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SCHENECTADY — The contentious battle for City Council's vacant seat is over, for now, as one of the Democratic challengers has dropped out.

John Mootooveren announced on his campaign's Facebook page Tuesday that he is stepping away from a primary with Marion Porterfield in June.

Ruling city Democrats could not agree on who would take over Mayor Gary McCarthy's vacant seat. Porterfield, a Weed and Seed coordinator, was promised the seat if McCarthy won the city's top post. But City Council President Denise Brucker wanted her running mate, Mootooveren, an accountant, who failed to win election in November.

The contest became a de facto struggle between the city's black and Guyanese community, as supporters of both candidates spoke at the rail at multiple City Council meetings. Eventually, Brucker put up Mootooveren's name for a vote in February, but he could not get more than three votes to be appointed. Whomever was appointed, however, was still going to have to run this year to win a full four-year seat.

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SCHENECTADY
City Council may finally fill vacancy
Mootooveren’s withdrawal leaves seat for Porterfield
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

With only one Democrat left in the running for the open Schenectady City Council seat, council members are beginning to discuss finally filling it. The seat will be fi lled officially on Jan. 1, but the council can appoint someone to serve at any time until then.
For a few weeks, it looked as though they would leave it vacant, after council members split 3-3 on a vote between the two Democrats who wanted the seat. Then the City Democratic Committee also split and decided not to endorse either.
    It appeared that John Mootooveren and Marion Porterfield were heading for a highly divisive primary, with their respective ethnic groups — Guyanese and black — joining the fight. Then, this week, Mootooveren dropped out. He gave no reason, but the committee chairman said he wanted “unity.”
    That opens a path for Porterfield to be appointed to the vacant council seat, which one council member said could happen as soon as April 2.
    “How can we not do it?” said Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard.
    The council can’t vote on it at Monday’s meeting unless every member agrees to add it to the agenda — a move the one non-Democrat is unlikely to support. The next council session is April 2.
    Blanchard supported Porterfi eld in the last vote and said she will vote for her again.
    Council President Denise Brucker, who supported Mootooveren, did not return calls seeking comment. ............>>>>.........................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01304&AppName=1

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SCHENECTADY
Council to fill vacant seat
Porterfield still to run in Nov.
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    As the last Democrat standing in a dispute that went on for fi ve months, Marion Porterfi eld will get the vacant seat on the City Council, Democrats decided Thursday.
    Porterfield, who is running for the seat in this year’s election, is expected to be formally appointed April 9. The council will discuss her appointment in committee Monday.
    But they’ve already decided. Democrats confi rmed Thursday they’ve agreed on Porterfi eld.
    Originally, the council split 3-3 on whether to appoint her or John Mootooveren, who lost last year’s election by just 39 votes. But Mootooveren announced Mar. 21 that he would not try again to win the seat. The move surprised many Democrats who had strongly supported him, including the council president.
    It left them with just one choice, Porterfield, and they quickly came to support her.
    Councilwoman Leesa Perazzo, who had supported Mootooveren, said Porterfi eld would now get her vote.
    “From Day One I said both of them were good candidates,” Perazzo said. “Marion has strong community ties and she’s always worked very hard for the at-need population, and I think that’s very important.”
    Porterfield said Thursday she was stunned by the sudden shift. She had expected, two weeks ago, to run a primary election campaign against Mootooveren. Now she’s about to be a voting council member.
    “I’m still in shock, sort of,” she said.
    She added that she’s ready for the job. She has been working on neighborhood projects as the Weed and Seed coordinator, a position that is no longer paid because the grant was not renewed.
    “I love community work. This is just being a public servant in a greater way,” she said. “There is no person [on the council] whose focus is wholly on community work.”
    She plans to push for more employment.
    “My biggest passion is jobs for people, so they can live well,” she said.
    Mootooveren had been lukewarm on running against her. After he lost last year’s election, he said he probably would not seek the vacant seat by appointment or another election.
    Then, when his successful running mates championed him for the appointment, and his fellow Guyanese came to council meetings to argue on his behalf, he said he wanted the seat.
    But the campaign to be appointed to the seat turned acrimonious.
    Much of the focus turned to the ethnicity of each candidate: Porterfield is black; Mootooveren is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Guyana. ...........................>>>>........................>>>>..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01104&AppName=1

Quoted from Hamburg

Hooray for the Democratic Party team as it heads to another SWEEP in the County.........

