Change is hard to come by in this city, even when it’s clearly written that the old way is the wrong way. A reminder of this fact came recently when Common Councilmember Marc Coppola won the special election for Byron Brown’s old State Senate post in the 60th District, vacating the Delaware District seat.

For years, when circumstances left an unexpected vacancy in the Council, the other members simply appointed the candidate chosen by party leaders—namely, the party’s committeemen and their chairman. But when talk recently turned to replacing Coppola with another Democrat, South Councilmember Michael Kearns asked that the process be opened up, so that those without close ties to the Democratic Party leadership would have a fair chance at the seat. Not so fast, said the Delaware District committeemen, many of whom felt that this was simply an attempt to strip them of their power. At a recent meeting, one committeeman, Jim Bagarozza, said, “It’s the right of the committeemen of the Delaware District to make this decision and all the councilmen should basically stay out of our business. It shows no respect to the people of the Delaware District, as well as the committeemen. We represent the people, it is our right…”

But Kearns’ own experience in South Buffalo tells a slightly different story.

Kearns feels that he was shut out of the same process last April, when Jimmy Griffin vacated the South District seat. According to Kearns, he was never even given an opportunity to address the committeemen in South Buffalo before Jeffrey Conrad was given the nearly unanimous Democratic endorsement and appointed to the Council. Just six months later, Kearns beat Conrad in the Democratic primary, before going on to a landslide victory in November. It seems, in that case, that the Democratic Party was out of touch with its constituents and endorsed a candidate the people didn’t want.

Kearns rightly points out that the city charter gives the Common Council the right to choose Coppola’s replacement, as long as that person is a Democrat living in the Delaware District. The actual text reads, “…The remaining members of the Council shall appoint a qualified resident of the same political party and district of the councilmember whose place is vacant and so should be filled.”

The Council agreed to open up the process and asked any interested candidates to submit letters of interest and individually meet with each councilmember. The four candidates who expressed interest were Michael LoCurto, Rosemarie LoTempio, Pedro Velez Lopez and Sam Marie.

At the same time, the Democrats continued with their own selection process, calling an open meeting on Monday, March 13, at the Parkside Lutheran Church in North Buffalo to meet with and review the candidates. The local Democratic brass were clearly upset over the Council’s butting into what they consider to be their own business. Erie County Democratic Chairman Len Lenihan, who hosted the meeting, spoke to those feelings. “There’s no justification for anybody other than the elected committeepeople from the district and the party that lost that member to make the recommendation,” he said. “For somebody or some group to arbitrarily decide—from another district—who’ll be councilman in this district is just simply wrong…Hopefully common sense will prevail. I don’t believe that the majority of the members of this Common Council would be that reckless and do something like that.”

Several committeemen stood up and, in turn, voiced similar sentiments. The word “right” was tossed around liberally.

Each of three candidates was allowed to introduce himself and field questions. The first, Michael LoCurto, is an aide to Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and has lived in the Delaware District his entire life. He attended PS 66, City Honors High School and the University at Buffalo, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Media Studies and a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning. “This community and this city have given me a lot,” LoCurto said, “and I want to give back.” He stressed his work with Sam Hoyt and his urban planning background. LoCurto said he helped establish the city’s Anti-Flipping Task Force and has plans for intelligent development on Main Street and Hertel, Delaware and Elmwood Avenues. “We don’t need any more big-box development in Buffalo. We need intelligent, developmental decision-making. I will bring that to the Common Council.”

Pedro Velez Lopez introduced himself as a 16-year veteran of local Democratic politics. Then, understanding that LoCurto was the heavy favorite, he pointed out that the Common Council does have a right and a responsibility to fill the vacant Council seat, a point that wasn’t well received. “I would like this to be an open and fair process for all of us who are running who want to represent the Delaware District.” Velez Lopez was born in Puerto Rico, moved to Buffalo when he was five and has lived in the Delaware District for more than 10 years. He’s a licensed real estate agent and is currently earning a degree in Economics and Urban Studies. He wants to focus on housing issues, primarily targeting ways to increase property values.

Sam Marie, the final candidate to speak, is a political newcomer. A 22-year veteran of the Buffalo Police Department, as well as a Vietnam veteran and former Army Reserve drill sergeant, Marie said he’s “leaning towards a law enforcement agenda.” He’d particularly like to focus on quality-of-life issues, landlord licensing and high taxes. Marie has lived in the Delaware District for 28 years, graduated from PS 77 and Burgard Vocational, and has an AS in Business Management from Byrant & Stratton.

Rosemarie LoTempio, who works part-time in Councilmember Joe Golombek’s office, wasn’t present for the committee hearing, but is apparently still interested in the seat. She’s been meeting separately with members of the Common Council for the past couple of weeks.

Council President Dave Franczyk and Councilmember Kearns also showed up at the meeting, and both addressed the audience in regard to the Council’s plan for replacing Coppola. Franczyk said that the Council will take into account the decision of the Democratic committeemen. “We’re not bound by law to take into consideration what the committeemen want, but they are the foot soldiers of the party process, they are obviously closer to the process and they have a lot of weight in recommending someone to the body.” The audience didn’t seem to buy it, though, and there was a lot of grumbling, head-shaking and sighing around the room.

Kearns tried to explain that he wasn’t trying to undermine the Democratic committeemen. “All I wanted to do,” said Kearns, “is bring to light a couple of inefficiencies and open up the process to outsiders. That’s all it is, opening it up. And I think we accomplished that here tonight.” He also pledged to vote with the committeemen.

This Monday, in a meeting held at the North Buffalo Community Center on Sanders Road, the Erie County Democratic Committee cast a nearly unanimous vote in support of LoCurto, who seems likely to succeed Coppola. Since then, four of the five Council members necessary to reach a decision have pledged their support to LoCurto, including Kearns, Franczyk, Dominic Bonifacio and Antoine Thompson. Pending a five-person majority—at publication time there were no developments—the Common Council will call a special meeting to announce the new Delaware District Councilmember. According to Bonifacio, that should happen later this week. “We have to fill the seat,” Bonifacio says. “It’s been vacant almost a month, and we can’t leave a district seat open that long.”

Though the end result will probably be the same—Mike LoCurto will be appointed to the Delaware District Council seat—the recent rift over whose right it is to name a successor did succeed in opening up the process to the politically unconnected. And that can only be a good thing.