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Kimble Hires Top Buffalo Lawyer

To Overturn Opinion Favoring Janese

By Tony Farina

Lawyer Robert Boreanaz will investigate claims that Ted Janese lll does not live in Niagara Falls.
A room is still a room, even when there's nothing there but gloom.

“I'll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today.”

Only problem is there isn't even a table to place the vase on.

Every room is empty. The closets are bare. It sure looks vacant, yet Ted Janese lll says he lives here.

Home for the Holidays?

When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze (or a table or a couch) For the holidays you can't beat home, sweet home.

As we reported last week, the legal counsel for the Niagara Falls Water Board has written a legal opinion that supports claims by Board Chairman Ted Janese lll that his primary residence is still Niagara Falls and not that of his wife’s new home in Lewiston. This opinion effectively upholds his tie-breaking vote at last month’s board meeting to appoint the husband of a Republican county legislator to a $70,000 a year job at the Water Board.

But Vice Chairman Renae Kimble, who lodged the complaint against Janese’s residency, is not backing off her efforts to have Janese removed and his votes voided for violating the residency requirements of the board’s bylaws and has retained prominent Buffalo attorney Robert Boreanaz to press the case legally.

“I’ve reviewed the evidence,” Boreanaz told the Reporter,“ and it indicates Janese is not residing at the Niagara Falls property (8825 Point Avenue). We believe that it [the property] is not being lived in as claimed,” adding that there is no refrigerator, no food in the cupboards, no soap or shampoo in the shower, no table or chairs, “things that even the most destitute” people would have if they were living there. Kimble has supplied the Reporter with photos she says were taken inside the Point Avenue property in question, currently listed for sale at $109,900.

Boreanaz said he and Kimble intend to present their findings to the board members, possibly at Thursday’s (Dec. 13) work session, for their review, arguing that the board’s counsel, John Ottaviano, issued his opinion Dec. 3 without the evidence now in their possession that clearly shows no one is living at the Point Avenue residence.

In his opinion, Ottaviano cited records supplied by Janese, including a warranty deed, bank statement, and a gas bill, to support his findings that it is indeed his legal residence. But in his letter to the board in response to the complaint by Kimble, Ottaviano admitted that he had not, and will not personally inspect the home that Janese is claiming as his legal residence.

According to the Water Board’s bylaws, three of the five members must be a resident of Niagara Falls and Janese is currently one of the three. Boreanaz said if it is determined he is not living in Niagara Falls, his removal from the board is automatic. The bylaws state that any member who violates the residency requirement “shall forfeit his/her membership upon termination of residency in Niagara Falls.”

If Janese were forced out because of the alleged violation, his vote to raise rates and to appoint Roger Lance, husband of Wheatfield Republican county legislator Kathryn Lance, to the $70,000 administrative job might not hold up.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com

Dec 04 , 2012