Published: October 29, 2009 12:03 am      

COUNCIL FORUM:Candidates make final push

Without much debate, the five candidates seeking seats on the Niagara Falls City Council breezed through a half dozen questions Wednesday that focused on public safety, economic development and the residency policy.

An estimated 75 people attended the council candidates’ portion of a public forum inside the Earl W. Brydges Public Library. Despite a format that encouraged heated discussion among them, the candidates shared the same stance on most of the issues. The apparent camaraderie even elicited a joke from first-time candidate Kristen Grandinetti.

“Maybe they should just put the five of us on the City Council because we’re getting along so famously,” she said, drawing a few chuckles from the crowd. In her closing remarks, Grandinetti added, “We’ve all run very respectful and positive campaigns and I think that shows you that our hearts are all in the right place and we really just want to move the community forward.”

Only three of the five candidates will be selected to try and move the community forward in Tuesday’s election. Competing against Grandinetti are incumbents Samuel Fruscione and Charles Walker, former councilwoman Candra Thomason and political newcomer Kenneth Pawlukovich.

Wednesday’s forum was sponsored by the Niagara Falls Block Club Council, Rotary Club of Niagara Falls, Kiwanis Club of Niagara Falls, the Falls chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Independent Living of Niagara County.

Moderator David Taylor, associate professor of criminal justice at Niagara University, kicked the session off by explaining a change in the question-and-answer session. Instead of posing the same question to all five candidates as in previous forums, the format called for one candidate answering a question and the other four having the chance to respond and offer a rebuttal in an attempt to spice things up.

Instead, all five candidates gave similar responses and shared the same stance on most of the issues. They all agreed more efforts and diversity training needs to be done to improve communication between the community and police and fire departments. When it comes to the city’s employee residency requirement, all felt it needs to stay intact but be better enforced. All five candidates also said they were in favor of supporting the Niagara Falls Public Library, which is currently lobbying to the city for $65,000 in additional funding next year.

The possibility of providing businesses with tax credits and incentives was one of the few topics that attracted much debate. While each of the candidates supported the idea of local government helping businesses, Thomason was in the minority in creating what she called a temporary tax-free zone in the downtown area so businesses can compete with the tax-exempt Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel.

“We’ve got to give them a competitive edge,” she said. “Right now, we don’t have any business down there, we’re not bringing any business down there and we need to do something to bring business down there.”

Walker responded creating a tax free zone downtown would only shift the burden onto the rest of the businesses throughout the city.

“The other businesses and the residents will suffer,” he said. “We have to grow our businesses and grow our tax base and that’s the way we’re going to be able to move forward.”

Thomason shot back that a temporary tax-free zone would spur economic development in the key tourism area.

“If we don’t start to bring in businesses, we’re never going to take the burden off the small businesses here,” she said.

Fruscione interjected the city should work directly with the county and Industrial Development Agency which already have tax incentive programs and better utilize the city’s share of casino revenue to continue offering grants and loans for businesses.

“If we do a tax-free zone in downtown Niagara Falls, what’s going to happen to the guy on Niagara Falls Boulevard?” Fruscione said. “You my as well make the whole city tax free at that point in time. You can’t do that.”

Pawlukovich, who oversees development projects as vice president of Hutch Enterprises, said the city needs to solicit feedback from developers on what type of incentive packages and support they need.

“Each developer will have its own little niche that he is looking for,” Pawlukovich said. “We have to identify them, get them to the table and bring about the change in order to increase the tax base so we can lower the taxes overall.”

In addition to providing grants and tax incentives, Grandinetti said the city needs to do a better job opening its arms to potential businesses and communicating the perks of doing business in the Falls.

“We have to simplify the process a little bit, there’s too much red tape going on,” she said. “Quite frankly, we don’t have a lot to offer at this particular time so we need to make it more attractive for people to come here.”

In their closing remarks, all five candidates reiterated their desire to win one of the three, four-year terms open on the council and their willingness to do whatever it takes to move the city forward.

“We have to stop talking about things and make it happen,” Thomason said.