Niagara Falls City Council members Vincent Cauley and Bridgette Myles have scheduled a press conference at noon Friday at city hall, where they plan to discuss the mayor’s emergency declaration and what they describe as his decision to bypass “mandatory” council oversight, which resulted in the award of two contracts with private vendors and also the approval of the NFR land deal.
The council members say they plan to discuss what they characterize as “flagrant violations” of the city’s charter, a legal document that governs the operation of the local municipal government.
“We want all of the documents that have been executed from July 20 until now,” Cauley said. “Anything that is happening, we should have documents for it. This is an unjustified and unjustifiable state of emergency declaration. Case closed.”
Myles agreed, saying Restaino is using the emergency declaration as an excuse to strip the council of its oversight powers so he has the sole power to do what he wants, including allocating city funds for contracts.
“It seems like he wants to use that to push everything that there’s a question about,” she said.
“People need to start walking up and paying attention and realize what’s going on. This is not normal,” she added. “It’s a shame.”
Among Cauley and Myles’ questions are whether Mayor Robert Restaino executed a $4.029 million contract to complete the city’s acquisition of 10 acres of land from the private firm Niagara Falls Redevelopment.
The mayor said he did during an appearance on Wednesday on “Viewpoint,” a local talk show hosted by Tom Darro on WEBR AM 1440.
A city spokesman confirmed it on Thursday.
A majority of city lawmakers, including Cauley, voted in favor of a settlement ending several legal disputes with NFR. Under the court-sanctioned deal, NFR agreed to “donate” 10 acres of its land in the Falls for use by the city as the future home of Restaino’s proposed $210 million Centennial Park minor league hockey arena and events center. In exchange for the land, the city agreed to pay NFR $4 million to cover its legal fees and other expenses.
Following the initial settlement vote, council members Myles, Cauley and Chairman Brian Archie all told the Niagara Gazette they thought funds to pay NFR would be covered by the city’s allotment of casino revenue because that was what the mayor had suggested.
In July, when Restaino formally requested authorization of the payment to NFR, he presented a resolution calling for the $4.029 million payment to be drawn out of the city’s fund balance, also known as its reserve account.
A majority of council members twice balked at the idea of using fund balance money to cover the payment.
Earlier this month, New York State Supreme Court Justice Deborah Chimes, who helped broker the settlement between the two parties, issued an order directing the city controller to pay the settlement sum to (NFR’s attorneys) out of the city’s unassigned fund balance by this past Wednesday.
Restaino has said, in light of the court order, the city had no other recourse except to pay NFR what it is owed under the settlement.
Cauley and Myles maintain the council still reserves the right, under the city charter, to approve the allocation of city funds, including those tied to the NFR court case.