Yesterday at City Hall, everything that is wrong with city government in Niagara Falls was on full display. Let me be clear, this rests on both the Mayor and the City Council. Let's start with the Mayor. The City Council invited the Mayor to come to their work session at 4pm to discuss the city's fiscal situation. Specifically, the Council wanted to know what the Mayor will do if the City does not receive casino revenue this year. The answer given, as reported in the Niagara Gazette, illustrates why Paul Dyster is in over his head.
The Mayor told the Council that he has been given every indication that the arbitration between New York State and the Seneca Nation will be settled by summer. If this does not come to pass, Dyster indicated that his administration is looking at various scenarios including re-visiting the offer made by the New York Power Authority which was to accelerate payments to the City as a result of the re-licensing agreement. This is what you call leadership???
I have stated many times that Dyster has not come up with one proposal to reduce City expenditures. He continues down that path with his "hope and a prayer" that the arbitration is settled and if that fails he is prepared to take money from the Power Authority in a ponzi scheme that ends up short changing the City in the long run. The Mayor's idea of leadership is to continue to kick the can down the road and hope someone will save him from having to make tough decisions. With leadership like that the City of Niagara Falls will never create a business climate that will be attractive to developers. The Mayor and his Administration should be ashamed of themselves. Maybe when Dyster and his City Administrator go to these conferences they should attend meetings where they can learn about ways to consolidate city services.
The City Council is no better. In their defense, they really need to take lead from the Mayor in order to deal with the fiscal situation. But their ham-handed approach in how they have dealt with local volunteer agencies smacks of political retribution which typifies the political environment for the last 50 years in Niagara Falls. This toxic political environment is as big of a detriment to economic development in this City as the inability to make government more cost effective.
The Gang of 3's rejection of the Oshei Foundation's offer to co-fund the NACC further illustrates that this is all about taking a shot at Dyster. First, the money that is used to fund the NACC is bed tax money. This has no impact on city property taxpayers. Bed tax comes from people who stay at local hotels and motels. Let me say it again: there is NO impact on city property taxes. Second, Oshei's offer was to put up $15,000 with the City coming up with $15,000. This means only using $15,000 of bed tax revenue and keeping the City landmark open.
What is abundantly clear to me is that there are no adults running city government. On the one hand, you have a Mayor who is hoping that the Easter Bunny will come and leave him chocolate, Easter eggs and casino cash in his Easter Basket. And on the other hand, you have the Gang of 3 who are the schoolyard bullies that are going to extract whatever they can from their political enemies. If you wonder why Niagara Falls has not prospered, last night gives you the answer. Incompetence, lack of courage and political vindictiveness are the plagues destroying the City. It's time boys and girls in City Hall to put your big boy and girl pants on and do what's right for the people you serve. Unfortunately, I don't see it happening.
No comments:
Post a Comment