AV’s courts and utilities correspondent, John Duke, sent us this dispatch today, occasioned by Monday’s front-page Buffalo News piece on Kevin Gaughan’s downsizing government campaign:

In a poorly written and misleading article printed on the front page of the Buffalo News on Monday, a reporter claimed that the man who started the government downsizing revolution in Erie County, Kevin P. Gaughan, may not be able to control it and should let local politicians assist him in removing their positions from the taxpayer’s bankroll.

The Buffalo News doesn’t agree with Gaughan’s common sense.  He has always said, “The petition process to get downsizing on the ballot must be pure; and purely grass roots.  This effort is nonpolitical and citizen-driven. There’s just one class of people I don’t think have a place in it, and that’s people running for office. I do have to guard the integrity of the effort.”

Supporters and opponents say Gaughan has tapped into a pent-up desire for change.  After pointing out a provision in state law allowing the votes, Gaughan organized the successful petition drives and campaigns to reduce the town boards in West Seneca and Evans from five members to three.  He can also take credit for downsizing efforts in North Collins and votes in Lancaster and Depew.

“It’s very difficult to find a politician who supports this, but it’s almost impossible to find a citizen who doesn’t support this,” Gaughan said.

Gaughan has accepted the support of West Seneca Supervisor Wallace C. Piotrowski, who welcomed him into the town.  “I would tend to agree with Gaughan. After this decade long fight for him, he doesn’t trust politicians. We don’t need any help from political parties,” Piotrowski said.

Paul Becker, of Orchard Park, the former municipal liaison for the Erie County Water Authority, said he always has been interested in good governance, and he thought Gaughan’s proposal sounded good.  Becker collected signatures to get the measure on the ballot in Orchard Park.  “People have a pent-up desire to see some kind of change. People feel they want a voice. I think this is a good opportunity to have a voice,” Becker said.

Downsizing votes are scheduled next month in Alden and Orchard Park. Gaughan said those two communities can expect a discussion on the nature and purpose of local government.

Will the movement continue in Orchard Park and Alden; is it unstoppable? Opponents in both towns predict it will pass.

With successful votes taking place and with thousands of Erie County residents signing on to the idea, Gaughan said many of his volunteers found him through his Web site, http://www.letpeopledecide.org/ , where more than 19,000 people have registered.

“Sometimes I ask myself why the hell I do this,” Gaughan said. “I think this is the finest community in America, and it deserves the finest government.  It doesn’t have it.”

It may be news to the News; but Erie County is very fortunate to have an activist such as Kevin Gaughan looking out for us.  Can you imagine if we left it to the politicians?

I believe—and I’m pretty sure Gaughan would agree—that the number of politicians in our region is not as big an issue as the number of governments, and the duplication of services, and the resulting proliferation of patronage jobs and contracts whose beneficiaries protect the status quo like a growling dog hovering over a bone. (You can read about Gaughan’s campaign here and decide for yourself if you agree with what he’s doing.) But, like John Duke, I also didn’t quite get the point of the News article. Gaughan should not take credit for his work? He should welcome the co-option of the campaign by politicians and the politically motivated?

University Heights’ Answer Lady began a new feature last week: The Chris Collins Tantrum Watch. She says that Collins came into office promising to achieve change in government the same way he got rich in the private sector. “I think he kept his promise,” she writes. “There are more than a few managers in private industry who think that anger is a management tool”

Here she summarizes some of the splenetic exploits of the Erie County executive:

Take advantage of this great summer day and head for Artpark’s concerts in the Gorge series. Tonight promises to be a fun night of 21st century swing band when Big Bad Voodoo Daddy takes the stage. Band leader Scotty Morris describes the band: “We’re an alternative to retro. We’re high-octane nitro jive – loud, wild, total edge. Back in the Forties, swing was rock-n-roll, the black juke joint music white guys heard and said, ‘This is swingin’. What we do is wild and swingin’, but it’s our own modern version of swing.”

