Embattled Niagara Falls Water Board appointee tenders his resignation

Rick Pfeiffer -, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·3 min read

Jul. 31—The threat of a lawsuit may no longer hang over the heads of Niagara Falls City Council members for the removal of their appointee to the city's water board.

Multiple sources said Tuesday night that council appointee Michael Asklar had submitted his resignation from the water board.

It's not clear that Asklar was on the water board at the time of his resignation. City council members voted unanimously last week to "revoke" Asklar's appointment to the water board, effective immediately.

In addition to removing Asklar, the council voted to appoint James S. Dean, a Falls resident and employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Buffalo, to immediately fill Asklar's unexpired term on the board. Asklar was appointed as the city council's representative to the water board in 2021 and his term expires in December 2025.

Asklar could not be reached for comment on his reported resignation. A copy of his resignation letter was not immediately available from water board officials.

Water Board Chair Nicholas Forster did not answer calls seeking comment. Forster had defended the hiring of an outside lawyer to represent Asklar in his battle with the city council.

At its July 22 meeting, members of the water board deadlocked on a call by their newest member to stop funding legal services for Asklar.

Member Richard Sirianni, who joined the board in early July as the appointee of Gov. Kathy Hochul, asked to suspend the legal services but failed to win approval for his request on a tied vote. Forster and member Colleen Larkin opposed Sirianni's resolution. Sirianni and long-time member Renae Kimble supported it.

Asklar originally voted against the resolution until he was confronted by Sirianni who claimed he should not cast a vote because doing so would be a conflict of interest. He then changed his vote to an abstention.

Members of the city council had cited "numerous complaints about decisions made by members of the Niagara Falls Water Board and said its members were "dissatisfied with the performance of Michael Asklar" in voting to remove their appointee.

Council members had been under intense pressure to remove Asklar after a decision to implement changes in the terms of the water board's union retiree healthcare. Forster has maintained that the healthcare changes were made by board staff and not the board members.

After meeting with Asklar in June, Falls City Council Chair Jim Perry, who is a former director of administrative services at the water board, sent the council appointee a letter alleging possible violations of New York's Public Authorities Law and the Falls Water Board by-laws. That prompted the water board to hire legal counsel for Asklar, under its liability insurance policy which covers board members.

In a July 18 letter to Perry, Jennifer Puglisi, an attorney with Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan, told the council chair that Asklar "adamantly denies all allegations, claims and/or charges contained in your letter." Puglisi called the council's concerns "vague, over broad, unsupported by evidence, wrongfully targeted, nonsensical and completely baseless."

In the letter, Puglisi also wrote that "Mr. Asklar will not resign" and threatened to file a lawsuit against the council to challenge his removal.

Perry said Tuesday night that he was pleased that the threat of litigation appeared to be lifted.

"The bottom line of the whole thing was we just wanted someone in there that was responsive to what we wanted," Perry said. "All I was concerned with was that we bring someone fair to the table."

Perry said the council will work closely with Dean and evaluate his performance at the end of his term.

"I just want to have someone that represents the people of Niagara Falls in there and that is concerned with doing the right thing," Perry said. "When this term is up, we'll see what Jim Dean has done and we'll go from there."