By Tony Farina
There is currently only a part-time controller, Maria Brown, working on a per-diem basis for the City of Niagara Falls as there is no full-time controller appointed by the mayor in place, and that’s been the case for more than seven months.
That means there is a glaring and dangerous leadership gap for a mid-sized city of more than 48,000 people and a budget of around $100 million. That’s right, a $100 million budget and no fiscal watchdog in place to oversee the city’s financial dealings or to conduct audits to hold officials in city government accountable.
For whatever reason, Mayor Robert Restaino has not filled the position and that means he is operating city finances with no real oversight from a controller,appointed or elected, and that goes for the council as well. As we understand it, the current part-time controller rarely, if ever, attends council meetings meaning when it comes to city spending, contracts, or conducting audits of the various departments who spend the money, there is no full time oversight. Certainly no way to run a government or a business, and many believe the controller should be an elected city official, not serving at the whim of the mayor, whoever it might be.
In fact, this newspaper has reported on recent audits by the state comptroller that highlighted the need for more responsible financial practices, including diversifying revenue sources and adopting long-term financial planning. But of course, the elected state comptroller’s findings have met with words of concern but not much action from the mayor and the council. City officials look the other way, effectively ignoring state oversight warnings.
The rating agencies have boosted Niagara Falls bonds recently to BBB+, meaning safely investment grade, so the city is hanging on although the state audit concerns and the lukewarm rating agencies’ assessments are nothing to brag about. The city should have a controller in place and citizens and lawmakers alike should be pushing the mayor to act.
With no full-time watchdog in place—a condition that should raises serious concerns for state oversight authorities–the administration is operating unchecked and is able to move money from one allocated project to another without allowing oversight by the council or anybody else. Many observers question the Hyde Park dog pound, the City Market, and the mayor’s Main Street project with 10 million in New York State revitalization funds (DRI).
Those same city watchers said the lack of oversight allows for unchecked spending like legal fees while the mayor is allowed to create slush funds. Funds can be misappropriated easily on projects like $20 million for the Market on Pine, meaning the City Market and the millions being spent on the dog pound.
And as of this writing, there is nothing to fill the void left by Save-a-Lot’s closing, leaving downtown shoppers no place to go to find prices they can afford. Somehow, some way, the city should have been there to save that shopping store but came up empty, with money sent elsewhere, apparently, and nobody was around to get the city to save the downtown City Market shopping store. Big loss for food access, public trust, and downtown economic stability.
The long and short of it is that the city should have a controller in place every day, even a politically appointed one as is the situation now unless the laws are changed, to give the citizens of Niagara Falls a better chance going forward with some oversight in place. Something is better than nothing, and right now there is alarmingly little fiscal oversight—a situation ripe for abuse or mismanagement that can lead to anything goes if there is no one to cry foul.
We urge the mayor to act and fill the void that for whatever reason, he has left vacant.
