This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Shannon Filbert’s life has been marked by a number of big moments. As a teenager living in West Seneca, she suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident that left her bound to a wheelchair. Undeterred in the years since, she’s navigated the stigma of disability while racking up a string of accomplishments like becoming the first woman justice in West Seneca Town history leading to now – having been named Erie County’s newest Family Court judge – the only quadriplegic elected to a full-time judgeship in New York.

Joanne Cunningham became the first woman to chair the Albany County Legislature after she was sworn in on Monday. The Bethlehem legislator replaced Andrew Joyce and will lead Democrats and the 39 member legislature through the following term. Cunningham is in her third term and a woman will also serve as her deputy after Wanda Willingham resumes her post. Cunningham isn’t a stranger to leadership roles as she is chief executive director of the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare and the chair of the Bethlehem Democratic Commitee.

The Monroe County Legislature is at it again – and this time, they took a page out of congressional Republicans’ book. After three failed votes for the new Democratic majority to elect a president, they finally succeeded in elevating Yversha Roman on the fourth attempt. Roman had served as a minority leader before her party won back the Legislature, but when time came to elect a new president, two of the 16 Democrats wouldn’t back her, primarily over housing. It left Roman one vote short. But they finally reached a consensus on vote four that left Roman in charge.

New York City Council Member Keith Powers isn’t exactly powerless, but he was stripped of a leadership role in a surprising and immediately confusing move by Speaker Adrienne Adams. The speaker’s office referred to the appointment of Council Member Amanda Farías to the majority leader role Powers previously held as having to do with readying the next generation and elevating a Latina member to the position for the first time. But there’s little obvious sense to be made of reports that Powers, an Adams ally, received just an hour’s notice of the surprising switch.

For nearly three decades, Assembly Member Helene Weinstein has tried to make the Grieving Families Act law. But for the second time in a row, Gov. Kathy Hochul chose to veto the legislation. This despite changes Weinstein and fellow sponsor state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal made meant to address the governor’s concerns the first time she vetoed. What’s more, Hochul’s counter offer before vetoing the bill a second time would have gutted the law, going so far as removing the word “grief” from the Grieving Families Act.

Bronx Community Board 11 was once again roiled with drama when Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson removed Miguel Dyer from his post at the end of the year. Gibson said Dyer was unprofessional after the community board member gave someone the middle finger on Zoom and said that the city Department of Transportation is “raping the people” back in April, The City reported. Community Board members are volunteers, but turns out you can be fired even if you were never paid. Dyer’s removal follows uproar over two other CB 11 members, one of whom is alleged to be chronically absent and another of whom wrote a racist op-ed about Black people. Eesh!