Economic post front and center in Niagara Falls
Dyster wants Council to OK $100,000 salary line, 60% funded by foundation, for development chief
NIAGARA FALLS — Mayor Paul A. Dyster intends to ask the City Council today to create a $100,000 salary line for a revived economic-development post he said is “critical” to the city’s future.
The Council is scheduled to vote today on setting the salary for economic-development director at $100,000 — $60,000 of which would be reimbursed by a private foundation.
Dyster pulled a similar proposal from the agenda of the Council’s last meeting in July after it appeared he would not have enough votes to get the position approved.
The mayor, in an interview Sunday, described the job as crucial to his administration’s ability to move forward on several economic-development fronts.
“Nobody should be voting against economic development on the City Council right now,” Dyster said. “We’re at a tipping point in terms of our economy right now. We have a lot of projects on the horizon.”
Dyster’s top pick for the job, Peter F. Kay, was here Friday to meet with Council members.
Kay, of Perrysburg, Ohio, has worked in planning and economic development since the late 1970s. His resume includes five years as economic-development adviser to then-Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and a recent post at the University of Toledo in which he headed an effort to develop a science and technology corridor.
Three Council members— Steven D. Fournier, Chris Robins and Charles A. Walker — met with Kay on Friday, and Dyster said he believes he has the support of at least them.
Several Council members have declined to say publicly how they plan to vote today.
While Robins and Walker have expressed support for the position, Council Chairman Sam Fruscione and Council Member Robert Anderson Jr. have said they have concerns about its salary.
Fournier, a potential swing vote on the five-member Council, said Sunday that he would not reveal his vote until tonight’s meeting but that he was impressed with Kay’s experience and thinks the city needs an economic-development director.
“He’s worked on some top projects,” Fournier said of Kay. “He’s very professional. He just seems like the right person.”
Dyster said the economic-development director is key to spearheading several projects that are already in the works, including a $245 million proposal from Toronto-based Northern Ethanol to build a plant in Niagara Falls.
Other major economic-development initiatives in the city include a plan to reopen the Globe Metallurgical plant on Highland Avenue to produce solar-grade silicon, efforts to rebuild northern Main Street and attempts to revive the downtown tourism district.
“You can only go so far without putting the specialized personnel in place to do this right,” Dyster said. “I’d like to settle this. I think we need to move forward. We have too many things that we’re working on in economic development to be short-staffed going forward.”
Dyster’s proposal would re-create the position of director of the Department of Planning, Economic Development and Environmental Services at a salary of $100,000. The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo has agreed to pay $60,000 of the annual salary during Dyster’s first term from a fund set up by anonymous donors to help attract new candidates for city positions.
Although supportive of the fund earlier this year, Fruscione and Anderson later said they have concerns that donors to the fund would remain anonymous.
Fruscione said last month he believed that the economic-development director’s new salary and benefits would strain the city’s budget. He declined last week to say how he would vote on the salary today.
“I’ve got to talk to Bob Anderson one more time,” Fruscione said Wednesday.
Anderson said he does not support the proposal to fund the $100,000 salary. He said he believes that the proposed salary is “ludicrous” and would prefer an economic-development director who has worked recently in Western New York.
“By the time these people find their way around the City of Niagara Falls, let alone learn our problems that we’ve been fighting for years, it’s time for them to leave,” Anderson said.
Dyster cited Kay’s broad experience on large projects in several states.
Kay, who started his career at planning firms in Jamestown and Buffalo, has also worked as president and chief executive of the Economic Development Corp. of Erie County in Pennsylvania and as director of the Department of Economic and Community Development in Dearborn, Mich., according to his resume.
Dyster chose Kay after his transition team conducted a six-month national search to fill the job. The mayor is also conducting similar searches to fill three other city posts, including director of tourism development, city engineer and corporation counsel.
