What Is Our DPW Superintendent Paid To Not Pay Attention To?

Reprinted below is a portion of a Register-Star article from one month ago (June 3rd) regarding the Luizzi DRI mess that was, regardless of what the article offers or Rob Perry says, of the city's own making.  Rob Perry's own making, really.  He was the one who was supposed to be paying attention to what Luizzi was leaving us. Heather Campbell wasn't giving regular DRI updates during her Treasury reports to the council last year, was she?  No!  It was our $125,000 DPW Superintendent who was the one giving DRI updates during nearly all of last year's DPW reports at informal Common Council meetings.  He was the one city official who everyone assumed was paying attention to the $3 million "streetscape" portion of the DRI project that Luizzi had been awarded thanks to a $10 million grant from the State of New York.  Perry was the only official who could have stopped Luizzi from leaving us with shit work and "trip hazards."  He was the only one who could have told Luizzi's project manager early in the project (like the first f'n day!), "This is not what we agreed to.  Stop your work, remove what you have done, and start over.  Do it properly or don't do it all.  Understand?"  It's called project oversight, and Perry wasn't interested in doing any of it.  Our DPW Superintendent was the only one who could have avoided this mess, the only one who could have nipped it in the bud before it was too late.  But he didn't, and he's never taken responsibility for fucking up.  Perry sure loves to explain how a hired contractor made numerous mistakes while he wasn't paying attention, though!

Keep in mind that the Register-Star article was published about 14 months after Perry told the Common Council in April of 2025 -- during a DRI update in his DPW report -- that "Luizzi is expected to finish their contract in late May or early June."  Presumably, he meant in 2025, like one year ago!  (That quote comes from the minutes of the meeting.)

Here is the excerpt from the Register-Star from just over one month ago, with the quotes attributed to Perry:

"The stones are supposed to be at the same level, and the mortar that goes in between them is also supposed to be at the same level.  What happened is that in some places granite setts were low and in some places they were high, creating a trip hazard.  In some places, the mortar was low which creates a place for water to rest, creating ice."  After the subpar installation became apparent, the city withheld $200,000 it was supposed to pay Luizzi for their work last year.  City officials met with the company over the winter to come up with a new reinstallation plan this spring, Perry said.  "This is basically warranty work where we said, 'you were supposed to do it this way, you didn't,' and so they now have to come back and make it compliant with what we requested.  Once everything is satisfactory, then we can release that money to them but they're not making any money off of this."

In other words, Perry essentially, though obliquely, admitted that only after Luizzi finished their monthslong extensive stonework did he realize that they had installed everything wrong.  What he didn't admit is that he allowed it to happen.  And why should he have admitted to screwing up by not paying attention?

Shouldn't the first words out of Rob Perry's mouth to the reporter have been, "The stones WERE supposed to be at the same level, but I wasn't paying attention and that's why I'm speaking with you right now"?  Wouldn't that have been an accurate and honest assessment and explanation of the situation/mess?  What you tend to get from Perry over and over, though, is nonsense evasive bullshit.  It's never his mistake or problem he's created; it's typically THEIRS! Or it's the ever vague "we," not "me" or "I."  Who is the "we" who were not paying attention?  Sorry, Rob, there was no "we" who was supposed to be paying attention!  There was one person, and that was you!  You and you alone.

Why was Rob Perry not making sure Luizzi was properly installing granite setts and mortar all over the city's west end ONE YEAR AGO that were "compliant with what we requested"?  Was it because he didn't care what Luizzi was installing on our sidewalks?  Because he didn't have time to?  Because it would be much easier for him to just have the contractor come back and redo most of their work if they didn't do what was "requested" of them rather than pay attention with his own eyes to what Luizzi was replacing our sidewalks with to make sure it was the quality work we requested and expected?  (Did we really "request" that Luizzi install the decorative granite stones in a certain way?  Or did we TELL them what they were to do?)

Can you imagine the negligence and stupidity?  The dude makes over $125,000 a year, and one year after Luizzi installed thousands of decorative stones he's telling us that it was all done incorrectly and needed to be redone?  But, of course, he'll never take the blame or apologize for making a mistake for not paying attention when he should have been, will he?  And no one at City Hall will ever hold him accountable for fucking up, will they?  He's accountable to no one, and he knows that it doesn't matter what he does and doesn't pay attention to.  No one will fire him, let alone admonish him, for making mistake after mistake after mistake and wasting taxpayer money.  

Do you think Rob Perry is paying attention to the work Luizzi is doing right now, if they are doing anything at all?  Are those granite setts all over the west end free of "trip hazards" by now, in early July of 2026?  When will Perry's give a DRI update to the Infrastructure & Code Committee, something he has yet to do this year?  By the way, that's Margaret Morris' new committee that our new head Code Enforcement Officer, Nick Fox, is not required to attend.  He attended last night's meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee instead, just as he did last month.  I heard him talking about chickens and rats.  And business signs on utility poles (for the second consecutive meeting!). I also heard him weighing in on the e-scooter rental business that Henry Haddad is not happy about but Mishanda Franklin and Joe Ferris most certainly are.  But I didn't hear Nick Fox talk about everyday code violations of any sort, or, for that matter, much of anything related to safety.  Why would he?  What can we expect him to pay attention to?  Chickens?  Electric scooters being ridden on our sidewalks or speeding through stop signs?  Or building permits and violations?