Mayor Restaino: Gaslight King of Niagara Falls

“We have been deceived on the North End of Niagara Falls. We have been defrauded,” Arlene (Jackson) Doss told WKBW earlier this month while referring to Mayor Robert Restaino’s refusal to write a letter of support for the Beech Avenue project; so that Arlene and her nonprofit Niagara United Vision can submit for grant funding from the Niagara River Greenway Commission.

Mayor Restaino shook hundreds of hands, took countless photos and made all kinds of promises during his campaign trail. He showed support for the Beech Avenue project which includes plans for a park and community center in the most impoverished part of our community: The North End, also referred to as District Four.

But what Mayor Restaino says and what he does are always two different things, and his actions speak louder than his words. Restaino has shown that he doesn’t actually support the project because he refuses to write a letter of recommendation so that Arlene and her team can submit for the grant money.

Mayor Restaino has stated that he already has plans for the Greenway money. The Mayor’s actions have left many local leaders questioning whether or not it is an abuse of power for the Mayor to suppress competing projects from applying for NYPA funding.

According to Arlene Doss, “April 17th I submitted the packet and they called me back immediately and explained that I need a supporting letter from the Mayor about the funding. So I was waiting because at that point the Mayor was communicating with us. But then he didn’t respond until July 5th. He invited me to a meeting on July 19th and blamed his lack of response on his executive assistant. I took that meeting and Bishop (Jesse Scott) and I went in. The Mayor sat there and swayed back and forth and I said listen this is a competitive process. I understand we can send as many applications as we want and the Greenway Commission will decide which ones get approved. Are we going to get a letter of support from you? He said ‘well Arlene I want to take the Greenway funding and use it for Hyde Park and two other parks.’ I said please help me understand, isn’t this is a competitive process? He said ‘Yes. Here’s what we can do for Beech Avenue Park. We can use residual funds from Centennial Park.’ He explained that it’s kind of like getting a second mortgage on your home. I said ‘so what you’re saying is you won’t provide me with a letter?’ And his response was ‘I’m not saying no because then you’re going to turn this into a black and white thing.’ At that point I didn’t want to have any further conversation and I looked over at Jim Perry and thought ‘why are you even here? Jim Perry lacks the integrity and fortitude to sit as the Chairman of the city council,” Arlene Doss told the Reporter.

She added, “Originally, we discussed how to move forward with the project. At first, Mayor Restaino was very supportive. He assigned Kevin Forma to be the project manager and he put the RFP out and allocated $189,000 for the project.” The Niagara Gazette reported that “Restaino’s administration set aside $189,000 in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds from the American Rescue Plan to put a team together to refine the design for the proposed park.”

Council Chairman Jim Perry has recently sided with the Mayor in his decision to block Arlene and her crew from submitting for a Niagara Greenway grant for the Beech Avenue project. This should come as no surprise to anyone since Chairman Perry has gone so far as to violate the First Amendment by censoring members of the public from criticizing Mayor Restaino’s $4 million plans for a dog shelter in Hyde Park during the public speaking portion of city council meetings.

Arlene Doss is a 66 year old Sigma Six blackbelt with a 38 year military career during which she served tours in two combat zones. She holds multiple degrees in mental health counseling, substance abuse and business. She has the chops to stand up to political corruption and she refuses to be gaslit by Mayor Restaino and his cronies.

Doss told the Reporter, “During my last meeting with the Mayor, I said ‘I want to say something before we start talking. No disrespect to anybody, I understand this administration was not here when all of this started. Neither was Jeff Elder or myself here. But this city needs a healing.’ Restaino jumped up and started screaming ‘I’m the mayor and I don’t care about those people!’ That’s when I was done talking with him. Everything after that was through email.”

Arlene described her disdain, saying “We left that last meeting with no letter of support. The bottom line is if it requires that the Mayor gives us a letter then we will never get the funding. I called Lisa Vitello and said listen I can’t get the letter. She told me to get the council to approve it. So I did, we got a letter from Jim Perry, Brian Archie and Donta Myles in support of the Greenway funds being used. But at the council meeting, Brian and Donta voted yes but Jim changed his mind. He began to read a pre-written letter off his cell phone and said exactly what Robert Restaino told him to say and I said don’t gaslight me.”

The Niagara Reporter also interviewed Niagara County Legislator Jeffrey Elder (D), who is currently running for New York State Assembly against incumbent Angelo Morinello (R). District Four is Elder’s legislative district.

Elder said, “I am deeply disappointed in the lack of progress for the Beech Avenue project. It’s not only a green area but something that the community has been eagerly awaiting. The center that they had has been taken away. The project would provide a great safe place for people to hang out.”

