Rev. Craig Pridgen nailed it in describing the numbers as “alarming.” That’s just the right word for the current makeup of the Niagara County government employee roster. As Pridgen, the pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church in Niagara Falls, noted during the county legislature’s Tuesday business meeting, minorities account for just 3.4% of the county’s overall staff, while the latest Census figures show 12.6% of the county population is minorities.
“That number should be alarming to everyone in this room,” Pridgen told county lawmakers. “My concern is we are OK with these numbers. We need to get to the root of this problem.” Yes, we do.
