Statement from Niagara Falls Water Board Members Dan OCallaghan,

Nick Forster and Renae Kimble

For release: August 9, 2017 Contact Person: Dan OCallaghan (716) 531 -6690

There are no doubt exceptions to Mark Twains maxim that the majority is always wrong, but
it certainly seems to hold true of the GOP majority controlling the Niagara County Legislature. For proof,
one needs to look no further than a televised press conference of August 3, 2017 in which Republican
legislators were practically falling over each other to introduce non-binding, time-wasting resolutions
condemning the NFWB, calling for the resignation of board members and executive staff, some of
whom, including Superintendent of Operations Bob Drury, had zero involvement or supervisory
responsibility for the recent discharge.

The vitriol of the legislators was exceeded only by their bad-timing, ill-will, misunderstanding of
the facts and blatant political opportunism. The supporters of these resolutions in the legislature are
worried about one thing, and one thing only; maintaining their grip on the reins of county government.
Thats certainly no surprise, especially with the county Republican party pre-occupied with tracking
indictments and monitoring criminal court appearances. They need control of the legislature to continue
their patronage trough for friends and family.

Furthermore, isnt it interesting that of the nine elected officials from the affected city, including
city council members, county legislators, and the mayor, not a single one among them has supported or
espoused the GOPs drastic and unnecessary blood-letting demands. It must be true what they say: as a
partys problems multiply, so does their panic. At no time has that been more true for Niagara County
Republican leadership than now.

On a more positive note, since constituting a new majority in March of this year, the NFWB has
worked tirelessly to modernize the organization. It must be understood that we are merely an unpaid,
policy-making, governing body, who hires qualified and experienced executive staff that are responsible
for the day-to-day operations. Since March, our majority at the NFWB has solved dozens of lingering and
neglected problems, recruited competent staff, and adopted cost saving and efficiency-oriented
initiatives proposed by a new management team. Our only goal in mind is to do the best job possible for
the ratepayers and water consumers of Niagara Falls.

There is no question a major incident occurred on July 29th that has caused some in the public to
question our commitment. However, we can unequivocally say that there are no individuals more upset
over the event than the NFWB. At our press conference we vowed to conduct a thorough inquiry, to
cooperate with regulatory bodies including the DEC, EPA and law enforcement, and to make any and all
operational or personnel changes to prevent it from happening again.

One of the greatest ironies with all of this is that our vast undertaking of rebuilding the NFWB
was largely necessitated by the near total lack of attention to the fundamentals of operating a public
water/waste-water utility by prior management. A management constituted, for the most part, by the
Republican politicians now seeking to sweep us out. Instances of past ineptitude are outlined below,
(updates on our solutions to the problems are in bold italics):
 Contract negotiations with the 90-member blue collar union United Steelworkers and with
the Niagara County Building Trades had been stalled since 2010. Within 90 days of our new
majority taking office, contracts were agreed upon and approved.
Overtime expenses had ballooned to over $1.9 million over the last two years alone. The
new board immediately recognized areas of abuse that had been overlooked, despite the
seemingly coordinated effort to maximize overtime compensation (often for members of
the workforce nearing retirement). Now, while necessary overtime work must still be
performed, savings through tighter controls are expected to exceed $300,000 in 2017, with
more than $500,000 in savings on a yearly basis after this year.
Hiring practices were haphazard and frequently resulted in unqualified individuals becoming
employed. (For example: the unqualified husband of a Republican county legislator was
hired for a key human resources position.) Similarly, executive staff hires were given special
preferential NY State Retirement System Tier 1 status and the equivalent of private sector
golden parachute contracts that tied the hands of management. We approved the hiring
of Jim Perry, a seasoned HR professional, who installed and instituted standards and
procedures designed to clear up many back-logged labor grievances, complaints to the
Public Employees Relations Board, and lingering issues with the Civil Service Commission.
The practice of Tier 1 upgrades has been eliminated and contracts of employment are
shorter and more evenly balanced.
Communication with Niagara Falls city officials was essentially non-existent. Collaborative
efforts have been established with a sharing of tasks and cooperation on grant
applications and joint construction projects.
Repair and replacement of city fire hydrants had been neglected to the point where public
safety was jeopardized. We established a dedicated hydrant work crew along with a fully
equipped hydrant van. Repair and replacement in progress with the number of non-
working and faulty hydrants has been substantially reduced.
A fleet with an average age of 12 years, entailing high maintenance expenses and costly
time out of service. Working with Enterprise Fleet Management, vehicles were retired and
turned in and a new fleet established with fuel efficient vehicles at an estimated savings
over 5 years of $300,000.
An estimated 68% of all treated water was unaccounted for, which is a percentage far
greater than should have ever been tolerated. Our staff/consultants have identified and
undertaken the repair of infrastructure leaks. Efforts remain ongoing.
Absence of internal control or tracking system of inventory of NFWB assets. A system was
established and implemented.
The number of outside law firms who had contracts with the NFWB had ballooned under
then General Counsel John Ottaviano. We immediately undertook a workload realignment
and discharged three firms without sacrificing our ability to adequately handle legal
disputes, which will generate substantial savings going forward.
Homeowner/business owner service complaints, including frozen pipe issues, were slow in
being acknowledged and even slower in being corrected. Response time on intake and
correction increased by adding customer service representative and streamlining, via
utilization of business software, of work allocation and scheduling.
 No attention was given to the fact that instrumentation in waste-water analysis laboratory
was outdated and obsolete. Funds have been allocated for a state of the art lab remodel
so that our employees have the best equipment possible to do their jobs.

We have made great progress in correcting the many causes of the dysfunction and have
much more to do. We intend to continue our efforts to restore public confidence in the
organization, insure the safety of the drinking water we deliver, properly treat waste water from
homes, businesses and industry, and prevent any recurrence of incidents like that of July 29th.
Being a part of this board is a privilege that none of us take lightly. Going forward, rest assured
that we are committed to continuing to improve the Niagara Falls Water Board and, more
importantly, the residents in the City of Niagara Falls.