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Very few things work as they should here in Niagara Falls, but one that does is the city's public library system. That's why we were alarmed by Mayor Irene Elia's ham-handed attempt last week to replace longtime Library Board Member Don King with one of her former campaign advisors, Jeff Paterson.
King's 25 years of service to the community, not only at the library but also with the school and hospital boards, wouldn't have been the only loss to the community. It is our understanding that other board members, and top library staffers, were prepared to resign should the mayor's blatantly political move have succeeded.
The potential for disaster was tremendous. Fortunately, city council members let it be known prior to last week's meeting they weren't playing along with Elia on this one. She withdrew her nomination even before the council had a chance to shoot it down.
Also withdrawn were nine "adjustments" to the city's fees system that were designed to camouflage what would have amounted to a whopping tax increase. The mayor vowed when running for election she wouldn't raise taxes, but we see little difference between a tax hike and increasing fees for city services.
Council agreed, especially in regard to fees levied for home improvement permits and water rate charges that are already far too high.
The honeymoon would appear to be ending quickly for the new administration. Elia has stated that council's upcoming 2001 budget review process will take a couple of days at most.
We wouldn't bet the farm on it.
While we're certain she will blame the Galie administration for the fiscal mess that's about to come to light, Elia has spent much of the past nine months hiring expensive consultants and lobbying for increased wages for her political cronies, uh, department heads.
In the meantime, downtown development has ground to a halt, the neighborhoods are in the worst shape in recent memory and the morale of city employees is at an all-time low.
Once in a while, the good guys win a round. That's what happened last week, when the city council prevented the public library from becoming a cesspool of political pandering.