After 13 months and more than $100,000, Niagara Falls Economic Development Director Peter Kay has nothing to show in the way of new development here.

He made headlines earlier this year when he tried to block the development of two hotels on the Upper Niagara River formerly owned by John Prozeralik and taken over by the Canadian firm of Merani Holdings, and later announced that he was launching a study designed to address the parking problems he thinks might arise if and when any development actually occurs.

Last week Kay was in the news again, as City Council members went on record to say his $100,000 salary might be a good thing to cut completely out of the city's 2010 budget, and also because he and Mayor Paul Dyster decided to get in the way of another hotel development project on Rainbow Boulevard.

Niagara Falls hotelier Ricky Patel bought the Rainbow Boulevard property last November, and by January of this year had knocked down two apartment buildings, a garage and a smaller cottage, spending around $850,000 on the project.

On Jan. 3 of this year, a Niagara Falls Reporter article detailed Patel's plans. But last week, Kay and Dyster said they had no idea a hotel was going to be built there. Both men were highly critical of the county Industrial Development Agency, which has been responsible for nearly all recent development in the city, for offering tax breaks first to Merani and now to Patel.

"It would be nice if they would consult with us up front and if they don't want to do the due diligence, let us do it," Kay said.

His comment provoked general laughter among the development community, along with more than a bit of sarcasm.

"Kay's due diligence is checking to see who gave Dyster campaign money," quipped one long-suffering property owner.

Indeed. One has only to look at the carte blanche given by the city to Maid of the Mist owner and big Dyster campaign contributor James Glynn to understand what is going on here. The city gifted Glynn with the West Mall walkway, adjacent to the Comfort Inn he owns there, driving out a number of small businesses, including Tommy Ryan's restaurant.

And Dyster, Kay and City Planner Tom DeSantis spent the entire summer harassing -- and being dragged into court by -- Glynn competitor and critic Frank Parlato, owner of the One Niagara building.

Glynn's Comfort Inn continues to receive a tax abatement package, and Glynn's son, Christopher Glynn, was a member of the Dyster-appointed panel that ended up recommending Kay's hiring in the first place.

Glynn was also a major contributor to the shadowy "Building a Better Niagara Fund," which offered to underwrite the salaries of Kay, City Administrator Donna Owens and the still-vacant after two years city engineer's position after first laundering the money through the charitable Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo.

Council put an end to the city's association with the fund shortly after it began, but Glynn's status as most favored developer by Dyster has continued unabated. Now Council may try to put an end to Kay as well.

"We're paying you $100,000 and almost every building is still boarded up on Main Street," Councilman Samuel Fruscione said during a budget session last week.

Council Chairman Chris Robins agreed.

"We're sinking a lot of money into this department and I think it's pretty clear that people want to see more progress," Robins said.

Kay countered by saying there is a lot of development taking place in the city.

"We have over $100 million worth of projects going on right now," Kay said. "In these economic times, and with a city of our size, that's absolutely phenomenal."

He neglected to mention that nearly all of the private development projects he was referring to were brought to the city by the county IDA.

IDA Board member Angelo Massaro, who's been around long enough to know a crooked-up deal when he sees one, said he would vote for Patel's hotel deal even if the city came out against it.

"If they want to say, 'Stay out of Niagara Falls,' I want them to say it publicly," Massaro said.

And IDA Chairman Henry Sloma noted that after criticizing the IDA over the Merani deal, the city set up its own $650,000 fund to assist hotel projects through its own development agency.

"They don't need economic development, they need FEMA," Sloma said of the Dyster administration's stumblebum efforts. "This agency is going to do whatever it can do to help with the rebuilding of that city."

Sloma, flush with success after providing critical incentives for Yahoo! to locate its East Coast data center in the Town of Lockport, criticized the administration for not doing more, and then standing in the way when someone else takes the bull by the horns.

"If you look at the city of Niagara Falls, the economic development initiatives have been dismal at best," he said. Dyster and Kay's idea of a successful business model is apparently that of Wine on Third, a tiny, 44-person capacity saloon that has received $160,000 in outright state and city grants along with a $45,000 low-interest city loan since opening just two years ago. The bar's owners say they've come up with about $600,000 of their own money.

Patel, on the other hand, will have invested more than $6 million in his five-story Rainbow Boulevard hotel, which he expects to have open in time for the 2011 tourist season. He hasn't asked the city for a dime, and the idea he should have to make his financial information available to Dyster and Kay is ludicrous.

As is usually the case when something disrupts the somnambulant governing style Dyster has turned into an art form, the mayor appeared confused and bewildered by the rebuff.

"It doesn't mean we're anti-business or that we don't understand that certain incentives are necessary," Dyster whined to a sympathetic reporter. "We want to partner with Niagara County."

Perhaps after two more years in office, our highly educated mayor will finally understand that the county doesn't want to "partner" with him.