For Niagara County Legislator John Ceretto, his run for the 138th state Assembly District seat hinges on but a single issue: State Rep. Francine Del Monte's dismal 10-year record of failure for the people of Niagara Falls and the surrounding communities.
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Del Monte's sexual predator legislation allowed dozens of dangerous Level 2 and 3 sex offenders to relocate in her hometown, though not until after she moved to Lewiston. Her support for the stripping of $550 million in Niagara-generated profit for the New York Power Authority in order to further subsidize the fares on the New York City subway system was seen as the ultimate betrayal of her home district by many.
And, Ceretto charges, Del Monte's repeated support of new taxes and fees in order to feed Albany's bloated bureaucracy has been directly responsible for the plummeting population of her home district and the drastic decline of private sector jobs here.
"Since Francine Del Monte took office, nearly 2 million New Yorkers have left the state, and government spending has increased by 80 percent," Ceretto told the Niagara Falls Reporter. "That's the largest 10-year spending increase in the history of the state, and she is accountable for it."
Ceretto got the assemblywoman's goat late last month in an interview with the Buffalo News. Citing the large numbers of convicted sex offenders living in Niagara Falls, Ceretto placed the blame on the state's civil confinement law, which she sponsored.
"The state is using the city as a dumping ground for dangerous criminals, those who prey on the children of our community," he said. "I grew up in Niagara Falls, and the city is not the city I left."
There are currently 178 convicted sexual predators living in Niagara Falls, including 48 Level 3 offenders who have been judged "incurable" by the courts. As a percentage of the population, Niagara Falls has the greatest concentration of convicted sex offenders anywhere in the entire state.
Ceretto said he believes in a "zero tolerance" policy toward convicted sex offenders that would include tougher sentences and make it harder to place them back into the community. He also supports the Three Strikes legislation, opposed by Del Monte and her Democratic colleagues, that would send repeat offenders with three violent felonies to prison for life.
As for Del Monte, she said she was hurt by her opponent's remarks and added that, since the number of sexual offenders here became a major issue last summer, she's now working on tinkering with the law she helped draft.
"Any law can be improved," she said.
That's not good enough for Ceretto, who said that he would propose drastic changes in the law when he is elected.
"Those who prey on the weakest members of our society should be kept behind bars where they belong," he said. "If, God forbid, one of those animals should attack again, I don't know how Francine Del Monte could live with herself, knowing how little she has done."
In 2007, the state Senate passed a far tougher version of the civil confinement law that the Del Monte legislation watered down significantly. The Senate bill would have turned one of the state's prisons into a maximum security installation where the dangerous Level 3 offenders could keep each other company and pose no threat whatsoever to children.
"In a distorted attempt to cover for herself now, Francine Del Monte continuously tells the people of this community that she supported civil confinement of sexual predators," Ceretto said. "What she neglects to disclose is the fact that the bill that she ultimately voted for was co-sponsored by her master, Sheldon Silver. And that bill, as we know from the alarming number of sex offenders in Niagara Falls, has done absolutely nothing to keep these offenders out of our neighborhoods and away from our children."
Ceretto said Del Monte's blind obedience to state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, to the detriment of her Niagara County constituents, has hurt the entire state.
"Sheldon Silver has been the single biggest impediment to the state changing the way it does business. He is the epitome of everything that is wrong with the State of New York," Ceretto said. "Francine Del Monte has voted to reappoint him to his leadership position every single time she has had the opportunity. We cannot change the state's leadership if we don't change the people who elect the leadership, and in our case, that's Francine Del Monte."
Ceretto has also been the county Legislature's point man in a lawsuit against the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, a bi-national body whose American membership has become glutted with Del Monte sycophants.
While Niagara County is forced to contribute $8.5 million to the commission's pension fund this year, the commission continues to maintain that it does not have to follow state or federal laws requiring financial disclosure, because half its members are Canadian.
"It's crazy," he said. "The county has cut its work force by 16 percent over the past four years, and our contribution to the State Pension Fund, which subsidizes the Bridge Commission, keeps going up. Next year, it will be more than $10 million, and we're not permitted to see what they're spending it on."
Additionally, he has been a strong backer of the county's lawsuit against the state in connection with the $550 million sweep of revenue generated here in the state Power Authority's Robert Moses plant for the benefit of Sheldon Silver's New York City constituency.
In a fit a pique, Del Monte retaliated. She fought for and passed legislation in the Assembly that stripped Lewiston, Porter, Cambria, Niagara, Wheatfield, Wilson and even tiny Hartland of their fair share of revenue generated by the Seneca Niagara Casino, giving the money to Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster instead.
Dyster turned most of the money back over to the Native American owners of the Hard Rock bar and grill here, who are using it to stage a half-dozen lackluster concerts by washed-up pop music groups in downtown Niagara Falls.
Ceretto, 58, is a Niagara Falls native who attended La Salle Senior High School and graduated from Niagara University with bachelor's and master's degrees in education and administration. He married his wife, Beth, in 1978, and moved to Lewiston, where the couple currently resides with their four children.
A strong belief in personal responsibility, hard work and accountability caused him to enter the race for Assembly in the 138th District.
"Like most residents of our community, I've been disgusted by what has transpired in Albany over the years," he said. "And while this state was once a great place to live, raise a family and do business, Francine Del Monte has presided over the greatest decline our state has ever seen."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | July 13, 2010 |