53° and Sunny
Image
In the checks-and-balances that function as the transactional relationship between the Niagara Falls executive and legislative branches, it was the city council’s turn Wednesday.
Thankfully, the gallery remained safe in spite of the lack of armed police officers paid overtime to protect us.
Numerous agenda items were passed in a split vote because council member Vincent Cauley questioned information presented to the council by the administration of Mayor Robert Restaino and was joined by Bridgette Myles in his objection.
Even meeting in a work session before the regular meeting didn’t make a difference in resolving things.
The most petty item on the agenda, a budget transfer from the council to the DPW of $114.52 was sent to the municipal ethics board for consideration.
The amount is the cost of a grievance filed by the Trades Union because Cauley called Fox Fence to ask for an estimate for a fence at Gluck Park.
In the mayor’s way of thinking, Cauley overstepped his bounds because even if he claims to be a private citizen, he can’t call a private vendor to get an estimate. It is no different than the mayor trying to get a quote for a new roof on a firehouse.
Cauley’s counter is that he only wanted a number. He didn’t contract work. The park needs a fence. There is no harm done in finding out what it might cost. The supporting documents provided to the council included the
Ultimately, the referral to Ethics came from Councilmember Jim Perry, who, according to the mayor, spends more time asking questions and researching city business than any other council member.
It wasn’t even as simple as the council referring the petty matter to the ethics board, either. First, Cauley tried to pull it from the agenda, resulting in a 34-minute recess during which Frank Handley, who needs no microphone, orated from the front of the room, informing all present about upcoming community events.
Ultimately, following that recess, the community heard no ruling from Acting City Counsel Tom DeBoy who attends the biweekly circus as some form of penance designed by Dante as a level of Hell in the Inferno. DeBoy is the only representative of the executive branch other than the clerk’s office regularly asked to serve at the council meetings.
During the recess, Perry speaking in the gallery to Rick Pfeiffer and Joe Genco posited that referring to ethics was preferable to rejecting the grievance settlement because rejection could lead to binding arbitration resulting in a few thousand dollars in legal fees for outside counsel.
Those fees paid to outside counsel are usually reserved for representation of the city in its eminent domain lawsuit over the acquisition of land from Niagara Falls Redevelopment for the Mayor’s Centennial Park project, a $250 million hockey arena a half-mile from the tourism district justified by a feasibility study that excluded debt service or any real consideration of siting or taxpayer support.
In other action, a resolution for Niagara County to run summer recreation programs at city pools and to provide free lunch for children passed 3-2 with Cauley and Myles voting no because they wanted to see numbers on how many children attended last year. Both said while they supports community activity and children, the administration must be accountable. Archie said his questions regarding the program had been satisfactorily answered. David Zajac joined Perry and Archie in passing the resolution 3-2.
A resolution to waive back taxes on 39 Main Street properties owned by the Urban Renewal Agency passed after a short debate. Archie noted questions about the URA and what it does are best answered during its meeting at 4:30 p.m. next Wednesday at city hall. Council members serve on the board of the URA.
In a surprising turn of consensus, the council voted unanimously to alienate Porter Park so that the cannon site can by turned over to Rupal Development and redeveloped by the DoubleTree operator as a new public park.
Speakers for the good of the community lost their minds for 3-minutes each, ranting, raving and comporting themselves cantankerously, generally raging against the machine until time expired, sound and fury signifying disgust.
The photo with today’s coverage is the cedar planted by Mayor Restaino and the Mayor of Beit, Lebanon as a symbol of sisterhood between the two cities in October of 2025. It died within 6 months.
