OBSERVER file photo A Chautauqua County employee said her vehicle was damaged inside the Spring Street parking garage in downtown Jamestown this month.

Maybe the two city mayors were on to something when they questioned the American Rescue Plan Act funding proposals by Chautauqua County in September 2021. At that time, legislators in Mayville were about to approve 43 projects totaling $25 million it received in free money from Washington.

Not one of those efforts included the largest municipalities, which are still led today by Democratic Mayors Wilfred Rosas in Dunkirk and Eddie Sundquist in Jamestown. That letter expressed frustration in the process, while noting opportunities for future efficiencies were being ignored and a lack of transparency.

“While we believed that there were worthy projects where county and city investments could be combined for greater impact, ultimately the county took a different approach,” both Rosas and Sundquist wrote at the time. “Both Jamestown and Dunkirk were granted funds, to which we are pleased to invest in our communities. However, all municipalities in the county received Local Recovery funds through ARPA. While we participated in multiple meetings with the county to find potential common areas for coordinated investment, and came away from those meetings hopeful, we were not invited to submit a formal proposal to request use of these funds.

We can only speculate that other municipalities may have been invited to formally request projects, but neither the city of Jamestown nor the city of Dunkirk was made aware of any such process.”

Fast-forward to 23 months later and there appears to be a real disconnect between the county and the two entities that make up 41,000 of the 126,000 residents. That’s not a positive when it comes to future collaboration or progress.

Within the last month, that rift has become wider. Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel on Aug. 15 — more than a week after an incident of vandalism at the parking ramp on Spring Street, put his mouth where the money he oversees is not.

“While I’m pleased to hear the city of Jamestown is considering additional security measures, like surveillance cameras and added lighting at the Spring Street parking ramp, the uptick in crime in the heart of downtown Jamestown has been a problem for years,” Wendel said in the statement through his public information officer. “It’s disappointing that additional measures are being considered only after acts of violence and vandalism toward not just Chautauqua County employees who patronize the parking structure, but also the general public, makes headline news across our community. My administration is scheduled to meet with city representatives in September to try and resolve these safety concerns going forward.”

Wendel is not wrong. But, in the big picture, he’s dodging the responsibility at his footsteps.

During his tenure, he has been at the front of a perceived lack of dialogue and assistance by the county with the cities. It was never like that with his predecessors Vince Horrigan or current state Sen. George Borrello.

As both mayors noted in 2021, when the ARPA windfall came to county coffers, elected officials in Mayville overlooked the cities where more than 32% of the population resides. Those sentiments — even by legislators who represent Dunkirk and Jamestown — were basically ignored.

Chautauqua County government, for all intents and purposes, is a financial mammoth compared to both Dunkirk and Jamestown. While its budget is in the neighborhood of $275 million, spending plans in Dunkirk for this year totaled $26 million and Jamestown’s figures were around $36 million.

Because of the make-up of the Legislature — 15 of the 19 members are Republicans, its priorities are in the rural areas that include a large swath of Chautauqua Lake. In fairness, that also is where a majority of the property tax revenues are. City issues are rarely put on the table.

In recent months, Wendel has made his way to meetings in towns and villages that surround the lake. He rarely, if ever, has ventured to city meetings — treating those gatherings as if they were on foreign soil.

That’s why the salvo at Jamestown over its parking ramp issue has hit some nerves. Since 2020, when Wendel became interim executive, the cities have been treated almost as stepchildren to county government. On those ARPA investments alone, the proof is in the payouts — none for Dunkirk and Jamestown. There’s no skin in the game.

Earlier this week, state, federal and city officials gathered in Dunkirk to spotlight Chautauqua County Rural Ministry’s fiscal woes in getting its funding from Albany. Only one segment was missing at that press conference: a county official.

Even if that was an oversight, Wendel knows appearances are everything. His greatest strength is rubbing elbows with constituents by attending festivals, community events and parades. In fact, he’s not one to discredit local government even in tough circumstances, such as Fredonia’s needless water emergencies or Ripley’s controversial solar efforts.

Those two entities have Republican leaders. His comments, as in this case, are more likely to prey on Democratic leadership — especially in a local election year.

John D’Agostino is the editor of The Post-Journal, OBSERVER and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-487-1111, ext. 253.