Mayor Wilfred Rosas

Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas, in an e-mail to the OBSERVER this week, called current Common Council members “woefully uninformed.”

Rosas comments come after a Common Council meeting on Thursday — held electronically with members of council in seated in chambers at City Hall — was filled with some technical errors. These incidents often did not allow the mayor to respond to comments and concerns by those in attendance since Rosas was not in City Hall.

His comments were directed to city residents. “As your mayor, I am charged with keeping you safe, ensuring fiscal responsibility, promoting economic development and making both short-term and long-term decisions that are in the best interest of Dunkirk and each of you, my fellow residents! I don’t make these decisions in a vacuum. I seek professional advice from seasoned and qualified individuals, it is these types of individuals with whom I have surrounded myself as members of my cabinet.

“One such member was David Campola, human resource director. David was not a deadbeat as our councilman-at-large referred to him at the last meeting. David came to this city after 38 years of human resource experience. I became friends with David prior to hiring him at the city, and it was due to our mutual respect for one another that he agreed to come to work for the city of Dunkirk for $30,000 per year, and without benefits.

“Having someone of David’s caliber and experience at this salary was of great benefit to the city and to the taxpayers. The Human Resource Department is an integral part of city government and the Human Resource Director position is vital to effective and consistent management of its day to day processes, and is critical to the city government operations.

“There is a misunderstanding on the part of this council if they believe this city doesn’t need a human resource director. Our city’s total budget is over $25 million and the total personnel costs including benefit packages make up over 61% of the city’s budget. The one position in city government that advises and assists the mayor on issues pertaining to employee salary and benefit costs is the human resource director.

“Additionally, this is the one position that advises and assists the mayor when it comes to coordinating and conducting annual federal and state mandatory training for our employees across all departments of city government. While we do have a part-time personnel administrator, and who does an excellent job regarding his regular duties, these functions, however, are outside of his job description. It is my belief that when it comes to these mandated training issues, it is in the best interest of the taxpayers and the city government to have the most professional experience, training and skills available for this task.

“When I came into office, I immediately looked at what other municipalities were doing and how they had staffed their Human Resource Department. Cities of our size have a human resource director heading up this critical department, but the City of Dunkirk did not, and the need for one was clearly visible.

“The lack of having a qualified human resource director for Dunkirk could potentially cost the city taxpayers more money on many different levels. Based on my research I believe it is in the city’s best interest and the best interest of the taxpayers to have this position on staff in city government.

“The city’s employees make up four different unions; negotiating the different collective bargaining agreements requires a strong team of professionals with an experienced human resource director with proven negotiating skills. Negotiating our union contracts is one of the major responsibilities that the mayor has, and having a human resource director experienced in negotiations is a benefit for our tax payers, and they deserve the best representation possible during these critical negotiations. Again, while our current part-time personnel administrator does an excellent job based on the tasks for which he is responsible, contract negotiations is not listed on his job description.

During his employment with the city, Mr. Campola was directed to streamline the recruitment and hiring process, develop federal and state mandated policies, handle grievances, negotiate insurance contracts, deal with legal issues and labor attorneys on a daily basis, as well as manage the overall personnel function; and this was the job that David Campola did with enthusiasm, professionalism and competence every day! In his first six months on the job, Mr. Campola renegotiated the city’s liability insurance paying for his salary of $30,000 per year for the next two years, and once again saving the taxpayers money not just for those two years, but for future years as well. David Campola is not a deadbeat; he is competent in every sense of the word, and this council has done an injustice and a disservice to the residents of this city by removing him from office without cause. And for the council person to state that “when the time comes then we can always bring the position back” speaks volumes about the true intent — it was personal.

“In the last meeting, the council stated that I refused to consider sharing a human resource director with the Dunkirk Public School District. This is not the case. The truth of this is that I initiated communication with the school by reaching out to the school board and met with the Superintendent and a board member in this regard. We discussed options, and I suggested to them that if we could come to a comparable funding match regarding salary costs, that I believed we could conceivably work something out.

“However, at this meeting I made it clear that I didn’t believe the city taxpayers should be responsible for footing the bill for the human resource position that would provide services for both the school and the city. I respectfully requested that the school share the cost of this position equally with the city taxpayers, and then I felt I could move forward with an agreement. If the school could not or was not willing to equally fund this shared position then I didn’t feel it was in the best interest of our city taxpayers for me to move forward and ultimately require our city taxpayers to foot the bill in its entirety with only half the benefit. After that meeting I was not contacted again by the school leading me to believe that they were no longer interested in pursuing this shared position.

“The last council meeting was a first of its kind in more ways than one. I understand and applaud the efforts that it took to ‘go virtual’ but to exclude the Mayor from the council chambers was, I believe, a direct attempt to silence me. On several occasions I tried to voice my opinion, but was not recognized.

“When the issue of the Human Resource Director was brought to the floor, there was information that should have been shared openly, but I was not recognized and the matter was decided out of personal bias and prejudice against me, and most probably against Mr. Campola as well. This is not the way to run a meeting, and the council members owe every taxpayer and resident of this city an apology.

“When I began my first term as Mayor in 2016, I promised positive change. I promised to move Dunkirk forward and to do so with the taxpayers and residents as my primary focus and concern, and I have kept that promise. Today, I feel hamstrung by the actions of this council, they have removed key members of my cabinet and have put up smokescreens and roadblocks to this city’s continued progress for reasons none other than personal and political predispositions.

“I believe in Dunkirk; it is my home just as it is yours and I am asking each of you to let this council know that what they have done with their personal vendettas is hurting this city. Dunkirk is your City and mine. If this council is allowed to continue with their negativity and intent to destroy everything that we have accomplished over the past four years, the impact will surely be felt by all of us — and it will be painful!

“Please stand with me, and remind this council that they were elected to make decisions based on what is in the best interest of Dunkirk; they need to forego their personal agendas and prejudices. We need to get this city back on track and restart the momentum that has been stalled, and in some cases stopped all together.”

As your mayor, I promise to do all that I can to continue moving Dunkirk forward, but I can’t do it alone. I need your help.”