January 8, 2003

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Nancy Naples gets weird

by Bruce Jackson

There’s serious weirdness afoot down at Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples’ office. I can’t quite make sense of it and neither can anybody I’ve asked about it. Naples is hot to shift all the city's comptroller operations to her county office and she thinks a good way to do it is by ignoring or sidestepping Buffalo's city charter. 

That is, she wants to get to be our fiscal watchdog by legal slip-and-slide. I can see why she'd want the power: her job is far more attractive and powerful if it includes the city at the heart of the county. But why would Buffalo voters ever want to turn their city's fiscal affairs over to someone who sneaks into the job by engaging in slip-and-slide maneuvering designed to ensure that those same voters have no voice in the matter? 

The Buffalo News has published news articles and editorials some of which shamelessly push Naples' plan and others of which seriously question it. At first I thought they were backing it as part of their fatwah against Common Council James Pitts (who expressed interest in the job after Anthony Nanula abandoned it for a job in Albany), and then I thought they were backing it as part of the ongoing project to eliminate all elements of city government that might question or bring into the public eye stinky deals cut in the mayor's office. But it's too early to tell if their involvement is that simple. Their two-sided coverage of the story may reflect a genuine confusion about what's going on, which is not unreasonable.

At this point, the most specific thing we have is Nancy Naples' bizarre January 6 press release which, thus far, the Buffalo News has ignored entirely.

Naples’ announcement

In that press release Naples says that her plan to take control of the Buffalo controller’s office is, contrary to rumor, alive and well thankyou. Here’s the press release in its entirety:

For immediate release 06 January 2003
Contact: Nancy A. Naples
716-858-8404

Comptroller Merger on Track

Erie County Comptroller Nancy A. Naples announced today further details regarding her plan to consolidate the functions of the City and County comptrollers’ offices.

"Despite published reports to the contrary, my proposal is alive and well, and has gained support and momentum from both the City of Buffalo and Erie County," Comptroller Naples said. "At a meeting held last week with City and County officials, it was generally agreed that the concept is worth pursuing. Although Acting City Comptroller Andrew SanFilippo previously indicated he would like to wait until February to determine the feasibility of the proposal, all other meeting participants agreed to proceed now. Our goal is to implement the plan in the City’s 2003-2004 Budget."

"My initial proposal did not define a specific way to consolidate the two offices. At the meeting we agreed there are several ways of accomplishing a merger," Naples continued. "The most expedient way is to move the work and functions of the City Comptrollers’s Office to the County on a contractual basis, without the lengthy referendum process required to actually abolish the position of City Comptroller. The result would be one consolidated office—more efficient and cost effective than two separate offices. And it would be accomplished in a short time-frame," Naples added.

"One important factor is that the offices are nearly identical in their responsibilities, so technically there should be no reason this can’t work," Naples continued.

Naples plans to issue a proposal to the Buffalo Common Council and Erie County Legislature. "Various City and County personnel will continue to research the issues and develop specific plans. I will not be sidetracked by naysayers if I believe there are benefits to be realized by the taxpayer," Naples concluded.

Screwing the voters

The first thing that leaps out of this press release is the comfort Naples seems to have has about screwing Buffalo’s voters out of any voice in this matter: "the most expedient way" avoids the required "referendum process to actually abolish the position of City Comptroller." What she and whoever she’s conniving with on this want to do is cut a deal amongst themselves and suffocate the office of city comptroller privately, and then just let the rest of us know about it.

Buffalo’s comptroller exists because the job is part of the City Charter. It was written into the charter 75 years ago as part of a reform campaign designed to prevent collusion between the mayor's office and developers. That plan set up a system with three strong, independently-elected citywide officials: the Common Council president, the comptroller, and the mayor. The Buffalo News, the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership and several powerful developers led a successful campaign last year to abolish the role of Council president. The only check left on excess in the mayor's office is the comptroller.

