Editors' note: Councilman Vince Anello's crushing defeat of Mayor Irene Elia in this year's election came as a surprise to almost no one. But now the real work begins. The new mayor is faced with any number of daunting problems.
There's the question of revenue from the Seneca Niagara Casino, development at Niagara International Airport and the projected $1 million to $2 million deficit left behind by the Elia administration. The disproportionately small number of African- Americans employed by the city came to the forefront this past summer, when a number of workers in the Department of Public Works filed a lawsuit against the city charging racism.
Last week, members of the Reporter Editorial Board -- including Publisher Bruce Battaglia, Editor in Chief Mike Hudson and Sports Editor David Staba -- sat down with the mayor-elect and his incoming city administrator, Danny Bristol, for a wide-ranging discussion of the city's future, and the new team's vision of it.
Reporter: We've got David Cordish, the AquaFalls hole in the ground, Niagara Falls Redevelopment, the Seneca Nation of Indians, USA Niagara, what are you going to do that's different than what the Elia, Galie and Palillo administrations have done to get some action out of these developers?
Anello: For all these projects, for all these development contracts, I'm putting a team together to review these contracts, the building permits -- as a matter of fact, permits in general -- and we're going to hold these people accountable. In some cases, I think these contracts obviously warrant renegotiation, If I need to pull a permit, I'll do that. The point is that downtown properties are not going to be held hostage anymore. I appreciate developers that want to speculate. That's all well and good. It's the American way. But my job is to move the city forward.
There are a lot of vacant lots downtown. We're taxing them at $20,000, but when somebody goes to buy them, they're told they're worth $2 million. Somewhere between $20,000 and $2 million, we're going to find a happy medium, and we'll reassess. Fairly.
Bristol: There's such a thing as social responsibility in government and there's such a thing as social responsibility in business. Obviously, people are in business to make money, but if they're affecting jobs and the quality of people's lives, the government has to look at that. I think we need to be both facilitators and watchdogs, to make sure things are happening and to do everything we can to make things happen. If someone gives us a timeline, a timeline in terms of when things are going to happen, and the timeline just isn't happening at all, the mayor has a right, a duty really, to call and say, "Come on back in and tell me why it isn't happening."
Reporter: The AquaFalls has been an eyesore, a community embarrassment, dating back to the Galie administration. Is that a priority?
Anello: Look, everybody's going to be given breathing room. But after that's done, there's got to be some serious discussion about moving forward. And moving forward isn't going to be keeping that hole there for another year. I don't want to go another season without seeing some cranes over there building something or seeing that hole filled in. It's one or the other.
I also need to address the issue of the pedestrian bridge running from the parking ramp to the building. That's one of the reasons the Small Business Administration wanted to move out of the city. They've been made promises that haven't been kept. The bridge is gone. Who's liable for that? The taxpayers of the city? This was destruction of public property. Who's responsible for that? I'm going to find out.
Reporter: It seems that one of the big anchors on the taxpayers over the last few years has been the endless litigation with the city's labor unions. What's your plan to address that?
Anello: It's well-known by both the unions and the administration that there are health care plans out there that are just as good, as good as what we have, for $300 or $400 less a month, per employee. Everybody knows that. There's not a person over there that doesn't know that. So why isn't that being implemented? There's such a breakdown between this administration and the unions, they can't even sit at the same table. What happens if you can't sit at the same table? You can't negotiate, it's as simple as that.
Reporter: What do we do with this town? How do we transform it into the "world-class destination" it's supposed to be but, currently, is not?
Bristol: The thing is, Niagara Falls is a trademark. And, you know, I don't know where we're going to get with this, but the city of San Diego, for example, has a strategic marketing plan. They've been looking at New York City. New York City cop cars have the Viagra label on the trunk, the dumpsters have ads for Glad bags. The city owns them and they sell them just like they sell the HSBC arena. I think we ought to put together an RFP (request for proposals) and go out there and ask some big-boy marketing guys to lease some of this stuff out.
Reporter: You've got the issue with the DOT lands east of John B. Daly Boulevard. Why hasn't the state been forthcoming in returning that property to the city?
Anello: For us to fulfill the requirements of the contract we made with Niagara Falls Redevelopment, we need to get our hands on that DOT property. I don't know why the DOT, after doing nothing with that land for all these years, suddenly decides it might need to ask for bids on that. It's totally ridiculous and it is hurting this city. We've had to look at these eyesores, right at the entrance to the city, for ages. But now that there's some perceived value to it, they want to control it. We need to satisfy the contract requirements. Because the big boys can't get along, the taxpayers of the city of Niagara Falls suffer again.
When is the state going to start being fair about what they're doing and stop bragging about how they're here to create development? If we had a private casino here, which Sen. Maziarz voted against on more than one occasion, we'd have all kinds of development and we wouldn't need the State of New York.
Reporter: Along those same lines, the airport's now in the hands of a state agency. Would you be willing to sign on with John Prozeralik's lawsuit in an attempt to regain control of the facility?
Anello: I'm looking for partners to develop that airport. Those partners can be government agencies, private partners or some state Supreme Court judge. But we're going to get that airport working. The City of Niagara Falls is not in a position to run the airport, but the future of the city depends largely on getting the airport up and running. There is no question that the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority has breached the contract it made with the city of Niagara Falls more than 30 years ago. That contract stated that the airport would be developed for the benefit of the surrounding community and they've failed to live up to that.
The future here is that of a tourist-based economy and we need that airport. It's as simple as that.
Reporter: What's your position on the use of the casino revenues for projects like that?
Anello: We're not even going to discuss use of casino revenues for anything until people fully understand that the city needs payments in lieu of taxes represented by the 52 acres the State took and gave away.
Bristol: At this point, we're not even sure that this minimum payment of 25 percent is even going to cover that. The overall bill, frankly, may be 35 percent, just for the city to break even on what it's lost. So stop.
Anello: I don't have a problem, for example, with the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation. The discussion has been, should they get $2 million or less than $2 million. They should get as much as they can get, but I'm going to tell you that it's not coming out of the share that's dedicated to the city. That's all. Once we establish the share that goes to the city taxpayers as payment in lieu of taxes, we can negotiate for the rest of it. It won't take three days.
Reporter: What about the parking situation?
Anello: This is another example of the city taxpayers getting the shaft from the state. Our two parking ramps downtown ran at a deficit of $2.7 million this year. You guys were the only ones who reported on it. We don't get a dime's worth of property taxes off of those two ramps, just the fees they generate. The ramp the Senecas are building right now, that's going to be full all the time and compete with our ramps, we can't tax. We can't get any money from it. Our biggest competitor, the state parking lot, we can't tax it and we don't get a penny from it.
Everybody's in the parking business around here and the only one that's losing money is the City of Niagara Falls.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 23 2003 |