Could Mayor Vince Anello, City Administrator Dan Bristol and Assistant Corporation Counsel Tom O'Donnell be any more stupid when it comes to the crisis they engineered over our city's library system?
We think not.
They are idiots. At O'Donnell's urging last week, the city filed an appeal to state Supreme Court Justice Vincent Doyle's recent ruling, which affirmed the fact that the library is owed a lot of money and the city is liable for it. In his decision, Doyle went so far as to accuse the administration of "welshing" on its commitment to the libraries.
There is not a snowball's chance in hell that O'Donnell's appeal will go anywhere. The hapless Hibernian attorney, who has lost more cases for the city than anyone can remember, will lose this one too. The city might as well have the cartoon character Lionel Hutz, of "The Simpsons" fame, representing it in various courts of law.
But Hutz, er, um, O'Donnell thought he was playing it sly this time. By filing a notice to appeal, he thought he bought the city nine months in which to actually appeal, nine months in which the Scrooges of City Hall could still withhold the money they owe.
Fortunately, the library has a real lawyer instead of a cartoon character representing its interests. Ned Perlman immediately asked the Appellate Division of Supreme Court in Rochester to hear the appeal as soon as possible and compel the city to abide by Doyle's September ruling. In the meantime, this is all costing the city -- meaning you -- a lot of money. Anello, Bristol and O'Donnell's grade-school hijinks serve only to waste the time of the court system, postpone the inevitable payment to the library, and distract people's attention away from the fact that the administration is in the crosshairs of a full-blown federal criminal investigation.
That the city is being run by a gang of rank amateur bullies is a given. The FBI knows it, we know it and the good people of Niagara Falls know it. But one would think that even a gang of rank amateur bullies would have sense enough to hire a decent attorney.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Nov. 22 2005 |