Vote for Helfer

It is a watershed moment for Buffalo. It’s the first time in a decade that we are guaranteed a new mayor.

The last two mayors have been been alumni of the City Council, and then the State legislature before coming to Niagara Square. Jimmy Griffin and Tony Masiello are nice guys who love the city. During those years, however, the City of Buffalo has suffered a depression-like decline.

Kevin Helfer is a small business owner and a registered Republican. When he was elected to the City Council as the lone Republican, he was well-regarded by his Democratic colleagues, and his constituents.

Helfer has fought an uphill battle during this campaign. Spurned by the Conservative party, he mounted a write-in campaign and, historically, won that line. He has been slammed for his ties to influential developer Carl Paladino, and has essentially been written-off as a serious candidate. He is a serious candidate with serious ideas that don’t perpetuate the status quo.

And that’s what we desperately need in this town – an end to status quo. Kevin Helfer fits that bill.

While I like Judy Einach and think that she has good ideas, and she also represents a move away from the status quo, she simply doesn’t have the money or constituency to defeat Byron Brown. We can’t afford not to defeat Byron Brown. Judy has a far better chance of having her issues heard under a Helfer administration than under Brown, after all. Brown’s opinions and actions have already been purchased by the public sector unions.

Helfer calls education the “civil rights issue of the 21st century” and wants to ensure that the kids benefiting from an almost $700 million schools budget get the best education. It’s the least we can do to prepare kids – especially underprivileged kids – for a life and a job in our competitive information age. He thinks that the current failure of the city schools is a disgrace, and he’s right.

Helfer also understands that government isn’t the answer to Buffalo’s decline. We need jobs. In order to create and attract jobs, the city needs to lessen the regulatory difficulty to build a business, it needs to reform and restructure inspections & permits. We need to lobby hard to get Albany to change its rules, laws, and tax structure to help make WNY more attractive to businesses and residents. Without jobs, local college students will have to leave the area, and our kids will leave, too. And that’s the point – as many people who may support Mr. Helfer’s opponent, far more have voted with their feet.

But aside from the bigger issues, Helfer wants to make the City run more like a business. While many people have become tired of that phrase, the point he makes is a good one. Obviously, government doesn’t work towards a profit, but it should be run efficiently and cost-effectively. While it is important to track efficiencies using computerized tools such as Buff-Stat, we also need hands-on managers who know what they’re doing, know what their people are doing, and aren’t mere political hacks.

Furthermore, businesses need to be responsive to their customers and shareholders in order to succeed. The city’s customers and shareholders are its residents, not the political elites or parties or well-connected campaign contributors. Helfer recognizes that. He wants to start a 211 city information telephone number to enable one-call access to answers and information. He wants the city to pay attention to seemingly petty quality of life issues like panhandling, tagging, etc. He wants cops to walk a beat again and reconnect with the communities they serve. He wants to make sure that the streets are clean, and lawns are tended, and trash is picked up. Little things that improve a city’s image.

Helfer wants to look into selling off Harbor Towers, whilst protecting its current tenants, and returning that property to the city’s tax rolls. Despite what other say, he makes clear that he will do so through a RFP process, rather than a handout to one certain developer. He wants to rip down the skyway and ensure greater access to our underutilized waterfront.

While Helfer had certainly received large contributions from Paladino, Paladino is, at worst, a conflicted figure in Buffalo politics. For every Paladino-owned business that sits fallow, waiting for some government incentive or handout, there’s a Bellesario or an Ellicott Square Building. Paladino is a local developer who does local projects and employs local people.

It is beyond disingenuous for Helfer’s opponent to critique anyone else’s campaign contributions. Every one of Brown’s intemperate and irrelevant attacks on Helfer ring hollow.

For you Democrats who simply won’t vote Republican, the Conservative line is ready & waiting. For those of you who think that Helfer is a Bush clone, just read the guy’s issue releases and you’ll see that he’s not. He’s a fiscal conservative who won’t antagonize the unions for antagonism’s sake, and above all, he wants to grow Buffalo.

I’ve well-defined my problems with Byron Brown. He’s a nice guy and I’m sure he’s a hard worker and loves Buffalo. I have no doubt about that. But I fear that he would maintain the status quo. When interviewed on the WNY Progress Report about patronage and Ray McGurn, Brown said that patronage wasn’t such a bad thing, and that Ray McGurn isn’t his problem. The constant illegal parking outside his downtown campaign office is emblematic of an arrogance of power and a complete disregard for the rules by which the rest of us live by.

But above all, Brown has no executive experience whatsoever, and has done little during his tenure in the State Senate. History has proven time and again that a driven politician with good ideas can make his mark against even the most difficult odds. Brown didn’t go to the Senate to shake things up and reform it. He went to play along. Out of 4 bills that he co-sponsored in the Senate, three involved the changing of street names. Not a record of achievement.

When Brown headed up Grassroots – the political club he helped found to wrest political influence from people like Arthur Eve – $80,000 in money went unaccounted-for. Brown is receiving a great deal of support from his buddies in Grassroots like Maurice Garner and Clarence Lott. Ultimately, a Brown administration would replace the South Buffalo patronage mill with a Grassroots patronage mill.

By contrast, Helfer pledges a meritocracy, whereby only qualified people get hired – not the best-connected people.

And ultimately, that’s what we need in this town.

I wholeheartedly endorse Kevin Helfer for positive change and growth in Buffalo.