NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Niagara Falls council members Vincent Cauley and Bridgette Myles say they have major concerns about the city’s surprise state of emergency declaration, claiming it’s a deliberate attempt to supersede the city council.
Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino issued a state of emergency on Saturday due to “various public safety measures,” such as road conditions and blighted properties, that he claimed the city council isn't addressing.
On July 28, I spoke to the mayor about the city council not approving the payment to acquire land for a multi-purpose arena, when he also mentioned these other issues with his council.
“They talk about wanting certain things, and then they pivot away from that,” Restaino said. “We want roads paved but don’t want to approve third parties to help the department do more roads. We want high grass cut, but we don’t want to approve contracts for that.”
The state of emergency allows the mayor to supersede council votes to act and make decisions in a timelier fashion, but when this was announced on Saturday, Cauley and Myles were shocked.
WATCH: Niagara Falls council members frustrated with State of Emergency
They tell me that they had good reasons to vote down those city contracts at an emergency meeting on July 17.
“The city lot contract, we found out that the company selected as a preferred bidder, their LLC was inactive,” Myles said. “It seems as if the state of emergency was put in place to select the administration’s preferred bidder.”
“Going around the legislative process all for personal reasons,” Cauley said.
They also told me that from what they’ve found out, they believe the state of emergency was actually declared on July 20.
July 20 was nearly four weeks before any public announcement of the declaration. It was a week before I spoke to the mayor, and the city council was in session.
“We had a council meeting on July 29. Nobody was there to talk about the state of emergency,” Myles said. “We never even knew we were in a state of emergency as we’re having our council meeting.”
To top it off, Cauley and Myles tell me that they don’t even know what actions the mayor has taken since the declaration.
“What has been spent? What has been appropriated? What contracts have been signed and executed?” Cauley said. “There is no justification for this emergency.”
“I requested [that information] via email, and I’m still waiting for a response,” Myles said. “This is not right.”
I also asked the mayor’s office for both a list of actions since the declaration and information on when this emergency will end, but I never received any response.
Join the Niagara County Community News Facebook group to connect with neighbors and learn about what's happening in your community.
