Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino extended his state of emergency on Wednesday, marking the third five-day extension he’s authorized since his initial declaration on July 20.
What Restaino hasn’t done yet is take one of the biggest steps state law allows the chief executive of a municipality to take when operating under a state of emergency.
Section 24 of New York Officers Law notes that a mayor “may” ask the governor for assistance to deal with an emergency, provided the municipality’s chief executive determines the disaster in question to be “beyond the capacity” of the local government to “meet adequately.”
Subsection 7 of the state’s public officers law also grants the mayor the ability to request state assistance when deemed “necessary to supplement local efforts to save lives and to protect property, public health and safety, or to avert or lessen the threat of a disaster.”
So why hasn’t Restaino called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to help the city tend to neglected properties, cut grass or smooth out unpaved roads?
As of press time Wednesday, his office did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Restaino disclosed on Aug. 21 that he declared a state of emergency weeks earlier due to unpaved roads and “blight caused by abandoned properties.” The mayor argued that the conditions posed a risk to public health and safety. In announcing the move, he also cited the council’s failure, “if not outright refusal,” to approve the contracts.
Under state law, the emergency order allowed the mayor to suspend three portions of the charter relating to requirements for the city council to approve or ratify contracts while lifting a restriction on budget expenditures.
After declaring the state of emergency last month, Restaino authorized a pair of contracts with private vendors, including one with the landscaping firm K.J. Smith Enterprises and a second with Occhino Corp., a West Seneca company hired by the administration to pave streets.
In an interview on Friday and in a press release issued by his office that afternoon, Restaino indicated a private vendor he hired without council approval amid the emergency declaration has so far cleaned more than 400 unkempt and blighted properties. He also announced plans for a private paving company, which was also hired by Restaino without council approval under the emergency declaration, to pave a stretch of Niagara Street from Hyde Park Boulevard to Portage Road this year.
The mayor has said the reluctance of two council members — Bridgette Myles and Vincent Cauley — to authorize the contracts left him no choice but to declare the emergency and execute both contracts himself.
“It’s the only vehicle we have to be able to tackle these problems that are out there, that are even impacting residents and still continuing. Had they simply authorized those contracts, there was no need for this,” he said.
When asked on Friday how long he anticipated the city’s current state of emergency would last, Restaino told a Gazette reporter “he did not know.”
Both Myles and Cauley have characterized Restaino’s emergency declaration as a “non-emergency,” suggesting instead the mayor made the move to avoid scrutiny of contracts and agreements by members of the council.
Myles said she invited the mayor to attend Wednesday’s council meeting to discuss the city’s state of emergency status and he declined.
In an interview with a reporter prior to the council meeting, she said he needs to do something instead of continuing to extend the emergency declaration, which, in essence, gives him the ability to bypass council approval powers. At this point, she said, it appears the mayor intends to continue authorizing extensions without offering any explanation as to need or impact.
Myles said she invited Restaino to the council meeting in hopes he would come in and explain.
“At what point do you stop and say, ‘Wait a minute, what’s the action plan? What’s the outcome going to be? How do we work together to get this done?’ “ she said.
So what other powers does state law extend to Restaino while the Falls operates under a state of emergency?
According to New York Public Officers Law 24, he could:
• Establish a curfew and the prohibition and control of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, except essential emergency vehicles and personnel;
• Designate specific zones within which the occupancy and use of buildings and the ingress and egress of vehicles and persons may be prohibited or regulated
• Regulate and close places of amusement and assembly
• Suspend or limit the sale, dispensing, use or transportation of alcoholic beverages, firearms, explosives, and flammable materials and liquids;
• Prohibit and control the presence of persons on public streets and places
• Establish or designate emergency shelters, emergency medical shelters, and, in consultation with the state commissioner of health, community-based care centers.