At the conclusion of the May 14 news conference during which Niagara Falls Mayor Vincenzo V. Anello delivered a performance that was equal parts Captain Queeg and Captain Ahab, one woman standing behind him clapped her hands loudly and shouted.
"Bravo, Mayor Anello!" she proclaimed.
Who, you might ask, provided the one-woman ovation?
His sister, Rose.
Whatever his faults as the city's chief executive, Anello has shown tremendous devotion to his family. When the City Council eliminated his daughter's job as assistant events something-or-other, he pushed his secretary out of her position to make room for Vincenette.
And when Rose's civil-service exam score was too poor to retain the post in the city comptroller's office he had given her after taking office in January 2004, he swiftly took action.
Rather than filling the job with someone qualified, he simply eliminated the position, created a new one with a slightly different title and job description, and gave it to his sister. That post supposedly requires a civil-service test, also, but it had not been scheduled as of press time.
Rose's enthusiasm for her brother's blustering was certainly understandable. So was the head-scratching by just about everyone else at City Hall.
The mayor showed his usual level of class before the news conference -- during which he essentially declared war on Niagara Falls Redevelopment -- even started, walking up to a gathering of print reporters, including two from the Niagara Falls Reporter, and issuing a one-liner so flaccid Henny Youngman would have rejected it.
"If I'd known there would be so many rats here, I would have called the Health Department," he said, drawing no reaction whatsoever from several media members and an eyeroll from another.
Anello was much funnier, if less intentionally so, during the session that followed.
First, he managed to directly contradict himself during an opening statement that lasted all of 90 seconds.
"The term of the development agreement during which NFR could propose projects or developments has expired," he said.
Then, moments later, "We are leaving the door open for NFR to submit development proposals in the future."
Well, which is it?
This led to repeated questions from several reporters who wondered what, exactly, the mayor was talking about. He insisted that ending the company's exclusive rights to develop 142 downtown acres would bring other developers flocking to Niagara Falls.
One reporter asked if other developers had contacted City Hall about developing on that land or elsewhere in Niagara Falls.
"There has been interest, yes, but they've been reticent to make and spend a lot of money on their proposals because they've thought that NFR is the only one that has development rights," Anello said.
Of course, NFR only had those rights within the 142-acre footprint. You might think it's the job of, say, the mayor and the city's Economic Development Department to clarify such misunderstandings, but it's apparently much easier to blame somebody else.
Someone asked whether Anello had officially notified NFR of the arbitrary Monday-morning deadline he had set.
"If they read the Buffalo News, I said I needed to hear something by 10 o'clock," he said. "I haven't heard anything."
So I asked him if it was now city policy to issue such information via the media. His non-answer:
"I didn't notify the developer -- we've been negotiating, we've been negotiating for a long, long time," he said. "Unfortunately, you haven't been at any of the meetings, so you would ask that question."
He got even pettier when Reporter Editor in Chief Mike Hudson asked about a police report alleging illegal dumping by Chad Robertson Contracting on land owned by Niagara Falls Redevelopment. Chad Robertson Contracting happens to be represented by Damon DeCastro, Anello's hand-picked choice as the city's acting corporation counsel.
The city's charter requires the corporation counsel to give up all other legal work, to avoid such blatant conflicts of interest, an inconvenience Anello and DeCastro have chosen to skirt by appending the word "acting" to the latter's job title.
While asking about how DeCastro's ethical dilemma impacted Anello's announcement might seem reasonable, given the attorney's role in negotiations with NFR, the mayor decided he didn't have to answer the query because Hudson addressed him as "Vince."
"You mean mayor? You mean mayor? I'm not answering that question," he snapped. "Are you addressing Vince, or are you addressing the mayor?"
All he needed were a couple of steel balls to roll between his fingers, and he would have been perfectly cast for Humphrey Bogart's role in a community-theater presentation of "The Caine Mutiny."
And like the protagonist of "Moby Dick," Anello's single-minded obsession -- in his case, with somehow staying in office beyond Jan. 1, 2008 -- takes precedence over common sense and what's best for those around him.
That combination, which would make an interesting case study for an ambitious psychiatrist, has been a recipe for failure when it comes to dealing with anyone outside the collection of family and flunkies with which Anello has larded the city payroll.
Besides the stalemate with NFR, the mayor's willful ignorance -- abetted by DeCastro's self-professed inability to send out documents when ordered to do so by City Council -- has repeatedly halted progress toward construction of a state-ordered courthouse but not slowed the spiraling cost to taxpayers.
Facing three strong, fundamentally decent challengers in Lewis "Babe" Rotella, Paul Dyster and Candra Thomason, and with the all-important Democratic Primary less than four months away, Anello has chosen to make war against a developer that has not fulfilled the grandiose plans unveiled a decade ago but has purchased, cleared and paid taxes on a wide swath of a blighted downtown.
Anello apparently believes a majority, or at least a plurality, of Niagara Falls voters to be simpletons who will vote for whoever yells the loudest. He clearly hoped his pronouncement would be perceived as bold and decisive.
Instead, it came off as petulant, more than a little goofy and, ultimately, sad -- both for Anello and for the city he professes to love.
Bravo, indeed.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 22 2007 |