Guyanese-American is top vote-getter in City Council race
John Mootooveren made history Tuesday night when he became the first person of Guyanese descent to be elected to the City Council. But you wouldn’t know that when speaking with Mootooveren, a Democrat, after his win. All he wants to discuss is controlling spending in the budget and rehabilitating neighborhoods — possibly by appealing to the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority for money.
Mootooveren (pronounced Moo-ta-veer-in) said his beginnings in the South American country on the Caribbean coast aren’t what made him a good candidate or what will influence him once he takes office Jan. 1. “I don’t look at it from that aspect,” said Mootooveren, 41, who is an accountant. “I look at it that the voters have made the right choice. They have chosen someone who they think can represent them.”
Mootooveren, who moved to Schenectady from New York City in 2001, had to work for his new post. He was embroiled in a Democratic fight last year when the party couldn’t choose between him and Marion Porterfield to fill Mayor Gary McCarthy’s council seat. The undercurrent of the debate was whether it was more important to have a Guyanese-American or African-American on the council. Spurred by then-Mayor Al Jurczynski’s push to bring Guyanese people up from Queens to invest in property, Schenectady’s Guyanese population has continued to grow over the last decade. But Mootooveren backed out of City Council contention in the spring of 2012, and Porterfield was appointed. In November of that year, he ran for his own seat but lost.
This time around Mootooveren was not only elected; he received the most votes in a field of six candidates, including Democratic incumbents Porterfield and Carl Erikson – a victory no doubt solidified by his being the only Democratic candidate endorsed by the Conservative Party. Mootooveren says his fiscal conservatism brought that endorsement, but in Schenectady the Conservative Party is also a base of power for the police union.
Despite being the first Guyanese-American elected to City Council, he isn’t the first in Schenectady County. Philip Fields, a Democrat, has represented the city on the County Legislature since 2005. Sid Ramotar, a Republican, became a Glenville Town Board member in 2009. Both men won re-election. (Taken from timesunion.com)
