The head of the Dunkirk Common Council offered some defensive rhetoric this week about the city’s stagnant Fiscal Recovery Act. Meanwhile, Mayor Kate Wdowiasz laid blame solely on the council.

The new version of the act pushed by state Senator George Borrello and Assemblyman Andrew Molitor slaps additional conditions on the city, Councilman-at-large Nick Weiser said at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting. He noted several steps the council has taken to deal with the city’s fiscal crisis.

Wdowiasz appears to have little taste for the council right now, announcing a couple weeks ago she would no longer attend its meetings. She held true to that Tuesday — but communicated with the OBSERVER in the morning.

“I will be calling a special meeting of the Common Council but I don’t know which day it will happen. I just need to give them 24 hours notice per the charter,” Wdowiasz said when asked to follow up on her previous statement that she would call her own city meetings.

The mayor added, “Clearly we have things that need to be discussed, and action they need to take, as evidenced by the article and statement from the senator and assemblyman (in Tuesday’s OBSERVER criticizing city inaction on the act). Their frustrations are the same I share. I provided the senator and assemblyman with all the information they requested from me, but council has again been silent.”

Weiser broke that silence later in the day.

“Over the last several months, the Common Council has taken a number of significant steps to strengthen the city’s financial structure, improve accountability, and position Dunkirk for a more stable future,” he said.

Weiser cited a recent law restructuring the city’s finance management structure, and the appointment of a new city comptroller.

After speaking about the comptroller position — which was approved Tuesday — for a bit longer, Weiser turned to the Fiscal Recovery Act.

He said, “It’s important for the public to understand that the proposal currently before us is not simply an extension of the original Fiscal Recovery Act… Last year, once the state comptroller certified the city’s debt, the Common Council acted promptly and took all steps necessary on our end to position the city to utilize the deficit financing authorized under that legislation.”

Weiser asserted that “The proposal now being discussed contains additional provisions and conditions that were not part of the original act, and which require careful review and clarification before this council could responsibly act.

“At the same time, we have an obligation to fully understand the long term implications of any legislation presented to us… especially legislation of the magnitude of the Fiscal Recovery Act, before we take any formal action.”

Weiser then reported that the city is getting $548,000 in temporary municipal assistance in the recently approved budget. “That’s three times what it was last year, and these are funds that were not originally included in the city’s adopted budget, so they should provide additional financial flexibility as we continue working through the end of the year.”

The councilman-at-large closed with the standard rhetoric about how the council is diligently working through the city government’s financial problems.

The council’s Finance Committee, which Weiser chairs, will next meet on June 22 at 9 a.m.