A Dunkirk man has started a fresh petition drive against city government, this one calling for the establishment of a financial control board. He’s also looking into suing City Hall under state law.

Ryan Reading petitioned the city in April to offer a payment installment plan for property taxes, in response to an 84% tax hike. That effort was basically ignored — “received and filed” by the Common Council with no further comment or action.

He’s now taking two tracks. One is the new petition, which he hopes will get a large signature count to attract City Hall’s attention. The other is a court effort to force a financial control board, and disclosure of budget information he believes is getting withheld.

“The city continues to follow this trend or pattern of not moving forward on things, not doing things properly,” Reading said.

The petition notes that the state Comptroller’s Office continues to investigate the city over various financial missteps. It says city officials “have misled the public and deflected blame onto state agencies while making unauthorized financial decisions that increase long-term taxpayer burden and further destabilize city services.”

Reading’s petition goes on to mention the state-level legislation for a Dunkirk city fiscal control board, and calls on the state Legislature to pass it.

Reading told the OBSERVER he filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for “the city’s full 2025 budget and answers to spending” in March. He said the city acknowledged the request but never offered any further response.

He’s now organizing a lawsuit against city officials under New York General Municipal Law Section 51. The clause allows taxpayers to bring lawsuits against local officials to prevent illegal acts, and injury to municipal property and funds.

Reading said he would cite “wasteful spending of public funds; violation of statutory audit submission requirements; false public statements about financial delays; and unlawful concealment of public documents.”

The lawsuit would seek an injunction against the city’s loss of state funding that is supposed to get diverted into paying off the latest loan from Albany. Reading hopes for “a judicial declaration that the loan agreement is fiscally destructive.”

Additionally, Reading will ask the Supreme Court to impose the control board. He wants answers for his FOIL requests on city finances. He seeks “transparency of the last eight years of financials, who spent the monies and for what purpose.”

Email Reading at infinitesolutions@email.com to sign his petition and/or join his lawsuit. The deadline to sign the petition is July 29.

“For the city to move forward and function properly, things have to change,” Reading said.