Mayor Robert Restaino’s office issued a lengthy statement late Wednesday, suggesting “sensational and misinformed” reporting about a city cleanup at an Ontario Avenue property where a family previously maintained a front yard garden has led to threats of harm against staff at the city’s Department of Public Works.
The nine-page statement, which included nine photos of the exterior of the property at 2627 Ontario Ave., was sent by Restaino’s brother, City Administrator Anthony Restaino, to the Niagara Gazette and other Western New York media outlets at 4:16 p.m. Wednesday.
It was delivered more than two days after the administration failed to answer an email from a Gazette reporter who requested copies of any photos the city took of the property, more detailed information about any complaints filed about its condition and an opportunity to interview Department of Public Works Director Ken Tompkins or another representative from the administration who could discuss the situation.
That request followed an April 24 Gazette email to the city administrator asking to speak with Tompkins about the matter.
Restaino’s statement also follows reports on Tuesday filed from local news stations WGRZ, WIVB and WKBW, with each of those outlets noting the administration did not make available any representative for comment and indicated instead that it would issue a statement on Wednesday.
The statement references what the mayor’s office describes as “an unfortunate effect” the reporting has had in “feeding the anger” of some of the “citizen’s lesser angels.”
It concludes with a finding following a review by the administration that Tompkins and his staff handled the matter appropriately and within keeping with enforcement actions covered under the city’s clean neighborhood ordinances.
“The administrative staff of DPW have now started receiving phone calls threatening their safety based on a belief that the city has targeted a family rather than the unsafe and unlawful conditions that the family created both on public property and the private property that they rent,” the statement reads. “The Clean Team has one of the toughest jobs in the city, and they should never be vilified for doing their jobs and following the laws and the ordinances that were passed on the local and federal level.”
The Niagara Gazette first reported on Friday that the occupants of the property — Justine Burger and Kenneth Johnson — felt the city went too far by sending a crew of DPW employees to their house on the day after Easter to remove cinder blocks, logs and other items they say were part of a front-yard garden they maintained with their three children, ages 2, 4 and 15. Burger said the family started planting flowers and vegetables in the front yard after her teenage son, who has autism, came home from school excited about a sunflower he planted as part of a school project.
City workers, responding to a neighbor complaint and what officials have said were multiple violations of the city’s clean neighborhood ordinance, also removed several items from the couple’s backyard, including a refrigerator with a door on it that DPW representatives told the couple posed a potential hazard to children.
On Monday, the newspaper reported that the city later billed Burger and Johnson for $2,296 to cover the cleanup cost, which included a charge for the weight of the materials removed from their property. It was reported on Wednesday that a GoFundMe campaign has raised enough money to cover the city’s bill.
The mayor’s statement notes that, under the city’s clean neighborhood ordinances, adopted in 1987, the DPW is largely responsible for enforcement actions against private property owners and occupants. The ordinance also allows the city to issue orders of cleanup to owners and occupants of property that itemize the violations to be corrected. Under city law, offenders are given a “reasonable” amount of time, not to exceed 10 days from the date of the order, to correct any violations. The city is also allowed, by law, to seek reimbursement from the property occupants or owners for the cost of cleanup services rendered.
The statement from the mayor’s office indicates that the response from the city was not prompted by the condition of the front yard as depicted in photos taken by the family and published in the Niagara Gazette on Saturday and again on Tuesday.
Those photos showed Burger, Johnson and their children in the front yard in what appeared to be a well-tended garden.
The administration, using imagery taken from Google Earth, concluded that the family’s photos could not have been taken in 2020, 2021 or 2022 and could only have been taken during the growing season in 2024 or 2023 at the earliest, which the mayor’s office contends contradicts the couple’s contention that they have been growing the garden in the front yard for the past five years.
The couple told the Gazette that they have lived at the property for five years and had been growing the garden for “several years.”
The administration said DPW crews cleaned up the property following neighbor complaints registered with at least two council members and complaints filed on the city’s 311 complaint system starting in December of 2024. The statement indicates that the most recent complaint was received on March 21, prompting a city Clean Team inspector to visit the address on April 3 to take photographs of violations and attach an order of clean up to the front porch. The same day, the administration says the order of clean-up was mailed to both the owner of the property in Amherst, as well as to the occupants.
“All this was done in compliance with the relevant portions of the Clean Neighborhoods Ordinance as they have existed since 1987,” the administration’s statement notes.
The administration also notes while the owner’s front property line follows the edge of the concrete public sidewalk closest to the front of the home, the grassy margin that extends from the street and over the entire width of the concrete public sidewalk represents the city’s right-of-way. The administration said orange and painted bricks and cinder blocks placed on the grass margin, as well as on top of the concrete sidewalk, by the property’s occupants posed tripping hazards and, therefore, warranted removal.
The administration contends pieces of wood and other items encroached on a driveway next to the house also required removal as the driveway belongs to the property next door, not the house in question.
“Regardless of whether someone sees this cinder block and log garden as attractive or not, the occupant’s decision to take over the city’s right of way – specifically, the grassy area in the foreground which, by definition, is part of the sidewalk and therefore intended for pedestrian use – represents multiple violations of city ordinances, as well as federal law known as the Americans with Disabilities Act,” the statement from the mayor’s office reads.
The administration’s statement came with an April 21 photo taken before the clean team started working at the property as evidence that “little to no efforts” were taken by the occupants or the owner to remove the violations that were noted 18 days before the city issued its April 3 order of cleanup.
Both Burger and Johnson have said that they believe the city could have handled the situation differently while Burger said she understood what the city was trying to accomplish with the clean neighborhood ordinances but that she felt the process was “flawed.”
Restaino’s administration said it disagrees.
“The public should also know that every workday, the Clean Team performs between six to 20 clean-ups on private property under Chapter 738 with no complaints being registered,” the administration said in its statement.