Democratic candidate forum Tuesday

The Niagara Gazette is hosting a Democratic City Council primary candidate forum at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bloneva Bond Primary School, 2513 Niagara St.

Six candidates are running for 3 seats in the Democratic primary.

Three endorsed candidates are:

1. Noah Munoz, a real estate agent and newcomer who seems to be everywhere, whether Juneteenth or the Daredevil Museum opening or Beautification Commission events.
2. Bridgette Myles, formerly worked for the city, also the housing authority. Has a resume showing a lot of different jobs.
3. John Kinney is the retired head of the city DPW and a long-time city worker. All three are newcomers.

Challenging the endorsed candidates are:

1. Donta Myles finishing his first term on the city council. He is a fierce and outspoken advocate for the community and has consistently voted against initiatives put forth by Mayor Bob Restaino. He interviewed for, and was denied the Democratic party endorsement. Frequently spars with council chairperson James Perry and acting City Counsel Tom DeBoy. Seems to be everywhere in the community. Works selling life insurance.
2. Sylvanna Rahman is a real estate investor and software engineer who moved here with her family from New York City. Political newcomer.
3. Michia Lee is a social media influencer known online as Kilo Monroe. She came into the race late, gathering enough signatures to get on the ballot in only a few days. She is outspoken. She went from speaking at a city council meeting without a firm grasp of the city charter to running for office. Political newcomer.

Multiple challenges were placed against the petitions of all 6 candidates. Ultimately, every one of the challenges failed, not because they had incorrect or not enough signatures but because FedEx was used to serve court papers and either didn’t deliver them in a timely fashion or delivered them to a wrong address.

There are also three Republicans in the race for the general election.

1)Vincent Cauley is an engineer who previously served a short term on the council.

2) Tanya Barone is a newcomer, a real estate agent and animal rights advocate who initially got involved over the city’s alleged mishandling of its stray-dog crisis.

3) David Zajac is the incumbent finishing his first term. He usually votes with the majority to approve whatever the mayor wants but in recent meetings has occasionally dissented. While he does not speak a lot in meeting he does seem to do the behind-the-scenes information gathering needed to do the job.

Also on the November ballot on the Conservative line is former councilperson John Accardo, an insurance executive who failed to make the Republican line because he did not have enough qualified signatures. His Republican petitions were rejected at the Board of Elections.