Now it Can be Said: Dyster Sold Negligent Council a Lot of Garbage

Niagara Falls Councilman Charles Walker's admission on the Vince Anello radio show of April 7 regarding the Dyster administration trash and recycling contract wasnothing short of stunning, as the veteran councilman said, "Some of the things that we were told that were in the trash contract we found out later were not in thecontract."

The councilman's candid remarks are key to probing the history and inadequacies of the city's trash and recycling contract, a contract that in reality is not a singlecontract but an initial contract that has been changed, modified and amended multiple times to the great confusion and added cost of city residents.

Charles Walker's admission puts an exclamation point on the problems generated by the trashy matter: Mayor Paul Dyster and his administration misled the council with agood old case of salesmanship 101, the classic bait and switch.

What we have here is not a failure to communicate but rather a ploy to mis-communicate as the trash and recycling contract was held out to be something that it neverwas.

In other words - if councilman Walker is to be believed - the Dyster administration lied to the council in order to get the contract signed.

If Walker's remarks on the Anello show aren't enough to support his claim of being misled we have councilwoman Kristen Grandinetti's remarks on the Anello show ofApril 9 when she said the trash program, "rollout was screwed up and saying that we now have to move forward."

When Anello asked the councilwoman if she knew what was in the trash agreement when it was presented to council she remarked, "It was unclear as to how the processwas going to go as we moved along... this administration can do a better job of getting information on things out."

Well, one person's poor communication is another person's blatant effort to mislead and confuse.

But now - one year into the trash contract - what can be done about it?

Councilman Walker also said, during his radio appearance, that the city rushed the contract bid time frame at the expense of receiving other, possibly better, bids.

An inexplicable rush to a contract, a misrepresentation of the contract contents by the administration and a gullible and curiously incurious city council have addedup to a failed trash and recycling program that has made the words "recycling" and "Niagara Falls" a punchline to a very unfunny joke.

Council member Walker, and his fellow council member Kristen Grandinetti, must come forward and publicly detail exactly how the trash contract was misrepresented sothat the entire trash and recycling matter can be re-presented and repaired.

It's time to discover the hidden details of how the city has arrived at this point in its trash handling history so that an understanding as to what was and whatwasn't in the final contract signed by Mayor Dyster.

It's time for the council to explain to the residents why they voted for this poorly designed contract... a contract that has cost money and time while needlesslytraumatizing the community.

Over the past year Niagara Falls has become a rather strange and crazy place, a place where something so mundane, something so universally understood as trash tossingand recycling has somehow become a costly clown show.