| Al DeBenedetti: Public Enemy or Folk Hero? |
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| Tuesday, 01 March 2005 | ||||
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The Erie County budget crisis has put folks on much more familiar terms, with their representatives, however. Erie County Legislator Al DeBenedetti has been both vilified and lauded for his role by people who had never heard of him until last December. When things go wrong and the consequences of political decisions have a negative impact, people start to pay attention. They often feel that at this point their political opinions have equal merit and validity with those of their more diligent neighbors. In reality, though, their political opinions are little more than hand me down rehashs of something they heard from people who actually read The Buffalo News, if not verbatim rants from right wing radio jocks. Of course, this is America and theres something almost sacred about our right to be stick our heads in the sand even in the midst of crisis, but a little bit of background on Mr. DeBenedetti might be helpful. My first dealing with him was on the issue of the government handout to Ralph Wilson and The Buffalo Bills. The Bills had just waged a scorched earth campaign to remove all independent vendors from the property in front of the stadium. It was classic a David and Goliath scenario and for once, the concern expressed was not over the lack of business in Western New York. The problem was that there were too many small business people making money. How refreshing, I thought. All of this commerce was creating a safety hazard and the Bills organization was deeply concerned about the welfare of their fans. It wasnt that they were losing money to the little guys, it was about providing security. Eventually this incredibly lame argument won out. Then after beating down these little guys with their high priced lawyers it was time for The Bills and Mr. Wilson to extract another pound of flesh. The Bills demanded that the County government kick in millions of dollars for luxury boxes, or else. The or else part wasnt a threat, of course, but nobody cared more about Western New York football fans than Mr. Wilson and the Bills. I was surprised that a number of Legislators would not even return calls on the subject. The arguments in favor of the handout were almost as lame as the public safety excuse for getting rid of vendors. The only one to come out publicly against the handout was Debenedetti and he was not shy about expressing himself. As a result he was vilified by The Buffalo News. This was after the League found itself in the doghouse with The Cleveland Browns fiasco. The League was forced to fork out big bucks for a new stadium in Cleveland. Debenedetti felt that sixty million dollars was worth fighting Wilson and the league over. He accused his colleagues of being gutless rubberstampers. Then Debenedetti walked into an auto-de-fey held in his honor by a group called Business Backs the Bills. As soon as the klieg lights came on for the TV sound bite, it became clear that this entire event was orchestrated to punish Debenedetti for his heresy. Speaker after speaker lined up to deliver emotional harangues about the sanctity of our beloved Buffalo Bills. The scene would have worked well in Vincent Gallos movie, Buffalo 66. The most ridiculous tirade that I recall went something like, Shame on you Mr. Debenedetti for not realizing that Buffalo is a first tier City and deserves a first class football stadium! Didnt Debenedetti realize that Buffalo was on a par with L.A.? Funny but L.A. hasnt been in a big rush to replace the Rams, but I guess thats what makes it a second-tier City Viewers at home were not exposed to Debenedettis argument that the local economy was in serious trouble and that the County could not afford to handout goodies to Ralph Wilson. Here we are six years later, and guess what? That sixty million could really come in handy, couldnt it? But its gone and theres no going home. A few years later I remember discussing the state of the Democratic Party with Debenedetti. He couldnt stand Pigeon. He went off about Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark. Swanick was an egomaniac obsessed with browbeating Legislators into submission. At this point he was still what The Buffalo News called a maverick who often aligned himself with fellow Democratic outsider Greg Olma. Debenedetti was smarter than Olma, however. Olma was vulnerable for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was his animosity to then Democratic Party Chief Steve Pigeon. Soon after Olma lost his seat in the Legislature he resurfaced as a Republican and hopped on board Joel Giambras patronage wagon. Debenedetti seized the opportunity to stick it to his nemesis Chuck Swanick, by brokering a deal with Giambra to become Chairman of the Erie County Legislature. It looked like Al might be jumping on the Joel bandwagon as a turncoat. The Buffalo News praised him effusively, but it was not to last. By all appearances, the alliance unraveled because of egos. Swanick had an epiphany after 9/11. He joined the GOP. Everyone made a deal about his military service. The switch also ensured that he would receive a nice fat pension, too. Last spring, I received a call from a friend who suggested that I speak to Debenedetti about the latest County budget. Apparently, Giambras figures included numbers that were based on early retirements that were not going to happen. He was also not revealing information about the budget to the Legislature. It was all illegal. Our response was to yawn. Frank Clark would not investigate. Giambra could rely on The Buffalo News to run cover. We pondered bringing a lawsuit, but then realized that the legal community in Buffalo isnt exactly brimming over with attorneys who are willing to do pro bono work that would permanently alienate them from the political elite. We published an interview with Al. Looking back, it seems clear that the debate over the budget crisis was fated for disaster as far back as June. The following comments are excerpts from the interview: actually theres a section of the County Charter, I think its section 1806 that says when the budget is out of balance, when the revenues dont come in as projected, its the County Executives obligation to report that to the County Legislature and that it is his or her additional obligation to present a budget amendment package to the Legislature to put the budget back in balance. I have been calling on the County Executive to fulfill his responsibilities under the Charter and he has yet to do that. He has yet to do that. He is in violation of the Charter and he has been for some time. Were approaching the end of June and we have not gotten a report- any budget monitoring report of any sort. So we have no idea of what the actual expenses and revenue are and that requirement was put into the budget as a result of the crisis of 1984-85, when we had to go to the eight percent sales tax. Now, Mr. Giambra is just totally ignoring it. In summing up his comments Debenedetti was not terribly optimistic: bonded indebtedness, has gone up dramatically in the last four and a half years. I think it was below two hundred million. Now its about three hundred and fifty million. So weve spent tobacco money and weve borrowed more money. Weve spent like the proverbial drunken sailor. It appears that the proverbial drunken sailor has now stumbled out the swinging doors and is lying face down in the gutter. What will it take to get him to the drunk tank? In summary, Debenedetti has not been afraid to take unpopular stances in the past. Although he has managed to steer an independent course, he has generally not managed to gain the support of a working majority to pursue his own agenda. Worse, he has failed to ingratiate himself with Buffalos power elite, as exemplified by the triumvirate of The Buffalo Niagara Partnership, The Buffalo Clubs Group of Eighteen and The Buffalo News. He now seems to have solidified his status of permanent outsider with organized labor, as well. This crisis may help the GOP shampoo Giambra while crushing Erie Countys municipal employees, as well. While its doubtful that this was Debenedettis rationale for voting the way he did on the County budget, the consequence will no doubt please many in the right wing revolution. Its not surprising that The Buffalo News doesnt like to discuss the issues that they chose to attack Debenedetti on, such as the Ralph Wilson handout. Doing so would reveal their complicity in the corrupt political culture that has led the community to its current state. The complexity of Debenedettis career explains why The News has appeared to praise and vilify him at the same time. Theyve clearly turned on Giambra, and unless Debenedetti decides, uncharacteristically, to cut a deal with his erstwhile antagonists, we can expect him to receive the same treatment as the embattled County Executive. By John McMahon
Many Western New Yorkers would be hard pressed to tell you the names of the elected officials who represent them. It speaks to the economic success of this country that citizens feel that it is within their rights to ignore politics completely.
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