David Blackley, the city’s corporation counsel, interrupted a reporter’s questions to Finance Director Dan Cavallari at Wednesday’s Common Council work session, stepping across the room to summon Cavallari into an adjacent room.
After this reporter received permission to ask questions after council business was wrapped up, Blackley crossed behind the seated aldermen to beckon and interrupt Cavallari in mid-sentence. Blackley summoned Cavallari into an adjacent room where he could be heard saying, “This is not an interview session,” to Cavallari.
During its finance committee meeting Wednesday, the council discussed a $7,800 cost for commercial driver’s license (CDL) training from Stevens Driving School.
Kathryn Fogle, 4th Ward alderman, asked what happens when an employee who receives CDL training paid for by the city leaves their job.
John Craig, 1st Ward alderman, said the city previously had only hired personnel that had CDL licenses for the positions that required it.
“They used to be trained in-house,” said Sue Mawhiney, city treasurer.
Kevin Kirchberger, alderman at large, said he knew that two people on the training list were hired without the needed license.
“Now we’re paying for it,” Craig said. “What happens if they don’t pass? It says they’re going to Stevens Driving School.”
“What do we do if something like this happens?” Fogle asked. “Do we vote on paying for it, because it’s already paid?”
Council members asked Cavallari if money was budgeted and costs were already accrued for the training. Cavallari said he wasn’t sure, but could check into it.
Cavallari has repeatedly told council members during meetings that he will check on answers to routine financial questions and provide the information later by email. The move often pushes the answers — and the resulting discussion — outside the public meeting.
“If it is not yet fully incurred, hold off on it?” Cavallari asked the council Wednesday. “I can piece together some logical information on this.”
Once the work session was over, this reporter asked Cavallari what the dollar threshold was for requiring a purchase order for spending.
“One penny,” Cavallari said.
“So every purchase requires a purchase order?” this reporter asked.
“Yes,” Cavallari said.
When asked why he couldn’t tell if the cost was from a purchase order or an invoice, Cavallari said, “Because I have someone that does that for me.”
When asked what document he was referring to during the meeting, and if the discussion was based on a chart, Cavallari said he didn’t know. Craig later said he was looking at an accounts payable statement.
In 2024, the Union Sun & Journal published that Mayor John Lombardi III sent an email to city employees directing them not to speak with journalists. The message stated, “Absolutely No One working for City Hall is to talk to The Media in any form.”
In January, Lombardi objected to moving work sessions from a room that could only seat 10 people to the city’s chambers.
“There’s certain things we hash out back here that the public doesn’t need to hear,” he said in a meeting. “If it’s up to me, it will stay right here.”
In the past year, Blackley has increasingly halted lines of discussion at council work sessions, interrupting aldermen’s and journalists’ questions, especially when they are directed at Lombardi.
Aldermen were so frustrated by Blackley’s delays in answering their legal questions last fall that Anita Mullane, 2nd Ward alderman at the time, pursued adding a budget line for a separate council attorney. At the time, Mullane pointed to Blackley’s two jobs each day, as 2nd Assistant Public Defender for Niagara County and Lockport’s corporation counsel, saying the city received little of his time. Mullane said all aldermen in the 2025 council agreed with using a separate attorney.
Commenting last November, Fogle said she agreed with securing a separate attorney.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea. If you have a problem with a mayor, you’re out on a limb and have no one to talk to,” Fogle said. “Because they have control. It’s like (Blackley) is the mayor’s bodyguard or something.”
When asked after the Common Council meeting what he thought about Blackley’s interruption of questions, Craig said, “I don’t know what that was about.”
When asked if the action allowed transparency of council actions, Craig would not answer, and said that an urgent matter may have come up that Blackley needed to address.
When asked what he thought of Blackley’s actions, Kirchberger hesitated. He acknowledged that the council had agreed to allow questions from this reporter.
When asked if there was some kind of emergency that required exiting the room, Kirchberger said, “Didn’t seem like it.”