City council members agree that a lack of communication from Mayor John Lombardi III makes it difficult to say what progress was made in the city in 2025.
That lack of communication extended to this newspaper. Lombardi did not respond to email and phone requests to talk about the year’s activities and accomplishments, and has not responded to repeated interview requests on a variety of topics for the past six months.
Every alderman, except Mark Devine, has said the mayor doesn’t read email and they can not communicate with him that way.
Margaret Lupo, 5th Ward alderman, said she doesn’t think any daily business passes through Lombardi’s hands.
“I don’t know what he does,” she said. “He watches Spectrum News in his office. When I complain about the lack of transparency, he yells at me that I don’t come in and meet with him. But when you go in to talk to him, he tells you a bunch of stories. Even if he does things, he doesn’t want us to know.”
“It’s hard for us to gauge what he’s doing day-to-day if he doesn’t come to at least occasional meetings,” said John Craig, 1st Ward alderman. “That’s a poor look. He will probably say that it was because committee meetings weren’t held, but there were plenty of committee meetings held. The last two years have certainly been problematic in a few areas, like communication and day-to-day operations. We (aldermen) don’t get feedback on what’s being done because he doesn’t show up to meetings.”
Lupo, who did not run for re-election, was the Common Council’s representative on the board of the Greater Lockport Development Corp. Lupo said that while Lombardi also has a seat on the GLDC’s board, he only attended one meeting this year.
Craig said stalled downtown revitalization projects under the GLDC are ultimately the mayor’s responsibility.
“The mayor’s role is to make sure the initiatives get implemented. There’s some mismanagement there in terms of money allocated to do certain projects,” Craig said, referring to the F&M Building, Heritage Mall, and the Spaulding Mill. “Somebody needs to be more on top of that. The state kind of sits back and says Lockport is sitting on $4 million dollars and nothing is getting done.”
When asked whether the number of streets repaved under Lombardi’s administration was productive, Craig spoke about how the paving was managed and unspent funds from the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS).
“I think a fair amount was done,” Craig said. “But if you have money to be able to do other streets, then that should be farmed out and that’s on the mayor to farm out contracts. Let’s use the money that’s available to us.”
Craig connected streets management and a void in city leadership on the Environmental Protection Agency’s remediation work in Lowertown, to Lombardi’s unexplained firing of former city engineer John Donnelly in August. Craig said 1st Ward residents received no assistance with their questions because there was no liaison with the EPA.
“I think the former engineer had at least a litmus test on what was going on (with the EPA) because he was the city engineer. When he was let go, that kind of fell by the wayside, so we’re kind of back to square one. As the mayor, he is the city leader. The engineer was taking that on on behalf of the mayor. Again, there’s nobody in that position.”
While some 1st Ward residents were pleased with the addition of an ice rink and pickleball court at Rogers Avenue Park in September, the project was done without the involvement of an engineer.
Lupo said the design of the rink at Rogers Avenue Park is nothing like the rink at Altro Park.
“Altro Park is like a dish,” she said. “There’s nothing like that. I don’t know what they did. It’s ruined.”
Lupo said Donnelly “was the real deal” in terms of professional ethics and standards. Lupo has talked to Donnelly since his firing and she said he had raised concerns that there were no work orders issued in the city to track work on the city’s infrastructure.
Speaking of Donnelly’s firing within months of being hired, Lupo said, “In my adult life, that was the most awful thing I’ve had a front seat to.”
When Kathryn Fogle, 4th Ward alderman and Common Council president, went to city hall in August to address retaining Donnelly and to arrange a personnel meeting, she said Lombardi told her Donnelly was already terminated. The discussion led to an argument with Lombardi asking police to escort Fogle out of the city hall.
On the day of the firing, Anita Mullane, the outgoing 2nd Ward alderman, requested the mayor’s resignation at a Common Council meeting.
At the time, Kevin Kirchberger, alderman at-large who had worked with Donnelly on getting answers to sewer and paving issues, said, “I’m upset that I wasn’t notified. They said they don’t have to give us a reason.”