By staff writers Tim Knauss and Teri Weaver

Vita DeMarchi co-owns a business, helps run a nonprofit organization and leads the Onondaga County Democratic Party.



All three operations are under one roof.



DeMarchi is one of the founders and major owners of Synapse Partners LLC, which runs several green businesses and environmental nonprofits, including the CuseCar car-sharing startup. She is also one of the landlords for a new office for the county Democrats.



That combination of interests puts DeMarchi and business partner Eckardt "Chris" Beck at the center of a mix of free enterprise and philanthropy, commerce and politics.



DeMarchi, 49, and Beck, 68, are ambitious promoters of green development. They aim to plant trees on Syracuse brownfields and to populate the city with charging stations for electric cars, among other things.



Fed by government grants, their company and its nonprofit arm also have strong connections to the Democratic Party:



• DeMarchi chairs the county Democratic Committee. After she took the post, the party moved its headquarters to Synapse's new office building, where it pays $2,000 a month rent.

• Beck, who retired in 1994 as CEO of a publicly traded company, is a generous contributor to political campaigns. He gave more than $23,000 to candidates and committees during the past two years, including a $10,000 donation to the county Democratic Committee in December.

• Al Stirpe, a former Democratic assemblyman from North Syracuse, is the executive director of Synapse's nonprofit organization, Synapse Sustainability Trust. DeMarchi and Beck hired Stirpe in January following his unsuccessful bid for re-election last fall.



As Democratic chairwoman, DeMarchi has the clout to recruit and support political candidates. As a director of Synapse Sustainability Trust, she applies to government agencies for financial support.



DeMarchi said her political work is separate from her business and nonprofit activities. She takes offense at any suggestion that politics might give Synapse projects an advantage.



"It's pretty narrow-minded, actually, to make that connection," she said. "Those are not my kind of thoughts."



The owners of Synapse Partners said they were stunned when those kind of thoughts bubbled up last February during a Common Council discussion of Synapse's request for a tax break.



Synapse asked the council for a 14-year tax deal on its new building, the former Water Street Gym at Erie Boulevard and State Street. The company is undertaking a $1.1 million renovation that will add 125 solar panels, a rainwater collection system and other green improvements.



Based on Synapse's commitment to earn the highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, the project was entitled to the same tax break given other projects under the city's "green" payment in lieu of taxes program.



But members of the Democrat-controlled council balked at the tax deal, which would save Synapse an estimated $86,000 over 14 years, fearing it would be perceived as a favor for the Democratic Party.



Councilors later approved the tax break, but only after Beck invited Republican leaders to the site and persuaded them about the public benefits. The project will spruce up a heavily traveled downtown corridor.



"After we had spent about an hour with them, it clearly made sense to me that the project was a viable project," said Tom Dadey, chairman of the county Republican committee.



DeMarchi said the council's initial delay of the PILOT vote was "the worst day of my life."

Profit and nonprofit

When DeMarchi and Beck founded Synapse Partners in 2004, they envisioned creating a brand synonymous with positive connections and change — as in, "that's a synapse," or "you're synapsing things," they said.



They readily take on complex projects, even when success depends on winning cooperation and participation from others. Other environmentalists have applauded their efforts.



DeMarchi, of Pompey, has spent many years as an environmental risk manager. Beck, who has residences in Florida and Syracuse, ran national water and waste management programs during the late 1970s as assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He left for the private sector in 1980 and later launched a giant environmental services company, Air & Water Technologies Corp.



DeMarchi and Beck own about 80 percent of Synapse Partners, they disclosed in an application to the city. Three other partners own the rest.



The company, with a staff of 24, operates two profit-making divisions: Synapse Services, which provides specialized environmental insurance, and Synapse Risk Management, which helps property owners manage environmental liabilities.



But it's Synapse's nonprofit endeavors that have put it in the public eye. From his new corner office in the Water Street Gym building, Stirpe directs a wide array of ventures:



• CuseCar, a car-sharing organization with six vehicles that members can rent by the hour. The nonprofit operation, which aims to make it easier for people not to own cars, won a $150,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in 2009.

• EV Plug Site, formed to populate Central New York with charging stations for electric vehicles. Synapse has a $969,000 grant from NYSERDA to install up to 104 charging stations.

• Restoration Tree Trust, which provides trees for urban and rural areas.



• Universal Brownfield Revitalization Corp., which has worked with municipalities to clean up brownfields, mostly in the Mohawk Valley.



• Energy 21 Symposium, an annual conference on alternative energy. Founded and run by Rhea Jezer, the symposium merged into Synapse's organization this year.



Jezer, a former Democratic candidate for Congress and a member of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's transition team, has joined the board of directors of Synapse Sustainability Trust.



Others on the board include Stirpe, DeMarchi, Beck and Utica attorney Richard Pertz, Beck's boyhood friend.

Project derailed

Synapse has demonstrated a strong ability to win government grants, snaring more than $1.5 million for four projects in the past two years. But securing a grant is often just the first step, requiring Synapse to raise more money, collaborate with partners and enlist community support. Sometimes, the pieces don't fit together neatly.



