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With a few days to digest the massive, last-minute American Rescue Plan allocation recommendations by Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino I am in awe of the sheer Machiavellian nature of it all.
$56 million of federal funds were allocated to Niagara Falls on April 18, 2021. It is 44 months later and $18.25 million, remains unallocated that we know about. There has been no full accounting. If it is not allocated by year end,meaning actual contracts in hand, money gets turned back to the federal government on a hard deadline.
The brilliance of it is by waiting until Wednesday, the city council has two choices: 1) Give the mayor what he recommends 2) Send money back to the federal government.
It is entirely plausible that $56 million is so much money needing to be spent, with so many different fiefdoms to serve, that deciding what to put in and what to put out leaves the mayor running against the wind no matter how he chooses (apologies to Bob Seger).
Things to be voted on Wednesday:
- $4.18 million to build out the new dog shelter in Hyde Park.
- $1.15 million for Duck Island restoration.
- $1.18 million for HVAC improvements at the John Duke Senior Center.
- $451,000 for renovations at the Hyde Park Golf Dome Annex.
- $8.03 million for construction of a new building at the DPW.
- $1.05 million to pay Trautman and Associates for engineering on all of the above but the dog park.
- $2.21 million to extend an agreement with Axon Enterprises for police body cams over the next 3 years.
Not one of the above 5 expenditures of ARP funds was brought to the city in public forums on the expenditure of federal moneys, nor is any item located in the 4th Legislative District or DeVeaux. The infrastructure improvements create no legacy costs. Paying for body cam services will make a difference in the budget 4 years from now which will be in the next mayoral term.
Also on the agenda is extension of the dog sheltering agreement with the Grand Island-based Pit Chic.
If the meeting ends before 10 p.m. it will be shocking.
