The Niagara Parks Commission may eventually decide to erect a statue of Frank Parlato in honor of the $500-million, 30-year lease they have just awarded to San Francisco-based Hornblower Cruises to ferry Canadian boat riders to the foot of Niagara Falls, a $419 million windfall over the secret lease deal with James Glynn's Maid of the Mist that had been ushered through the NPC board by Glynn's supporters in 2008.
One NPC commissioner called the new Glynn lease a "dirty deal," and it was Parlato's reports in the Niagara Falls Reporter that pulled back the covers on the dirty deal and revealed that Glynn's rent had been secretly reduced and would have had him paying $81 million over 25 years, $419 million less than the new boat lease with Hornblower will pay the people of Ontario. Put another way, Glynn's Maid of the Mist would have paid about $3 million a year for the exclusive rights verses the roughly $13 million a year that Hornblower will pay to Ontario under the new agreement, and that wasn't even the highest bid of the six received in the latest bidding process.
It was Parlato's hard-digging work that helped expose the secret Glynn deal, angered Ontario civic groups and parks employees facing layoffs, and alerted mainstream media to what was going on. In the face of the publicity, Glynn's new lease was canceled by the minister of Tourism and an investigation was launched leading to the resignation or dismissal of the commissioners who ushered through Glynn's sweetheart deal.
Now, thanks to the competitive bidding process that followed, the NPC will get the fair value for their service they so desperately need, and we can only hope that the developments will lead to a thorough review of Glynn's exclusive deal with New York state, a lease he secured in 2002 without having to bid by exercising a "sole source provider" loophole, because he had exclusive access to the river below the falls under the Canadian agreement.
But Glynn's 40-year, no-bid lease with New York was awarded under the "sole source" loophole even though his Canadian lease was set to expire in November 2009, and there was no guarantee it was going to be renewed. And now, thanks to the investigative reports in the Niagara Falls Reporter, Glynn's lease is not renewed, and it would seem to open up the argument for a round of competitive bidding on the American side, so that New Yorkers can reap a bonanza by getting full market value for their part in the wonderful boat tours offered the thousands of tourists who come stateside every year to get up close to the mighty falls. Tears should be shed, not for Jimmy Glynn, who has reaped quite a windfall of his own all these years, but for the New York state taxpayers who have been losing out to Glynn, who now pays only 4 percent rent in New York for boat tours, secretly reduced from 10 percent on the most profitable lease in the system.
Let's hope New York follows the Canadian lead, opens up the boat tour business to competitive bidding, and helps close the deficit in the state park system with a fair and profitable agreement that benefits the taxpayers of New York and not just the Maid of the Mist franchise, which has had its way for far too long.
Parlato, who fought long and hard to develop his One Niagara property into a successful tourist attraction despite constant battles with the city over everything from trees to over-assessment, has sold his interest in the property, but continues to publish the Reporter and remains interested in the future of Niagara Falls. His outstanding work in his expose of the Glynn boat ride is an example of what good investigative reporting can do.
Tony Farina, president of One Niagara, was an investigative journalist from 1977 to 1998 and won multiple national journalism awards.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 28 2012 |