We hope no one missed the late-breaking news story on the front page of today’s Buffalo News telling us that area drivers needn’t worry about traffic jams. We really don’t have any traffic jams. But to certify that this was a solid investigative report, the News consulted with an assistant professor of engineering from the University at Buffalo, Ms. Qian Wang. Professor Wang confirmed that residents have no need to worry. “The traffic conditions here really aren’t that bad,” she told the News.

That’s such a relief because we really weren’t sure if there were no traffic jams or if we just didn’t know what a traffic jam was.

The News did manage to dig up an old photo from 2003 to run with their potential Pulitzer Prize winning research that showed a sort of half-assed busy “rush hour” on Cayuga Road in WIlliamsville. We’re so happy that we decided to keep our subscription to the Buffalo News, even after they raised their cover price to 75¢. Where would we be without the valuable information they provide?

If you’re worried about rain chasing you from Shakespeare in the Park or Doug Yeoman’s show at Bidwell Park, there’s always the The Church at the Tralf. Here’s Brian Blackwell’s summary of the band for the Artvoice Editor’s Picks:

You’ve been at it for some time if the “new guy” in your band has been with you for 15 records. The church—and I don’t know when the band members stopped capitalizing that “c,” or if they always have and were simpy misrepresented throughout most of their careers—formed as a trio in 1980 in Sydney, Australia. There’s no sense in reciting the litany of lineup changes and solo outings that attends any band that has worked together for nearly 30 years. Instead, recall the remarkable early records—The Blurred Crusade, Heyday, Starfish—that placed the band at the fore of the neo-psychedelic movement of the 1980s. The church suffered some schisms and setbacks in the 1990s, but continued to release records, and by millennium’s end the orginal lineup (plus the “new guy”) had regrouped. The band brings its lush, shimmering sound to the Tralf this week on Tuesday (July 7), with special guest Adam Franklin

—brian blackwell

Doors 7pm, show 8pm. Tralf Music Hall (622 Main Street, 852-2860). $25 presale, $30 at the door. Tralf box office or Ticketmaster.

THE NEW PHOENIX THEATRE ON THE PARK
Seeks young men in their 20s (30s, tops) for roles in FREUD AND THE SANDMAN (production dates September 10th – October 3). Some experience in handling masks or puppetry would be ideal.

Contact: Bob Waterhouse, 853 1334, or by direct email at clocksstopped@yahoo.com.

A couple weeks ago, North District Common Councilmember Joe Golombek initiated a lively floor debate among his fellow legislators by ridiculing a proposed law—a local version of the federal Hatch Act—that would prohibit some city employees from engaging in political activity. The intent of the law, proposed ny South District’s Mickey Kearns and Delaware District’s Mike LoCurto, is to protect employees from being coerced into working on their bosses’ campaigns.

The proposed law is certainly flawed—there’s the First Amendment to consider—but Golombek’s principle objection, two weeks ago and when it was first introduced in September, is that he suspects it amounts to a political attack on Mayor Byron Brown. Two weeks ago he suggested that the Council, if it is truly interested in reform, lead the way by banning political activity among its staff first, before demanding that the executive branch do the same.

Golombek then, as he did last September, suggested that the stories of city workers coerced into doing campaign work were exaggerated. No one ever can produce the name of someone who had been coerced, he said. (Undercutting his own argument, he then told the story of a friend who’d been fired from his job by Mayor James Griffin for supporting a candidate Griffin opposed.) The complaints are always anonymous, he said, and they always seem to indict the political opponents of those who cite them.

But now Jim Heaney at the Buffalo News has found emails from Department of Human Services Commissioner Tanya Perrin-Johnson, expressing her expectation that her staff will volunteer at least eight hours per week to Brown’s re-election campaign. Whike the emails do not threaten consequences for a failure to volunteer, the expressed expectation is coercive enough. Heaney cites the relevant language from the City Charter: “a city officer or employee shall not knowingly request or knowingly authorize anyone else to request in his or her name any direct subordinate of the officer or employee to participate in an election campaign or contribute to a political committee.”

