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The city has been slapped with three lawsuits in recent weeks, with one of them coming, ironically enough, from the mayor's director of public works.
On Aug. 29, Paul Colangelo refiled a lawsuit instituted following his August 1997 termination as city grants writer by then-mayor James Galie.
Colangelo is known as a political Svengali, and played a major role in electing the city's past three mayors. In addition to Mayor Irene Elia, he worked on the campaigns of Galie and Jake Palillo.
In all three instances, he was awarded the director of public works job following his candidate's election. Currently, his brother-in-law, Christopher Carlin, serves as chief of police and his sister, Ginny Colangelo, is Elia's personal secretary.
But Colangelo's tenure under the two former administrations was brief. Under Galie, he worked in public works from January 1995 to May 1997 before being moved to the grants writer job. His employment with the city ended completely three months later.
He filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging he was removed from the parks job because he had suffered a heart attack. The Galie administration denied this, and stated he was replaced because of performance issues.
Around the time Elia took office in January of this year, Colangelo dropped the suit and the mayor named him to the position he had held twice before.
His refiling of the suit has fueled speculation that he intends to leave the public works job.
"People have been saying for weeks if not months that Paul was looking for another position, and this certainly makes that seem more likely," one City Hall insider said.
The suit, filed by Attorney Andrea Sammarco in state Supreme Court, alleges Colangelo's heart condition qualifies as a "disability" and states he suffered "humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress" as a result of Galie's actions.
Colangelo is seeking unspecified compensatory damages along with the costs of bringing the suit against the city.
City Councilwoman Barbara Geracitano said she was appalled to learn of the suit.
"I find this to be a direct conflict," she said. "He's a political appointee and a department head. Of all the people in the world, he shouldn't be suing the city."
In an unrelated legal development, local attorney and entrepreneur John Bartolomei filed a pair of legal actions against the city in connection with a parcel of vacant property located on Third Street behind the Jefferson Apartments.
The actions, filed Sept. 21 in state Supreme Court, came in the wake of the leasing of the property, by the city's Urban Renewal Agency, to the owners of the Jefferson for use as a parking lot.
Bartolomei contends the Galie administration agreed to close with him on the property in order to clear the way for transfer of the Splash Park property to Niagara Falls Redevelopment and the Falls Street Station to a company owned by James Williams for development of the Teletech Call Center.
Both of those properties originally were developed by companies Bartolomei either represented or controlled.
In a Nov. 30, 1999, letter to then-corporation counsel Timothy Bax, Bartolomei stated those transfers were "fraudulently induced" because of the city's refusal to turn over the Third Street parcel.
In his suit, Bartolomei -- who said he intends to develop a hotel on the 296-foot-by-132-foot lot -- is seeking control of the disputed property, along with $25,000 to cover legal expenses.
In a second action, Bartolomei filed what is known as a notice of pendency, which he said "puts the world on notice" that the property is in dispute.
In an exclusive interview Aug. 23, Bartolomei told the Reporter that a number of lawsuits could result from the breakdown of the 1999 agreement between his companies and the city.
And because the city's contract with Niagara Falls Redevelopment is hinged on the agreement with Bartolomei, the city could find itself in the precarious legal position of being unable to fulfill its obligations to the developer.
In an August letter to Community Development Counsel Richard Zucco, Bartolomei warned the city of the possible consequences.
"Your letter, if it had any weight or merit, makes the city unable to perform under the Settlement Agreement and the Master Development Agreement," he wrote. "Maybe you should think about the impact of your letter on the city."
For its part, the Urban Renewal Agency voted to seek a declaratory judgment to have all of Bartolomei's claims overturned.