Aug 7
2024
GOP no-shows in Cheektowaga
- Share on
All three of Cheektowaga’s Republican town board members skipped a special meeting Monday night, denying a quorum to the board’s other three members, all Democrats.
The meeting was meant to be brief: The only agenda item was to set public hearings on a proposal to divide the town into six wards, each with its own representative on the board. Currently board members are elected in town-wide elections, but a formal complaint last year challenged that system, alleging it disenfranchised minority voters in violation of a state law enacted in 2022.
More than one-fifth of the town’s 88,000 residents are minorities, according to the U.S. Census. The board members are all white. The complaint by former town board candidate Ken Young, who is Black, argues that a ward system would increase the likelihood of minorities winning town board seats.
Cheektowaga Town Hall. Photo by Garrett Looker.
Town Supervisor Brian Nowak, a Democrat, told Investigative Post he called the special meeting on advice of attorneys representing the town, which is both challenging the constitutionality of the law and seeking ways to address the complaint. The town board in March voted to put the adoption of a ward system up for a referendum vote this November.
To do so, Nowak told Investigative Post, the town board first must inform voters about the proposal and invite their feedback. Thus the need to set public hearings.
The timing is tight, according to Nowak. If the measure isn’t on the ballot in November, the questions of whether and how to divide the town to ensure racial equity in voting might fall to the courts.
“Because of the Republicans not coming to work, it’s getting harder to give voters a say” in the matter, Nowak said.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomMonday’s no-show is the latest in a series of frustrations for the board’s three Democrats, who claim Republicans are attempting to undermine Nowak’s administration by stymying basic governmental work. They’ve succeeded in doing so because the board is locked in a partisan tie, three Republicans to three Democrats, and no measure can be passed without a majority vote.
The Republicans have wielded their three votes to hold up routine paving, sewer and other construction projects, and to reject Nowak’s efforts to fill town jobs. They refused to fill the town board seat Nowak vacated when he was sworn in as supervisor in January — an action that would break the tie that has given Republicans the power to say no.
Nowak said he informed all board members Friday afternoon of the need for a special meeting and asked if they were available Monday. He said two Republicans, Vernon Thompson and Michael Jasinski, didn’t respond.
The third, Barbara Bakowski, told Nowak she could make it, ensuring a quorum of four. So Nowak scheduled the meeting. An agenda was posted online and public notice went out before the close of business that day.
On Sunday, Nowak said, Bakowski informed him she couldn’t make the meeting after all. Then Thompson indicated he might not make it, either.
On Monday evening, the board’s three Democrats met at the appointed time. They said the pledge, observed a moment of silence for veterans, then took attendance and noted the lack of quorum.
Nowak observed that in his six years on the board there’d been numerous special meetings called for various purposes, sometimes on shorter notice than three days, and never had the board been forced to cancel for lack of quorum.
Democrat Jerry Kaminski called the Republicans’ failure to show “an insult to the taxpayers of Cheektowaga.”
“You take an oath,” he said.
Cheektowaga’s Democratic Committee immediately pounced, posting Monday evening on Facebook and Twitter/X that the Republicans’ absence amounted to “another attempt to obstruct town business.”
Tonight’s town board meeting could not take place because the three Republicans on the town board did not show up to work, preventing a quorum from being present, in another attempt to obstruct town business. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/lK3pi6GieE
— Cheektowaga Democrats (@CKTWdems) August 5, 2024
None of the three Republicans responded to emails and phone messages asking the reason for their absences. Jasinski on Tuesday posted on Facebook that the meeting “was nothing short of a political stunt.”
Nowak said he never expected Jasinski to attend. He said Jasinski has been absent from four of the board’s 17 meetings this year and attended three via video conference. Jasinski lost to Nowak in the town supervisor race last year and has been the Democrat’s chief antagonist ever since.
The deadlock in Cheektowaga will be broken come January. Democrat Wally Burgett and Republican Anthony Filipski are running to fill the vacant seat on the town board this November.
Filipski is a retired Cheektowaga police lieutenant and volunteer firefighter.
Burgett works for the Erie County Department of Social Services, sits on Cheektowaga’s planning board, and is a former Cheektowaga Central Board of Education member. Democrats tried to appoint him to the vacancy in February but the three Republicans voted no.
PoliticalPost is Geoff Kelly’s weekly newsletter. To receive it in your email every Wednesday, sign up in the subscription box above.
