By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
Olean Common Council President Vernon Robinson Jr., announced Tuesday he planned to resign his seat before the end of the month.
Robinson became the first African American person on Common Council six years ago, and was the first elected Council president last year. He was appointed to the common council post July 28, 2020 by former Mayor William Aiello. His last day will be July 28.
Robinson was elected in a 4-3 vote over Alderwoman Sonya McCall, D-Ward 4, in August 2025 after the resignation of then-Council President John Crawford, D-Ward 5.
The Ward 6 alderman, an independent, gave no reason for his decision to resign his council seat. His brief comments came just before the public comment portion of the regular meeting. Robinson did not give a reason for his decision to leave the council.
He said he submited a letter of resignation to Mayor Amy Sherburne. Robinson urged the mayor begun looking for a successor and his fellow aldermen to start thinking about a new council president
In an interview with the Olean Star Wednesday morning, Robinson said, “I have multiple reasons for leaving, and I kind of just want to leave it at that.” He said he consulted his family while on vacation in Arizona and made the decision then.
Robinson is National Grid’s Western New York warehouse manager. Between city business and work emergencies like storms, “it’s hard to re-set on vacation,” he said. “I’m going to re-set.”
In recent months, the council president has called for better communication between the mayor’’s office and the council.
“There’s a lot going on at the city level, and I think we need some help there,” Robinson said. “So I hope whomever the mayor appoints will come in and will be a strong person and be able to assist and pick up where I left off and just help the council and and work with the mayor, you know, on moving forward.”
Robinson said, “I just want to leave it the way it is. That is I’m stepping down, leave it at peace, and you know, I don’t want to ruffle these feathers. I think there’s a good group there. If everyoney can listen and talk with each other, iron out any issues or whatever, I think they could do great things. But they they’re going to need someone that’s going to step up and and be able to do that.”
Multiple factors that came together were involved in his decision, he said. “You know what? I think it’s time. There’s no one particular thing that that outweighs the other. But yeah, I just need to get back to basics, take care of myself, and separate myself from the council in order to do that.”
Robinson was known for his detailed reports on common council meetings, which he posted on Facebook after each meeting.
Robinson is a Washington, D.C. native who came to Olean 31 years ago and raised a family. He met his wife, Michelle, while in the Marines, through a letter writing effort by his Bolivar bunkmate’s mother.
They married and settled in Olean, where Robinson worked first at Mazza Sheet Metal and later at Henkel-Loctite in Olean for 19 years before starting at National Grid.
Discover more from Olean Star
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
