Division and Disunity Among Minority Councilmembers
By Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
It is indeed a sad time now, for those of us who remember the moment in 1999 when we, Buffalo’s minority or Black population, realized that voters had elected a majority of Black representatives on the Buffalo Common Council. This was the first time in Buffalo’s political history that minorities controlled 7 of the 12 elected seats on the Buffalo Common Council.
James W. Pitts was elected Common Council President, Charley H. Fisher and Beverly A. Gray represented city wide residents in the positions of Council Member-At Large. The four districts that elected Black Councilmembers were: Barbara Miller-Williams, Ellicott District; Byron W. Brown, Masten District; Karen Ellington, Fillmore District; and Betty Jean Grant, University District.
This group of minority-majority elected officials, who represented largely the Eastside, worked together as an empowered unit to secure the funding to entice Tops to build a Supermarket on Jefferson Avenue. Yes, the same Supermarket where ten of our beloved citizens were bru tally murdered by a hate-filled racist exactly two years ago. We also used our collective political strength in working together to bring one of the best, most beautiful and most utilized libraries in Erie County, to Jefferson Avenue – The Frank E. Merriweather Library, with the recently named Dr. Eva M. Doyle Auditorium, is not just a public building, it is the heart and soul of our community. The library is our African Village, not only because it was designed as such, it is also where we go to read a book, attend seminars, hold essays and poetry recitals, pick up surplus nutritional food or to just hang out for a while. We also secured funding to re-imagine and to re open the Apollo Communication Building.
We Black elected leaders, of the Political Class of 1999, went to City Hall with a mandate and a directive we knew came from voters on the Eastside. The voters and the community wanted representatives who loved their com munity more than trying to advance their or their political gurus’ personal and/or political agendas. When political candidates, before the election, started to disrespect the voters and to disregard the community’s opportunity to dialogue with them by refusing to outline their political platforms or attend candidates forums, I knew there was going to be a shift of unity among the minority members of the Buffalo Common Council. When there are four minority members of the Council and they failed to unite and vote together, one wonders what would have been the outcome of the vote for Council President if Darius Pridgen had not stepped aside?
The unity and strength of the majority-minority, Common Council voting bloc led other city officials to implement policies and measures to dilute the vast power the Eastside finally had in city government. With former Mayor Anthony Masiello’s blessing and the financial support of entries such as powerful development companies and the much talked about, Gang of 18, the remaining councilmembers conspired to retake control of the Buffalo Common Council by a political process that was introduced and supported by local community activist, Kevin Gaughan. The Common Council voted to introduce a Downsizing Referendum to the 2003 General Election where the voters, many of them misinformed Black residents, approved it by a wide margin. The Refer endum to Downsize the Buffalo Common Council got rid of the positions of Council President and the three at large Councilmembers. It must be noted that at the time of the removal, 3 of the 4 Common Council positions were occupied by Black lawmakers.
With a bloc of four minority Councilmembers, it seemed a given that Council Member David Rivera or Council Member Rasheed Wyatt would assume the role as Council President. I am sure that if the four minority Councilmembers had stood and voted together, they would have the powerful position of the President Of the Buffalo Common Council ‘under their belts’. I remain convinced that the powerful four minority Councilmembers could have solicited one of the holdout Councilmembers to their side.
Instead of the united voice we expect our Eastside political leaders to have, they are disrespecting their col leagues and even the voters by Receiving and Filing (tossing into trash baskets) letters and Resolutions that we submit to them to put before, what the late Councilmember Beverly A. Gray called, ‘The People’s House’ – the Buffalo Common Council.