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After his arrest last week on federal charges of racketeering and extortion, Laborers Local 91 kingpin Michael "Butch" Quarcini told reporters he was targeted by the government because he is an Italian-American.
But other Italian-Americans, including former City Councilman John Accardo, saw it differently.
"It's no secret that the lack of development here over the past 30 years has been a direct result of Laborers Local 91," Accardo said. "If anything, these indictments have come about 30 years too late."
Along with Councilman Vince Anello, Accardo was targeted by the union's "goon squad" several years ago after speaking out publicly about the Laborers' criminal activity. Both men had their vehicles vandalized, and Accardo and his family received death threats at their home. Anello said Quarcini's remarks were insulting to Italian-Americans.
"My father was an immigrant and he was a laborer," he said. "And he fed his family by working two jobs, not by shaking people down."
The decades-long climate of fear inspired by union thugs was the result of complicity on the part of many here, he added.
"These people got to be who they are because some greedy politicians, some greedy business people and some greedy contractors allowed them to get that way," Anello said. "The ones who got indicted are the bad guys in this, but some of the good guys are just as responsible."
While donating generously to the campaigns of area politicians and staging high-profile charity events for public consumption, union thugs used violence and intimidation to silence critics and force contractors to pay extortionate rates for workers they didn't need and who, in some cases, didn't even show up.
The excessive costs associated with using Local 91 often meant planned projects were delayed or scrapped altogether. Sources close to the federal probe cite the recent case of Chawkie Shalala, who proposed a $1.8 million, 62-room hotel on the former Century Club property in LaSalle.
The contractor he hired to build the hotel withdrew after learning he would have to deal with the Laborers, and subsequent contractors who looked at the project said the costs might run as high as $2.6 million if the demands of Local 91 were met.
Shalala went back to his lending institution with the news, but the bankers balked at loaning $2.6 million for a hotel that would only be worth $1.8 million and the project never got off the ground.
Canceled and delayed projects such as the Century Club are all too common in Niagara County, and the lack of work has resulted in many rank-and-file Laborers earning as little as $17,000 a year while union officials enjoy six-figure salaries, cars and other perks paid for by the union membership.
Quarcini and his daughter, Local 91 Secretary Cheryl Cicero, have turned the union into a thriving family business. Quarcini earned $244,677 in salary and expenses last year -- more than the head of any other union local in Western New York -- while Cicero pulled down a whopping $89,713, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Contractors familiar with the construction industry nationwide told the Reporter that the cost of building in Niagara County is typically 40 to 50 percent higher than in other locations. When bids are broken down, areas not involving Local 91 -- such as plumbing and roofing -- are in line with standard costs, while concrete and other work employing Laborers typically cost double the norm, the contractors said.
David Penman of Odyssey Builders in Erie, Pa., built 10 stores around the country for the Advanced Auto chain, but farmed the Niagara County project out to a local contractor.
"Every supplier I talked to warned me about your community," he said. "I was told when I went up there to expect a visit from these guys to the point where I said, 'I'm not even going to go there. It's not worth getting beat up over.'"
Local contractor Ted Van Deusen also refuses to work in Niagara County, but says he has all the work he can handle in Erie County.
"Why would a developer pay 10 times for a piece of land in Erie County what he'd pay just across the line in Wheatfield or anywhere in Niagara County?" he asked. "Just look at the numbers."
Erie County communities are seeing property values soar to between $115,000 and $150,000 an acre in developments such as Crosspoint Business Park in Amherst, Aero Business Park in Cheektowaga and Bryant Woods Office Park in Getzville.
At the same time, Niagara County foreclosed on Inducon Industrial Park in Wheatfield, whose owners were eight years behind in property tax payments. One-acre lots at Inducon would sell for between $15,000 and $18,500 an acre, if there were any buyers.
In 1998, the Town of Amherst alone issued construction permits totaling $90 million while Niagara County, with roughly the same population, did less than half that with $53.8 million.
"Commercial developers just don't want to have to deal with the atmosphere and the additional cost associated with Niagara Falls," Van Deusen said. "We've continued to suffer while the rest of the country grows."
Officials from the Laborers International Union of North America Inspector General's office suspended Quarcini and 13 other "goon squad" members, and plan to replace the local's leadership under an overseer appointed in Washington.
Whether the indictments and their fallout finally put an end to a shameful period in our city's history remains to be seen. Niagara County Sheriff Tom Beilein pointed out that the breakup of Local 91's leadership couldn't have been better timed, with the Seneca casino project and associated developments set to go.
Perhaps a new day is indeed dawning for Niagara Falls.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 21 2002 |