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In most places around the country, things like landfills, arenas, golf courses and stadiums are money-making enterprises. In Niagara County, they are money pits, places where taxpayer dollars go to die for the greater glory of two-bit politicians bent on creating and maintaining their own petty fiefdoms.
Sensible plans to privatize facilities, or even to cooperate with other government entities in an effort to control costs, are routinely dismissed by elected officials fearing that their own ridiculously paltry powers will be diminished even further.
A case in point is the Niagara County Refuse District, presided over by the notoriously inept county Legislature. While refuse disposal and landfill operation remain one of the few viable industries here, the county has managed to amass a staggering $10 million in negative value with their efforts.
That's $10 million of your money that might just as well have been buried with the rest of the trash.
A couple of months ago, the Legislature was approached with a simple plan. Allow the privatization of the operation and be guaranteed $1 million in savings in the first year. Numerous private operators have done the same thing, with great success, in other counties around the state and have a proven track record.
On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer. Getting rid of something that costs you a lot of money and provides little benefit is something most of us would be more than happy to do.
But not the Niagara County Refuse District. Allowing one Niagara Falls businessman to make his presentation was as far as they were willing to go. There was never any debate on the proposal, it never came up for a vote. The people you elected to represent you seem more than content to keep throwing your money away.
The refusal to even consider privatization outraged state Sen. George Maziarz.
"You have two privately operated landfills in Niagara County, Chemical Waste Management and Modern Disposal, then you have a public one, Niagara County's," he said. "Two are making millions in profits while the County of Niagara's is nearly bankrupt. If it had not been for the state coming to the rescue this past year, it would have gone under."
The proposed privatization of the Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center is another example. Each and every year, the city shells out $1.3 million to maintain the decrepit facility.
That's right--the City of Niagara Falls. Which, in case you haven't noticed, can't afford to pave streets or collect the garbage that clogs up virtually every alleyway downtown.
A week ago, when Niagara Falls Redevelopment honcho Tony Bergamo brought up a possible takeover of the facility to Mayor Irene Elia at a closed-door meeting, in front of seven members of the city council, she didn't take it well. Her solution to the city's financial woes, of course, is to raise our taxes by 27 percent, giving no thought whatsoever to possible cost-cutting measures.
Similarly, the proposal made by schools Superintendent Carmen Granto to handle maintenance at Sal Maglie Stadium was shot down by the mayor.
Thus far, every single event held at the facility has been sponsored by the school district.
The likelihood of seeing professional baseball at the new facility has become dimmer and dimmer since the disbanding of former Mayor James C. Galie's commission to bring baseball back to the Falls.
Hundreds of thousands of city tax dollars will be spent during the coming year to maintain a facility that seems to exist solely for the benefit of the school district.
Why? Because the control freaks at City Hall would rather spend your money than even consider handing some of their bureaucratic power over to anyone else, even another bureaucrat. Council Chairman Tony Quaranto's pet project is the Hyde Park Golf Course. Maybe they should call it the Hide Park Golf Course, because the folks up there seem to do a great job of hiding both revenues and expenses. In fact, last year, when an independent auditor was brought in to look over the golf course's books, he declared there was no possible way to determine whether the facility was making money or losing it.
Tony patiently explained to the bewildered CPA that he didn't know what he was talking about. Had the accountant ever actually played golf? No? Tony thought so. The guy left the committee-of-the-whole room shaking his head and the council moved on to other business.
The operation has been allowed to continue as it has in the past, with no one able to say for certain what its cost or benefit is. Meanwhile, the guys who run the golf dome have been chomping at the bit to take over the course, and you'd be able to look at a line in the city budget every year to see just how much they paid for the privilege.
Not as long as Tony's on council, though.
A few weeks back, we talked to Sen. Maziarz about what exactly the problem is with this area. He summed it up with one word--"leadership." Specifically talking about county government, he said some things we feel apply to the city as well.
"Working with the County of Niagara has been extremely difficult because there's nobody in charge," he said. "The structure of the government here is absolutely dysfunctional." Maziarz hastened to add that it didn't matter whether the government was run by Republicans or Democrats, but said that new blood clearly was needed.
"There are a lot of people who have been in office for a long, long time, and people need to start taking some responsibility," he said. "Take tourism promotion, it's so screwed up. Where have these people been?"
Maziarz pointed out that every past and present member of the Niagara County Refuse District Board of Directors also has been a member of the Legislature.
"These people have total responsibility for how poorly that operation has ended up," he said. "This is the most egregious example of waste in any government I've ever witnessed."