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By: Frank Parlato

Analysis

In the upcoming election for mayor of Niagara Falls, there will be at least four candidates. They are Robert Restaino, Seth Piccirillo, Ezra Scott and Glenn Choolokian.

Choolokian is running on the Republican line. The other three are Democrats. And will square off in the Democratic Primary which will be held in June.

One name absent from the field is the present mayor, Paul Dyster. For the last 11 years he has led Niagara Falls to the position it now occupies in the van of cities: Dead last.

Two of the candidates seem eager to keep Dyster’s legacy alive. They are Seth Piccirillo and Ezra Scott.

Ezra decided to run for council four years ago campaigning as an independent voice for the council. Since he became councilman, he has never voted against any Dyster initiative.

Some people would call him Dyster’s flunkey. But that is not fair. Ezra has had so little experience in, or knowledge about government that naturally he turned to Dyster to explain to him how to vote.

Ezra voted for Dyster’s mega tax and spend budgets that resulted in a $13 million annual deficit.

With taxpayers leaving town in droves, it is not clear who is left to pay for the most expensive Niagara Falls government in history and one of the costliest governments for a city its size in the world.

Then there is Seth Piccirillo. Everyone who supports Dyster – from high paid city employees to city union workers whose contracts are up for negotiation – and their families – know enough to vote for Seth.  He can be counted on to take care of government employees who vote.

This is the same formula Dyster used to win two elections.  Get the government workers.

It worked because there is low voter turnout in Niagara Falls. The city government employees actually swing the elections.

The general public – those who have seen the extraordinary decline of the city during the last 11 years – might not realize Seth is Dyster’s handpicked successor. But he is.

We get angry emails from people who say the Reporter lies because Dyster has not officially endorsed Seth yet we say he has endorsed him.

Seth has a strategy in keeping Dyster’s support close to the vest. He tells people who don’t work for the city that he is independent and tells city employees and their families he will continue the Dyster policy of ensuring they continue to make the highest taxpayer funded salaries of any small city in America.

In 2012, Seth was appointed by Dyster as director of community development. During the last 7 years the city has developed into what it has become today – the poorest city in the state, the highest taxed city in the state, with the highest crime rate, and the fastest shrinking population — despite having 8 million tourists per year and the greatest natural hydropower in the world.

This year, Dyster moved Seth from Community Development to Acting Director of Code Enforcement – so he could legally run for mayor. That seems like an endorsement to us.

From what we can tell, Seth is merely a cooler version of Mayor Dyster.

In fact, Dyster said, “It is no secret that our energetic and creative Community Development director, Seth Piccirillo, has gained a reputation for being on the cutting edge. The Department is very active on social media, and some people have even started referring to CD Director Piccirillo as ‘the Director of Cool.’ So I thought you might like to see this ‘cool’ video that CD put together to highlight some of the changes going on in our community.”

Changes going on in our community?The community is in ruins.

Instead of actually fixing houses and developing the community, Seth makes taxpayer-funded videos and is big on social media.

The secret of guys like Seth and Dyster is that they think that government can fix the problems. It never works but it gets them elected.

How cool is that?