Edward Arnold Hanna (April 7, 1922 – March 13, 2009) was an American businessman and politician. He was mayor of Utica, New York, from 1974 to 1978 and from 1996 to 2000, running as an independent. Often described as a populist, Hanna was widely regarded as eccentric and abrasive and constantly clashed with the Utica business and political establishment, the rest of city government, and other local groups. A "non-stop talker" who The New York Times called "flamboyant, combative, and controversial", he once described Utica as "a stinking, rotten town" and "a lousy place to live" and told Uticans to move away for better opportunities. He built and renovated a number of parks and public artworks during his terms. However, Hanna failed to stem Utica's long-term economic and population decline.
Early life Edward Arnold Hanna was born in Utica, New York, to Lebanese immigrants Anthony and Sophie Hanna on April 7, 1922. He left Utica Free Academy during his sophomore year to enlist with the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He reached the rank of sergeant and received the Purple Heart for a gunshot wound received fighting on Guam. After returning home Hanna married and had two sons. He started a series of manufacturing and distribution businesses. He developed an improved photographic developer that was popular worldwide, which led to him becoming wealthy and a role as a consultant for Eastman Kodak.
Through the 1950s, the local Democratic party was led by Rufus Elefante, a political boss who was largely at the center of Utica's widespread corruption. In 1955, in recognition of Hanna's support, Elefante and other Democratic leaders recommended that governor Averell Harriman appoint Hanna to the Central New York State Parks Commission. The post was non-paying and largely ceremonial, but Hanna took it upon himself to inspect state parks. He found that the children of politicians and party leaders were often employed in paying summer jobs that they never actually reported to. Hanna called for an inquiry into the state parks system; instead, a State Council of Parks subcommittee said Hanna was unfit to serve and asked the governor to remove him. Hanna continued to escalate, eventually calling for Robert Moses to be dismissed as chairman of the State Council of Parks and for the Central New York State Parks Commission to be replaced. Hanna's fight was covered by The New York Times. The state and local Democratic party saw Hanna's actions as a black eye, putting him out of their good graces: he was not reappointed as a parks commissioner in 1956.
Local Democratic leadership attempted to convince Hanna to run for Congress in 1956, setting him up to lose against the Republican incumbent William R. Williams: he instead ran for the New York State Assembly, where he lost in the Democratic primary. Hanna was city parks commissioner from 1958 to 1960, where he was one of the few city officials not implicated in organized crime and prostitution scandals. Later, he successfully ran for the assembly in 1965, joining the 176th New York State Legislature. He advocated for the elimination of the assembly, making New York a unicameral legislature. He also called for Elefante to resign from politics and asked Senator Robert F. Kennedy to help reorganize the Democratic party in Oneida County. The Democratic Party did not support his reelection campaign, and he only served one year. In 1972 he ran in the Democratic primary for the Assembly seat and lost.
Mayorship from 1974 to 1978
In 1973, Hanna ran as an independent in the race for Mayor of Utica and won a narrow victory against Republican incumbent Michael Caruso and a Democratic challenger. Hanna had pledged to eliminate 200 city jobs and cut city spending: at the time, Utica had the fourth-highest taxes in New York and second-highest unemployment. As both his opponents were Italian Americans, vote-splitting in Utica's large Italian population played a role in his win. He was reelected in 1975 with a majority of the vote.
In his first year, Hanna cut 225 positions and fired 15 city executives: he took on the management of five city departments himself. He also reformed city purchasing procedures, which had been subject to corruption and bribery. In late 1975, Hanna imposed a wage freeze for all city employees. In 1976, he reduced the Department of Public Works from 240 to 70 employees and introduced legislation to privatize the remaining employees. This was met with complaints from the public about insufficient snow removal and street repair, as well as legal action from the Teamsters.
Hanna removed the door from the mayor's office as a show of openness (although it was replaced a few months later) and invited Uticans to visit City Hall and inspect city files and correspondence at will. He had a sign hung in City Hall that said "This City Government Belongs to the People" and told staff to answer the phone, "People's Government". Hanna initially took only $1 as a salary, although he was later forced to take the entire amount. Hanna was reported to work more than 18-hour days, consuming mainly saltine crackers and milk. City meetings often jumped from topic to topic with no clear agenda. He wrote personal checks to cover city expenses so often that his wife started letting him take only three blank checks to work each day.
