Damico up for ‘challenge’ of city mayor
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David Damico presented his candidacy for mayor of Dunkirk as an extension of previous service with the Board of Education and Common Council, during an OBSERVER interview.
Damico, the Republican candidate, said early on, "I always say this: 'If you ask the question, I'll tell you exactly what I know.'"
A Dunkirk Board of Education member for 11 1/2 years, and its president for five years, Damico was elected the city Common Council's councilman-at-large in 2021.
"I felt we were in a real, real good place with the school board, and the Republicans had asked me a few times to come over (to city government)," he said. "This last time I said, 'OK, maybe I'm looking for another challenge."
He said that "we tried to control spending as a group" when he was on the Board of Education, and advocates similar fiscal restraint in city government. Most notably, Damico has an eye on starting reserve funds for the city. He said the school board added to district reserves while he was on it, and "that's what I'd love to do in the city. There is a contingency budget but no reserves."
Touching on the city's recent Revenue Anticipation Note to pay its bills, Damico indirectly criticized current Mayor Wilfred Rosas' stance that the RAN is a positive sign of big grant money flowing into Dunkirk development. The RAN was needed because the state grants will reimburse Dunkirk for completed projects with bills due -- but the grant funds aren't actually in city hands yet.
"Grants are great, but how do you budget for that? How do you prepare?" Damico wondered. "It takes a year for a grant to come in," but bills on the work they fund often come due before that.
"Maybe sometimes, we do walk away from a grant," he added.
"We have to control spending," Damico reiterated. "You're going to have problems down the road that are unforeseen. You need a three-year plan, a four-year plan." That's what the Board of Education has, he said.
Damico said that "there was no plan to replace" two fire trucks and the city had to bond for their replacements. "You have to have some foresight moving forward. That's what I've done," he said.
Rosas' water sharing proposal with Fredonia is good because "we have four revenue sources in this city -- property tax, sales tax, PILOTs and fees -- and that's just going to increase the fees.
"Yes, I'm all for it," Damico continued. "We have safe water, $2.5 million was invested to provide a safe water system. Will we have to address the distribution side? No doubt -- but we have adequate capacity."
He advocates selling water "to whoever we can sell it to -- it doesn't necessarily have to be Fredonia."
Asked about Dunkirk waterfront development, Damico said, "I think we have to support our tenants and our taxpayers. I don't think we (should) compete against them and I think we find a way to work with them."
Downtown development is "another story, we have to figure out a niche market that makes people want to come downtown," he said.
For both the waterfront and the downtown, the city's recent $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant from the state "needs to be a game changer. We can't swing and miss at this. … It has to be sustainable more than five to 10 years, there should be a generational gain for the investment coming in."
Damico works at ECR International and has lived in Dunkirk virtually all his life, "since I was days old." His wife, Marie, is a social worker for the Dunkirk school district.
A graduate of Dunkirk High School in 1983, Damico became a volunteer firefighter afterwards. "It was some of the best years of my life and I made some great friends," he said.
Damico will face Democratic candidate Kate Wdowiasz, currently the city law department paralegal, in the November election.