NIAGARA FALLS
Niagara Falls mayor seeks expanded inspections
NIAGARA FALLS — A plan to reorganize the city’s Inspections Department would boost its hours and increase the number of inspections done each year.
Mayor Paul A. Dyster presented the plan Thursday to the City Council. It would use casino revenue and new fines for building code enforcement cases that end up in court to pay for the changes.
The newly renamed Department of Code Enforcement would add a code enforcement officer to the beleaguered department and would permanently expand its hours so that inspectors work eight hours a day.
Dyster called the city’s vacant buildings “one of the most daunting problems” it faces and estimated there are more than 1,000 buildings in the city that have some type of structural problem.
Left unaddressed, he said, those buildings could end up costing the city even more. “These are buildings that could someday be demolished at the city’s expense,” he told the Council.
The Council would have to approve the reorganization for it to take effect. Council members will likely vote on the proposal later this month when they make changes to the city’s 2010 proposed budget.
The cost of salary and benefits for an additional inspector, plus additional office work that would be needed, would be $69,475. Dyster has proposed that the new code enforcement officer work only in the downtown neighborhood near the Seneca Niagara Casino&Hotel and that the city’s casino revenue be used to pay for the expense.
That would represent a broadening of a relatively new view by city officials that some casino revenue can pay for salaries for the administration of economic development efforts.
Councilman Charles A. Walker questioned whether that would “open a big can of worms” about whether other employees who work downtown, such as police, could be paid with casino revenue. Dyster said some of the city’s casino revenue already supplements a portion of the city’s police protection needed because of the casino.
The reorganization would also use new fines the city has sought through court cases to pay for expanding the department’s hours and duties at an estimated cost of $26,417.
Dennis Virtuoso, acting building commissioner, said it costs the city about $500 for each code enforcement case the department brings to City Court. The city has recently asked the court to impose fines to cover that cost.
Several Council members said they were pleased with the reorganization proposal. “I think this is exactly what we’ve been asking for, as well as the community: How do we get more enforcement on the street,” Robins said. “But we’re also showing that we’re doing it.”
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