Hanna controlled City Hall tightly. Early in 1974 he ordered the city stamp machine be placed in his office and that all outgoing mail be brought to his office unsealed before mailing; this resulted in a blizzard of unsent mail in his office. He ordered that city telephone bills be reviewed for unauthorized long-distance charges, barred city employees from using public works garages for personal vehicles, and locked gas pumps in public works garages to prevent theft. Apparently prompted by a critical editorial after he called for the resignation of the entire Common Council, he barred city employees from speaking to Utica's two newspapers, the Utica Daily Press and Observer-Dispatch. He recommended the newspapers of Syracuse instead, saying they were less influenced by local politics. The ban did not apply to radio and TV news. Hanna later threatened to sue the papers. The ban was lifted and reinstated at times and was sometimes disregarded by city officials such as the comptroller and clerk, who were more independent of Hanna.
Hanna publicly railed against the Utica political and business establishment, sometimes during meetings on completely different topics. In a press conference he called Utica "a lousy place to live" and advised young Uticans to seek their fortunes elsewhere, blaming the local newspapers and chamber of commerce. At one time he telephoned the president of a company who stood in Hanna's way to call him "a pimple on my fanny". He was especially vitriolic whenever they interfered with his plans. When city bankers signed a joint letter opposing Hanna's plans for a hotel, Hanna withdrew the city's deposits and transferred them to a recently opened branch of Chase Manhattan. Relations between Hanna and the business community eased somewhat during his second term. Hanna also spoke out against labor unions, calling them "our nation's number one [...] villains" and blaming them for ruining New York City. Hanna fought with most other groups he saw as uncooperative as well, including the League of Women Voters and a community action group from the impoverished Corn Hill neighborhood.
Hanna's opponents accused him of egomania, instability, making misleading statements about budget matters, a lack of foresight and long-term plans, and an unwillingness to either listen or delegate: the business community in particular feared that his volatility would drive away investors. Some Utica businessmen questioned whether Hanna was at all an improvement over the status quo of widespread corruption that preceded him. A former editor of the Utica newspapers, Mason C. Taylor, joined Hanna's administration as an advisor but quit after two months: his letter of resignation criticized Hanna's autocratic and abusive governing style and expressed fears that city government could collapse badly enough that the state would need to step in. Initially Hanna repaired relations with Elefante, who served as an advisor, and he even proclaimed April 7 as "Rufus P. Elefante Day". However, Elefante resigned after seven months, stating that Hanna never took his advice. In 1975, the Oneida County Executive asked federal and county prosecutors to investigate Hanna for official misconduct. Utica's two Gannett papers returned Hanna's venom in kind: the editor of The Daily Press called him "some kind of emperor [...] allowing the peasants to enjoy the largesse of the sovereign". Although Hanna's opponents agreed that the tax cuts he implemented were long due, they said the cuts were accomplished in part by financial manipulation. However, many working-class Uticans admired Hanna's independence and unwillingness to take guff, as well as his willingness to try new things even if they did not work out.
Hanna's eccentric, impulsive actions produced further anecdotes. Within a single day, he hired one man to manage the Utica Memorial Auditorium, only to hire the same man into another role as director of the city bus company. He hired another man then fired him because he felt his salary was too high, writing a check to the city for the overage. He fired the entire Public Works department, then rehired them the next day. He let a teen rock band practice in City Hall's underground Civil Defense shelter, then wrote them a check for $1,000 when their instruments were stolen. In the summer of 1976, Hanna attempted to raise the age of a 9-year-old girl to 16 by proclamation so that she could work at a city park concession stand: this was rejected by the city's comptroller.
Hanna announced his candidacy for the 1976 United States Senate election in New York, stating that he could "do nothing more" for Utica, but he withdrew several weeks later. Hanna lost reelection in 1977.
Conflicts with police department Hanna frequently clashed with the city police department. Shortly after the election and before his inauguration, Hanna convinced the Utica Common Council to reject a police contract that Caruso had negotiated the previous month that would have raised police salaries, and, due to a parity clause, those of firefighters as well. He alleged that Caruso was using the contract to garner votes from the police and fire departments. Hanna and the councilmen who voted against the contract received anonymous death threats and were placed under police surveillance.
One of Hanna's first acts was to order city policemen to salute citizens on the street, which they refused. In August of his first year, four youths in the Corn Hill neighborhood were arrested following a disturbance, and Hanna ordered them released. Three were released, but the arresting officer refused to release the fourth. When Chief Benny Rotundo backed the officer and complained that Hanna was interfering with police procedures, Hanna had Rotundo suspended.