Nov 11
2025
“TreeGate” involving Niagara Falls mayor, engineer
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Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino at a recent press conference. Photo via the Niagara-Gazette.
The City of Niagara Falls paid a private contractor to remove trees in front of houses owned by the city’s mayor, his neighbor, and the city’s lead engineer, according to city documents obtained by the Niagara Gazette.
City Engineer Robert Buzzelli included his own property and the home of Mayor Robert Restaino on a list of four addresses where trees were targeted for removal under a $20,000 contract change order authorized by city lawmakers in July, according to the documents.
The documents, obtained through a pair of Freedom of Information Law requests, also show the work was done nearly two months before the City Council approved the change order.
One city lawmaker characterized the tree removals as “crooked, corrupt politics.”
Council Member Donta Myles, who has been seeking additional information about the expenditures since September, accused the city engineer of “skipping over hundreds of residents begging to have trees removed for years,” to the benefit of himself and the mayor.
Emails provided by the city to the Gazette also show Buzzelli coordinated the dates — May 6 and May 7 — when the tree removal work would be performed and received written updates from the contractor as the work progressed.
In an email dated April 26, Kyle Moore, a representative from the city’s private tree removal company, M2 Tree Service of Westfield., sent estimates for the removal of the four trees covered under the change order as follows:
- $8,000 for 932 Cayuga Drive, owned by resident with no apparent connection to city government.
- $6,000 for 8910 Champlain Ave., which property public records show the city engineer owned at the time.
- $3,000 for the College Avenue address of Mayor Robert Restaino.
- $3,000 for the College Avenue address of Restaino’s neighbor.
According to the email, the cost estimates covered tree removal, stump grinding and topsoil and grass seed for all four locations.
City officials have stressed that all four trees covered under the $20,000 change order were located on the right-of-way between the sidewalk and the street in front of the homes, an area considered public property.
“It was on the city right-of-way. It wasn’t his tree. It was the city’s tree. All of the trees that were removed were the city’s trees,” City Administrator Anthony Restaino said during an interview with a reporter.
What the records show
In response to the Gazette’s FOI requests, the city provided a full list of 54 trees removed as part of the city’s 2024 Tree Removal Project under the original $151,675 contract with M2 Tree Services. The list shows the cost for removals — $1,875 each — for two more trees located at 8910 Champlain Ave.
Public records, available on the city’s property assessment website, show Buzzelli, the city engineer, owned the home until May 28, when it was sold to what appears to be one of his relatives. The most-recent deed date for the address with the current owner is listed as June 17. The records identify Robert Buzzelli as the prior owner.
Buzzelli has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
City Administrator Restaino and Corporation Counsel Tom DeBoy also did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Neither official responded to a request for clarification as to whether any of the three trees removed from the city engineer’s former Champlain Avenue address were located on private property. Nor did the city provide inspection reports for the work done at the property.
Neither City Administrator Restaino nor DeBoy responded to requests for clarification on why no such inspection report was made available.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomRestaino’s administration did release copies of two “tree inspection forms” from the city’s forestry department. One covered the mayor’s address and his neighbor’s address. The second covered the property at 932 Cayuga Drive, owned by a resident with no apparent connection to the city. Photos from both sites were also included.
The combined tree inspection form for the two College Avenue addresses, owned by the mayor and his neighbor, is dated Feb. 27 and identifies the type of tree as a red maple and includes the following description: “trunk hollow lead going towards house hollow.” The form also uses ”hazard” to describe the tree and “10,” which the mayor said in a YouTube post means the tree is in the worst condition under the forestry department’s scoring system.
Authorization of funds
The city used interest accrued from its allotment of federal COVID-19 relief aid to cover the cost — a total of $171,675 — for the original tree removal contract and the change order.
A majority of Council members — Chairman Jim Perry and his colleagues Traci Bax and David Zajac — voted to approve the change order at the mayor’s recommendation on July 2, weeks after Buzzelli’s email exchanges with the M2 representative and after the four change order trees had already been removed in May.
Councilman Myles voted against the measure. Councilman Brian Archie abstained after being told by the city’s lead attorney, DeBoy, during the July 2 Council meeting, that “he did not know” where the trees were located.
Mayor Restaino said he did not have an explanation as to why the Council was asked to authorize funds for the removal of trees under the change order in July, weeks after they had already been removed by M2.
“I don’t know the timeline,” he said. “I just know that when the matter came before us, we made sure it was put on a Council agenda.”
Release of the documents follows weeks of attempts to obtain additional information about the change order tree removal work by the Gazette and Myles, who on Sept. 29 emailed a request for additional disclosures to City Administrator Restaino.
As a Council member, Myles has argued he’s entitled, under the city charter, to obtain documents related to the expenditure of public funds.
Lingering questions
Myles called the whole tree situation a “shame” and said it looks and feels to him like another example of “crooked, corrupt politics” in Niagara Falls. He believes it’s time for an outside investigation and perhaps an audit by the state Comptroller’s Office.
“When you have someone who actually creates the tree-trimming schedule make a change order for $20,000 to add, from public funding, the mayor’s house, the mayor’s neighbor’s house and a family member’s home while skipping over hundreds of residents begging to have trees removed for years, that’s crooked, corrupt politics.”
Myles said he has also not heard back from the Restaino administration or his Council colleagues, suggesting to him they’re comfortable with what occurred.
“It’s part of the continual mismanagement of our funds,” he said. “How do you not care?”
Perry has not responded to multiple emails and telephone messages seeking comment. An email sent to Bax’s city account indicated that she was traveling and unavailable, while encouraging those with questions to contact other Council members. Zajac has not responded to multiple requests for comment via email.
Archie has publicly supported requests for more detailed information about the removal of the trees under the change order, telling the Gazette that it “should not be a secret.”
“It’s city services,” he said. “We’ve had individuals who have signed up for things years ago, and it’s not just trees. Folks really don’t know where they are at and they also don’t understand how things get done. Obviously, somebody had to assess these trees in terms of severity and need to come down, but people should have an understanding of that.”
