[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 164 (Sunday, December 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2609-E2610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING THE 57TH MAYOR OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK, HON. ANTHONY M. MASIELLO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BRIAN HIGGINS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Sunday, December 18, 2005

  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the public 
service and personal strength of character of Anthony M. Masiello, who 
will complete his third and final term as the 57th Mayor of the City of 
Buffalo on December 31, 2005. Coupled with his deep and abiding love 
and loyalty to his beautiful family, Mayor Masiello will always be 
known for his enthusiastic and unwavering love for the City of Buffalo, 
New York. Through the triumphs and the tribulations of serving as the 
Chief Executive Officer of the second largest city in New York State, 
Mayor Masiello never gave up, never gave in and has led us to a better 
Buffalo.
  Born the oldest of seven children, Tony Masiello learned the value of 
family, hard work and the importance of giving back to one's community 
from his parents, Bridget and Dan. Educated in Buffalo Catholic 
Schools, Mayor Masiello graduated from Canisius College in 1969 after a 
Hall of Fame basketball career with the Division I Golden Griffins.
  In 1971, the voters embraced his competitive spirit and youthful 
energy and elected him District Councilmember and soon after, he won 
his first citywide election as an At-Large Councilmember on the Buffalo 
City Council. In 1980, he was elected to the New York State Senate 
becoming ``Buffalo's Senator.'' Re-elected to 7 2-year terms, he rose 
through the ranks to Minority Whip and Chair of the Democratic 
Conference. During his tenure in the State Legislature, then-Senator 
Masiello secured greater funding for the city's public school system, 
increased financial support for Roswell Park Cancer Institute and 
Children's Hospital, Buffalo's nationally known health care 
institutions. He helped fund housing developments and provided 
leadership in the passage of the Vietnam Veterans Tuition Assistance 
Bill.
  This commitment to education, health care, housing and the needs of 
others would foreshadow the Mayor's greatest achievements in his next 
elected office.
  Anthony M. Masiello was sworn in as the 57th Mayor of the city of 
Buffalo on January 1, 1994. Since that time, he has tackled daunting 
financial challenges while instituting sweeping changes in the way the 
city conducts its business and delivers essential services. He 
initiated and implemented the Mayor's Impact team; a hands-on Task 
Force consisting of various city departments working together to 
perform comprehensive clean-up, maintenance and inspection services in 
the city, the Citizens Service Hotline and the Good Neighbors Planning 
Alliance to ensure real residential participation in planning the 
city's future.
  Mayor Masiello led the creation of the Joint Schools Construction 
Program, an ambitious, pioneering construction and rehabilitation 
program to provide a 21st Century learning environment for the city's 
public school students. In 2000, the Mayor proposed state legislation 
that allowed the city to construct new schools and renovate existing 
buildings with private financing and now, more than $150 million is 
being spent in Phase I of the Joint Schools Construction Project to 
renovate nine schools. Eventually all schools will be renovated or 
rebuilt giving Buffalo School students the proper facilities and the 
high tech equipment fundamental to meeting the academic challenges of 
today and tomorrow.
  As citizens of Buffalo, we are also indebted to the Mayor for his 
vision in bringing together the leaders of the local health care and 
medical school institutions as well as, for the first time, the 
neighborhood leaders from the Fruit Belt and Allentown, to create the 
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in the City's center. Through mutual 
respect and recognition of the need for improved communication, expert 
planning for shared needs and future growth, the Buffalo Niagara 
Medical Campus Board of Directors continues to attract local, state and 
federal funding which has transformed the Campus with more than $300 
million dollars of investment in state-of-the-art health care and 
research facilities. Recruiting efforts for national and international 
medical, scientific and research talent is succeeding and all efforts 
have the shared goal of enhancing the opportunities for the Campus' 
neighbors and its neighborhood. The story and the success of the 
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is rightly attributable to the ability 
of Mayor Masiello to bring people together, impart the absolute need to 
work together and help direct the first $14 million in ``seed money'' 
that led to hundreds of millions of dollars in real private/pubic 
investments.
  And it is the Mayor's commitment to implementation that led to one of 
the greatest

[[Page E2610]]

achievements in the history of the City of Buffalo as it was recognized 
with the 2005 National American Planning Association Award for ``The 
Queen City Hub: A Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo, as the 
best plan in the country.
  The plan's development began in the late 1990's as the Mayor created 
a partnership with the City of Buffalo, the University of Buffalo Urban 
Design Project and Buffalo Place, the leading business group dedicated 
to downtown development, with the mission of making downtown Buffalo a 
24/7 community to live, work and play. This effort has more than 
succeeded with $1 billion dollars of public and private investment in 
the ground and in planning stages that includes the Buffalo Niagara 
Medical Campus to the waterfront and connects to the east and west side 
neighborhoods of Buffalo. The Mayor himself led'' Seeing Is 
Believing,'' a series of highly successful walking tours of downtown 
Buffalo through 2004 and 2005 where hundreds of people followed this 
very tall Mayor as he walked briskly in and out of converted buildings 
which now features the wildly popular loft apartments, theatres, 
grocery stores, mixed use buildings, new single family homes and 
pointed proudly to green space, traffic improvements and new hope for 
future growth.

  While he gives credit to all who joined him in this collaboration, it 
was Mayor Masiello who created the partnership that led to the Queen 
City Hub plan and developed the award-winning road map to be followed 
by those who will follow him.
  Mayor Masiello's ability to create real partnerships with a stated 
goal and a heartfelt commitment to make Buffalo a better place must be 
rightly acknowledged. A Mayor's job is never easy and perhaps, never 
tougher than throughout the 12 years of the Masiello administration 
when the challenges of the leading a northeast urban center to a new 
century and in a new direction brought with it crushing financial 
conditions that never crushed the Mayors spirit.
  And so this grateful Congressman and city resident offers heartful 
thanks and best wishes to the Honorable Anthony M. Masiello as he 
concludes this chapter in a lifetime of public service and begins new 
challenges and opportunities. We send our deepest appreciation to his 
family, who also serves, as we thank his beautiful wife, personal and 
professional partner, Kate Maseillo, and their daughters, Ariel and 
Madeline. We also acknowledge the Mayor's newest title--grandfather--to 
Rose Elizabeth, the daughter of his daughter, Kim and husband, John 
Adamucci, and wish health and happiness as another grandchild is on its 
way.
  Perhaps the highest tribute we can pay to the 57th Mayor of the City 
of Buffalo is with his own words and so I will conclude my comments, by 
including those of Mayor Anthony M. Masiello--on the man who showed him 
by example to never walk away from the challenges of being Mayor--his 
father, Dan, who died earlier this year. ``My father worked two or 
three jobs at a time for many years to support seven children. He was a 
foreman for the city's sanitation department and then he would work 3-
11 p.m. at night unloading trucks for 10-15 years. Yet he never missed 
a day of work even when he was sick or tired. I remember seeing him so 
tired he could hardly stand up but he would go to see his second job 
not long after leaving his first. Some days I would think of my Dad as 
I was driving to City Hall so I would just pick myself up and keep 
going. This is a city worth fighting for and it was my privilege to 
fight for it for the last 12 years.''
  Thank you Mayor Masiello for fighting for Buffalo, for bringing us 
together and bringing out the best in who we are and what we can be by 
continuing to work together. Thank you for leading us to a Better 
Buffalo.

                          ____________________