Syracuse, NY - Kevin Bott has announced he will run for Syracuse mayor on the Green Party line.

The party voted Sunday night to designate him as a candidate and is expected to file his name today with the Onondaga County Board of Elections.

Bott has a doctorate in educational theater from New York University. He was the educational director of the downstate prison arts non-profit called Rehabilitation Through the Arts.

He moved to Syracuse in 2010 with his family to work for the group Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, a consortium of 100 colleges and universities. In Syracuse, he created the D.R.E.A.M. Freedom Revival, a political theater group.

He has never run for public office.

"I am in this race to give the people of Syracuse a real and viable alternative to the status quo," he said. "Despite having lived in Syracuse for only three years, the people who know me know that from the moment I arrived here, I have felt called to celebrate and to serve this city."

In a news release, Bott named four areas of concern in the race: jobs and poverty, education, ex-offender re-entry and leadership.

There are two other Green Party candidates in Syracuse. Barbara Humphrey, for school board; and Howie Hawkins for 4th district councilor. Albert Sales has decided not to run for city council.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, a Democrat, is running for election to a second term. She is challenged in a Democratic primary by Pat Hogan and Alfonso Davis.

Republicans have not yet named a designated candidate. Ian Hunter, a conservative Republican who does not have the party's backing, filed petitions to run.

The party leadership has until Friday to put another candidate on the ballot.

Contact Michelle Breidenbach at (315) 470-3186, mbreidenbach@syracuse.com or on Twitter @mbreidenbach.