Democratic mayoral challenger India B. Walton is already looking toward City Hall with her Wednesday appointment of six experts to an advisory committee to guide her during the campaign and possible transition.
Walton, who won the June Democratic primary and is now facing incumbent Byron W. Brown's write-in effort, said her experience has introduced to her to a wide variety of experts, some of whom will now advise her in labor, education, municipal finance, local business and good government.
"Should the voters of Buffalo see fit to elect me Mayor on Nov. 2, they can rest assured that I will be ready to hit the ground running on Day 1," she said. "With accomplished professionals like these at my side, we will begin the hard work of reversing the failure and corruption of the current administration and building the safe, healthy Buffalo we all need and deserve.”
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The campaign provided the following bios of the advisory panel members:
• Mark Manna: Western area director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local One to assist in labor issues. A one-time candidate for Erie County Democratic chairman, Manna has negotiated his union's contracts and handled member grievances, and was a trustee for the union’s pension fund. Manna was also a member of the Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, has been an officer of the Western New York Area Labor Federation, or WNYALF, and a board member of the local Coalition for Economic Justice, or CEJ. He is also a former member of the Amherst Town Council.
• Jennifer Mecozzi: West District member of the Buffalo Board of Education since 2016, representing education interests. Involved in many community organizations and a trainer who has delivered presentations on local, state and national levels, she also heads the organizing committee of the New York State chapter of Local Progress. In August, the majority of the School Board, including Mecozzi, endorsed Walton for mayor.
• Vanessa Glushefski: A lawyer and certified public accountant recruited to advise on financial matters, she is co-director of the Covid Law & Community Engagement Clinic at her alma mater, University at Buffalo School of Law. She is board treasurer of Justice for Migrant Families; co-chairwoman of the Western New York Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society; board member of Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York; and co-chairwoman of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, Statewide Convention Committee.
Glushefski also briefly served as deputy to former Comptroller Mark J.F. Schroeder and was later acting comptroller, when she advocated for the city’s adoption of a fund balance replenishment policy that was substantially adopted and recommended by her successor.
• Alexander Wright: Founder and president of the African Heritage Food Co-Op, which aims to create community ownership, combat food deserts and eliminate price gouging in the poorest areas of Buffalo. He will represent local business. Prior to launching AHFC, Wright managed nonprofit organizations and operated his own business consulting firm. He holds a bachelor's degree in business management and a law degree from the University at Buffalo.
• Victoria Kuper: Co-founder of Cooperation Buffalo, who will consult on local business. She is operations coordinator for the New Economy Coalition, where she organized logistics and programming for CommonBound 2016 and 2018. She is part of the 2016 Democracy at Work Institute Cooperative Developer Fellowship Program.
In Buffalo, she is a founder of BreadHive Worker Cooperative Bakery; former member, president and treasurer of Nickel City Housing Cooperative; and founder of the Buffalo Barn Raisers. She wrote the Worker Cooperative Resolution passed by the Buffalo Common Council in 2014, and works on statewide legislation to support worker cooperative development.
• Kevin Connor: Co-founder, Public Accountability Initiative, to assist in good government issues. He served as director of the nonprofit public interest research organization and its flagship research site, LittleSis.org, a free, online database of information on powerful people and organizations. Prior to that, Connor worked as a researcher at 1199SEIU.
The campaign said the members' inclusion on the committee does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the campaign. More members are expected to be appointed in coming weeks.
