Political Engineer
A former AFSCME member is using the mayor’s office to rejuvenate his Rust Belt hometown.
By Clyde Weiss
LACKAWANNA, NEW YORK
As mayor of this former steel town of 20,000 on the shore of Lake Erie, John Kuryak appreciates the value of hard-working, unionized public employees. After all, not long ago he himself was one.
Kuryak joined AFSCME Local 450 (Council 66) in March 1994, after he was hired as the city’s senior engineering aide. He left the union two years later to become chief engineer, but returned to his former civil service job (and the union) in June 1999 so he could challenge two-term Mayor Kathleen Staniszewski in the Democratic primary.
Winning the general election in November 1999, at the age of 29, made him one of the nation’s youngest mayors. Despite never before having held public office, he quickly proved his mettle by working with unions that his predecessor had disdained.
NEW ERA DAWNS. Staniszewski "belittled us," says Ken Motyka, former president of Local 450 and current president of the city’s board of education. "To her, unions were just a bad thing to have around. As a result, we never got a raise on time. When Mayor Kuryak took office, his first priority was to make sure this union was the first to have its contract settled. We were overdue by six months."
Says Kuryak proudly, "I got four elapsed contracts finalized within eight days."
Dealing with the union has been easy, says Kuryak. "Being a member of one, I understand their concerns."
A HELPING HAND. Kuryak has good reason to trust his union friends. "They helped me out a few times," the mayor acknowledges. "Things got a little rough here when I was running for office. I took a vacation and a personal day, but the city wouldn’t pay me for it."
Motyka says, "He wanted to go out and campaign for mayor. So we went to bat for him."
In the September primary, Kuryak beat incumbent Staniszewski by an 87-vote margin. Kuryak credits Local 450’s endorsement for the narrow victory. "It’s still a unionized community," he says. "I could have never won by myself."
Despite the stinging defeat, Staniszewski didn’t go gently. Instead, the mayor ran on the Conservative Party ticket in the general election. Local 450 therefore increased its efforts on Kuryak’s behalf. "Frank DeStefano, our local area rep from AFSCME (Council 66), told me to ‘do what you gotta do,’" says Motyka. "So we got the members together and they came out. They were on everything from sign committees to mailers and everything else, and we got this man elected."
Kuryak won the general election with 4,029 votes to Staniszewski’s 3,067. A Republican placed third, with 380 votes.
On Dec. 31, 1999, Kuryak took the oath of office at the Senior Citizens Center. "My first goal was to get some pride back in the community," he says.
Born and raised in this city once dominated by a Bethlehem Steel plant — at one time the fourth largest in the world — Kuryak believes that Lackawanna still has a heart and soul that can be inspired through good leadership. Encouraging people to get involved in their community is the way he hopes to lead.
Motyka says the union is happy to have a friend in the mayor’s office. "It’s going to take some very big, innovative people to get things going here," he observes, "and I think John Kuryak will be able to do that. He’s one of our people, and I think he’s going to do a hell of a job."
Motyka’s successor as president of the local, Camille McManus, also likes the mayor’s organized labor background. Having that, she says, makes a big difference in "an extremely political city like Lackawanna, where it’s very important to keep your union strong."
Is a higher public office in John Kuryak’s future? He isn’t saying. "I’m going to work tomorrow," he tells those who ask. "That’s what I’m doing next."
