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So I had some spirited discussion this week about the state of Niagara Falls city government.
The truth is Mayor Bob Restaino just enjoyed the best year possible and he is set up to do it all over again. Consider:
He won reelection by a landslide (in Trump terms, hey, what’s a few hundred votes between friends.)
He got every initiative he wanted passed through the City Council, including spending all $56 million of American Rescue Plan funds every way he wanted.
He got new police cars and fire trucks and body cams.
He got a new and $8.03 million DPW building.
And a $4.5 million dog shelter in Hyde Park.
Voter turnout in the city is abysmal. City employees vote. Keep the police, fire, city hall, DPW and Cristoforo Colombo Society happy and everyone who votes is happy.
He also got his entire budget, with a tax increase for residents, passed with no changes from the council after he vetoed their requests.
Donta Myles ranted and raved and challenged. Sometimes he got a second from Brian Archie, but chairperson Jim Perry, and councilpersons Traci Bax and David Zajac remained steadfastly loyal to the mayor’s causes, passing everything he wanted with nary a public challenge from the dais.
The vetoed budget changes would have moved Beech Avenue park forward and given the council counsel because, get this, the council didn’t have sound advice on where it was taking money from. It didn’t ask the right questions of Acting Corporation Counsel Tom DeBoy who, incidentally, serves at the pleasure of the mayor.
Restaino dictated his side of the budget story to Rick Pfeiffer at the Niagara Gazette, who wrote as he was told, lest the mayor send a nasty letter to Rick’s bosses. (I used to be one of Rick’s bosses and have seen such letters. Intimidation works.)
He also got a plan passed to replace the city’s outdated incandescent streetlights with LEDs, which will save significantly on annual electric costs and be paid for with ARP funds. The savings, rather than going to pay a bond which could have funded the work, will come off the utility line on the city budget.
Moves like that have increased the city’s bond rating so when it comes time to borrow money, say to build Centennial Park Arena, it will cost less.
He dropped a bomb this week on his Youtube address, telling voters (he only speaks to voters, if you don’t vote, who cares about you?) that a large portion of the Centennial Park parcel was ceded to Niagara Falls Redevelopment in 2004 without an appropriate alienation process for the abandonment of parkland, as was just done with Buffalo Avenue Park which will help accommodate a massive hotel expansion for the Marriott.
By the mayor’s way of thinking, the city should be able to retake that property without eminent domain. It will be interesting to see where that goes in court and how much property tax will be required to be refunded.
Meanwhile, quietly, and in the background, lobbyists the administration retained are working in Alban and Washington to secure funding for that project.
NFR is pushing forward with its Urbacon data center but it feels a bit like it did when the state was about to take the waterpark using eminent domain. The people running it did everything they could to employ as many kids and show as much attendance as possible, thus enhancing the value.
The proposed Urbacon center has the same impact on value.
The mayor also retained a city-friendly consulting firm to complete a feasibility study which will, inevitably, reflect positively on the economic impact of a new hockey arena adjacent to the casino and a half-mile from the entertainment district, even more distant from the State Park.
I have visions of a hockey family with a 6 and 8 year old, trudging a half-mile down Niagara Street in February to get some wings on Third Street.
Even when it appeared the council may have stood up to the mayor on the matter of the Pit Chic continuing to receive more than $20,000 per month to shelter 17 of the 50 or so stray dogs in the city at any given moment it didn’t really. He won again because the initial contract, issued more than two years after the Niagara County SPCA said it would stop handling the city’s strays, included a clause that said he could extend it unilaterally.
Despite a bimonthly parade of concerned dog lovers speaking for the good of the community, the feckless council has done nothing to demand the mayor do something about the 33 or so dogs roaming the streets, let alone the cats.
A single, hardworking Dog Control Officer Donny Booth does the best he can but can’t work 24/7. Kelli Swagel, the Pit Chic, does the best she can to take care of the third of the stray dogs for which she has room. $20,000 monthly to take care of 17 dogs in a kennel is not that expensive.
Meanwhile, Perry got reelected council chairperson. In the coming year, Centennial Park will move forward because Restaino still holds the votes of Perry, Bax and Zajac in his hand.
The Mayor in recent months has taken to including loosely coded dog whistles in his weekly Youtube messages, dressing down Arlene Doss without speaking her name and referring to Myles as the “sunshine councilperson.”
This week he talked about “our community–minded councilperson” the “check and balance council member” who doesn’t put in the work. “He just votes no on everything.”
He even put a boomerang in the background on Youtube even if he would not mention Myles by name, but when he uses 6:48 of 17:47 minute video to harangue one person you know someone is under his skin.
Meanwhile the folks ranting and raving about the dog issue have begun making claims about the mayor being adulterous. They may be guilty of slander. Of course, if it comes down to legal action, the greatest defense is truth.
And if they keep on with the same rhetoric, I would like to see a lawsuit because no one should be free to make spurious claims without proof because they don’t like the person they are attacking. Bob’s wife deserves better.
Meanwhile, when we look at it all, as my Sicilian friends say, “that’s just Bobby being Bobby.” In another words, “winning” because not enough people vote and 3 council members do whatever he wants.
How can he top 2024 in 2025? We shall see. But he has the votes.
Here’s a link to this week’s missive.
