Sicilian born, Vincenzo V. Anello came to Niagara Falls as a child. Becoming a union electrician, he started his own company, and, showing a flair for populist causes, became Councilman and served for six years.

In 2003, in the American tradition, the once- poor immigrant ran for Mayor defeating incumbent Mayor Irene Elia in a landslide.

Mayor Anello then proudly posted to the city’s web site that Niagara Falls "stands ready to enter one of the truly exciting periods in its history."

It turned out to be too true.

The Niagara Falls Reporter, a free, weekly tabloid was birthed when two intrepid, if impecunious, gentlemen- Bruce Battaglia and Mike Hudson –in the American tradition - determined to found a newspaper.

Starting with 5,000 copies in June,  2000, they persuaded 34 taverns, restaurants and stores to carry the first edition. Today, the paper boasts a circulation of 22,000 at 600 distribution points.

The Reporter’s full- time staff consists of owner -publisher Battaglia, senior editor, Rebecca Hudson, Sports editor Dave Staba, and Editor in Chief, Mike Hudson.

Hudson, lead singer of the 70’s legendary punk band, The Pagans, left music to work for the Corey Evening News, Hustler, Rolling Stone, the Associated Press, and the Niagara Gazette, which last he quit and/or was fired, after a dispute with the editor.

Then he and Battaglia started a newspaper.

During the first five years, the Reporter broke the story of the fallacy of Kalieda Health needing to close Childrens Hospital because of financial strictures. After they published the salaries and gilt -edged benefits packages of top executives, other media took note.

They were first to publish inside information which led to multiple indictments of local 91 laborers union members. The Reporter published damning enough stories that three local 91 members followed Hudson into a restroom in the Niagara Falls Convention Center and smashed his head, face first, into a urinal-- breaking his nose.

Afterward, Hudson, along with Staba, redoubled their efforts, pounding out more than 100 stories, until indictments came, breaking the sinister influence of the mob- controlled union forever.

They were first to publish the Parkway Condominium scandal which led to the indictment of its former manager. And the story of a DPW worker who stole $20,000 of city property- resulting in an indictment and guilty plea. And the County Youth Bureau chief -of perjury--  which resulted in another guilty plea, and her resignation.

Nobody had seen this kind of reporting around here.

They exposed the follies of former Mayor Irene Elia, who got thrown out of the Casino, or ran school stop lights- until she came to look ridiculous. And, in 2003, when reelection time came, the Reporter endorsed city councilmen, and master electrician, Vincenzo V. Anello for mayor.

The relationship, so happily founded, grew quickly acrimonious. Anello called the paper a "cancer" which “wallow(s) in cynicism and berate(s) our city and its public servants for perverse pleasure and personal gain."

And Hudson retorted, “Maybe my perverse cynicism leads me to see Anello's glass as half empty when really he's half full of it.”

The honeymoon ended the week Anello took office- when the Reporter’s cover story “Recycling Retreads at City Hall” criticized Anello for appointing “political hacks to make-work patronage positions”.

When the mayor later ran into Staba at a tavern, he offered directives. When the veteran editor defended the first amendment, one word led to another, and the mayor threatened to have Staba arrested. Moments later, he challenged Staba to a fist fight. City administrator, Dan Bristol managed to escort the Mayor out of the tavern.

The Reporter now began to take a skeptical approach to the Anello administration.

In March, three months after taking office, Anello negotiated a no- bid, 30-year lease with Smokin’ Joe Anderson for a city- owned tourist walkway. The council approved the lease. The Reporter was quizzical.

In spring of 2004, the mayor proposed giving Greater Niagara Sports a no-bid, long term lease for much of city- owned Hyde Park Golf course.

The Reporter revealed that GNS “stiffed the city” of nearly $300,000 for unpaid lease and water bills on an indoor golf range the year before.

In June, the Council approved, but the Reporter crusaded. The “Golf Course Giveway” inspired citizens’ lawsuits in state Supreme Court.

Late in 2004, Mayor Anello submitted his 2005 budget which called for permanently closing the library. The council approved the plan.

