Assemblyman John Joseph McEneny 104th Assembly District
John Joseph McEneny was born in Albany on August 30, 1943, to John Horan McEneny and Margaret Glennon Gaffie McEneny. He was raised in the Pine Hills neighborhood and educated at Vincentian C.C.D. and Christian Brothers Academy. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in history from Siena College and certificates in Community Development and Public Administration from the New Mexico State University School of Agriculture and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also served in the Peace Corps in a rural community development program in Colombia, South America.
A former Albany County historian Jack McEneny is a well known teacher and speaker on local history, ethnicity and related fields. He wrote and narrated WMHT Public Television's Tricentennial Documentary on Albany and authored Albany, Capital City on the Hudson. He entered public service in 1965 as a social services caseworker. He was a counselor and director of the Albany County Neighborhood Youth Corps and was subsequently appointed by Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd to serve as Albany's first Director of Manpower Planning Director of Public Employment Programs (EEA/CETA) and Commissioner of Human Resources 197184. His employment and training programs were cited as state and national models for their creativity, innovation and sensitivity to the needs of the unemployed, under employed and impoverished. Many programs for veterans, the blind, addicted the aged and the developmentally disabled owe their existence to his work. He helped establish public housing tenant patrols, the county archives, a dispute medication center, rape crisis center and programs in nutrition, education, tourism promotion, day care, the arts and the environment. He led the effort that saved the Quackenbush House, Albany's oldest building.
He was appointed by the U.S. Department of Commerce to oversee the 1980 Census for the fourcounty Capital District. He designed redistricting plans for Albany, Cohoes and Troy, Albany and Rensselaer counties and the New York State Assembly. He is a long time critic of gerrymandering and a strong advocate of neighborhoodbased representation. In 1984, he entered state service as a local services coordinator for the Governor's Job Training Partnership Council. In 1985, he became the first fulltime director of the State Urban Cultural Parks Program administered by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
From April 1989 to December 1991, he was Assistant County Executive and County Historian for Albany County. In 1991, he entered the Democratic primary in the 14th District for the Albany County Legislature opposing an 18 year incumbent who was majority leader of that body. Despite nearly universal opposition from party leaders, McEneny won the Democratic primary by two votes, only to see his victory reduced to a tie the next day. Controversy over a switched absentee vote boiled for weeks. After being thwarted in his effort to get his name on the ballot, he announced a writein campaign and was elected to a oneyear term by 61 votes. He served as a member of the Democratic Caucus and supported extensive reforms of the Albany County Committee initiated by Chairman Harold Joyce. McEneny was hired by the Assembly in January 1992 as Chief of Staff for is longtime friend and mentor, Richard J. Conners, DAlbany. Following Conners' decision not to run in the new 104th District, he entered a fourway primary as the Democratic Party designee, winning the primary by a large plurality and the general election by a large majority.
In 1968, he married Barbara Rachel Leonard of Albany. They are the parents of four children, John, Rachel, Daniel and Maeve McEneny and reside in Albany.
