Niagara Falls Payouts Raise Questions

Niagara Buzz has learned that a Niagara Falls city firefighter and president of the Niagara Falls Firefighters Union is among the principals of a business venture that just received a six-figure payout from city hall—and the entire matter stinks.

We first learned of the six-figure “grant” in a Sunday afternoon post on the Facebook page of Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster, which is screen captured below:

“It’s great to see reputable businessmen stepping up to the plate—especially when they’re replacing speculators who didn’t even pay taxes in many cases,” Dyster commented as he linked to a Sunday Buffalo News article by reporter Aaron Besecker.

That article discloses that Seth A. Piccirillo, the director of the Niagara Falls Community Development Department, awarded $130,000 in grants from the city’s economic development corporation—with nearly all of that money going to something called the “newly formed Cataract Development Corp.” 

The Buffalo News credits Michael Capizzi Jr., the co-owner of Michael’s Restaurant, a popular Italian eatery on Pine Avenue, with heading up Cataract Development Corp.  However, a simple Google search sheds some interesting light on that, as the screen capture below attests: 

If Michael Capizzi is Cataract Development, then why is Jason J. Cafarella listed?  And more importantly, who is Jason J. Cafarella?

Cafarella is the previously mentioned firefighters union president and city firefighter.  He is also a former Niagara County legislator.  This year, he is set to receive $73,470 from the city taxpayers as one of the Cataract City’s many firefighters (a $12,000 jump over last year’s salary, interestingly), according to SeeThroughNY.net.  Whether he is, in fact, the head of Cataract Development, or just a principal, or even merely doing the company’s legal work, this poses a serious ethical question—and one that goes to the core of Cafarella’s role as head of the firefighters union and which individuals make up the board of directors of the city’s economic development corporation.

The board of the NFC Development Corp., the city’s non-profit economic development corporation, is chaired by Mayor Paul Dyster (the same guy whose Facebook post initially alerted us to this story).  The members of the city-administered and taxpayer-funded agency’s board include the five members of the city council. Other board members include a former city council member and the wife of a former county legislator.

Therein lies the problem.

Cafarella, listed as the principal of Cataract Development Corp., and most certainly actively involved in its creation in some form, is president of Local 714 of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.  Just eight months ago, Cafarella led his union to settle a contentious four-year-long stalemate over its contract.  The deal city firefighters agreed to was called “modest” by the Buffalo News—Aaron Besecker, again—at the time it was struck:

The union got a “good result,” said President Jason Cafarella, which he described as “in line” with other city unions.

While they would have preferred a longer term, the union understands the city has a structural deficit and “definitely wants to be a part of the solution for the city.”

The Council also approved an agreement with the union that defers an increase in the minimum staffing levels – something required as part of an arbitration award in the late 1990s – for five years. If that requirement were to have gone into effect, the city would have had to hire about eight new firefighters, Mazur said.

Cafarella called the agreement to defer minimum staffing “a gesture of good faith on our part.”

Just eight months later, after Cafarella did so much to show “good faith” and be a “part of the solution for the city,” a property-management company that is identified as his, online, received a six-figure payout from the city to improve its properties.

According to Besecker’s article Sunday, “Mayor Paul A. Dyster called [Cataract Development Corp.’s] purchase ‘a godsend.’”

Forgive us if we think that the whole matter is much more worldly.

The Besecker article leaves many more questions unanswered than answered, beginning with the matter of who, precisely, Cataract Development Corp. is.  We have no doubt that Michael Capizzi Jr. is a partner in the venture, at a minimum.  However, that records indicate that the corporation is actually headed by Cafarella raises serious eyebrows.  Even if Cafarella can plausibly absolve himself of ownership, for the head of the firefighters’ union to be representing the legal interests of a corporation soliciting public money from the City of Niagara Falls as it goes before a corporation headed by a man who is both his boss and his labor-bargaining adversary is, to put it mildly, disquieting. 

All of this raises other questions, including who else, precisely, is an investing partner with Cataract Development—and whether any of those individuals are also city employees like Cafarella or current or former elected officials like Cafarella.  Besecker’s article also points to money being awarded to a business at the property that formerly housed the Orchard Grill—a failed restaurant that was owned by former Niagara County Legislator and school district employee Jason Murgia—and a hotel venture by Frank Strangio, the chairman of the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp.  While these last two may be in the realm of ethical, the red flags raised by Cafarella’s curious links to Cataract Development Corp. demand further scrutiny.