Last Wednesday’s Council Meeting
In a surprising turn of events last Wednesday night, the majority of Niagara Falls City Council voted against several of the mayor’s budget line items. Local activists including City Councilman Donta Myles, Arlene Doss, Tanya Barone and others have worked hard to amplify those voices, which until now have been suppressed by the current administration. Just yesterday the Niagara Gazette reported that Council Chairman Jim Perry followed in Mayor Restaino’s footsteps when the New York Coalition for Open Government added him to the naughty list. Perry violated Tanya Barone’s First Amendment rights by censoring her and instructing police to escort her away from the podium at a council meeting months ago.
Mayor Restaino released a paranoid and unhinged 20 minute rant on Friday.
At the center of last Wednesday’s controversial public meeting, which lasted past ten at night, was an item to extend the Pit Chic contract of $20,000 for monthly kennel services. Mayor Restaino gave the Pit Chic a no-bid contract last year which ignited dozens of critics; including competing proprietors who would like to be considered for the contract. Some of those competitors spoke out on Wednesday night and gave presentations illustrating why they’re a better choice than the Pit Chic; presentations which seemed to prove that Pit Chic is not fulfilling the terms of her contract.
Over the past year, the City of Niagara Falls has paid the Pit Chic over $20,000 every month. City Council has become accustomed to hearing testimonies which include allegations against the Pit Chic, but typically Chairman Jim Perry and Councilwoman Traci Bax march to the beat of Mayor Restaino’s drum; so it was no surprise when they voted in favor of extending the contract. (Wait until you hear how asinine of a decision that was on their part…)
It was Councilman David Zajac who became the swing vote determining the outcome, along with Councilman Donta Myles and Councilman Brian Archie. The no’s won and the contract was not extended, which probably ruffled Mayor Restaino’s feathers initially when he heard the news; but later he revealed that he has a backdoor way to extend the Pit Chic contract without council approval.
A Really Bad Deal
Earlier this month, the executive director of the SPCA of Niagara, Amy Lewis, spoke at a council meeting. She said that her presence there “means there’s something wrong with your dog shelter process.”
Indeed, there are strange abnormalities surrounding the city administration’s dealings with the Pit Chic. Curiously, the city agreed to buy the Pit Chic shelter 45 new kennels at a significant cost to the city. In 2023, Amy Lewis chose not to renew the contract between the SPCA and the city. Mayor Restaino declared this an emergency to justify the lack of RFP or competitive bidding process. Zajac astutely noted that the contract extension item was placed on the agenda with only 13 days left in the lifespan of the Pit Chic contract. Many critics said that it appeared as though the mayor was trying to rush it through without giving the council the chance to properly review everything.
The most blaring abnormality in the contract is the fact that the Pit Chic shelter, located in an Erie County strip center on Grand Island; only holds 17 dogs while the amount of stray and surrendered dogs in the Falls is exponentially higher than their capacity. That is why the SPCA chose to break ties with the city, their shelter was not equipped for the massive volume of stray dogs from the Falls. Several speakers on Wednesday said that they tried calling the Pit Chic to send dogs to the Grand Island shelter, but they were always told that the shelter was at capacity and couldn’t take anymore dogs.
Lewis told the city council earlier this month that prior to the SPCA terminating their contract with the city, they would take in 300 to 400 stray dogs a year from the Falls. Lewis said that she reached out to Pit Chic owner Kelli Swagel to offer help with the overflow crisis of strays, but “She pretty much told me to kick rocks,” said Lewis. The City of Niagara Falls agreed to purchase 14 kennels at the Grand Island Pit Chic shelter to house stray dogs at a cost of $13,000. 31 additional kennels were later purchased by the city.
Tanya Barone posted a memo on Facebook from the Grand Island zoning inspector Rhonda Tollner to the Town Board, which states “The Town Board approved a Special Use Permit to kennel up to 10 dogs overnight in April, 2023.” This, at a fraction of what Pit Chic is being compensated. So our city council must be aware that the annual volume of stray dogs from the Falls is between 300 and 400, but for some reason the Pit Chic shelter was only permitted to kennel 10 dogs in 2023? This is surely a mystery which demands answers from Mayor Restaino, Chairman Jim Perry and Councilwoman Traci Bax. How did they possibly plan on sheltering 400 dogs in a 17 dog shelter?
After passionate pleas by a parade of activists and animal care professionals, it’s inconceivable how Traci Bax and Jim Perry could have even rationalized a vote in favor of extending the contract with Pit Chic for another year. These two council members should have fully understood the consequences of their vote; knowing full well the massive volume of stray dogs and very limited capacity of the shelter.
Just think what type of people Bax and Perry must be that they have somehow become convinced that this stray dog overflow crisis should continue for another year. Again we are seeing rubber stamping for Mayor Restaino from these two council members, along with old school cronyism. At least Councilman Brian Archie did the right thing and chose to think for himself, breaking ranks with Perry and Bax. We’ve seen it before with previous mayors and council members. This is textbook treason. Our elected officials are conspiring against public interests, censoring public participation, suppressing survey results, blocking FOIL requests by journalists, gaslighting the public and moving money around in a suspicious manner.