Hudson asked the mayor, “why would you forgive a $300,000 debt owed by private developers at the golf course and then reward them by handing over a large chunk of profitable city property to them?

“Why did you pad the city payroll with more than $250,000 worth of political sycophants, family members and cronies if the city was in such dire financial straits?”

The mayor responded that a referendum would be an option.

Hudson agreed: “Let's have a vote on whether the people of Niagara Falls want a library or would rather have a jerk like him remain in office.”

In February, following a court battle, the Council reversed itself and voted to quash the golf course deal. Anello opted to ignore their vote.

The battle was on.

Every week the Reporter had something about Anello. The Reporter revealed that city assessment decreases on Joe Anderson’s properties was “in stark contrast” to neighboring properties which saw steep increases. They noted  tax money set aside for community events were diverted to Anderson controlled events. Something was fishy.

In spring, the Reporter wrote about the new Public Safety building –to house city court and police. Based on a request for proposals by Donald Zuchelli "acting Director, Office of Economic Development," several developers submitted proposals.

Zuchelli, a consultant, who resides in Maryland, was hired by Anello, with Council approval, for a $105,536 annual contract. Under Zuchelli, a selection committee was formed to make recommendations and they chose Cannon Design to lead the project. The Mayor, ignoring the recommendation, selected Yorkshire Development of Albany, a newly formed company that had never built anything.

The Council still had to vote on it, when the Reporter started asking questions:

“What has been the role of Donald Zuchelli in the selection process or, indeed, in Niagara Falls city government?

“If Zuchelli is indeed the acting head of a city department -- as he claims to be -- is it legal under the City Charter for him to live in Maryland, where he owns and operates a company…?”

“What was the role of local political operatives in the final outcome?

“Why were the recommendations of the committee ignored?”

As cost estimates rose to $40 million, Rotella complained to the Reporter. "They don't even have a number. They don't even have a site …. What are we supposed to vote on?"

If locals, reading the Reporter, had doubts about the Mayor, they had doubts about the Reporter too. If what they wrote was true, why wasn’t it reported in other media?

Then, on May 3, 2005, Mayor Vincenzo Anello’s world changed irrevocably, when the Reporter came out with its now famous and damning cover 

 

The cover story was shattering:

FEDS PROBING 2003 ANELLO PAYMENTS FROM DOWNTOWN DEVELOPER ANDERSON

By Mike Hudson

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into a series of payments made by a company controlled by Tuscarora businessman "Smokin'" Joe Anderson to Mayor Vince Anello in July and November 2003, shortly before and just after Anello was elected mayor.

“At least two former Anderson associates have been interviewed by agents from the Niagara Falls FBI office, where official corruption has become the "number one priority," sources said.

“Documents made available to the Reporter last week show that Anello received $30,000, from Aarrow Brokers, a company then run by Anderson and his former wife, Gail Anderson a month before the hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary, and $10,000 a week after his election, in November 2003.

“…None of the payments were reported by the Anello campaign to the county Board of Elections …

“There is no record in the books of Aarrow Brokers that the money has been paid back, or even that a single payment has been made by Anello in the nearly two years since he took the money. We've seen the books.”

Hudson pointed to the East Mall -which Anderson negotiated for $7,500 “which a person could make in a season selling hot dogs and soda on the highly trafficked walkway.”

He reported Anderson received a low-interest loan from the city, that Anderson’s property was approved for a city grant, and  Anderson's properties benefited from 2004 reassessment.

The Reporter mentioned the FBI was investigating, which was “verified,” Hudson wrote, by “the fact that an agent showed up at our offices within 15 minutes of our calling them to say that we were in possession of some relevant documents.”

When this hit the streets, it dwarfed every other event in the Falls.

"Published reports about alleged misconduct on my behalf are totally unfounded," Anello hastily told the Gazette. "As your mayor, I have done nothing improper or illegal," adding the Reporter’s article was "unfounded, false and defamatory." 

During the next few days, the furor became intense, as the revelations settled into the consciousness of this city and the public clamored for clarification.

Anello admitted money changed hands. The $40,000 was a legitimate “business loan.” 

Anello told the News "I'm going to explain every single move that I've made."

