NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. — One of the hot issues on the ballot this year has people in North Tonawanda riled up.
Voters are being asked to pass revisions to the city's charter.
But the New York State Republican Committee sent flyers to residents accusing the Charter Revision Commission of staging a power grab.
The changes proposed by the Commission could potentially alter the Republican party's super-majority in City Hall. Right now, all five City Councilmembers, the Clerk-Treasurer and City Attorney are all members of the the Republican Party. The mayor is the sole Democrat.
The public hearing explaining the proposed changes to the North Tonawanda city charter last month got pretty hot, pretty quick.
At times, those in the gallery shouted out, “Let her speak! Sit down, Austin. We let Lou talk, let her talk!”
The crowd may have been inspired by two direct mail flyers that went out to residents a week before the meeting. They claim the proposed changes to the charter would hurt democracy in the city, and amount to nothing more than a power grab by the mayor.
Lou Dalporto is a lawyer and a Democrat and the Chairman of the Charter Review Commission. He hosted last month's public meeting that explained the process commission members underwent over the past year to determine what changes they would put before the voters.
"That's the irony with these flyers that are going around. This would actually make things more democratic," DalPorto said.
DalPorto has served on three previous charter review committees, under three different mayors, and says this current commission is the most representative.
“This was a bi-partisan commission that really did due diligence, looking at all the municipalities that we could in New York State," DalPorto said.
By state law, the mayor appoints the 15 member Charter Revision Commission but the group independently held public meetings twice a month at city hall for an entire year.
North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec says he put out the call to the community to ask for volunteers to serve on the commission. He appointed an equal number of Republican and Democrats and also included some residents who are non-affiliated. They represented all walks of life.
“Highly qualified, highly professional and they set out to do the research. They analyzed local governments across New York State and came to the conclusion that these changes were necessary for modern day government," Tylec said.
“This is just an evolution of the charter that we approved 25 years ago,” said Commissioner Daniel Brick. He has served on several charter revision commissions over the past several decades.
“It's just flushing it out more so that North Tonawanda can really move forward," Brick said.
Brick is a Republican who has practiced law in North Tonawanda his entire career. Making the City Attorney an appointed position is one idea he's researched extensively. He says almost every other city in the state has stopped electing their City Attorney because of inherent conflicts of interest.
Right now, according to city records, it costs North Tonawanda tens of thousands of dollars a year to hire outside counsel, oftentimes to handle cases that present some kind of conflict. Last year, the City of Tonawanda switched to an appointed attorney.
"We interviewed all our former city attorneys. All of them felt it's time to go to an appointed city attorney because the contention is, ‘Who is your client? Is it the city? Or is it the people who elected you?’" pondered Brick.
Another proposed change to the charter involves separating the Clerk-Treasurer position which was combined in 2008 with disastrous results.
In 2020, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli published a scathing audit of the City of North Tonawanda's finances after the city incurred operating deficits over three million dollars in the general fund and nearly 2.4 million in the sewer fund.
“We really need a CFO in the city that has qualifications and goes through civil service. It's not just some appointment, no patronage. It's a qualified treasurer that can really have oversight of our $40 million budget,” said Mayor Tylec.
The Revision Commission proposes the City Clerk remain an elected position but the Treasurer and the City Attorney would both have to prove their qualifications through civil service and then take part in a rigorous recruitment and appointment process conducted jointly by the mayor and the common council.
“I think that the lies and the untruths that are printed on these (flyers)-- I think they should be ashamed," said first-time Commissioner Susan Gosch-Taylor who is a Republican.
“So many people are going to see the flyers and believe them because they use their flashy words of 'fear and taxation'," added Commissioner Darlene Bolsover. She noted none of the Commission's proposals address taxation.
Bolsover and Gosch-Taylor belong to different political parties. They say the Commission meetings were sometimes intense but always respectful.
“Do these changes bring less democracy to N.T.? Were there secret meetings? Do these changes take away the people’s voice?” asked Two On Your Side’s, Maryalice Demler.
“No, never" replied Bolsover and Gosch-Taylor.
"It gives them more voice and makes it louder,” added Bolsover, who is a member of the Working Families Party.
N.T. voters would unquestionably get more of a voice in government with the third change. It would allow special elections to be held to fill vacated positions. Right now, common council members get to appoint replacements for all vacated elected positions-- including their own. Those appointees then benefit by being able to run as an incumbent in the next election.
“And there've been 16 over 20 years of the same style of appointments, instead of giving the people the right to elect them”, Bolsover said.
The fourth and last change to the charter would require an earlier budget process starting on August 1st instead of October 1st. That would separate the budget process from the election season. Adopting a budget prior to election day allows voters to evaluate city officials' priorities before they head to the polls. Currently, councilmembers are free to delay finalizing the budget and could make unpopular changes to it after the election season is over.
“Having that budgetary process earlier puts a little bit more pressure on the politicians to get it right because they know they stand for election prior to," added DalPorto.
“Anybody that doesn't want this is anti-North Tonawanda!” Brick said.
“I hate to say that. I don't want to be negative, but it's really, truly a step forward. We're in the 21st century now,” he added.
"This is about things that will make the city run better. And that's why they should vote ‘yes’,” added Gosch-Taylor.