Mayor Restaino’s Master ARP Spending Plan Fails
Mayor Restaino waited until Wednesday night to try and allocate the remaining $18.25 million in American Rescue Plan funds, which are set to expire with the new year. If these funds are not spent by the expiration date, they will reportedly need to be returned to the federal government. These funds were granted to the City of Niagara Falls in April of 2021. Mayor Restaino was trying to force feed and bully the city council to approve his planned spending of these funds by holding a proverbial gun to their heads while they rush an attempt to review budget items. Well, it didn’t work as Bobby had planned and Councilman Myles called him out for his past ploys of blaming the council after setting them up with his agenda.
For example, two of the mayor’s line items that were tabled by council were the spending of $8.3 million on a new DPW building and the allocation of $1.18 million for HVAC upgrades at the John Duke Senior Center. Local activist Arlene Doss told the Reporter that a former head of DPW looked at the line item and told her, “Arlene, in April the John Duke HVAC system was completely renewed. They’re talking about using a million dollars to get it redone.” City Councilman Donta Myles told the Reporter why he voted against several of the mayor’s proposed items, stating; “The mayor presented the budget to us. Before they used to have it where each department would come in and explain their reasoning. It was more so like here’s the budget, you’ve got a week or so to look over it. His department is not there, so you can call it a review but when he said you got any questions? I asked what’s with this undesignated portion of this department; this is Restaino we’re talking to so he’ll make up a bland expression of why they’re spending millions of dollars instead of something specific.”
Myles continued, “It’s one of those find the money type things. We’re gonna hide it and you’re gonna have to find it. I think personally the DPW contract was the mayor trying to weasel the budget, when we say $9 million we’re talking about what they’re trying to do with the animal shelter. It’s $4.5 million with what they’re trying to do to the old building in Hyde Park. But if they’re moving to a DPW yard they’re rebuilding it there to set up shop at Hyde Park. From what I see that’s where that whole $9 million comes in. Now he’s saying it’s $4.1 million but whatever the case is you can’t justify spending $4 million on a building which isn’t even zoned for it.”
Mayor Restaino spends his “Bobby Bucks” like a fish drinks water. The problem is that this isn’t his money, these are tax dollars he is directing towards projects which will benefit his core voting base.
Except for Perry, Bax and DeBoy; it seemed like everyone in attendance agreed that the Pit Chic facility on Grand Island is inadequate for the volume of stray dogs the Falls has to deal with under municipal law. Seriously, it’s downright baffling how these people get elected. At least Traci Bax voted to table the DPW resolution and Zajac abstained, perhaps there is still hope for her, but Bax definitely needs to reconsider who she works for: Mayor Restaino or the People? Restaino is hoarding casino cash instead of distributing it to the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, the city school district, NFTA and other organizations. He spends millions of dollars on his pet projects, and his spending is so reckless that he not only created this entire Pit Chic ordeal; he’s still going to extend the contract despite knowing the reality of the stray dog crisis. The Pit Chic is not at all equipped to handle the influx of stray dogs, and rumors and allegations abound of mistreatment of animals at the Grand Island shelter.
Mayor Restaino Issues Scathing Response
Mayor Restaino responded to the city council’s decisions last Friday during his weekly address. He spewed out a scathing 20 minute rant against council members David Zajac, Brian Archie and Donta Myles, saying that he believes they are “under the thumb” of NFR. The project funding that these council members voted against has nothing to do with NFR, but Mayor Restaino continues to chase windmills while blaming the council for the confusion he is causing. During his absurd rant, he made some very bold and very ironic statements. Mayor Restaino’s last minute rush of budget items cast a smokescreen, confusing council members who were not properly briefed on each item. Without all of the necessary information to make an informed decision, the council members tabled several items. For some reason, in his weekly address Mayor Restaino appears smug and proud of himself for confusing a majority of the council. His entire rant plays out like a super villain bragging that he can’t be stopped, but remember that the pride comes before the fall.
Mayor Restaino alleged that the aforementioned three council members disregarded information from city hall and instead acted on behalf of NFR in making decisions on “spending that $14 million, which by the way has to be spent, appropriated or committed to a project by December 31st, yep… a little less than two weeks away. Or you have to give the money back. So all of this is on the agenda. Much of which, by the way we had been talking about for a few months.” Mayor Restaino’s false accusations against the council members and NFR clearly displays his delusional paranoia.
The issue here is that Mayor Restaino is trying to make it appear as though city council is at fault or responsible for having to make a last minute decision just two weeks prior to the final deadline, without all of the facts. But in reality, it was Mayor Restaino’s own inadequacy which led to the vote to occur just before the deadline. The city has had these funds since 2021 but Restaino procrastinated, which is not the council’s fault. He waited until the last council meeting of the year because he was hoping to force a rushed decision which once again backfired on him.
Mayor Restaino pretends to be unamused by three council members who did not approve his budget items last Wednesday.
