Niles mayor chastised by fiscal commission for lack of improvement

NILES

The commission charged with overseeing the city’s recovery from fiscal emergency has apparently had enough with the Scarnecchia administration’s inability to get Niles out of the red ink.

“It’s unusual for a city to be in fiscal emergency and not make progress in two years of work,” said Quentin Potter, chairman of the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission. “There isn’t improvement, there isn’t stability. ...You’re not on track and that has to change.”

Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia has been in office 11 months. He succeeded long-time Mayor Ralph Infante who was indicted Tuesday on 56 counts, including bribery.

The Vindicator reported Wednesday that income tax revenues are expected to fall far short of projections, leaving the city in potential deficit, which its financial recovery plan was supposed to prevent. Scarnecchia is working on a revised recovery plan – the fifth such revision in two years – to be submitted to council and the commission next month.

“We’re worse off than we were a year ago,” complained John Davis, a commission member.

Read more about the situation in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.