Around town, “libel” was mentioned by supporters, and that, not the mayor, but the Reporter was the one in trouble.

One week after the story broke, Hudson wrote, as he often does at threats of libel: “We would welcome the discovery process.”

He added, “Your mayor, Vincenzo V. Anello, would have told you nothing about his backdoor dealings with Joe Anderson had it not been for the article that ran last Tuesday in this paper. Now he wants to talk to everybody. That's pretty funny.”

The Reporter informed that Anello retained a criminal defense lawyer, that FBI agents showed up at the Board of Elections, and that agents were interviewing people connected to the mayor.

The Mayor told the News the $40,000 was a no-interest loan without repayment schedule. He admitted he made no repayment.

"It's a legitimate note, with a documented paper trail I consciously created," Anello said, "I don't have a problem with the FBI looking into this and the truth coming out." 

By the end of May, the Reporter was first, again, to report the truth that a federal grand jury was convened to hear evidence “of the murky dealings of Mayor Vince Anello”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Campana was assigned, and the FBI was investigating Anello’s dealings with Greater Niagara Sports -- the developer seeking control of the Hyde Park Golf Course, and the process that led to Anello's selection of Yorkshire Development to build a new public safety complex.

Meanwhile, a Freedom of Information Act made Anello’s financial disclosure forms public which showed the mayor indeed listed Anderson’s $40,000 loan, but revealed another loan -- for $5,000.

The Reporter made this startling analysis: the woman who lent the mayor $5,000 has a “brother (who) happens to be part of Greater Niagara Sports, the company given a sweetheart deal to operate (the) Hyde Park Golf Course.”

The Reporter cover had the mayor’s head pasted over the Lone Ranger’s body, and titled, ‘The Loan Arranger.”

Hudson reported the Law Department, however, did not date stamp the disclosure forms, indicating they may have been altered or created after the controversy.

Meanwhile, Anello appearing on cable TV, said: In Niagara Falls, “you've got more rats than cats, and the rats have their own newspaper."

Nonetheless, the mayor was losing support on the council.

Yorkshire lost the public safety contract, but the Mayor pitched the Council to give $200,000 to Yorkshire to offset expenses. This the Council rejected. The mayor tried barter, saying he would agree to the council’s choice of Ciminelli Construction for the Public Safety building, if the council voted to renew Zuchelli’s $112,000 contract. The Council rejected this, but forged ahead with Ciminelli. The Mayor was forced to acquiesce.

Anello next announced a plan to give the Restaurant at the Hyde Park Golf Course to Greater Niagara Sports. The deal was killed in a 5-0 council vote.

After months, other media joined in. The Associated Press wrote a piece which appeared around the state. The New York Times wrote a  story which showed how Anello had fallen, quoting three council members who opined Anello should resign. Next came a front-page article in the Buffalo News wherein Anello revealed he was victim of a conspiracy which included Niagara Falls Redevelopment Corp - owned by billionaire Howard Milstein. Anello said the Reporter began writing critically of him after he put pressure on Millstein’s company.

In October, another revelation came: Anderson paid $18,750 in rent during two years on the city owned walkway, but failed to switch the electric bill, which, footed by taxpayers, was $40,000 -- ironically the amount he once loaned Anello.

A few days later, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the formation of a task force to investigate official corruption on the Niagara Frontier.

After months of articles, things had changed. And now, the issue nearest to Hudson’s heart, preventing the “shuttering of the most important cultural icon Niagara Falls possesses”- might be accomplished.

Three councilmen who voted to close the library, changed their minds, and State Supreme Court Judge Vincent Doyle ruled the city must find the money to keep the library open.

The Reporter suggested what started the fight in the first place:  cut patronage.

In November, the Council voted to do that when it cut most of the mayor’s appointments for 2006.

The mayor, who started the year as a powerhouse, determined to have his plans unfold, now finds even minimal mayoral prerogatives stripped from him.

As of press time, no indictments have come, and perhaps will not come. Yet Niagara Falls is operating under a new open- light policy, and, in many ways, the electrician appears to be The Niagara Falls Reporter.