County officials like Naples are elected by some people who live in Buffalo and a lot of people who do not. The Buffalo mayor’s office does not have the right to run around the law to give them those powers and functions. The Common Council doesn’t have the right to negotiate it away and neither does the mayor. They don’t have the right to sell, lease, lend or give it away either. They may want to, but they can't.

The lesson Naples learned from Pataki: ignore the law

Does this remind you of anything? It should. Think about Governor George Pataki casting about for ways to get more money into a state treasury he knew was far more seriously depleted than he or anyone in his administration was yet admitting (the latest is "several times" this year's $2 billion shortfall) cutting a deal with Seneca Indians to set up casinos in Niagara Falls and Buffalo from which the state would get 25% of the drop and Niagara Falls and Buffalo almost nothing. Not only did the deal screw the two cities, both of which would wind up paying far more in support services for the proposed casinos than either would get from the casino operators, but it sidestepped a clause in the New York state constitution specifically prohibiting the establishment of such casinos without a statewide public referendum.

Pataki’s private deal cut the public out of the conversation, just as the deal Naples is working on cuts the public out of the conversation. Pataki's deal may still be voided by the state supreme court, which has the matter in front of it right now. Naples' deal is still in the wishful-thinking stage. Thus far, no Buffalo public official other than acting comptroller Andrew A. SanFilippo, who seems to have said it stinks, has said a word about it. They're all waiting for someone else to figure it out.

Questions for the Comptroller

Naples' press release suggested several questions and it gave a number for people with questions to call, so I dialed the contact number it gave and asked to speak to her. The person who answered the phone asked me what I wanted. I said I was a journalist and I had some questions about the press release. She said, "Wait a minute." She was gone for quite a while, then she came back and said, "She’s in a meeting now and can’t come to the phone. She’ll call you back when it’s over."

I guess the meeting never ended because Nancy Naples never returned my call.

These are some of the questions I would have asked if Nancy Naples' meeting had ended and she’d called me back:

—Buffalo has a charter-mandated comptroller. If your proposal goes through, what happens to that person? Does someone just sit there and watch the walls?

—What happens to that office? Do we just ignore it?

—What happens on election day when we're supposed to vote for city comptroller? Will the poll-watchers tell us, "Don't flick that switch. Nancy Naples took it over"?

—What happens to the Comptroller’s salary? Do you get it and thereby double-dip? Or do Buffalo and Erie County split your salary? Would that mean sales-tax-starved Buffalo was underwriting sales-tax-supported Erie County rather than sales-tax-supported Erie County underwriting sales-tax-starved Buffalo?

—Who was at that meeting you described all in the passive voice in the second paragraph of your press release? Who were all those people in city and county government who thought this was a good idea?

—Who else, exactly, is backing this deal?

—Why should Buffalo's citizens have any confidence that you'd represent their interests when the avenue you've chosen to get power over them is one that circumvents them entirely?

What happens next

The Buffalo News, the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership and the several businessmen who underwrote the Proposition One advertising campaign to get rid of the Common Council president are hellbent to make sure there is no job in public life for James Pitts after December 31, 2003, so if abolishing the city comptroller's office is the only way to make sure that he won't have a shot at it they will almost certainly do what they can to abolish the city comptroller's office.

The mayor's office will, in all likelihood and in accordance with its posture in most other issues of this type, remain limp. The businessmen like this deal and Tony Masiello never argues anything the businessmen like.

The question is, will Naples and the others involved in this be able to sidestep the law and just sub-let the office? Maybe, maybe not.

The casino in Niagara Falls is up and operating, but the state's highest court may very well pull the plug on that smoky slot machine money laundry. If so, Naples' proposed end-run around local law, modeled on a similar trust in the laziness of the judiciary, may also turn out to be nothing more than political silliness.

This has to come before the Common Council. It may be another one of those deals where the Council is bought and sold before it ever gets to the floor. And, then, it may be another one of those issues that most Council members haven't given any serious thought to at all. Maybe it's time to pick up the phone and tell the council member who represents you what you think about Naples' plan to cut you out of city government.

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