By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
OLEAN — Ward 6 Alderman Vernon Robinson Jr. has come a long way for a poor kid from the projects in South East Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday, Robinson, a regional warehouse manager for National Grid who has been a member of the Olean Common Council for the past five years, was elected council president.
He won by a 4-3 vote over Alderwoman Sonya McCall, D-Ward 4, and replaced John Crawford, the Ward 5 alderman, who resigned the president’s post before Tuesday’s meeting.
Robinson is the first Black person to hold the post of council president.
In an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Olean Star, Robinson spoke of fostering transparency and efficiency in city government. He said he had learned a lot from Crawford and Linda Witte, the former alderwoman and mayor.
He also emphasized the importance of focusing on community needs rather than personal agendas, the challenges of city procurement policies and the need to streamline decision-making. He is an Independent and doesn’t seem to like politics much.
The new council president said he is committed to helping others and is looking for increased accountability in city services. When constituents call with a question, he refers them in the right direction and follows up on it
Robinson said the announcement near the end of Tuesday’s meeting that Crawford would step down as council president, caught him by surprise.
Robinson is known as an alderman who does his homework. He’s prepared with questions for Mayor Bill Aiello or department heads after a presentation. He posts extensive reports after each council meeting on his official Facebook page — Alderman Vernon Robinson Jr. — and posts links to each meeting’s YouTube video. He has nearly 700 followers on his official Facebook page.
“So what I am hoping is that some of what I do hopefully rubs off on some of the other council members, you know, maybe they’ll look to be a little more transparent and share more information via their social media outlets,” Robinson said. “I look forward to working with everyone and trying to keep things going smoothly. I like to operate smoothly. I’m pretty much no nonsense. I don’t like to beat around the bush and make things last forever.”
Robinson said, “John (Crawford) was great. He was great to learn from. I appreciate a lot of the feedback that he provided. I learned a lot too from Linda Witte when she was on the council.” He currently serves as chairman of the Public Safety Committee.
He was named to the council July 28, 2020, succeeding Ron DaPolito, who resigned. Robinson’s show of appreciation to “Me Too” protestors outside Lincoln Park about the same time led to an inquiry of whether he’d consider being appointed to the council vacancy.
“It wasn’t a day or two later that someone approached me and said, ‘What do you think about being on the council?’” Robinson said he used to joke with his late friend Rick Lamberson, who was mayor of Allegany at the time, about someday being mayor of Olean.”I joked about it, but I didn’t know where to start, where to begin.”
Robinson enlisted in the U.S. Marines after graduating from high school in Washington, D.C. His bunkmate, Justin Rhodes, was from Bolivar, N.Y. His mother, Dee Rhodes started writing letters to Robinson. Soon, she started sending his address to some girls she knew who would write to Robinson. Dee was working at BOCES in Allegany at the time.
Michelle Clemons, who was training to become a nurse at BOCES, forgot to send a photo of herself and Robinson said he didn’t take her letter seriously at first. He wrote that he didn’t think it would work out. Meanwhile, she sent a second letter with a photo that crossed in the mail with Robinson’s reply.
When he saw the photo and learned more about her from Michelle’s second letter, he knew she was the one.
Dee had “played Cupid,” Robinson said. “She did her thing, and that was to give her (Michelle) my info. And I think God worked out the rest. We wrote letters for three, three and a half years,” and only met once during that time. “She came out to California to meet me.” Her father is Mickey Parks Sr.
This Sept. 10, will mark the Robinsons’ 31st anniversary. They have a son, Joshua, 30, who lives in Arizona, and a daughter, Aaliyah, 28, who lives in Columbus.
Robinson served in Korea during the Gulf War and was among the last Marines to leave Somalia before the Blackhawk Down incident. He was in boot camp when the U.S. invaded Panama. He served for four years, leaving as a corporal in the 7th Engineers at Camp Pendleton in California.
After arriving in Olean after his honorable discharge, Robinson took a job with Mazza Sheet Metal and later worked for 19 years at Henkel-Loctite in Olean before starting at National Grid.
“My primary reason for getting elected was to represent the people,” Robinson said. “You should consider it a blessing and be humbled by it. I don’t have any ulterior motives or political agenda. My focus is making Olean better. It’s about helping other people.”
Like other aldermen, Robinson admits to being frustrated at the rate of progress. The city is often hindered at the state level from moving faster.
The city “needs a playbook,” Robinson said, to be able to show residents that “the city is doing what they can” to resolve issues.
After five years on the council, Robinson said, “I’m still learning. Hopefully, we can all work together.”
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All Rights Reserved. Star News LLC. Eric M. Firkel.
