It's the bribe that just keeps on giving.
In the more than two years since the Niagara Falls Reporter made it public knowledge that Vincenzo V. Anello accepted a series of secret payments totaling $40,000 from developer Joe Anderson around the time he was elected mayor of Niagara Falls in 2003, federal agents have been looking for evidence that Anderson got something in return for his generosity.
Last Thursday, the ribbon was cut on a $3.4 million gift from taxpayers called Old Falls Street, where Anello granted Anderson exclusive vending rights in a no-bid deal during his first months in office.
But the real payoff for Anderson, Anello told the gathering of elected officials and bureaucrats, who were too busy patting themselves on the back to notice, is yet to come.
"In the not-too-distant future, Falls Street will be open all the way to the park," the mayor said.
What he left unmentioned was that doing that would mean the removal of the former Wintergarden, now known as Smokin' Joe's Family Fun Center, which Anderson just happened to have had the foresight to purchase shortly before he started writing large checks to Anello, then a member of the City Council.
In making the purchase along with partners Paul Grenga, Brian Meilleur and Rick Horn, Anderson paid about $1 million for the civic greenhouse. Due to its location and the renovation it has undergone since Anderson bought it, as well as New York state's bottomless pockets, the property would likely fetch as much as $6 to $8 million if taken via eminent domain.
Given Anello's close ties to those three men, who orchestrated his successful 2003 campaign, and his well-documented history of accepting money from Anderson without telling anyone or paying taxes on it, the question that should be obvious to federal investigators is what his share of the big jackpot is going to be.
That would certainly explain Anello's enthusiasm for giving the people of Niagara Falls yet another empty blocklong downtown street that doesn't go anywhere.
Shortly after taking office, Anello talked a still-compliant City Council into gifting Anderson with a 30-year lease on what was then called the East Mall, a pedestrian promenade most notable for its thorough lack of pedestrians. Ostensibly, Anderson would bring life to the dormant stretch of cement with vendors, concerts and other events.
The developer's efforts toward that end were half-hearted, at best. He hired former city councilman, disbarred lawyer and convicted felon Michael Gawel to host the venue, the results being pretty much what you'd expect from a two-bit conman.
But even the shabby tent-city Gawel erected was shut down after City Council discovered Anderson was running his carnival using electricity paid for by the taxpayers of Niagara Falls. Anderson's deal with the city, which gave him complete control of the walkway for little more than $100 per week, also called for him to invest in the area, City Councilman Charles Walker said before Thursday's ribbon-cutting.
"The reason he got the deal he got was because he was going to spend his own money," said Walker, who was chairman of the Council at the time. "That was part of his contract."
Instead, the state agency USA Niagara spent a large chunk of the city's casino revenue to widen the sidewalk on the north side of the new Old Falls Street to better accommodate the vendors who will pay Anderson for the right to peddle their goods, as well as installing a cobblestone street that officials said will sporadically be open to vehicular traffic.
Unless Anderson is paid off, though, the sprawling expanse of sidewalk will not be cluttered with patio seating for the Crowne Plaza Hotel sports bar, which is adjacent to Old Falls Street.
Sources told the Niagara Falls Reporter that hotel management offered Anderson $7,500 -- the same amount he pays to the city annually for control of the entire mall -- to allow tables on the sidewalk, but Anderson demanded twice that amount.
Of course, none of this was mentioned during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. In fact, Anderson's name was never mentioned, though he was clearly the project's primary beneficiary.
Instead, the politicos spoke glowingly of the shops and restaurants that would soon line the street, ignoring the fact that the presence of the Conference Center Niagara Falls on one side and the Crowne Plaza on the other makes such development physically impossible.
"We've got the state spending $3.4 million to build a driveway to its underperforming conference center and improve Joe Anderson's property at the same time," said one frustrated developer. "The whole thing stinks."
The most likely use of the cobblestone was on display shortly before the ceremony, when a young boy sped down the street on his bicycle, then slammed on the brakes, leaving a 10-foot black skid mark.
Anello was so eager to cut the ribbon, he didn't take the time to figure out how to use one of his beloved parking meters on Third Street. Displaying the I'll-do-as-I-damn-well-please attitude that has ensured his status as the city's fourth consecutive one-term chief executive, the man who insisted that people should expect to pay to park downtown situated his black sedan with the "NF1" plates directly under a "no standing" sign, on the white hash marks that serve as the universal symbol for "don't park here." This, even though at least a dozen metered spots were available within a one-block radius of Old Falls Street.
Given the tenacity displayed by the feds -- particularly in long-running investigations like the six-year probe that led to the prosecution of the former leadership of Laborers Local 91 -- parking tickets, harassment charges and restraining orders will likely be the least of Anello's legal worries once the shady dealings involving Anderson, Grenga, Meilleur, Horn and the Wintergarden begin to unravel.
For one sunny afternoon, though, Anello's grand scheme seemed to come together.
"This project wouldn't have been possible without the strong support of the mayor," said Dan Gunderson, upstate chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., of which USA Niagara is a subsidiary.
Too bad nobody thought to ask why Anello was pushing so hard.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Aug. 7 2007 |