In September 2009, then-Rep. Dan Maffei announced federal funding for the Synapse plan to build charging stations for electric vehicles. Synapse's vision then included buying a derelict train station in Syracuse and turning it into a hub for cars that run on electricity, natural gas or hydrogen.



The federal grant, administered by NYSERDA, was to be paired with $250,000 from the state parks department to help restore the decaying train trestle at the station.



But Synapse Partners ultimately could not make a deal to buy the train station. The NYSERDA grant was modified in January 2011 to remove references to the train station and to increase the number of charging stations from 75 to 104.



Now Synapse is racing a Sept. 30 deadline to use the money. Installing the car chargers requires underground electric wiring, typically at a parking lot. So far, 10 parking spaces have been identified for chargers in Rome and 24 in Syracuse, including nine spaces in Synapse's lot.



As for the train trestle, which is owned by the state Transportation Department, Synapse has been unable to raise the required matching funds to pursue the restoration. The grant has been put on ice, a parks department official said.



"Should anyone want to put up the other $250,000, we would be prepared to execute the project," Beck said.

‘Social tithing’

Until Stirpe was hired in January, nobody worked directly for Synapse Sustainability Trust. DeMarchi and Beck directed the nonprofit, donating cash and labor from their for-profit businesses.

Even now, Stirpe doesn't work alone. Much of the nonprofit work is done by employees of Synapse Partners.



Sarah Stephens, for example, is listed as the director of business development and public relations at the for-profit Synapse, but she works mostly as a nonprofit grant writer and as director of CuseCar.



"I'm a donation," Stephens said.



Other employees of the for-profit work on the nonprofit ventures, too — designing websites, writing software, going to meetings and even washing CuseCar's vehicles.



"It's a social tithing," DeMarchi said.



But not all the work is donated. The for-profit Synapse Partners charges its nonprofit arm for some services rendered. It's a complex give-and-take.



To get the $150,000 grant from NYSERDA, Synapse agreed to raise another $110,000 for the project, a combination of cash and in-kind services contributed mostly by Synapse Partners.



On the other hand, nearly two-thirds of CuseCar's $150,000 grant — $97,000 — was budgeted to pay wages, fringe benefits and overhead costs for employees of the for-profit Synapse Partners, including DeMarchi and Beck. Another $30,000 paid rent to the for-profit company.



The rent payments "didn't sound out of the ordinary," said Dayle Zatlin, speaking for NYSERDA. "It looks like a reasonable amount."



Beck, DeMarchi, Stephens and another employee charged taxpayers for 3.5 hours they spent driving CuseCars in the 2009 St. Patrick's Day parade. Total cost: $1,030.



DeMarchi said attending the parade was an effort to market the car-sharing service. They gave out green CuseCar key chains to parade-goers.



Compared with a similar operation in Buffalo, CuseCar has grown slowly. From May 2009 to May 2011, CuseCar grew from 26 members to about 100, Stephens said. It owns four cars and has two others on loan from Toyota.



Buffalo CarShare, which also received $150,000 from NYSERDA, started in June 2009. It has 11 vehicles and about 360 members.



CuseCar made some early mistakes. The worst was buying Toyota Prius hybrids, DeMarchi said.



The group bought four Prius vehicles in an effort to promote alternative, fuel-efficient cars. But the gas-electric hybrids have small ignition batteries that are easily drained by the special lock-opening equipment installed for the car-sharing operation, DeMarchi said.



Synapse employees have spent many hours checking for dead batteries and jump-starting vehicles.



Buffalo CarShare invested in cheaper, smaller Toyota Yaris cars.

Owner and a member

DeMarchi, who lives in rural Pompey, was among the earliest CuseCar members. For two years, she did not own a personal car but commuted daily to downtown Syracuse using CuseCar vehicles, parking them at home overnight.



She recently acquired a personal vehicle, she said.



DeMarchi said she used CuseCar vehicles that were under-used at night, especially one of two plug-in hybrids on loan from Toyota. She provided feedback to Toyota on driving and charging the plug-in vehicles, she said. She also gained insight into the consumer experience of car sharing.



"I'd have to take every single thing I own out of (the car). I'd have to put the seats all back in neutral, turn the radio off, grab everything I own — because I'm not sure if I'm going to have that car at the end of the day," DeMarchi said.



CuseCar normally charges members $6 to $8 an hour, or $60 a day. DeMarchi declined to say what she paid.



"That's between me and CuseCar," she said.



Several local environmentalists said Synapse's nonprofits play an important role in Syracuse by trying new things.



Establishing electric charging stations will help Syracuse's image as a green, environmentally progressive community, said Matthew Millea, the deputy county executive for physical services.



The same can be said of car sharing, an increasingly common feature in forward-looking communities, said Ed Bogucz, executive director of the Syracuse Center of Excellence. Somebody had to test the concept here.



"I'm glad that somebody's trying it," he said.

Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.