When asked about why the project has suddenly stalled, Elder said “It came down to funding and things went awry. The Mayor is on a different page than everybody else. Funding has to go through City Hall and City Hall is not agreeable to it, so where does that leave us? The communication has not been very good at all from City Hall.”

Elder continued, “When the residents come up with a plan for the North End, why is it not looked at in a more favorable manner? The Mayor has not given a letter of recommendation for the Greenway funds. Why? Many others have asked, myself included.”

When asked about how he plans to fix this situation with Mayor Restaino, Elder replied “I’m trying to deal in the most diplomatic way possible. The Mayor and I have a working relationship so I feel I can talk to him. It’s a sticky situation and a slippery slope so I have to navigate cautiously.”

The Reporter reached out to New York State Assemblyman Angelo Morinello with questions about the Beech Avenue project, but Morinello declined to comment.

Everyone else interviewed for this article speculated that someone from Arlene’s camp must have said something that inadvertently insulted the Mayor, resulting in his total lack of support. “The toothpaste is out of the tube,” said Elder, “Talking down to people causes friction so this just wasn’t the best situation.” It’s easy to believe this speculation given the Mayor’s massive ego and Napoleonic complex which flares up whenever he is questioned.

One must contemplate the absurdity of this situation: Mayor Restaino is spending $4 million on a dog shelter in Hyde Park but he won’t support Greenway funding to enhance the quality of life for residents living in District Four.

“People over dogs,” Says Elder, “I love my dog, it’s part of my family. However, we need to ensure that our people are being taken care of and that all parts of the city are being taken care of first. The most neglected part of the city is the North End and we’re tired of it.”

Referring to the Beech Avenue project, Jim Perry told WKBW “The project is still very much alive and I’ve been working with the Mayor to move forward.” It’s interesting and worth noting that Perry claims to be “working with the Mayor to move forward” on the Beech Avenue project while Donta Myles, who has been an integral part of the project, has not been included in those discussions.

Arlene Doss told the Reporter, “Perry said that Donta wasn’t even working with me. Donta and his mother and aunt all walked around with me getting signatures on our petition. How dare Jim Perry sit up there on that bench and try to gaslight me.”

Donta Myles stated, “Mayor Restaino needs to learn that gaslighting myself and members of our community will never help him. He’ll never be able to run from this truth regardless of how he tries to twist it in the media or in his weekly addresses. The truth will always surface to the top, and that truth will expose this Mayor’s corruption.”

Ladies and Gentlemen – Mayor Robert Restaino, the gaslight king of Niagara Falls.

A question we should all be asking ourselves is whether or not it is unethical for Mayor Restaino to actively suppress anyone from attempting to submit for Niagara River Greenway funds. It is clear from this particular situation that the Mayor holds the power to “gate keep” who can apply for Greenway funds in the City of Niagara Falls.

Despite the Mayor’s ability to act as a gatekeeper in this process, the Greenway grant application states that the following entities may apply for grant funding: Municipalities, municipal entities, state agencies, public benefit corporations, public authorities, not-for-profit corporations, non-governmental organizations and members of the public with an interest in projects that will advance the vision of the Niagara River Greenway.

Virtually anyone is invited to apply for Greenway funding. Nowhere on their website or in their documentation does the Niagara River Greenway Commission state that the Mayor has the power to determine who can submit for funding or which projects are awarded funding.

“We have a Greenway project already in place,” Restaino told the Gazette, “It’s to improve three of the major parks that haven’t seen improvement, some of them in decades.” Yet Councilmember Myles and Councilmember Brian Archie have not seen any evidence from the Mayor’s office to support the existence of these projects prior to now. 

While Archie is busy trying to find funding which won’t require the Mayor’s Approval, Myles has an entirely different perspective on Mayor Restaino’s suppression of the Beech Avenue Project.

Myles told the Reporter, “Mayor Restaino doesn’t care about Black people. He speaks about Black people as if we’re lower, he’s pompous and arrogant and you can hear it in his tone. It oozes out of him and he can’t help it. It would really benefit him to have a ghost writer. His demeanor and his look, he wears it all over him. District Four is kept poor on purpose.”

Both Myles and Archie believe that money from the American Rescue Plan funds should be allocated to fund the Beech Avenue project, but the Mayor’s office claims that ARP funds are already fully committed to other projects (including the $4 million dog shelter).

Brian Archie told the Reporter, “I will choose people over pets any day of the week. I understand that we need to take care of our dogs but I would prefer that it would not be in Hyde Park and also why is it costing so much?”