"All politics is local." -- Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives, 1977-1987.
DETROIT -- Spending so much of my time focusing on international and domestic issues, it's easy to miss the great truth old Tip knew so well. The direction of our troubled world and terribly divided nation will be decided next year when people go to their local polling places and vote.
They will measure their own security, economic interests and the quality of their lives from the perspectives of their own homes and communities, and that's what will drive the way they vote.
Government and its quality do not influence every aspect of our lives, but political leadership makes a profound difference in the White House or at city hall. We have a year to wait for any hope at all in Washington, but change is in the air in Niagara Falls and that provides the people of my hometown a wonderful opportunity to take the city in a new and better direction.
Local government is where politicians actually have to see their constituents every day and, while those in Congress and state legislatures have the comfort of distance and aloofness, local politics is the equivalent of bare-knuckle brawling where you get to duke it out with your adversaries up close and personal. Politics in Niagara Falls often more resembles street brawling than anything else.
I know and like mayor-elect Vince Anello.
I encouraged him to run for City Council more than 20 years ago and he's shown great political resilience. Like all of us, he has flaws and he'd be the first to admit that. He can have a short fuse, but maybe the city can use some well-directed temper.
Above all, Vince is smart, hard-working and dedicated. Even his foes would have to acknowledge that. He has a great opportunity to take Niagara Falls on a bold new course and end decades of steady stagnation.
The margin of his victory was most impressive, but some of that mandate, I'm told, resulted from the widespread disgust and dissatisfaction with the reign of Mayor Irene Elia.
It's a shame she never quite got it. I heard she said she was the victim of some conspiracy the Niagara Falls Reporter was party to. I guess I never got the memo.
She did herself in and, in the immortal words of former public works director Joe Profit, "You don't have to kill someone committing suicide."
It's interesting that the city's had three one-term mayors in a row. Two of them were knocked out in their own party primaries. If any Republican challenged Elia, she would have experienced the same fate.
One trait the three-in-a-row one-termers had is that they were all essentially political amateurs.
Jake Palillo and Jim Galie both spent years working for the city -- the fire department and police department respectively -- but working for the city and running it are quite different.
None of them spent much time in party politics and they all got into the game relatively late in their lives. Palillo, Galie and Elia all seemed to lack the coalition-building knack, people skills and political know-how to forge the broad support needed to make things work.
Vince Anello's service on the City Council and his stint as Democratic County Chairman give him the understanding of what's needed to get people to row together in the same direction.
I had the unique experience of being elected with E. Dent Lackey for his last term as mayor and Mike O'Laughlin for his first. Together they held the mayor's job for seven terms, 28 years. Such stability in office has been unheard of recently.
Lackey and O'Laughlin's styles were very different.
E. Dent was colorful, flamboyant, combative and a rousing orator. He was an ordained Methodist minister, although you'd never know it by the blue language he often spewed. He universally characterized his foes as "those goddamn sons of bitches."
Mike was much more soft-spoken, congenial and conciliatory. He'd rarely say a harsh thing about anyone.
But both knew the need to build coalitions and they nurtured broad constituencies.
The city of Niagara Falls is often in the national and international eye, and both men represented the town with dignity and said things to boost, never to tarnish, the image of the Falls.
Vince Anello and the City Council have a great chance to give the city hope. Perhaps not since 1964, when E. Dent Lackey and the first and only all-Democratic City Council kicked off "Operation Rebound" has there been such an opportunity for a political sea change.
It would be presumptuous and gratuitous for me to offer specific advice, but a few observations and old anecdotes might be helpful.
Daniel Bristol, Vince's choice for city administrator, strikes me as a capable guy. I met him and we had a nice chat during the Third Street festival in September. By the way, that's an event that shows great promise and should be built upon.
Dan has some nice credentials -- retired Air Force officer, stints at the White House and Capitol Hill -- but more important than all that is the fact he was born on Weston Avenue and baptized at Sacred Heart Church. Such experience anoints him with great political pedigree.
I hope Vince tries to keep away from hacks and political retreads and brings new people with fresh ideas to city government.
The corporation counsel's job, the city's top lawyer, is vital. I was blessed with two gems.
First, the crusty old George Donahue, a skilled political sage. When we'd ask him if something the City Council planned to do was legal, he'd nod, puff on his pipe and, ignoring the direct question, say simply, "I can defend it."
George had once been the Democratic County Chairman and was a delegate to the party's convention in Chicago in 1956. He and his pal Sen. John F. Kennedy shared a cab to go to the party gathering one night and they both realized the agenda included a speech from Eleanor Roosevelt. They skipped the speech and took in a girlie show at a Chicago nightspot.
Then there was Carl Mooradian. We used to love to send Carl into some tough negotiations with city unions or whomever and ask him to put his mean face on. Carl was a big guy and the affable Armenian was as gentle as they come. But if you didn't know that, he'd scare the hell out of you.
Carl was an English literature major at Brown University and wrote excellent resolutions. Whenever we'd want to denounce other governments or institutions (like the Gazette), we'd turn Carl loose and he'd pen some scathing and hilarious words to condemn our adversaries.
One of the most able public administrators I worked with was Fire Chief Edwin "Teddy" Forster. One of his favorite expressions was that we ought to make decisions "based on what the facts indicate." Too often that admonition is ignored.
Joe Profit always had keen insight on how the political world operated. In my early months on the Council, I brought a neighborhood problem to the attention of a low-ranking supervisor in the public works department.
Joe got wind of it and explained the he was the "shepherd" of his department. "Bill," he said, "don't you be dealing with no sheep. I'm the shepherd. Get the shepherd on your side and all the sheep will follow." Another Profit insight was on political power. "If you got the power and don't use it, you don't deserve to have the power," Joe used to say.
He would be nice if people on the Council were as direct as Reporter Publisher Bruce Battaglia was. It used to get him in trouble, but he usually said things that have to be said.
It would be wonderful if the City Council had someone like Murphy Pitaressi around. He would dazzle us with the details he knew about the city and he was a genuinely decent person.
It'd be great, too, if we had someone like Erminio Venuto. The party boss and one-time parks director was a political dynamo whose great talent I grew to appreciate after years of fighting.
The mayor-elect is already reaching out to Niagara University and Niagara County Community College, as well as to business leaders and that makes a great deal of sense.
On this week of giving thanks, the people of Niagara Falls ought to be grateful for a new team in City Hall that can give them what they need most -- the feeling of hope and belief that the troubled city can finally bounce back.
Good luck, Vince.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 25 2003 |