First off, congratulations to Cynthia Bianco on being named superintendent of the Niagara Falls School District. There was some grumbling about the fact that she is the sister of former superintendent Carmen Granto, but this is Niagara Falls, and there's always some grumbling about something.
The school board looked at the resumes of six other applicants from outside the district before deciding that Bianco, who was serving as acting superintendent and had worked her way up through the district after starting her career as a humble teacher, was the best person for the job.
There has been a lot of talk over the past two years of conducting "nationwide searches" for candidates for public jobs here, but you don't have to look any farther than City Hall to see what an empty-headed concept that can be.
City Administrator Donna Owens, imported from Georgia, has been an utter disaster. Her imperious style alienating city staff and citizens alike, her ridiculously high salary far outstripping any work product she's produced, the fact that she only works four days a week to begin with and apparently still needs constant vacation and personal time to keep her sanity have all made her importation as nonsensical as that of the Yugo automobile, famously billed as representing "the cutting edge of Serbo-Croatian technology."
Likewise for City Engineer Ali Marzban, who is still unlicensed to practice civil engineering in the state of New York and has not even bothered to get a New York state driver's license, or Corporation Counsel Craig Johnson, brought in from Tonawanda, apparently on the basis of his close ties to Erie County's Democratic machine.
The grass is not always greener on the other side, but the empty platitudes of the nationwide search sound smart enough to fool some people. Bianco has already proven herself as a fine school superintendent, and you can't argue with success.
County Legislator Renae Kimble jumped the gun a little bit last week in her opposition to the downsizing of the Legislature, which has been bloated for a long time with 19 members. She's already threatening a lawsuit, despite the fact that the census is certain to increase the percentage of minority voters in the city of Niagara Falls and thus solidify her position as the only minority member of the Legislature, rather than weaken it.
Raw data already compiled by the U.S. Census shows the city population will be somewhere between 40,000 and 45,000, down from the 55,593 reported in the 2000 census. And most of those who have left are whites, sick of the high crime, terrible roads, toxic waste dumps, corrupt government and poor economic outlook that have come to characterize our fair city.
Obviously, many of those who haven't left over the past decade are the poor and disenfranchised who constitute Kimble's biggest voting block. In a city where nearly 50 percent of the people subsist on some form of government subsidy, it is only those who are not who can afford to relocate.
"I would not hesitate to do the same thing again, including bringing in the NAACP if any downsizing move resulted in minority representation being cut," Kimble said. "My suit would be based on the principle of one man, one vote, and would be based on the precedent set by Judge Skretney's previous ruling."
She shouldn't worry. The white flight that has taken place over the past decade should only add to her case, and indeed will likely result in the need for increased minority representation.
Let's face it, we live in a city where the mayor himself owns a home-brewing business down in Erie County, and has gone on record as saying it wouldn't "make economic sense" to try to open a business in the city he allegedly represents. And as noted above, his entire management staff consists of people with one thing in common -- they aren't from around here.
Finally, our old friends Frank Thomas Croisdale and Colleen Kulikowski pulled off quite a coup with their Niagara Falls Homecoming celebration last week, and deserve both congratulations and thanks.
The kickoff event, a cocktail reception held at the Crowne Plaza, drew a crowd of 150 people, including just about everyone who's anyone in the Falls. Mayor Paul Dyster -- who really ought to go on the show "What Not To Wear" -- served as the keynote speaker, delivering a rambling stem-winder that ended only when he presented former block association head Roger Spurback with some sort of major award.
The loquacious Spurback then took the podium, but unfortunately my publisher and I had pressing business across town and weren't able to hear the acceptance speech in its entirety.
Colleen and Frank are two of the good guys here, working most of the time behind the scenes to improve the region and make life better for the rest of us here. Neither of them seems much interested in self-aggrandizement or political advancement, though the commitment they've shown over the past year in organizing the Homecoming Event and leading the Niagara Rises movement typifies their dedication to community service.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | June 30 2009 |