Did Council Chairman Jim Perry Violate the First Amendment?

During a Niagara Falls City Council meeting on September 4th, Tanya Barone stepped up to the podium to speak for the good of the community. Once she announced that she was going to discuss a Freedom of Information Act request that she filed regarding a contract between the City of Niagara Falls and the Pit Chic, Council Chairman Jim Perry immediately interrupted her and told her that she was not allowed to speak.

Even worse, Perry instructed an officer to escort Barone out of the council chambers.

Council Chairman Jim Perry has recently come under public scrutiny for his censorship during city council meetings.

The following was published in the Niagara Gazette, as Perry’s actions were criticized by his fellow council members Donta Myles and Brian Archie; along with attorney Paul Wolf who is president of the New York Coalition for Open Government.

Wolf told the Niagara Gazette, “It is truly outrageous for an elected city official to request that a member of the public be removed by a police officer because he did not like the topic she was addressing,” Wolf said. “In America, you should not be removed from a public meeting because an elected official does not like what you have to say. Mr. Perry should learn from his mistake and publicly apologize for his behavior. It should not be that difficult for an elected official to simply listen to what a member of the public has to say.”

According to recent legal precedent, it would seem that Perry’s actions violated Barone’s First Amendment right. Even most law students in their first year would know this.

Free speech is not so free when it costs the taxpayers money. That’s exactly what happened in 2016 when a federal court forced the City of Niagara Falls to pay $156,414 in damages to the brother of former Mayor Vince Anello. In 2007, Matteo Anello was speaking at the same podium from which Barone was removed, when council members at that time told him to stop speaking. When he refused, the city council instructed officers to remove Anello from council chambers and he was arrested.

What resulted was an 8 year legal battle because the City of Niagara Falls refused to settle out of court. Anello won his verdict in federal court in 2015 and the city was forced to pay both the $105,000 settlement plus the added legal fees because they refused to settle.

If Tanya Barone so chooses, she is in a similar position to sue the City of Niagara Falls for violating her First Amendment right. We as taxpayers are in a position to once again pay for legal fees and damages all because of Jim Perry’s bullying from the dais SNAFU. Perry’s actions were an absurdly piggish abuse of power.

The Reporter asked Perry if he was at all concerned that his actions of censoring Barone could lead to a lawsuit, and Perry responded, “Unfortunately, Ms. Barone got caught in the crossfire. She was being feed [sic] by Gallo and believed everything Gallo told her. Her first mistake was making personal attacks on Council members. I was trying to bring back some dignity to the Council. Every member of the Council agreed the dog issue was a personal grievance, I was enforcing the issue where no personal issues were to be brought to the Council meetings. Brone [sic] took this as a personal attack on her – then she tried to recruit members in her office. I have since told her, as long as she is civil, I have no problem with her speaking. I don’t have to agree with her, but if she comes in and levels personal attacks on people, that violates the privilege they agree to when they ask to speak.”

During the incident, Barone told Perry “This isn’t a personal issue, this is a contractual issue between the city and a vendor. This is for the good of the community. This is my tax dollars and everybody in this room’s tax dollars paying for things.” Instead of listening, Perry promptly forced Barone to stop speaking.

According to the Gazette, Perry replied “It’s a FOIL request. It’s a personal issue,” prompting Councilman Brian Archie to interject, saying “Is that a secret? If there’s a request for information and she wants to share it, what’s the problem? Help me understand.”

What happened next didn’t make it into the Gazette, but it should alarm every resident of Niagara Falls:

Donta Myles told the Reporter, “We ended up taking a recess and we went up into the library. Jim explained himself and none of us interrupted him. After he got done saying what he was saying, Brian started to talk but Tom DeBoy cut Brian off. Brian told him hold on let me talk and finish what I’m saying. We should give Miss Barone the opportunity to talk and say what she has to say. DeBoy said the Chairman controls the meeting and enforces the meeting rules, so if he chooses to do this then that’s what happens. I tried to speak but DeBoy shoved a piece of paper in front of me and kept saying ‘what does this say?’ And I told him hold on I’m talking to my colleagues. He just kept shoving this piece of paper in front of me saying ‘what’s it say! What’s it say!’ He wouldn’t let me talk and finally he slammed his fist on the table before I could get my sentence out and said ‘That’s it, I’m done. I don’t have to deal with this. If any of you stay here, you’re violating open meeting law. This meeting is over.’ I said okay then the meeting is over, but you’re still wrong. So we got up and we walked out and Jim decided to adjourn the council meeting. So all the people who were still in line to speak did not get an opportunity to speak because Jim adjourned the meeting early.”

What Donta Myles has described is not Democracy. This is not how Democracy works. What Myles has described is a dictatorship.

Myles is among the city’s many critics who have noticed that both corporate counsel Tom DeBoy and Council Chairman Jim Perry seem to be gatekeeping issues on behalf of Mayor Restaino. Almost 10 months into his term and it appears that Perry still does not understand Robert’s Rules of Order.

Says Myles, “Perry is solely depending on DeBoy who is solely working for the pleasure of the mayor. The mayor is running our meetings through his own personal attorney Thomas DeBoy, who is paid by the taxpayers, through Jim Perry who has signed over his political life into the hands of his puppet master, Mayor Restaino. Look at everything he does and how he votes on issues, like the Pit Chic, you can see clearly that Perry is just doing whatever bidding the mayor tells him to do.”

Last week, Myles attempted to introduce three resolutions to the agenda for last Wednesday’s council meeting. Despite the fact that Myles emailed the resolutions to Perry and DeBoy on Wednesday, which is a full day before the allotted deadline, Myles was told that he did not follow proper procedures because he also did not send the email to the city clerk. Councilman Myles has often pointed out that DeBoy assists the mayor and his allies yet he refuses to do the same for Myles.

Tom DeBoy said that he was traveling on vacation at the time when the email was received, and so he did not receive it in time for him to perform his duties. Perry reinforced DeBoy’s position in a spectacular display of gaslighting against Myles, who wasn’t falling for it.

Says Myles, “Just because DeBoy was on vacation, is that supposed to mean that the city stops working?”

What resulted was a public argument between Perry, DeBoy and Myles in which Perry told Myles, “He is legal counsel, Donta. You’re out of order!” Myles replied, “The problem is that the mayor has been running our meetings through him and through you. YOU’RE out of order!”

Readers may recall when our city council used to have its own independent legal counsel because many times the issues of the mayor and the city don’t align, and it puts the corporation counsel at odds with many issues which do not serve the council. This does not serve the taxpayers who suffer when these disagreements occur.

The items that Myles attempted to walk onto the agenda included a resolution calling for Perry’s resignation as Chairman of City Council (a lot of people in the city believe that tradition should have been upheld and the council member with the most seniority/experience should have been appointed the chair, but instead it was given to Perry as a political maneuver); a resolution to approve $4 million for a park and community center in the North End; and a resolution requesting for outside legal counsel for the city council.

The most debated of the items was the Beech Avenue park/community center proposal which was the only item that actually made it to a vote. Myles correctly pointed out that the city has approved $4.5 million for a dog shelter in Hyde Park which isn’t even properly zoned for such a thing, but for some reason the residents of the North End cannot seem to ever find support for the construction of a community center. Perry called the idea “irresponsible.”

All of these items were defeated in Wednesday’s meeting, despite an overwhelmingly loud applause in support from the residents who filled the council chambers. Those residents were very clear about their feelings towards the dog-and-pony show that has been ongoing at these city council meetings, as well as their support for Donta Myles and disdain for Jim Perry.