There you go, Joe. A case with real names and documented evidence. And a direct connection to the mayor, in the person of Dana Bobinchek, who was copied on at least one email. Bobinchek, one of Brown’s chief political operatives, works in the mayor’s office.

I don’t know that Kearns’ and LoCurto’s local Hatch Act that’s been sitting in committee for nine months is the answer to this problem. But an answer has to be found. Contrary to popular belief, not every city works like this.

by ANTHONY CHASE

ARTVOICE Theater Editor

Word is that the banks that loaned funds to Studio Arena Theatre with the theater building as collateral have agreed to give the structure to Shea’s Performing Arts Center for use as a presenting house — provided the bankruptcy court will approve it.  This move would allow Studio Arena to continue to serve the community as a venue for live theater. 

Over the past few weeks, Studio Arena Theatre, which had filed for Chapter 11, or a reorganization bankruptcy, requested a switch to Chapter 7, or liquidation bankruptcy.  Liquidation means that the theater would go out of business permanently, and its assets would be sold off to reimburse creditors.  The major asset of the theater is the building itself, which is already heavily mortgaged, reportedly to five separate banking institutions.  (The theater also raided its own endowment, and therefore owes money to the Studio Arena Foundation, as well as to numerous other businesses).  What fixtures and equipment remain in the building is a subject of much conjecture – there is a pervasive rumor that tools and equipment were illegally pilfered from the scene shop after the theater shuttered. 

If the plan to transfer ownership of the building to Shea’s goes forward, a model would be devised whereby Studio Arena Theatre, formerly a producing theater, would become a presenting house, possibly booking two touring shows, two locally produced professional shows, and two college shows each year.  Those involved hope to return Studio Arena Theatre to its mission of offering high quality legitimate theater – a goal that was, arguably, abandoned twenty years ago when commercial concerns began to eclipse artistic concerns almost entirely at the theater.

Many questions remain.  Among them:

Would the Studio Arena name be retained? 

Would the Studio Arena function as a union house? – Union contracts negotiated by LORT (the League of Resident Theaters) are widely viewed as having hobbled Studio Arena in its efforts to balance its books and alter its producing model. 

What would become of the venerable Studio Arena Theatre School?  Co-founded by Jane Keeler and Lars Potter in the 1920s, its alumni include Nancy Marchand, Michael Bennett and Amanda Blake; young James Whitmore and Charles Durning worked there, and in her youth, character actress Reta Shaw served on its faculty. 

Given the right circumstances, numerous parties are likely to be interested to make use of the facility or to become involved in Studio Arena Theatre’s suspended educational programs.  Much jockeying for position can be expected.  Who would evaluate proposals and using what criteria?

At the same time, while the leadership at Shea’s Buffalo can be lauded for expanding the subscription audience and for sustaining a fairly high standard of Broadway musical touring shows, they have no experience whatsoever with legitimate theater, and no friends within the highest echelon of regional theaters.  In informal conversations, those involved cheerfully toss out the possibility of partnerships with Geva Theatre in Rochester – not exactly a thrilling prospect, as that institution is not on anyone’s list of America’s most exciting theaters.  If Shea’s is to provide leadership, we can only hope that they will seek input from someone with more of a national perspective, rather than pull ideas from the tops of their heads or fall prey to every opportunist waiting to pounce.    Otherwise, the most we can expect is a financially responsible but ultimately mediocre theater – hardly worth the effort. Any number of individuals are likely to present themselves as experts.  Such people came out of the woodwork as Studio Arena slid into the abyss.

