Dyster Missing in Action as Snow Blasts Region And Acting Mayor Grandinetti Gets Feelings Hurt

Mayor Paul Dyster is an avid hunter and fisherman.

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster has never served in the military, but for all of last week he was missing in action as a deadly snowstorm, a laughable cartoon “scandal,” and a critical public hearing on the city tax cap all played out in his absence.

While sources in city hall were mum, if not legitimately uncertain, as to where Dyster had disappeared, we were told that he was on vacation, deer hunting in the Southern Tier.

Before leaving the city in search of edible-Bambi, the mayor anointed Councilwoman Kristen Grandinetti as “acting-mayor.”

With Dyster out of town, a record-breaking deadly lake-effect snowstorm struck from the center of Buffalo to the Southern Tier. The storm resulted in at least 13 fatalities as it collapsed the roofs of no less than 30 structures, dropped as much as eight feet of snow and caused New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to call out the National Guard to perform rescue work and dig out the city of Buffalo.

Gov. Cuomo visited Buffalo more than once to hold lengthy and detailed press conferences and the incredible snowfall was reported on around the world, even as far away as Australia.

Natural disasters are how governors who seek higher office hope to make their political bones. Cuomo is, assuredly, sensitive to the fact that his chances as a future presidential contender will be greatly impacted by how he is seen handling this deadly natural catastrophe.

Meanwhile back in Niagara Falls - as snow tragically buried an entire region of New York State, on Tuesday, Nov. 18 - acting-Mayor Kristen Grandinetti was reacting with considerable indignation, if not alarm, to former council member Sam Fruscione having dropped off an innocuous political cartoon in the lobby of city hall.

Acting Mayor Grandinetti and City Controller Maria Brown demanded, to no avail, that Fruscione be charged with harassment.

Fruscione, perhaps, was guilty of hurting the ladies’ feelings but that’s not exactly a felonious matter. The circulation of the political cartoon was covered by the First Amendment, but that fact escaped the acting-mayor and controller, as they inquired as to whether Niagara Falls Police Supt. Bryan DalPorto could charge Fruscione.

DalPorto can spell “false arrest” and “lawsuit” just as well as anybody else and he disabused the ladies of their foolish harassment notions.

Throughout all of the tragically genuine snow drama and the foolishness surrounding the cartoon, Mayor Dyster remained silent…out of sight, out of mind and out in the woods.

We don’t know if Dyster bagged a deer but we do know Buffalo got blasted with snow.

We do know that the city held a public hearing on Wednesday ( Nov. 19) to consider Dyster’s proposed waiving of the state law that limits municipalities from not raising property taxes by more than two percent. Dyster is hoping to raise taxes by 7.7 percent for businesses and 2.7 percent for residences for the 2015 budget.

The public hearing was held and the mayor was a no show at his own hearing.

We know that Grandinetti, in a shameless performance more reminiscent of a third-rate soap star, rather than an elected official and acting mayor, tried and failed to put Sam Fruscione in jail for, of all things, circulating a simple political cartoon.

Consider the contrast: Buffalo and Erie County hard at work dealing with a deadly natural disaster and assisted by the governor as the mayor of Niagara Falls goes missing in the woods on a deer hunt, leaving Grandinetti as the acting mayor who chases after a silly political cartoon.

There’s nothing left to say.