With every skirmish, battle and war there is collateral damage. Today in the city of Dunkirk it is innocent family members, an honorable man with 35 years of human resource experience, the taxpayers, residents — and yes, even me — who have and will continue to suffer the consequences of the war this City of Dunkirk Common Council has unleashed on Mayor Wilfred Rosas.

Let’s be clear, these members of this council have done so out of purely personal reasons, they hate a man who has moved this city forward by working twenty-four/seven for over the last four years.

Let’s take a look back to the early days of 2016 when Rosas sat in his office looking over the stacks of reports given to him by the fiscal affairs officer; they were not great and it didn’t take long before reality set in and he realized the abysmal state of the city’s financial status. And then there were a multitude of personnel issues, grievances, recruitment and hiring practices needing attention and a steady stream of citizen and employee complaints.

Union contracts for the largest union in the city as well as that of the supervisory employees had not been renegotiated in as many as eight and ten years, and the police and fire contracts were either due or past due. Our water filtration and wastewater treatment plants were in need of major repairs, roofs leaked on most of the city owned buildings and as for equipment for our streets, fire and police departments much was barely held together from one week to the next.

There were no regular full-time employees in the planning and development department, and the personnel department was being managed on a day-to-day basis with a full-time clerk and a part-time administrator. The grant for the Wright Park renovation and sea wall was in danger of being lost, there was no money available for future renovations to the city buildings, waterfront, water or wastewater plants, parks, streets, or the repair of the Howard Street Bridge (giving fire protection to the residents in that area who had lived without it for ten years), and federal and state mandated employee training was not being done thereby exposing the city to major fines.

And as for opportunity for additional funding from the state it was all but nil. As a matter of fact, the state was aware of the financial problems in the city, and they were looking at us apprehensively. The mayor began developing relationships with state elected officials and asked for help; he began working with members of the New York State Financial Restructuring Board and other state agencies and was successful in receiving funding for help with the restoration of our City.

Although the financial situation, as well as the understaffing in both the planning and development and human resources departments was daunting, Rosas was determined to turn things around.

During his first term in office, he recruited and hired competent support staff with whom he developed a plan. Union contracts were negotiated and ratified, the city lighting was upgraded to LED saving the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, over half a million dollars was saved by moving the employee health insurance into a consortium, over twelve million dollars have been brought into the city via grants that were used to upgrade the facilities, buildings, streets, parks, pier, fire and public works equipment.

All of the departments were fully staffed with competent individuals. The employees were provided the required mandated training, and the city was in compliance for the first time in many years. The city’s fund balance was in the black and budgets were balanced, and all was done without an increase in taxes, water rates or sewer fees! More was accomplished by this Mayor in four years than anyone thought possible.

The city earned recognition and awards for the festivals and special events that had been made available to the residents and visitors.

Sponsors came on board allowing for added events increasing the number of our music on the pier nights, air show and boat races — and there were no taxpayer dollars used to fund these events. As a result of the efforts of our Special Events and Festivals Coordinator, the city of Dunkirk became a member of the “I Love New York” tourist campaign, which brought in almost a quarter of a million dollars.

But what Rosas has accomplished still isn’t enough for this council. Sadly, jealousy is a green-eyed monster, and hate is evil personified. If this council continues down their path of mayhem and destruction of all that Mayor Rosas has achieved it will be the residents of Dunkirk who will suffer the most.

Today our planning and development department is fully staffed with competent professionals, but there is a cloud of discontent and concern that is hovering nearby. The human resources department is once again under staffed with a part-time administrator and a full-time clerk; this is the time when seasonal hiring begins to ramp up, (a shared Human Resource Director with the schools is not the answer, nor is allowing the union members to become involved in the recruitment and hiring process). Furthermore, the city is once again in a precarious position with regard to employee training and contract negotiations.

If this council has its way there will be extensive collateral damage, and the residents will suffer. This council needs to do what they promised and work with the Mayor and put an end to their personal grudges and power grab.

It is my hope that the members of the city of Dunkirk Common Council will heed the words written in Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” Only then can we, the residents of this city …

… Have a great day.

Vicki Westling is a Dunkirk resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com