A New York State Senator and State Assemblyman are calling for the City of Dunkirk to have an independent financial control board, and he says that call is backed by city residents.
Senator George Borrello, whose district covers the Chautauqua County city, has been pushing for a control board since last year, but the state senate voted instead to take a $13.7 million from New York State instead to help cover a debt of more than $20.5 million.
He pitched the idea again in January amid the indictment of former longtime treasurer Mark Woods, who was charged with allegedly stealing $120,000 from the city and falsifying records.
Now, he's letting Dunkirk voters make an appeal.
Borrello, along with State Assemblyman Andrew Molitor, recently released findings from a survey conducted by Eagle Point Strategies for which about 6,000 registered Dunkirk voters were contacted and 178 responded. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents said they feel the city is headed in the wrong direction and a vast majority of survey respondents also said they would support a financial control board following the city treasurer's indictment and the 84 percent property tax hikes. The city, the second largest in Chautauqua County, also saw a financial decline after the closure of its NRG power plant.
"It's just very disheartening, but it just speaks to the fact that this is not something that's going to be fixed easily," Borrello said.
He said that Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz opposes a financial control board and has questioned the validity of the survey given the sample size, which he argued is scientifically valid.
"I see statewide polls from Marist and Sienna, where you're getting a survey of the feelings of 20 million people across the state from a sample of less than a thousand so the fact that this isn't a big enough sample size is just incorrect," he said.
Morrello said he wants to work with the mayor and that independent oversight is the solution because he believes the city lacks the capacity to right the ship on its own.
“It's not just about the fact that they are in a financial crisis, it's about the fact that they just don't have the tools to properly navigate their way out of it, and the historical data is not there, so that's where the mayor and I disagree,” Borrello said.
BTMP NPR has reached out to Wdowiasz. She has not yet responded to Borrello’s comments.
