Accusation of political payoff follows hiring of Coppola by city

[steven]

The candidate who helped Mayor Byron W. Brown keep his old State Senate seat in friendly hands has landed a job at the training agency controlled by Brown's City Hall. And he is not the only friend of the mayor to land there.


Alfred T. Coppola last week started in a freshly created $46,000-a-year job at the Buffalo Employment and Training Center, which is fueled by federal dollars and directed by a Brown appointee.

The center also employs Brown's brother-in-law and Clarence Lott Jr., a former president of the Grassroots political organization.

Coppola, back in September, had little chance to win the Democratic primary for the State Senate's 60th District. But by making it a three-way race, Coppola ensured victory for Brown's candidate, Antoine M. Thompson.

"There is no doubt in my mind that this is, in fact, a political payoff, and Al Coppola would not have run for State Senate had he not been promised something of this nature," said Jeremy Toth, a former aide to the third candidate, Marc A. Coppola, younger cousin of Albert.

"I don't have any evidence," Toth said. "But when you are a street-level political operative like I am, everybody on my level knew Al Coppola was going to end up on the public payroll somewhere."

Alfred Coppola had served on the Buffalo Common Council for about 17 years before winning a special election to the State Senate in 2000. But he served the district only nine more months before losing to Brown later that year. Coppola tried to retake the office every election since.

Now 65, Coppola said his new job is not a payoff for splintering the vote last September. He had been unemployed for six years but never discussed a quid pro quo with Brown or his intermediaries, he said.
"Why would I, after I had challenged Byron all those years, why would I be rewarded?" he asked. "Does that make any sense?"
Brown agrees there is no link between Al Coppola's candidacy last summer and his new job at the training center. "I didn't know he had even started a job there," the mayor said of Coppola when asked about his role last week.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...01/1024427.asp

[B-lo]

"There is no doubt in my mind that this is, in fact, a political payoff, and Al Coppola would not have run for State Senate had he not been promised something of this nature," said Jeremy Toth, a former aide to the third candidate, Marc A. Coppola, younger cousin of Albert.

The same Jeremy Toth that had patronage jobs with Sam Hoyt, Charlie Fisher, HUD and Marc Coppola?

[FisherRd]

Honest question...How many of you would be willing to work the odd hours, attend rubber chicken dinners, kiss all of that ass, and have such a disheveled schedule just for the opportunity to earn $46,000?
You have got to be kidding me if all I was going to get for that crap was $46,000. How in the heck can you convince anyone to put up with that for $22/hour based off of a 40 hour work week?


All of that stroking for $46,000, and you guys are miffed? Damn.

[joe d.]

Honest question...How many of you would be willing to work the odd hours, attend rubber chicken dinners, kiss all of that ass, and have such a disheveled schedule just for the opportunity to earn $46,000?
You have got to be kidding me if all I was going to get for that crap was $46,000. How in the heck can you convince anyone to put up with that for $22/hour based off of a 40 hour work week?


All of that stroking for $46,000, and you guys are miffed? Damn.

WHEN you're a career politician..WHAT ELSE IS THERE?? But KISS A LOTTA ASS