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Obituary: James Edward Bulls / Former Pittsburgh councilman, county official from Manchester
Wednesday, July 25, 2001 By James O'Toole, Politics Editor, Post-Gazette
James Edward Bulls, 63, a former Pittsburgh city councilman known as a quiet but influential voice in North Side politics, died Monday of complications of diabetes.
Mr. Bulls was the Democratic chairman of Manchester's 21st Ward, the neighborhood where he was born and raised, when he was elected to council in a 1977 special election to fill the unexpired term of the late Councilman Louis Mason.
His tenure was relatively quiet and unexpectedly brief. Two years later, although he retained the support of the city's Democratic organization, he finished a disappointing eighth in a council primary in which five nominations were at stake in the city's former at-large council system.
Mr. Bulls was also a trustee and member of the board of ushers of his church, the Greater Allen Full Gospel A.M.E. Church. His devotion to his church and to politics overlapped in an annual prayer breakfast that he organized and hosted. It was a fixture on the city's political calendar, regularly drawing an audience of hundreds that included community members and politicians from throughout the city.
"It was always a big turnout; they really packed them," said city Controller Tom Flaherty. "You could see he really had the respect of the community up there."
Mr. Bulls graduated from Oliver High School and attended Knoxville College in Kentucky. He was an Army veteran and also took courses at Albany State College in Georgia during his time in the service.
He rose through city politics, starting as an elected committee member before taking over as ward chairman. He served as a member of the county board of assessors, one of the first black men to serve on that board, and was an audit supervisor in the county controller's office when he was elected to council.
After his council defeat, then county Commissioners Tom Foerster and Pete Flaherty appointed him director of community services for the county in 1980. He served concurrently as City Council's appointee to the board of the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, a position that would enmesh him in controversy and end his career as a public official.
Mr. Bulls resigned from Alcosan under a cloud after questions were raised about expenses he had collected for a trip that he could not document. With his resignation, he repaid the $964 in questioned expenses. Shortly thereafter, while the controversy still swirled, he also resigned from his post as a county director, citing health reasons.
Mr. Bulls' tenure at Alcosan drew the scrutiny of a federal grand jury after two men claimed that he had promised them authority jobs in return for cash payments. The probe drew widespread publicity at the time, but no charges were ever filed against Mr. Bulls.
The controversy apparently did little to dampen Mr. Bulls' lifelong devotion to politics.
"He remained a significant political player in his old neighborhood and throughout the North Side," said David Wecht, the county register of wills. "He had a lot of insight, and unlike a lot of people who support candidates, he didn't ask for things. He just seemed to want to help; he never came hat-in-hand asking for favors."
"For all the trouble he encountered, he never seemed to harbor any resentment," Flaherty said. "He was street smart, but he was a real gentleman."
Mr. Bulls was also a former member of the boards of Moms House and of the Community College of Allegheny County. Last year, Renaissance Magazine, a local publication that concentrates on minority issues, selected Mr. Bulls for its Trailblazer Award for community service.
Mr. Bulls is survived by his wife, Frances Darden-Bulls; his mother, Lucille Ralph-Wilson; a son, James Frank Bulls; a daughter, Rena Marie Bulls Range, all of Pittsburgh; five brothers, Richard Bulls of Philadelphia, Donald Bulls, Frederick Bulls, Wayne Bulls and Robert Bulls, all of Pittsburgh; a stepbrother, Ronald Humphreys of Pittsburgh; five sisters, Catherine Sizemore, Sandra Thompson, Shirley Ulmer, Patricia Bulls and Roberta Bulls, all of Pittsburgh; and four grandchildren.
Friends will be received from 2 to 9 p.m. today and tomorrow in the Greater Allen Full Gospel A.M.E. Church, 3600 California Ave., Brighton Heights, where a funeral service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Friday. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Odell Robinson Funeral Home, North Side.
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