Morinello criticizes Mayor

(Editor’s note: About 6 months ago the Niagara Express was the first media outlet to estimate the cost of Mayor Restaino’s Centennial Park at $250 million. We were immediately taken to task by the mayor's sycophants who objected to the characterization of the proposed facility as a hockey rink a half-mile from the entertainment district, not a multi-purpose event center. Now Assemblyman Angelo Morinello has turned against this project, and the Mayor. Usually Italians in the Falls, especially of Morinello’s age and status, excuse anything Restaino does by saying “oh, that’s just Bobby being Bobby.” This is the first time the Express remembers a member of that inner circle turning against him. It likely means either 1) Morinello has grasped the obvious or 2) Our Assemblyman is in his final 2-year term and so he doesn’t care if he loses the Mayor’s support. The following is shared because if the Gazette escapes the CNHI paywall with worthy content, it is free so you should be able to read it without supporting the Birmingham Carpetbaggers. Hey, that might be a good name for a minor league baseball team . . .  anyway. . . .)

By MARK SCHEER, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.

(As published by Yahoo)

Former city court judge and current New York state Assemblyman Angelo Morinello publicly pulled his support for Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino last week, telling a group of local Republicans that he could see the incumbent Democrat depicted in a cartoon as the Roman emperor Nero, who is “fiddling while the city burns.”

In a video posted on Facebook by the Niagara Falls Republican Committee, Morinello tells a crowd gathered for an event held last Friday at LaSalle Waterfront Park that he believes Restaino is failing to address the basic needs of the city while focusing too much on what he views as the latest in a long line of Niagara Falls “silver bullets” — the mayor’s proposed $200 million arena and events campus known as Centennial Park.

“In my 79 years, I have never seen a city so decrepit and so desperate,” Morinello said. “If you drive around and you see the housing — zero focus on housing in this city, zero focus on cleanliness.”

“I’ve been a conservative, moderate peacemaker and I never really attack, but I’m at my wit’s end because I had some high hopes for our mayor and I have been so disappointed because he is showing the same tendencies that he did when I sat on the bench with him while he was still there until the state told him to go away,” Morinello added.

In the video, Morinello, who endorsed Restaino during the 2019 and 2023 mayoral elections, encourages fellow Republicans to mobilize this year to help the city change course and to prevent the next round of city council candidates from serving as a “rubber stamp” for the mayor.

“The Democratic Party has held this city hostage since 1964,” Morinello said. “We’ve had governors that are Democrats who were supposed to be the best friend of our mayors and one of our assembly members. Nothing came about it. So let’s get realistic. We’ve got to fight for our own existence and we’ve got to fight for this year’s council.”

Restaino and his brother, City Administrator Anthony Restaino, did not respond to requests for comment from the Niagara Gazette.

Niagara County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Borgatti described Morinello’s speech during a GOP fundraiser as “political opportunism” and “smoke and mirrors” aimed at deflecting attention away from his own failings as a long-time city official and one of the city’s top representatives in Albany. Borgatti said it was “sad” to hear Morinello getting personal in his comments while failing to discuss any real solutions for addressing the problems the city faces.

“At the end of the day, there shouldn’t be politics involved in fixing things,” Borgatti said. “It should be all of us working together and to hear the assemblyman and recently the senator (state senate Minority Leader and North Tonawanda Republican Rob Ortt) attacking city leadership, what about their plans for fixing Niagara Falls? The city is in their districts.”

“Do I think Niagara Falls can be better and the administration can do more? Sure,” he added. “I think they are trying their best and there are things they can do, but it’s not just the mayor who can do things. They need to have relationships with state leaders that can deliver for Falls projects.”

Morinello did not reserve his criticism of Falls’ leadership for Restaino alone. In the video, he references the decision by Falls leaders in 1964 to pursue the federally funded Urban Renewal project downtown, which he said “destroyed” the city’s downtown. He also referenced the three-term tenure of former Falls mayor and Democrat Paul Dyster, whom Morinello said received “$178 million in casino funds,” with little to show for it.