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The unrepresented Niagara Falls Executive branch failed to get a rubber stamp on a contract from the for the fourth time in recent months last night.
As happened on spending American Rescue Plan funds for a new building for the DPW and again for construction of a new dog shelter, and again for the continuation of an animal shelter contract, the council voted to delay a decision on an item important enough to be placed on the agenda but not important enough for anyone other than Acting Corporation Counsel Tom DeBoy who didn’t have answers to attend a meeting.
Wednesday night, it was a simple, miniscule really, matter of renewing the contract for Granicus, the software provider responsible for monitoring short term rentals and set for a $37,000 contract renewal.
The council agreed to postpone continuation of the contract which will likely be approved in two weeks when Republican-affiliated Traci Bax will likely return to join Republican-affiliated David Zajac who joins to approve every decision the Mayor wants with the assent of Democratic-affiliated Chairperson James Perry.
The closest thing to accountability for Granicus was Perry saying he saw a report a few months ago reporting what Granicus had accomplished. No one bothered to share that level of reporting with the city council.
The short-term rental ordinance (STR) was passed in 2022 to regulate small businesses that compete with big hotels who make large donations to existing politicians seeking reelection.
As Cherrish Beals said at last night’s meeting, the STR ordinance addressed a problem that did not exist. When the STR ordinance passed, there was no one in the community complaining. The donor class who run the hotels, however, were demanding a return on investment from the mayor so he implored the council to accede to his wishes..
The ordinance was passed with the promise it would be revisited annually and revised as needed. That has never happened.
In the middle of the storm, Granicus was cast as the outfit that will monitor illegal operators and report to code enforcement only their website, important for business owners to access to register or re-register, was down for eight to 10 months. No one knows if it is working now.
Granicus may have done a great job of that over three years only no one knows because no one from the executive branch attends meetings or answers questions aside from DeBoy, who won’t trod far enough to risk getting fired at the whim of the Mayor.
AirBnb owner Beals spoke to the council about the Granicus and the ordinance “all of which address a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Beals called it redlining and a waste of government resources.
Lawrence Blaber asked a simple question which fell on deaf ears.
“Why Granicus?” he asked. “Has it saved the city money? What has Granicus done to deserve this renewal?”
Blaber said said as a Realtor he has experience with Granicus identifying STRs that were not. He also knows of basement and third floor apartments functioning as rentals against code.
The only justification available from the administration was DeBoy saying “the men and women who enforce codes say they need it.”
Counciperson Dante Myles was particularly harsh in his assessment of Granicus.
“They didn’t do anything,” he said, “. . . they didn’t make anything better. They are doing something a 15-year-old could do with a cellphone.”
Myles also questioned why, if the software was vital, the council never received a memo it was down and there was no citywide communication about the system being down.
Ultimately, Perry agreed to delay any decision until more information is available.
