving at an adequate pace, so that outwardly to the public and to our constituents, we have our things together, and they can trust us. Being prepared is a level of reinforcing trust with the constituents, and I believe that it's our duty as chiefs of staff to make sure that we're fully prepared for things at a moment's notice, making sure that our team is adequately briefed on the situation going on in the community and that things are moving. This means that when the time comes for us to address issues, we're being strategic and we're being prompt.
“Being prepared is a level of reinforcing trust with the constituents, and I believe that it's our duty as chiefs of staff to make sure that we're fully prepared for things at a moment's notice, making sure that our team is adequately briefed on the situation going on in the community and that things are moving.”
How did you come to be in public service?
I give a lot of gratitude to my family. We come from a long line of people who have always been pioneers, who have always been at the forefront of public service. I think that my upbringing in a family of college-educated Black people, being from a family of people who always saw more for themselves, provided a foundation for me. My grandmother was one of those who spearheaded the Ocean Hill-Brownsville teacher strikes in the 1960s, and that trickled down to my mom, who's been an educator for over 30 years now; my father, who went to law school, was one of the first in his family to go to college. There's a precedent of Black excellence in my vicinity.
I went to CUNY Law and graduated in 2020, then I worked in the nonprofit sector as a business development manager for a nonprofit called Brooklyn Communities Collaborative. My job there was to connect local Black and brown businesses to contracts with Maimonides Medical Center. Essentially, to inject some MWBEs [Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprises] into the supply chain. And through that, I met some folks and was able to network and get into the political space.
One of my mentors is the former Assembly Member Roger Green, who has been instrumental in shaping my mind, shaping who I am as a person, showing me how the process of politics works, showing me how you can bring something from the idea phase to implementation and policy. That sparked my interest, and then one thing led to another. One of my law school classmates was the Deputy Public Advocate, he told me that Council Member Nurse was hiring for a chief of staff. That's how I ended up here.
Why did you decide to be a Kriegel Fellow?
Before this, I'd never been in the political space. This was a new area professionally for me, and Kriegel was an opportunity to grow that skillset. I wanted to build my network out as well, in addition to learning from folks who have years and upon years, maybe even decades, of experience. You can't find that wealth of knowledge just by snapping your fingers. Having a space where that learning process was curated for me, I found that to be very, very helpful.
How has your experience in this Cohort been so far?
Oh, I love it. I appreciate any opportunity for me to grow my skillset professionally. In addition to that, there’s the networking aspect of it all. I've met so many folks who are chiefs for other offices, deputy chiefs, budget directors. And the classes themselves are very, very informative—my favorite class was the crisis communication class. I'm pulling things away that I can apply to a daily basis to my job in district.
What does it mean to have this community of legislative staff members from other offices, both as Cohort colleagues and Fellowship alumni?
What I've learned over the last 32 years of my life is that networking is your biggest asset as a professional. A cliche as it is, the saying “your network is your net worth” is real. The Fellowship is an opportunity to organically meet folks who I probably would have never met, who are on different sides of the aisle, have different political views and standpoints. Being able to have the opportunity to connect with these folks every Thursday has been a wonderful thing, because you start to disconnect the job from the person. Once you start understanding who the person is, then you start understanding how they carry their team. I can learn from people. People can learn from me. It's beautiful to connect with so many different people from so many different fields, spaces, and roles in local and state politics.
“The Fellowship is an opportunity to organically meet folks who I probably would have never met, who are on different sides of the aisle, have different political views and standpoints.”
As a CUNY grad yourself, is the CUNY intersection important to you?
The beautiful thing about CUNY is that, and from its inception—I remember my grandmother used to tell me this—CUNY was for the people. What I've recognized from my place in politics is that you'll find that the solutions to issues are found within the everyday person, and CUNY curates classes and curriculums that gear up people from every sort of background. There's never only one type of person that goes to a CUNY school. When I was at CUNY Law, I met my best friends from different fields and backgrounds: one of my friends is from Philadelphia, another is from a rural part of Pennsylvania, one is from Ohio, another from Florida. There's so many different opinions, there's so many different thoughts and ideas about what goes on in our lives as Americans and in our lives as you know New Yorkers. Honestly, I love CUNY, and if I didn't go to an HBCU [Historically Black College and University] for undergrad, I would definitely push my kids to go to CUNY, but I want them to go to Hampton University.
“What I've recognized from my place in politics is that you'll find that the solutions to issues are found within the everyday person, and CUNY curates classes and curriculums that gear up people from every sort of background.”
But I am definitely a big fan of CUNY schools. My dad went to City College. My mother went to John Jay. My grandmother went to Hunter. CUNY is definitely one of the reasons why Black and brown folks have been able to get an education in New York City for decades. Especially when diversity, equity and inclusion policies are being attacked, CUNY has steadfast to that practice for years, despite what the general consensus and the temperature was, politically and culturally.
What do you hope to take away from the Fellowship overall, and apply to wherever your path takes you?
I want to implement the skills I've been learning into my daily practice. Applying the things that I've been learning, connecting with the folks that I've been meeting, that’s allowed me to put myself in a better position to continue to propel myself as a chief of staff.
Do you think it’s important to have learning and networking opportunities for public service leaders? Why?
For sure. I'm always on the lookout for different opportunities to expand my career and expand my professional development. There are folks who haven't been made privy to a lot of the opportunities that are available for them, so being someone who appreciates the education that I've been able to pursue, who appreciates learning, I ultimately want to be able to forge a path for others. I definitely think that people should take on more of these opportunities, and that there should be more options for advancement available to all types of people. Whether you were the valedictorian or a 2.0 GPA student, everyone deserves the opportunity to be able to access some of these programs.
What is something you wish people knew about the folks who work behind the scenes in legislative offices like you?
Now, we're people, too. I know that a lot of times, people come to us with their issues, and some think that we're not working hard for them, or we're not advocating for them. But as people behind the scenes, we are the ones that keep these things on the radar of the government agencies that can help. We’re the ones that care about your situation, who are communicating on a daily basis with the Council Member, with the Assembly Member, with whomever to make sure that your voice is always heard, and make sure that your voice is always priority.
“We are the ones that keep these things on the radar of the government agencies that can help. We’re the ones that care about your situation, who are communicating on a daily basis with the Council Member, with the Assembly Member, with whomever to make sure that your voice is always heard, and make sure that your voice is always priority.”
Our office has developed a really keen sense of empathy for the people in our district. We don't turn anyone away. We work extremely hard to make sure that we're resolving the issues that are coming into our office on a daily basis. Just you know, we have weekly check-ins on constituent cases. We're making sure that things are moving so that the Council Member can show up as her best self on a daily basis.
The folks behind the scenes are the majority of the people working in city politics. There's only 51 council members in New York City, but each council member has a team of 7 to 10 people. So now we're talking about hundreds of people that are advocating for constituents. It's an army of people who care.
Image provided by Anna Myers, designed by Carla Sinclair.