U. S. Side Lacked Leaders To Take on Glynn, Cuomo

The men who fought and won a $300 million victory for the people of Ontario. (Top-above) Bob Gale, Bill Windsor and Bill Rudd.

Warren “Smokey” Thomas (above)and MPP Kim Craitor (below), two very public figures, who stood up for the people of Ontario. You won’t find their likes in Niagara Falls, NY.

Robert Gale, who owns a string of gas stations in Ontario, was a commissioner for the Ontario Niagara Parks Commission.
That is before they refused to renew his term.

But he caused enough of a stir during his single term there that the people of Ontario should be forever grateful to him.
He was the only commissioner out of twelve to break ranks and stand up against a secret plan by the other eleven commissioners to lower the Maid of the Mist boat rent on the Canadian side back in 2008.

Gale was disturbed because Ripley Entertainment had tried to get information to bid on the Maid of the Mist lease but had been rebuffed. (The commissioners would not even tell Ripley Manager Tim Parker when the soon-to-be-expiring lease was expiring or how much rent Maid of the Mist operator James Glynn was paying).

Seeing Ripley’s interest, the NPC commissioners, instead of being encouraged by the prospect of competitive bidding, hurriedly sped up a renewal of Glynn’s lease, a year ahead of time, in order to be able to tell Ripley that the lease had another twenty-five years to go.

Gale called it a “dirty deal” and for this he was ostracized and called a liar and a traitor by the other commissioners. What was he trying to do anyway, destroy the boat tours?

Even the Ontario mainstream press could not believe any man could be so foul as to think the Maid of the Mist should not have the permanent right to operate boat tours. After all, there were eleven saying they did the right thing and only Gale, one man standing alone, saying otherwise.

But Gale stuck to his guns and, being rebuffed by the local Ontario press, he went to the only news outlet that would listen.
He spoke on the record with the Niagara Falls Reporter.
The rest is history.

After nearly two years of name-calling against Gale, and two rather reluctantly launched government investigations, and the resultant termination or resignation of every commissioner on the NPC, as well as the general manager, a new tender was put out, the bids came in, Glynn lost the Canadian lease and the Ontario Parks got $300 million more than they would have had with the old lease the NPC had been set to renew with Glynn.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and/or his aides, much like the NPC commissioners, secretly met with Glynn and/or his lobbyists, ignored the competition and crafted for Glynn a super-sweetheart deal.

One where the people are shortchanged by $100 million.

It does not seem to matter much to folks over here.

The Reporter was pretty much alone in condemning the deal as a bad one for taxpayers.

So why did the Canadians succeed in getting the best deal and we did not?

In New York, there is no Bob Gale, a man of influence and courage, who can stand up to the political players and not be cowed.

And there is no Bill Windsor, a tireless businessman from Atlanta, who wanted a chance to bid in Ontario, and who spent his own money to sue to get that chance and who published hundreds of thousands of words as a blogger on the secret dealings between the NPC and Glynn. His writings and discoveries were a treasure trove of information that led readers to the inescapable conclusion that the (now-fired) NPC commissioners were, for some reason, aiding and abetting Glynn against the public’s interest.

And, in New York, there is no citizens’ activist group like Preserve Our Parks (POP), which fought to make the public aware of the outrageous plans to secretly lower Glynn’s rent while others were begging for a chance to bid. POP actually distributed copies of the Reporter to the people of Ontario and mailed copies of our stories to every member of the Ontario Parliament.
And there is no local union leader in New York like Bill Rudd, president of the Parks Union (OPSEU Local 217), calling for a tendered bid and leading State Parks employees to march to the falls to protest the governor’s actions.

And no state-wide union leader like the Ontario Public Service Employees Union president Warren "Smokey" Thomas. Thomas called upon the minister of tourism to “dissolve the NPC,” saying that the parks are "deteriorating while the commission makes irresponsible spending decisions," like its "decision to renew the lease of the Maid of the Mist without going to tender."
And there is no locally elected official in New York who would challenge the governor, like Kim Craitor, a member of Parliament, whose Niagara Falls, Ontario riding takes in all NPC parklands.

Craitor introduced a bill requiring openness from provincial agencies. The secret no-bid lease renewal, Craitor said, "doesn't shine a positive light on the parks commission. (The Niagara parks are) the jewel of our community. These types of things start to tarnish that jewel."

It was not just the Reporter. Our stories caught fire because people cared about getting the best deal.

No wonder Niagara Falls, Ontario is thriving and Niagara Falls, New York is in the toilet.

At the end of the day, Gale has the satisfaction, after being criticized for two years, of seeing changes made at the Niagara Parks Commission. A complete overhaul of commissioners, the forced public tender bid for renewal of the Maid of the Mist lease, and, for the first time in its history, a move toward transparency and fair process with public meetings for the commissioners. And the beautiful Niagara Ontario parks, which were losing $4 million per year, with one single stroke – putting the Maid of the Mist out to bid - will be showing a profit of $6 million per year, once Hornblower Cruises and Events, the new boat operator, takes over in 2014.

Hornblower tried to pay New York more than Glynn, and without expense to the people of New York.

Mysteriously, neither the governor nor the New York State Parks were interested in getting more money for the boat tour. They decided to give it to Glynn without competition.

Now the only question is why?

Maybe the answer is that there is no one home in Niagara Falls, New York.