26 May 2004
Leona Czolgosz
Flush from their very expensive victory purging Buffalo city government of powerful and independent African American officials who wouldn't make nice-nice, Andrew Rudnick and the Buffalo Partnership in late May came up with a list of acceptable white guys to replace Tony Masiello as Buffalo mayor—some qualified, some not, some of whom have maybe never even spent a night in the city. The Buffalo News covered Rudnick's move in a May 25 front page story by local politics writer Robert J. McCarthy, A different kind of mayor. What, speculates Buffalo Report's Leona Czolgosz, might the Buffalo News have written if, instead of Andy Rudnick and the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership trying to take over the few parts of Buffalo city government they didn't yet own or control, Buffalo politicians instead were trying to get someone responsible, independent, sensitive to community issues and competent to run the Partnership? Yes, yes, yes: we know what you're thinking. But what if? Leona, who knows more about these things than most of us, speculates about the possibility here.
A Different King of Partnership Executive
In the smoke-filled rooms and on the beer-stained benches of North Buffalo bars, East Side gin mills and newly heralded South Buffalo American Legion posts, Buffalo’s political leaders are gathering to launch a new initiative to find someone like them to become the new President and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.
It is time for someone who does not act like the normal Western New York business establishment to step forward for the job, they say, pointing to massive job loss, population outmigration and the “piddling away” of hundreds of thousands of public and private dollars on ineffective economic development initiatives.
“Finding someone who will come at the region’s problems from a perspective other than ‘How will it benefit Buffalo’s few politically connected businesses?’ is what we are trying to find,” said politician Joseph Ellicott, the man carefully designing the search initiative. “We will leave no radial untrod.”
The new face of the area’s Chamber of Commerce could be a former governor or a billionaire.
It could be a Williamsville crooner or a Buffalo baseball icon.
Much of the speculation has focused on former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. Cuomo, 72, has had fun zigzagging the country, giving speeches and playing with his grandchildren since he was defeated for re-election by current Governor George Pataki in 1994.
“I’ve always liked Western New York,” Cuomo said, “even when that bastard, Jimmy Griffin was mayor.”
Cuomo said the Partnership position would leave him plenty of time to pursue other interests. “Mainly what you’d have to do is to give a good, uplifting speech every once in a while,” the former Governor said, something the current organization has been lacking. “And, God knows, I can give a good speech. They’re still talking about my speech to the Democratic National Convention two decades later.”
Another mentioned candidate for the President and CEO of the Partnership is Warren Buffett. Buffett, 73, is chairman of the board of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns The Buffalo News.
“I’ve enjoyed Western New York ever since I forced…I mean…the Buffalo Courier-Express voluntarily shut down and gave me a monopoly…I mean…allowed me to rise to a leadership position within the community.”
Buffett, who lives in Omaha, expressed some unease that he might be called upon to run the Partnership even though he lives half a continent away. “But, heck,” Buffett said, “a lot of the folks they’re talking about running for Mayor of Buffalo don’t live in the city either, so I guess that shouldn’t stop me.”
Politician Ellicott had great praise for Buffett as a candidate. “Let’s face it. With the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, the County Industrial Development Authority, the Empire State Development Corporation and about two dozen other economic development agencies in town all saying for decades they’ve been working on attracting jobs, Buffett is the only one who actually brought a decent number of jobs here.”“He snapped his fingers and GEICO happened,” Ellicott marveled. “We need that sort of power at the Partnership, so we don’t turn into another Utica.”
A latecomer to the mix of potential Partnership presidents has shown “more cojones, if I may use an architectural term,” said Ellicott, than all the past presidents of the Partnership and former Chamber of Commerce combined.
That candidate is John Stevens, Williamsville East High School student, finalist on American Idol. Among Stevens’ repertoire on “Idol,” were his renditions of:
- “King of the Road,” with the lyrics, “I’m a man of means by no means…," especially apropos of the city budget.
- “My Girl,” which opens “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day…” a great promise for the Buffalo region.
- “As Time Goes By,” a particularly apt song for Western New York.
“And, don’t forget, though John Stevens is only 16, he has faced down Simon Cowell and lived to tell about it,” Ellicott noted. “Phil Rumore, Bob Meegan and the rest of the union crowd will look like Little Lord Fauntleroys.”
Finally, the politicians are thinking of tapping a Western New York baseball icon, Buster T. Bison.
Buster, age unknown, has enjoyed an especially visible platform as the mascot at Buffalo Bisons games since 1988. He has hung around—and learned from—athletes, journalists, politicians, celebrities, and it is said he knows how to work a crowd, again something that, political leaders say, has been missing from the Partnership.
“Probably the best thing about Buster,” said one political leader known to frequent Bisons’ games, “is that he is a good listener. Come to think of it, in my 17 years of going to the ballpark, I’ve never heard him say a word. Hoof gestures, yes. Dance moves, of course. Doggone, I’ve never heard him say a thing, and look how popular he is. There’s something to be said for that.”
Another advantage that Buster T. Bison brings to the table, Ellicott says, is that he has learned from the Bison organization how to count attendance. “Using their methodology, Buffalo would be a city of 600,000 or 800,000 again in no time.”
Current Buffalo Niagara Partnership President and CEO Andrew J. Rudnick, through a Partnership spokeswoman, said that he has enjoyed “good working relationships with political leaders throughout my nearly two-decade reign…or at least with those politicians who always agree with Bob Wilmers and his friends on my Executive Committee.”
A veteran Western New Yorker, who preferred not to be identified, said that the politician’s search for a new Partnership executive “really doesn’t matter.” And the fact that none of the candidates has had hands-on business association work experience “really isn’t the point.”
“The Executive Committee appoints the Partnership president, and they’ll do what they want. They’ll probably appoint someone who’s just like them.”
“Just like the way the people of the City of Buffalo—North Buffalo, East Side, West Side, South Buffalo—elect the Mayor, and they want somebody that most of them can look in the eye, and know and trust, until they get tired of him and are ready for a new one,” she said.
“They don’t give a rat’s ass who the business community wants to be mayor," she said.
“Maybe the best we can hope for is a business community and political leadership that will trust each other, stop blaming each other and work together.”
Leona Czolgosz is the pseudonym of someone who knows (and knows things about) just about everyone there is to know in western New York government and business kingmaker circles.
Copyright 2004 by Buffalo Report, Inc.