Quoted from Hamburg

Hooray for the Democratic Party team as it heads to another SWEEP in the County.........

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SCHENECTADY
Porterfield picked for City Council
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Community organizer Marion Porterfield will become a member of the City Council next week.
    Council President Denise Brucker announced the decision at Monday’s committee meeting, although all of the Democrats already knew. They met last Thursday to decide on Porterfi eld.
    Councilman Vince Riggi, the only non-Democrat on the council, did not object. He had voted for Porterfi eld last month when the council tried to appoint someone to its vacant seat, though he said his vote was just a ploy to deadlock the appointment to fi ll the vacancy.
    Given that the last attempt to appoint someone ended in a 3-3 vote, Brucker said the council will not bring in a judge to swear in Porterfield when it votes next Monday.
    Usually, appointees are sworn in at a special ceremony at the beginning of the council meeting. Instead, once Porterfi eld gets enough votes to be appointed to the seat, she will simply sign the official book and take her seat as a voting member. She could be formally sworn in April 23, the following council meeting, Brucker said.
    The fi ve Democrats said they would all vote for her this time, so her victory is all but assured. .................>>>>....................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00902&AppName=1

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SCHENECTADY
Council names Porterfield to vacant seat
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

It’s official: Marion Porterfield is the new City Council member.
Porterfield, who outlasted John Mootooveren in the months-long fight to fi ll a council vacancy, was appointed Monday.
But the fi nal scene didn’t go smoothly.
Councilman Vince Riggi, the only non-Democrat on the council, blocked her automatic appointment. That forced the Democrats to a roll-call vote, at which he abstained. The other five council members voted for her. She needed at least four votes to get the seat. Riggi explained that he wasn’t voting against Porterfi eld. “I would like to see the voters decide,” he said. “I think that would be a true democratic way. And I think there’s too many appointments on the council.” Porterfield acknowledged Riggi’s explanation and said she would not hold his latest vote against him. Riggi voted for Porterfield the last time the council tried to vote on the issue, but he said then that he voted for her solely to keep the vote deadlocked at 3-3 so the seat would remain empty.
    Earlier in the year, he had called for the seat to be filled, and held interviews that garnered a variety of people, including Republicans, disaffected Democrats and unaffi liated residents.
    The Democrats on the council were deeply divided between Porterfi eld and Mootooveren, with three of the five supporting Mootooveren. But the campaign between the two became a heated argument between the candidates’ ethnicities — African-American and Guyanese-American — and their respective neighborhoods, Hamilton Hill and Mont Pleasant.
    Some Guyanese residents insisted that Mootooveren be appointed to give them a voice on the council, while many blacks said the vacant seat should be filled by an African-American.
    Council members had initially said they wanted the seat filled by a minority, since the only non-white resident to serve on the council retired on Dec. 31. But after the furor between the two ethnicities, they did not mention race at all Monday.
    Instead, Council President Denise Brucker said Porterfi eld was chosen because she could represent “all sections of the city.”
    “We appreciate your tenacity in a long, drawn-out process,” Brucker said.
    Councilman Carl Erikson added, “I think it’s important that we have full representation and all our seats fi lled.”
    Usually, appointments are the first item on the agenda, and new council members are immediately sworn in.
    Porterfield was invited to sit near the council members during the meeting, like other appointees have, but she had to wait more than 90 minutes before her appointment came up for a vote.
    Porterfield also will not be ceremonially sworn in until the next council meeting on April 23. Instead, she simply signed an ethics statement and took her seat without any fanfare.
    She is the fi rst black woman to serve on the council.
    After the meeting, she declined to give her age, saying she was over 50 and does not tell anyone her full age. She also declined questions about her marital status. ..............................>>>>........................>>>>...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00901&AppName=1

Quoted from benny salami

She won't even answer questions on her martial status. Rotsa Ruck in the DEM primary. Sidewalk Bob Sanders and Marion "Weed and Seed" Porterfield are the best you got? United Alliance/REP sweep in 2013. If you had a clue we would have seen it in the past 40 years.

Quoted from GrahamBonnet

Now imagine of a Republican declined to answer any questions about his/her age and marital status? OMG I could hear the outrage now!!!!!!!!!!!!