<!--Mark Scheer--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Mark Scheer</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com">mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
Mayor Paul Dyster’s administration again will attempt to secure city council support for funding two temporary inspector positions.
The jobs would help fill staffing holes left by three full-time employees who were placed on paid administrative leave following a federal investigation last year.
Council members rejected a similar request late last year, and Chairman Sam Fruscione said it is not likely to receive a warmer reception this time around.
“It’s just an absolute waste of taxpayer money,” Fruscione said.
Dyster’s administration has presented the council with a request to approve a temporary position of electrical inspector and create a temporary position of chief plumbing inspector. It is also seeking approval for the transfer of $35,000 of revenue into the code enforcement budget to cover costs associated with both temporary hires.
The administration maintains the positions are needed to provide adequate staffing in the Department of Code Enforcement, which has been without the services of Building Inspector Guy Bax, Chief Plumbing Inspector George Amendola and Electrical Inspector Peter Butry since July. All three men have been on paid administrative leave since being named in an ongoing FBI investigation into their dealings with local plumbing contractor John J. Gross Jr.
A similar plan to cover the duties of the three-full time employees was rejected by the council in a 4-1 vote in December.
Fruscione said his opinion on the matter hasn’t changed, and he still believes the city cannot afford to pay wages to new part-time staffers while continuing to send paychecks to Bax, Amendola and Butry for jobs they aren’t allowed to perform at this time.
“I just can’t continue to allow the city to waste money like this,” Fruscione said.
FBI agents seized documents and computers from the inspections department’s office on July 17 in a search for evidence of a potential inappropriate relationship between Gross and members of the city’s inspections department. Charges have yet to be filed in the case. Fruscione and some other members of the council have suggested the three employees in question be returned to their jobs while the investigation plays out.
Dyster believes doing so would compromise efforts in the code enforcement department and send the wrong message to the residents and the development community.
“It was my decision to put them on paid administrative leave and I’m standing by that position,” Dyster said.
The administration needs council approval before it can execute a budget transfer in the first quarter of the year.
Dyster said adding the temporary positions is not an issue of cost because there are surplus funds available to cover the expense.
The bigger concern, he said, is the impact the lack of adequate code enforcement staff could have on construction in the city.
So far this year, Dyster said the city has relied on undesignated funds placed in the plumbing and electrical budgets in the event of an emergency to cover inspections costs on a case-by-case basis. He said those accounts are being exhausted by an increased demand for inspections at construction sites, including most notably the ongoing development of the multi-million HOPE VI housing project in the city’s North End. Without action from the council, Dyster said the contingency lines will dry up and the department will not have sufficient funds to cover its inspections costs.
“We have projects that are moving and the available funds don’t last long,” he said.
Contact reporter Mark Scheer at 282-2311, ext. 2250.
