Cuomo in Syracuse

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo held a community forum at the State Fairgrounds this morning.

It's part of a larger "tour" that Cuomo is on. Yesterday he was in Rochester, and a couple weeks ago he was on Long Island.

"The attorney general's position is very simple," said Cuomo. "We are your lawyer. We are the people's lawyer. Any issues, problems you have, we do those cases. And where do we got those cases? From forums like these."

Cuomo and his staff (okay, all right, you got me - his staff did most of the work and he popped his head in) held mini discussions in four areas: environmental, consumer fraud, civil and labor rights, and health care (which was by far the most attended).

Inevitably, these community forums become and avenue for people to tell their personal problems. There's a lot of, "I have..." "My..." "Me...", which can cause the audience to drift in and out after a while.

But Tim Clune, who's in charge of the health care section of the attorney general's office, says the individual stories are a good thing.

"The 'I' statements help us find the bigger trends. We keep track of every complaint that comes into our office so we can compare it to a case in Rochester or a case in Long Island."