ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is speaking out for the first time this year.

She spoke with Spectrum News reporter Wendy Wright in a one-on-one interview.

Warren is welcoming 2021 and hoping for positive changes. At the same time, like the rest of us, she says, good riddance to 2020.

Warren: “2020 rocked me to my very core."

In a year loaded with complications for the leader here at City Hall, the death of Lovely Warren’s mother broke her heart.

Warren: “My mom was very very safe and went to the hospital and contracted COVID."

Now, the mayor is on a mission to make sure the vaccine is available to the citizens of Rochester and is working on a distribution plan.

Warren: “The big question is what people actually get it right. And is it safe and I know that people are very concerned. And if the vaccine, and I believe it is, is a remedy to what we've all been suffering in 2020, we have to do our best effort to make sure that as many people get."

Wright: “So do you plan to get the vaccine?”

Warren: “Yes. If I am medically able to, I definitely plan to get the vaccine. I want to be here for hopefully my grandchildren.”

As the mayor looks forward, she will still have to contend with the events of this past year.

Warren: “I never thought that I would end 2020 with the loss and all the things that had impacted me personally, professionally, impacted this country. It just hit me really hard.”

In addition to the mayor’s personal losses, 2020 found her slapped with lawsuits from her former chief of police, Free the People ROC, and the Police Locust Club. Much of it surrounded the events that transpired before and after the death of Daniel Prude while in Rochester Police custody.

And then, there’s the mayor’s own arrest for alleged voter fraud.

Wright: “Let me talk about trust real quick. Having a leader who’s been charged with a crime and things that have happened over the past year have put some doubt in the minds of some people. Seeing you walk into court, what can you tell the people about how you plan to restore trust in you. What do you want to tell people in the city of Rochester who have doubted you as the leader?”

Warren: “So when you look at things across the board, we live in a community and in a society where you have a justice system, where the scales of justice are supposed to balance. As an attorney, I believe in the justice system and I believe at the end of this the scales of justice will balance and I will be found innocent, because I am. And so because the fundamental foundation of the justice system is that people are innocent until proven guilty, then as we give every other citizen in this community and in this country the opportunity for that, I ask to do the same... And I’m looking forward to redemption and clearing my name.”

Trust in leadership is a problem across the country.  The mayor offers her thoughts on the events this past week at the nation’s Capital.

Warren: “I truly believe, had that been people of color, what happened on Wednesday would have happened very differently. We’re all here in this country.  We all have a right, a constitutional right to protest peacefully. We have to allow people to exercise their right to do so and as long as they’re doing that, we need to have an equitable response. And I know that Chief Herriott-Sullivan and her team are committed to making sure that that happens and that we do not treat people the way they have been treated in the past.”

Scenes like what took place this past week in Washington D.C. and events that took place Rochester last year have Mayor Warren ready to look to the future.

Warren: “I’m committed and I believe that the new administration that’s coming in to Washington are very committed to doing things differently, to making sure that we’re putting equity at the forefront of everything that we do. 2020 rocked everyone to their core right, but 2020 is only a snapshot in time. Look at our total service. Don’t judge me or this administration on a snapshot in time. If 2020 was the awakening, now we’re all awake and we see what we need to see, not only as a city but as a country. And what are we prepared to do about it. And that’s really what the Equity and Recovery Agenda is about.”

Wright: “Do you plan to run again?”

Warren: “I’m looking forward to representing this community. Ultimately, it’s up to the citizens and to the voters of Rochester. But I’m going to be committed to making sure that as we implement the Equity and Recovery Agenda, it is well into the future. I’m not running away because things get hard or because there’s a challenge or because things get tough. Great leaders never have. When you think about Martin Luther King and Malcom X and Frederick Douglass and all the great leaders, they all had to try, they all had a trial, they all had challenges. The one thing that none of them did, was walk away.”

Wright: “So that’s a yes?”

Warren: “I’m not walking away."

Stopping just shy of a firm commitment for a reelection bid, Mayor Lovely Warren is also give no indication that she plans to leave City Hall any time soon.