In his weekly address, Mayor Restaino targets Councilman Donta Myles without saying his name, saying “he was confused and doesn’t understand how a capital plan works.” He says that the cost of a project cannot be determined until the city sends out the RFP, considers all bids and then looks at the lowest responsible bidder.
This was another ironic statement that Mayor Restaino made considering the fact that he handed the Pit Chic the kennel contract in 2023 without issuing an RFP, so clearly he’s a hypocrite for simultaneously confusing and chastising the council members who are expected to make final decisions on budgetary costs without an RFP process. Now that he’s been caught operating this way, he’s trying to flip the script back onto Councilman Myles and take the attention off of himself.
Mayor Restaino continues his rant, saying “We’ve got a council member who got himself all confused about capital plans. But again rather than put the trust and confidence in the talented people in this building who put together the information for them, they chose to um, I think they said they want to table it. Well again, we only have until the end of the year to get this money appropriated. But I think even more egregious than that is the fact that there were three council members that denied, wanted to table, did not want to approve the improvements we wanted to do at the senior center.”
When he says this, Mayor Restaino bangs his hand down on his desk like a judge banging a gavel, because he is speaking directly to his senior citizen constituents and trying to get them to cast blame against the three council members who voted against his budget items. He is judging them while blowing a dog whistle to his Good Ol’ Boys base to come and back him up on the issue of the senior center. He then goes on a rant about how much damage these council members are causing to the seniors by not voting for the improvements. He names the council members and continues to shame them and drag them through the mud, and he even implies that they should be voted out.
Says Restaino, “Who knows why they did it? Sometimes it’s done because maybe they, I don’t know… maybe a couple of them are, I think, really uh sort of under the thumb of NFR. So because of that, you wonder who their allegiance is to. Fortunately, the council chairman Jim Perry is attempting to rally the council members together for a special meeting. By the way, Council member Myles, I’m assuming a special meeting must really, really rub him the wrong way. But a special meeting to try to get them back into session in order for the council members to take a positive approach to all of these construction projects. It would be a shame, a terrible shame, to have to send $10 million of money that has been used from everything to buying new firetrucks, new police cars, relighting the city with new LED lighting and technology…”
He goes on and on, but he didn’t use any of the ARP funds to light Hyde Park during Christmas time, much to the scorn of the community at large. Throughout his entire rant, not once does Mayor Restaino ever clarify a motive for his paranoid accusations that NFR is trying to sabotage these projects. There is no evidence that NFR is even remotely involved in any of the proposed projects, but Mayor Restaino likes to blame them for everything so this is not surprising.
This is not the first time Mayor Restaino has displayed his delusions while slinging harmful false accusations against local activists.
In his address, Mayor Restaino calls the council meeting “amusing” and he downplays the Pit Chic contract. He says that the contract between the city and the Pit Chic will be extended because the failed resolution was only intended to amend the contract and include verbiage about an RFP. Since the resolution did not pass, instead of still doing the right thing and issuing an RFP, Mayor Restaino will just extend it as is for two more years. The fact that the resolution failed does not deactivate Mayor Restaino’s ability to issue an RFP for the kennel contract, so clearly he is all in on the Pit Chic for reasons unknown (certainly not for her sheltering capabilities).
In his video, Mayor Restaino also says (of Myles), “It’s interesting when we talk about transparency and accountability. It’s nice to say those things, but you gotta live em.” Restaino’s complete lack of transparency and accountability have left indelible marks on his legacy. Every time he’s caught being sneaky with money, he tries to gaslight everyone into believing that those who oppose him are to blame for his actions.
Lastly, Mayor Restaino throws more stones at Council Members Myles, Zajac and Archie, saying “As you examine how certain council members conduct their business, you often wonder why do they resist going forward with economic development that involves a challenge to NFR? Why won’t they advance the best interests of the community when it might ruffle the feathers of NFR?” He states that “Decisions are tilted and slanted towards their own interest.” By publicly accusing the three council members of “serving developers from out of town,” Mayor Restaino is telegraphing to other potential developers that they might be the next one he accuses of trying to influence city council. He leaves no room for discussion; if you disagree with him you must be guilty of conspiracy against him.
Mayor Restaino’s method of “leadership” is to rule, not serve – his constituents. He creates division by trying to blow his dog whistle to his base and to those unions who stand to benefit from these construction contracts. The problem is that our city council exists to maintain a system of checks-and-balances between the people and city hall. The people of our community pay the mayor’s salary, along with every other public servant’s. The city council is supposed to represent the people, just like the mayor; but if the mayor goes rogue and becomes self serving, then the city council is supposed to put the mayor in check and vote against reckless spending of tax dollars.
That is exactly what we are seeing here, and exactly why Mayor Restaino is so pissed off. How can he blame city council for not being properly prepared to vote on spending $14 million when it was Mayor Restaino himself who waited until the deadline for the allocation of the remaining ARP funds? How can he extend the kennel contract despite knowing that it will ultimately result in stray dogs freezing to death out in the bitter Niagara Falls winter? Why is it that he accuses anyone who opposes his self-serving agendas as being coaxed and bribed into making decisions by NFR? Because he’s a complete idiot, that’s how; that’s why.