Culture of Government Secrecy Continues in Niagara Falls and Across the State Despite Efforts by Open Government Group

Open Government Coalition Cites Perry for Bad Behavior

By Tony Farina

“All too often, government wants to conduct business behind closed doors, which is wrong, and despite New York’s Freedom of Information Law, that’s what happens all too often across the state,” says Paul Wolf, the president and founder of the New York Coalition for Open Government.

I sat down with Wolf, a Buffalo attorney and head of the non-profit, non-partisan Open Government group, after the recent decision by the Niagara Falls Council not to conduct a special meeting to possibly consider overriding Mayor Robert Restaino’s six amendments to their changes to the city budget which would have reallocated some of the money in the mayor’s $101,644,324 spending plan.

Council Chair Jim Perry said after several meetings with the mayor, which he called productive, differences were “ironed out” and the mayor pretty much got what he wanted, as is usually the case with the mayor and Chairman Perry. Of course, there is always the possibility the council didn’t have the three votes necessary to override the vetoes, so they settled pretty much outside of the public’s view.

But perhaps most alarming is what Wolf stated in my interview with him about the culture of secrecy that continues in Niagara Falls and elsewhere across the state despite the effort 50 years ago when New York passed a Freedom of Information law to try and keep the public informed.  There was strong opposition then and there is still widespread opposition to letting the public know what government agencies are doing.

In fact, the Coalition for Open Government has picked Niagara Falls Council Chair Perry as one of a group of 10 public officials and public entities in the state that they believe behaved badly when it comes to fostering open disclosure and transparency this year.  It is certainly a dubious distinction and won’t hang on Perry’s wall in his office or his home.

Perry was “honored” for preventing a resident from discussing the Freedom of Information law at a council meeting and having her escorted away from the podium by a police officer.  Wolf believes “it should not be that big of a burden to hear what people have to say whether you like it or not.”

Niagara Falls, led by Perry and Restaino, are in the forefront of conducting government behind closed doors which Wolf says is wrong but not illegal. a common thread that lawmakers and entities employ to keep the public in the dark.  There are other ways to skirt public discourse like when the mayor calls his special meeting and the public is not allowed to speak.

“I think it is abusive and thin-skinned,” says Wolf, who is strongly committed to trying to put some teeth into the FOIL law because of so much non-compliance across the state.  “It is a bad way to conduct meetings and we are a strong advocate for transparency as all too often governments want to conduct business behind closed doors, keeping the public in the dark.”  Despite many challenges to government secrecy, Wolf concedes the Coalition for Open Government is rarely successful in those challenges.

Of course the mantra of government secrecy is strongly in place going back before the FOIL law was passed and since.  As a reporter, I remember well trying to buck the culture of secrecy and having opposition from government many times and in many ways.  Think back to the Cuomo years and remember all the secrecy that kept Niagara Falls in the dark when it came to the Maid of the Mist contract or the Hamister Hotel project.  Government was an armed camp, top to bottom, fighting with all its might to keep the public in the dark.  But we did break through from time to time, thankfully.

The FOIL law is not strong enough to keep the public in the know, despite efforts to force compliance.

“In other states,” says Wolf, “there’s an independent body to enforce the law, but the only recourse here is to hire an attorney.”