Most people around Niagara Falls remember Jake Palillo as a one-issue mayor.
That's fitting, since his longshot bid to regain the job he lost eight years ago centers around a single topic.
In the early 1990s, Palillo's opposition was largely responsible for killing the Benderson mega-mall proposed for the fringe of downtown.
Today, the retired firefighter's ire centers on the state-brokered deal with the Seneca Nation to plant what has already become a thriving casino in what was once the heart of downtown.
But unlike the incumbent he's challenging for the Republican nomination, Mayor Irene Elia, Palillo's beef is not with the Seneca Gaming Corp., but with New York State.
Palillo, who notified city GOP leaders of his intentions last week, said he isn't anti-casino. But he said getting answers about what Niagara Falls will get out of the casino within its borders represents the biggest issue facing the city.
"The state made the compact with the Senecas, so the Senecas can't do anything for us," Palillo said. "Anything we get is what the state wants to give us. That's where the problem is. We shouldn't have agreed to anything until we knew what we were going to get."
Four months into the casino's run, Palillo said residents need answers from Albany about how much revenue will factor into this year's city budget and when and where a permanent casino will be built. City Hall, he said, should do a better job of informing taxpayers of what's going on before it happens, instead of after it's announced.
"We should have made sure that we were going to get our rightful piece of the pie, and we're not," Palillo said. "They took away the best part of the city -- for 30 or 40 years, they invested a lot of money there (during Urban Renewal) and the city lost a lot of tourism money there in the process. We have to do whatever can be done -- circle the wagons, if necessary -- to put pressure back on the state, so we get paid for what we've got coming."
As for the last time he was involved in wagon-circling, Palillo still defends his stance against the mega-mall.
"It was a point of that we couldn't afford it," Palillo said. "It started out with a $50 million investment by the city, then they came back for another $20 million from the city. The city was looking at $1.5 million per year in revenue and the debt service would have been $6 million. How do you make up the rest?"
He believes his administration should be remembered for more than snuffing the mega-mall, pointing to construction of the wastewater treatment plant and debt refinancing which he said saved the city millions.
"There were a lot of things I tried to do and was stopped, because I had a Democratic Council against me," Palillo said.
Whether you agree with Palillo's math, share his perspective, or neither, there's no disputing this much -- his entry makes an already wide-open race even more tumultuous.
Unlike Democratic contenders Vince Anello, Sam Granieri and Glenn Choolokian, who also expressed interest in the Republican line, Palillo is a registered Republican, allowing him to force Herroner into a primary simply by collecting enough signatures.
The others can only face off with the incumbent in September if the party declines to endorse a candidate and declares an open primary.
There's something oddly fitting about Palillo forcing an incumbent Republican mayor into a primary. The same thing happened at the close of his single term, when longtime City Council member Barbara Ann Geracitano knocked him off in September, 1995, and went on to lose to Jim Galie in the general election. Galie, in turn, got clipped by John Accardo in the Democratic primary four years later, before losing to Elia.
Palillo considered a comeback in 1999, talking to party leaders and the media about the possibility, but "my heart just wasn't in it," he said.
He said his health isn't an issue, as some speculated as rumors that he would run circulated over the past few weeks.
"I've had some problems, but I've got a clean bill of health now," said the 71-year-old Palillo. "For anyone who thought I was too sick to run, I hate to disappoint them."
He may be focused and healthy. Whether he can raise the money to make a viable run at the GOP nomination, given his relatively late entry and the fact he hasn't got a campaign team in place, is another issue.
"I think it's ridiculous to spend $80,000 or $100,000 on a job that pays $30,000," Palillo said. "Why would you do that? There's too much emphasis put on these elections and how much money you spend. Nobody goes in clean, because you're getting all this money and then you have a lot of people who expect something in return."
Palillo knows that his tenure is rarely recalled fondly. Not that he seems to care.
"The one thing even my harshest critics have to give me is honesty," Palillo said. "I think that needs to be brought back. The public doesn't know what's happening, and nobody has any answers to the questions."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 15 2003 |