New deputy mayor will tackle anti-poverty strategy for Buffalo

from The Buffalo News

By Brian MeyerNEWS STAFF REPORTER

On the same day that Donna M. Brown became Buffalo’s deputy mayor, she was assigned to tackle one of the city’s biggest problems: charting an anti-poverty strategy in a city that has the second-highest poverty rate in the nation.

She also will be a key player in efforts to spur new housing and business development, create jobs and improve education.

Such lofty goals might overwhelm the faint-hearted, but people who have worked closely with Brown for years describe her as up to the tasks.

“Donna knows you can’t always make huge progress overnight. It’s about consistently taking steps forward,” said Kevin C. Schuler, a vice president at LP Ciminelli, where Brown has worked for five years.

As the construction firm’s community liaison in the $1 billion citywide schools modernization program, Brown worked with many school officials. She also managed mentoring programs in collaboration with the Buffalo Board of Education.

“She knows her way around our school system and around our city,” said School Superintendent James A. Williams, who praised Mayor Byron W. Brown’s newest appointment.

The mayor — who is not related to his new deputy — took his time filling a Cabinet post that was vacant for 20 months. The last person to hold the job was Angela Joyner, a government administrator who moved to Buffalo from Oakland, Calif. — then quit four months later for “personal reasons.”

The mayor predicted his new deputy will have a long tenure with his administration, noting that the Harlem native has lived in Buffalo for nearly 30 years and has two children in the city’s public schools. She previously worked as a community developer for Kensington Bailey Neighborhood Services and began her career at General Motors and HSBC Bank.

“She is going to be one of our superstars in this government,” the mayor predicted.

He said he first met Donna Brown about 20 years ago when they were involved in community volunteer activities. But the mayor and other administration officials said the new deputy has not taken part in the mayor’s political campaigns.

The mayor said Brown will report directly to him. When the mayor took office two years ago, his first organizational flow chart showed the deputy mayor reporting to First Deputy Mayor Steven M. Casey, who continues to play an influential role in the administration.

Donna Brown and Casey each make $85,000 a year. The mayor defended his decision to have two deputy mayors, unlike his predecessors.

“There’s a lot of work to be done in the city,” the mayor said, stressing that his new Cabinet member will play a pivotal role in efforts to ease poverty and blight.

Buffalo may not necessarily have to “reinvent the wheel” as it searches for ways to reduce poverty, said Donna Brown, who received a bachelor’s degree in business management from D’Youville College in 1983.

“The best place to start is to look at best practices that may have been conducted in other areas,” she said, adding that she already has started her research mission.

bmeyer@buffnews.com