One of the few people in Western New York whose background truly impresses me as making him qualified to chart a path for Studio Arena  is Ethan McSweeny, co-artistic director (with his wife, Vivienne Benesch) of the Chautauqua Theater Company, who was dubbed a “wunderkind” and a director with “the Midas touch” by  American Theatre magazine.  A protégé of theater icon Michael Kahn, McSweeny has worked on Broadway and at a litany of the nation’s most prestigious resident regional theaters. He received the first-ever undergraduate degree in theater and dramatic arts from Columbia University and has served as associate artistic director of the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey (2000-2004), resident director at New Dramatists in New York (2001-2002) and (with Michael Kahn) associate director of the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, D.C. (1993-1997). He currently sits on the executive board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.  Now in his fifth summer at Chautauqua, McSweeny has directed Death of a Salesman (’08) The Just (’07), The Cherry Orchard (’06), All My Sons (’05), Cobb (’03), and the New Play Workshops of Kate Fodor’s 100 Saints You Should Know, Quincy Long’s Aux Cops, and Rinne Groff’s What Then for the company.  He also directed the New York premieres of 100 Saints You Should Know and Jason Grote’s 1001, which were both chosen to be among the top ten productions of 2007 by Time Out and Entertainment Weekly magazines. He received a Tony nomination and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his direction of the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man starring Elizabeth Ashley, Charles Durning, Christine Ebersole, Spalding Gray, Michael Learned, Chris Noth, and Jonathan Hadary.  He also earned national attention for his productions of Aeschylus’ The Persians, Euripides’ Ion, Willy Holtzman’s Sabina and John Logan’s Never the Sinner (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards).  His national credits also include Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at the Guthrie in Minneapolis; Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Centerstage in Maryland; George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.; the world premieres of In This Corner at the Old Globe in San Diego, 1001 at the Denver Center Theatre (Ovation Award) and Lee Blessing’s A Body of Water at both the Guthrie and the Globe (San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award); the new musical Chasing Nicolette at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia (Barrymore Award nomination); the world premiere of Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade at South Coast Rep in California (OCIE Award); and productions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation at the Guthrie (Star-Tribune Award).

No one else in the region can match this resume of accomplishments or even come close.  Most importantly, at Chautauqua, he’s proven he can provide sound leadership and theatrical excitement at a regional institution.  I’d say somebody should ask Mr. McSweeny if he has any ideas for Studio Arena Theatre.

Artvoice Theater Editor Anthony Chase reports that a deal is in the making whereby the five banks who are holding Studio debt would forgo repayment and give the Studio Arena building to Shea’s Buffalo in order for it remain a performance space.

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I know we come off as curmudgeonly when we fault the Brown administration for seemingly slight offenses like using the seal of the City of Buffalo at private fundraising events.

But it turns out we’re not the only ones who think that’s bogus. Brian Meyer of the Buffalo News reports that the city’s Board of Ethics agrees that Brown should refrain from using the seal at events (such as the State of the City address) that raise money for his private charity, Mayor Byron Brown’s Fund to Advance Buffalo.

The Board of Ethics announced that it reached a consensus on a flap that erupted in January. Buffalo attorney Peter A. Reese lodged complaints about the mayor’s use of the city seal to promote a $35-a-plate luncheon that preceded his the State of the City speech.

Proceeds went to Brown’s Fund to Advance Buffalo, a nonprofit group he founded to help fund youth programs, scholarships and other community causes.

The fund serves a laudable role, Board of Ethics members said today, acknowledging that it is not realistic to erect an “impenetrable wall” between a mayor’s public role and his civic activities.

But in the future, said board member James Magavern, it would be best not to use the city seal for activities that raise funds for an outside entity.

The mayor sent luncheon invitations that displayed the city seal.

“It makes it look like it’s a function of city government,” Magavern said.

Board of Ethics Chairman Douglas Coppola said the mayor deserves credit for partially defusing the controversy when he decided to provide limited free seating for the speech to people who opted not to eat lunch. But Coppola agreed that going forward, it is prudent to avoid using the city seal in conjunction with a nonprofit fund-raiser.