Published: July 30, 2009 12:41 am      

POLITICS: Mullane seeks at-large Common Council seat

Democrats have a full slate of candidates again in upcoming city races.

Anita Mullane is the new candidate for the at-large Common Council seat, after the party committee this week filed the necessary paperwork with the Board of Elections.

Mullane, a committee member, will run in place of Michael Manning, who was endorsed by the party but dropped out of the race last month. Manning’s designating petitions were assigned to her.

Mullane, of Lindhurst Drive, ran a close race for the 5th Ward seat in 2005. She’s eager to “go out and knock on doors” again, this time citywide, she said Wednesday.

“That’s how you find out what’s on people’s minds, things they wouldn’t go to a Council meeting and say,” Mullane said. “I can’t wait to get out there.”

As she challenges veteran Republican Joseph Kibler for the at-large seat, Mullane is campaigning on a couple of core issues: the need for a full, curbside recycling program in the city and what she says are the current Council’s ways of haste and waste.

A teaching assistant at North Park Middle School, Mullane says the way students schoolwide manage paper recycling, voluntarily through the private sector, puts the city corporation to shame. If children can manage a weekly program, she figures, so can the adults.

“We’ve been talking about (curbside recycling) for 20 years. Why is there always a problem? It’s time we got it done,” she said.

Mullane suggested some Council members may be reluctant to take the latest recycling proposal seriously for fear of adding start-up expenses to the 2010 budget in the midst of an election year. She said the Council has exhibited several bad habits through the years: members jumping to conclusions before they’ve really looked into an issue, and/or accepting that things should be done the way they’ve always been done.

In past election cycles, for instance, non-incumbent candidates on either side of the aisle have suggested the city look at zero-based budgeting. That’s a process in which departments build new budgets from $0, projecting costs and revenues based on what they do and know they need. For as long as anyone can remember, next year’s city budget has been built using this year’s bottom line-plus as a starting point.

Council veterans dismiss zero-based budgeting as impractical. That they’ve said so apparently without looking into it bothers Mullane.

“It’s hard to make cuts if you’re doing the same things you’ve always done,” she said. “I’m not saying (zero-based budgeting) is better. I don’t know that it is; neither do (its critics). How can you say no to something without looking at it first?”

Mullane said the Council also tends to rush to legislate, without first examining the ramifications. She cited as an example the unanimous approval of a comprehensive sign law last fall that so antagonized small business owners, the law is now being rewritten.

“It was a waste of time and a waste of businesses’ money,” she said. “There are plenty of empty buildings around and filling them is only impeded by the perception of tough regulations and an unfriendly business climate.”

Other issues Mullane said she’d like to see addressed by the city: fair and equal treatment of property owners in assessment and taxation, “without exception,” and the need for more youth programs.

Mullane and her husband, Dan, have three children ages 13 to 23. At North Park, Mullane is the volunteer adviser for Moving Up Day, a graduation-type ceremony for eighth-graders heading to high school in the fall. She also is a member of the Lockport High School Foundation, which oversees the Distinguished Alumni and Quality Students recognition programs; and is an executive officer of Lockport Education Association.