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So much for working together.
The staggering level of hypocrisy in Mayor Irene Elia's constant blather about "holding hands" and "being positive" shone through again last week, when Sean Q. Kelly angrily resigned as chairman of the City Charter Review Commission created by none other than Herroner.
Kelly, a political science professor at Niagara University, said his resignation came not because of the administration's opposition to the proposed charter's key changes, nor their sudden discovery of alleged legal complications, but the vitriolic attacks Elia and other self-protective city officials leveled at him as the process went sour.
"The one that was the most surprising and concerned me the most was the one that referred to me as a 'fucking drug addict,'" Kelly told the Niagara Falls Reporter. "That's a direct quote."
Despite enduring such slander (from a city department head, no less) and donating hundreds of hours to the undertaking, the efforts of Kelly and the rest of the commission are going for naught. On Friday, word leaked out that the city's crack legal team decided there's not enough time to get the charter proposal on the ballot in November, anyway.
Kelly's resignation came as no surprise to those close to the committee, who described it as doomed months ago. Apparently, Elia and her minions at City Hall thought the group would assess the city's governmental structure and say, "Boy, this is working fine. Great job, Irene!" Then they'd go home, perhaps after suggesting a statue of our fearless leader be built along John B. Daly Boulevard.
Unfortunately for the mayor, Kelly and his committee actually thought they were supposed to look for ways to turn City Hall from a statewide joke into a reasonably functioning enterprise.
Poor, damn fools.
It's clear to see where Kelly ran afoul of Herroner's bizarre sensibilities.
Among the Commission's primary suggestions:
We'll take these one at a time.
This mayor certainly doesn't need the money. But more potential challengers, even a few not enjoying healthy pensions and/or overflowing bank accounts, might be willing to run against her in November, 2003, if voters approved properly financing the position this fall. We might even get a candidate who doesn't fondly remember the city's alleged boom times and delude themselves into thinking all those industrial jobs will magically reappear someday. Keep the salary right where it is, though, and Elia's virtually guaranteed of more typically feeble opposition if she runs for re-election.
More City Council members means more potential critics for Herroner's dictates. Her tenuous working majority has strayed at times, but other than Vince Anello, has been remarkably quiet even as the administration pursues policies (like the health-insurance war with city employees) that amount to very expensive legal suicide. And if those additional legislators actually represented a particular district, it would be more difficult to simply ignore neighborhoods that Elia and her ilk would rather pretend don't exist.
And wouldn't it be awful if, say, the head of the public works department actually had practical experience beyond quadrennial speech-writing for his candidate of choice? Only Elia's largesse when it comes to such patronage plums provides her with any semblance of support.
But the people just voted to cut the council, cry Elia marionettes such as City Administrator Al Joseph and Corporation Counsel Ron Anton. And such changes would never pass a referendum, they add. Thanks to the characteristically self-serving interpretation from Anton's team of legal eagles, the debate is now moot.
So what was the point of creating the commission in the first place? To make it look like Elia's administration had actually done something. Anything. State officials reluctantly grant her a place at the podium at events like last week's casino compact signing, then cringe while hoping she doesn't say anything stupid (she came close with her pronouncement that, with Gov. George Pataki's help, the city had returned to financial stability -- never mind the looming choice between massive layoffs or another hefty tax increase, come budget time).
The administration can bask in the arrival of gambling all it wants. That doesn't mean that Elia, Joseph, Anton, or anyone else enjoying a city paycheck and benefits had anything to do with it. Emboldened by this fictional triumph, City Hall pronounced itself ready to start negotiating with the Seneca Nation, oblivious to the fact that those discussions are over.
Kelly's letter of resignation spelled out the most disturbing, and revealing, aspect of the charter fiasco.
"What is disturbing about these events is that you directly, publicly, and personally impugned my integrity," Kelly wrote. "The last time that I checked, such behavior was not a part of your 'Niagara Falls Leadership Model' which you spent so much time explaining to us in painful detail in our first meeting; respect and open communication, as I recall, were a part of that model."
According to Kelly's letter, Elia not only badmouthed him and the commission, but encouraged the lackeys (also known as department heads and other administration officials) who personally profit, as the people they're supposed to serve suffer to do likewise.
Togetherness, in the World According to Irene, means doing exactly as she wishes. Any criticism, however reasoned or legitimate, amounts to nothing more than "negativity."
You can't blame Kelly for expecting some level of cooperation, or even remotely professional behavior, from the city's best-compensated welfare recipients when he accepted the unpaid position. After all, political science looks at how things are supposed to work, and strives for ways to make government better. He must have thought Elia wanted the same.
Kelly learned a painful lesson -- Herroner and her inner circle like things just the way they are, frustrating and disgusting as they may be to the rest of us. And they express themselves like the spoiled brats they are.
Kelly said he expected opposition from a few politicians protecting their fiefdoms. But nothing like what happened once the commission's recommendations were announced in May.
Apparently, he hadn't heard the stories about Herroner holding her nose when introduced to someone she perceived as a political enemy, or ordering city employees paid with taxpayer dollars to throw away copies of a certain weekly newspaper that tends to be a tad critical of the administration.
"I had some warnings from people who had been around longer than I had," Kelly told the Reporter. "I sort of wrote it off, because the charter is largely a non-partisan sort of a document. That made me more comfortable working with it."
Non-partisan in the Democrat vs. Republican sense, anyway. Kelly, an avowed Democrat, said he found a tremendous amount of common ground with fellow commission member and GOP loyalist George Lodick. But when it came to the ongoing war between Elia and virtually everybody else?
"Washington isn't as vicious as this," said Kelly, who should know, having worked with Democratic leadership of the U.S. Senate before entering academia.
Kelly was surprised by the number of other commission members who had supported Elia in her 1999 campaign, but become disillusioned by her conduct after taking office.
"When you're turning off your friends, you're not doing a good job and you're not going to get votes, because those are your core supporters," he said.
Amazingly, he doesn't sound bitter about the ordeal.
"It's great experience," he said. "I learned a lot and I'm going to take it into the classroom. I won't do anything again for the city, of course."
Hopefully, Kelly and his students won't be the only ones who learn what city government, Elia-style, is really all about.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | August 27 2002 |