Hard Ball Questions We Would Ask Dyster If He Appeared On Our Talk Show

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster appeared on the Tom Darro radio show Wednesday December 16, and while both he and the host spoke for one hour, little was learned as to how the mayor intends to handle the many serious problems confronting the city.

Little was learned because little in the area of hard questioning took place.

But we have questions of our own that we wouldn't hesitate to ask if the mayor would sit for an interview with the Reporter. Such as:

The Hamister contract was signed over 25 months ago and still there's no shovel in the ground. Is the project you hyped for the past two election cycles the complete failure it appears to be?

You failed to receive a minority of votes (47%) in the election. Do you see this voter rejection as a rejection of your last two terms?

The council and your office worked to pass the 2016 budget when, for lack of better words, little public input or new coverage on November 17. Why the lack of stakeholder debate?

The city's Finance Advisory Panel released their long awaited budget recommendations AFTER you signed the 2016 budget. Why did you allow the panel's critical document to fall out of sync with your 2016 budget authorization?

You have expressed interest in pursuing a city property reassessment for 2016. Why do you see a reassessment and tax hike as a better solution than curbing your administration's spending?

You, as gatekeeper of the casino cash, have spent or committed all of the casino cash into the foreseeable future, and you did it all without a published spending plan. Why?

Senator Rob Ortt recently released an ambitious plan to increase the city's share of casino cash. Why haven't you embraced the senator's plan? Do you have a better plan?

What is the city's current relationship with the NYS Municipal Restructuring Board and how will that relationship affect residents?

The state audit of city finances revealed improper use of casino funds to cover the deficit, misdirected millions within the budget and more than $1 million unaccounted for. What do you say about these findings?

The 2016 budget, at your recommendation, is using $12.5 million of casino revenue to operate. How do you justify this in light of the state audit that condemned this as misuse of casino funds?

The city debt under your leadership has risen to more than $61 million. Can a city this size handle debt of this magnitude?

Have you found the money to annually operate the train station? How much money will it cost to keep the train station doors open?

The ice pavilion "renovation" has risen in cost to more than three times the original estimate. How did this happen?