Councilwoman Kristen Grandinetti’s personal Facebook page has at times made her the laughingstock of the community and, at other times, gotten her into trouble with her employer, the Niagara Falls City School District.
She used Facebook to call the district “borderline criminal” in its’ choice of sexual education curriculum and on another occasion posted a video of little girls as young as five years old repeatedly saying the word f*ck.
Her rabid defense of Planned Parenthood in the wake of a scandal that saw one of its’ top executives videotaped discussing the sale of aborted fetus body parts over a lunch of salad and wine likewise attracted attention.
And her championing of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues has assumed in her own mind the heroic status of the men who stormed the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944.
Grandinetti’s Facebook page has been an embarrassment for the school district, but more importantly it has been a thorn in the side of her political mentor, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster. Grandinetti is the mayor’s strongest advocate on the city Council, as well as being his across the street neighbor on Orchard Parkway.
Now, apparently, Dyster –who is running for reelection – has laid down the law.
“Some of you will be sad...” Grandinetti posted on her Facebook page last Thursday.
“Some of you thrilled...
“I have been challenged.
“Someone near and dear to me has said that I am incapable of staying off of Facebook from this Sunday until the day after the primary. I Except (sic) that challenge and I bid you farewell as of This Saturday at midnight,” she wrote.
Gosh. Why until the day after the primary. Who among those “near and dear” to Grandinetti would even care about the September 10 primary? After all, Grandinetti herself isn’t running.
Dyster is though. Facing a tough primary challenge from city Councilman Glenn Choolokian, Dyster has quite enough to worry about without the crazy councilwoman’s almost weekly outbursts.
City Hall sources told the Niagara Falls Reporter last week that Dyster called Grandinetti into his office last week.
A Facebook fan, someone named Suzette Tulip, wrote in to ask, “AFTER the Primary??? Oh dear…do you win anything…?!?!”
Yes, Grandinetti replied.
“There is a prize involved,” she wrote.
Michelle Frederick Vanstrom also asked a direct question.
“Really? Why? What’s the purpose, especially during the primaries?”
Grandinetti chose not to reply.
Kenneth Argona’s question almost answered itself.
“What will the Reporter do next week?” Argona asked.
Most of the comments, though, ran along the lines of this, submitted by Dawn Ross Hilton.
“I’m confused. What purpose does this serve? Social media, I would imagine, serves you well to what’s going on in all aspects of the community. To me, this makes zero sense,” she wrote.
Zero sense indeed.
Unless you’re Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster.
Who may soon be headed for the unemployment office, with or without Grandinetti’s assistance.