By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello said Thursday if he thought for "one second" that a Common Council redistricting plan was "race based" he would never have signed it.
The Mayor approved the plan Thursday that some are calling racist.
If approved by voters in November, the plan would down size the Common Council from thirteen to nine seats.
Three of the four seats to be trimmed are currently held by African American leaders.
Masiello said it was not an easy decision to make.
"My decision to sign this local law has been a very difficult and gut-wenching decision," said Masiello. "But one that I think has to be made for the best interests of the city's long-term viability."
Masiello said that under the plan there are still four minority districts, four majority districts and one swing district.
The mayor said with a shrinking tax base and dwindling population, city government must be cut.
The measure now goes before voters in a November referendum.
African American Council members are vowing to take action against the reapportionment plan.
University District Council Member Betty Jean Grant was the first to weigh in with reaction Thursday.
Grant strongly disagrees with Masiello's comments that the plan still leaves enough minority districts.
"The Niagara District is fifty percent white, twenty percent African-American, and thirty percent Hispanic," said Grant.
"You are assuming that African-Americans and Hispanics will be voting for Blacks, and that is what I call a notion that can not be."
Grant said now it is time to start registering more voters in minority districts to try and defeat the referendum this November.
Masten District lawmaker Antoine Thompson said he will kick off a voter registration campaign Friday to encourage his district to vote against the plan.
Council President James Pitts said Masiello has ignored a majority of the public who voiced opposition to the plan.
Pitts said he believes the Mayor was influenced to sign it by a group of top local business leaders who want to control the common council.
"And who are some of those money people who control city hall at this particular point, and who control Tony Masiello? Bob Wilmers, Andrew Rudnick, from the Buffalo News, Gerry Goldberg, Carl Paladino," said Pitts.
"They're the ones behind this, and they're the ones who are going to put up millions of dollars in the next sixty days to try to get this local law passed."
But the leader of the region's largest business organization said Pitts' remarks are "unfortunate."
Andrew Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership was out of town, but issued a brief written statement.
He said that action by the Mayor gives the citizens of Buffalo the chance to "begin the process of re-engineering the city."
Still, Pitts said he plans to fight the redistricting plan legally, and will launch efforts in the next several days.
And At-large Councilmember Charlie Fisher held a press conference Friday morning where he accused Filmore District Councilman David Froszak of being the "architect" of the controversial redistricting plan.
"[Fronszak is]a member of this council, who infected the council with a virus - a germ," said Fisher. "And I think we have to expose it in order to heal ourselves."
Fisher said Fronszak urged the other white lawmakers to back the nine district plan, over an earlier redistricting recommendation that would have cut only two seats - one of them the Filmore District.
Fisher challenged Fronszak to debate the issue before the public referendum in November.
He is also vowing to bring in national leaders to fight the plan.