Why, exactly, were Maid of the Mist Corp. President Chris Glynn, HANCI Director of Communications Jeff Paterson and M&T Bank executive Kelly Meckes involved in the selection process that led to the hiring of City Administrator Donna Owens, Economic Development Director Peter Kay and prospective corporation counsel Craig Johnson?
A series of e-mails and other documents made available to the Niagara Falls Reporter over the weekend shows that Glynn and Paterson were invited to participate in teleconference interviews for the positions that led to the hiring of both Owens and Kay, who each have a large portion of their salary subsidized by the mysterious Building a Better Niagara Falls Fund.
For all intents and purposes, the fund did not exist prior to the last week in April, when newspaper accounts reported that it would provide a sizable chunk of Owens' $110,000-a-year salary.
According to Mayor Paul Dyster, nobody knows who the mysterious benefactors are, since the money is being laundered through the venerable Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo, an umbrella corporation that controls more than 700 various funds and endowments in Western New York.
Chris Glynn's father, Maid of the Mist founder Jimmy Glynn, has neither confirmed nor denied reports that he is one of the prime movers behind the Building a Better Niagara Falls Fund, although his close relationship with the State of New York -- which has led to his receiving no-bid, long-term concessions to operate his tour boats in the state park -- is well known.
Tourism industry insiders have estimated the value of Glynn's current 40-year contract at $1 billion.
In a deal set to close in January, the Glynns' Maid of the Mist Corp. will acquire the Comfort Inn, along with six retail storefronts along the city's West Mall, from Sevenson Hotel Associates for a reported price of $11 million. Coincidentally perhaps, USA Niagara Development subsequently announced a $7.9 million project to improve the West Mall as part of its Old Falls Street initiative.
And to top it off, sources close to the county's Industrial Development Agency say officials there are currently considering tax breaks and credits totaling as much as $15 million for the Comfort Inn, money that will not only cover its purchase cost but pay for upgrades as well.
With former mayor Vince Anello now facing four federal indictments for accepting money from downtown developer Joe Anderson, and Anderson himself accepting a plea deal in return for his testimony about corruption at City Hall, questions about who's paying who in city government are more important than ever.
And if a downtown developer is involved in any way with secretly funding top officials in the Dyster administration, the people of Niagara Falls need to know about it.
Ironically, a scheme similar to that of the Building a Better Niagara Falls Fund was hatched way back in 1989 by none other than Joe Anderson himself!
It seems that then-mayor Mike O'Laughlin wanted to establish an ombudsman position in the city, and wanted it to be filled by Andrew Walker, the former basketball coach at Niagara University. City Council members rejected the idea, saying that there wasn't enough money to pay for the new job.
Anderson appeared before the Council to say that he thought the position would benefit his employees living in the city, and offered $10,000 to partially pay Walker's salary. The idea was rejected out of hand by city officials.
Now Mayor Dyster has seemingly embraced Anderson's scheme, but with a couple of new twists: He claims not to know who's giving the city the money, and instead of a measly $10,000, he's prepared to accept upwards of $1 million from the Building a Better Niagara Falls Fund over the next four years.
The involvement of M&T Bank executive Kelly Meckes is no less troubling than that of the Glynns. To begin with, she is a human resource specialist at the bank, but the city has already hired a human resource specialist -- Gregory Davis of the Washington, D.C., executive search firm PRM Consulting.
Since Davis is being paid with money from the Building a Better Niagara Falls Fund, nobody knows how much he is making, but Meckes and her employer are apparently donating her time, as e-mails from her and originating on an M&T Bank account show she is working on behalf of the city during normal weekday business hours.
When was the last time you heard of a bank giving anything away for free? Except a toaster, I mean.
When the time comes for the city to borrow money, issue bonds or make any of the other financial moves cities make, will M&T Bank receive preferential treatment over HSBC or Bank of America?
M&T Bank Chairman Robert Wilmers has served as executive director of the odious Buffalo Niagara Partnership, an anti-union group that has also been linked to the Building a Better Niagara Falls Fund.
The Partnership's past efforts to thwart development at the Niagara Falls International Airport, destroy the various local Chambers of Commerce here and engage in other behavior detrimental to the residents of Niagara County and Niagara Falls in particular have been well-documented by the Reporter in a series of 115 articles and columns that can be read by going to the paper's online archive.
If Mayor Dyster really doesn't know who's giving him the money to fund searching for and hiring of people to fill important roles here like city administrator, economic development director and corporation counsel, he needs to find out.
"If it's not illegal, it sure looks unethical," said Niagara Falls resident Jim Gray in a letter sent to various media outlets. "How much did the people who put up the money have to do with who got the job? Who are these people?"
State Sen. George Maziarz has already asked state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to rule on the legality of the scheme.
"In all my years in state and local government, I've never heard of anything like this," he said. "Can the trial lawyers set up an anonymous fund to pay for giving the city attorney a raise? What about the police, are they permitted to accept what amounts to an outside gratuity just for doing their jobs?"
Clearly, if the people who are "anonymously" giving the city money are also involved in developmental or fiduciary dealings with the Dyster administration, the FBI may have to spend another few years here to clean out the rats remaining in the wake of Anello's downfall.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 11 2008 |