Categories for Investigations

Dec 23

2015

Was dead mother failed by social services?

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The story of the four-year-old boy who spent days alone with his mother’s dead body, surviving on milk and maple syrup, has prompted a public outpouring of sympathy and the donation of gifts that piled up at police headquarters. Former employees of the Buffalo Urban League say there’s another side to the story. The boy’s mother, Shaleena Hamilton, had been receiving preventive services under the $1 million contract recently audited by the county comptroller, according to six current and former Urban League caseworkers. The audit, released two weeks ago, found extensive problems in the agency’s handling of the contract, including overbilling, a[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Dec 9

2015

Audit: Urban League bilked taxpayers

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An audit by the Erie County Comptroller has confirmed allegations leveled a year ago by social workers at the Buffalo Urban League that their employer charged the county tens of thousands of dollars for work never performed. Among the abuses: bills claiming some employees worked as many as 170 hours in a single day. The audit also found the Urban League tried to stonewall investigators and retaliated against the whistleblowers who brought the problems to the comptroller’s attention. All eight have now left the agency – either fired or effectively forced out of their jobs. The Department of Social Services,[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Dec 8

2015

No action in Battaglia Demolition dust up

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State and city officials have failed to follow through on promises made over a year ago to clean up operations of a construction and demolition debris facility that’s the subject of a decade-long dustup with neighbors. As a result, Seneca-Babcock residents said they endured yet another summer of dust, noise and diesel truck fumes from Battaglia Demolition’s operation off Seneca Street. Battaglia Demolition collects concrete, bricks and other construction and demolition debris. The facility also crushes concrete and brick, which residents say stirs up clouds of dust that settle on their properties. In addition, up to 200 trucks a day[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 24

2015

Diversity, but few jobs for African Americans

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Diversity hiring goals set for the construction of the SolarCity plant in South Buffalo have not translated into a lot of jobs for African-American workers. While African Americans make up an increasing share of the project’s workforce, they accounted for only 5.7 percent of those on the job for the quarter ending this September, an Investigative Post analysis found. That’s in a city that’s almost 40 percent African-American and a county with a workforce that’s 11 percent black, according to the state Department of Labor. The project is nevertheless meeting its minority workforce goal of 15 percent, largely through the[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 12

2015

Greenleaf garners support despite complaints

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Greenleaf & Company has a history that includes numerous tenant complaints, prosecutions in Housing Court and unpaid bills and taxes. Yet officials have lined up in support of the firm’s proposal to build off-campus student housing adjacent to Buffalo State College. College officials acknowledge they did not perform a background check on the company before they started collaborating on the project. Mayor Byron Brown said Greenleaf’s difficulties should not disqualify the company from the project. Meanwhile, community members said Housing Court Judge Patrick Carney voiced support for the project at a community meeting this summer even though Greenleaf had pending cases[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 11

2015

Housing firm has checkered history

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A landlord working with Buffalo State College to build off-campus student housing has a history of renting apartments with leaky ceilings, electrical hazards and insufficient heat. Take 353 Bird Ave., for example. The ceiling in the downstairs dining room has been stained for a couple of years from a leak that tenants believe comes from an upstairs toilet. The ceiling has collapsed on at least two tenants during that time, including Elizabeth Coffie. “It looked like colored rain and the smell was awful,” she said. Rather than fixing the problem, she said, the landlord simply replaced the ceiling tile. The[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Oct 29

2015

Dino Fudoli is a tax delinquent – again

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Lancaster Town Supervisor Dino Fudoli has once again fallen behind in paying his property taxes. Investigative Post reported three years ago that Fudoli owed nearly $17,000 in property taxes on three houses and two vacant parcels he owned in Cheektowaga and Alden. He paid those taxes about a month after our story broadcast. Public records show Fudoli has fallen behind again in paying taxes on two of the aforementioned properties, both located in Cheektowaga. He owes $14,908 on 12 acres of vacant land off Transit Road near Rehm Road. The land was designated wetlands in 2009, effectively eliminating his ability[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Oct 6

2015

State rejects Cheektowaga’s sewer plan, again

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For the second time in five years, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has rejected Cheektowaga’s plan to reduce sewer overflows into Scajaquada Creek and other local waterways. The DEC says the town’s latest plan does not adequately address a core problem, the diversion of runoff into the sewage system from downspouts and sump pumps. One town council member, however, maintains that some of the blame lies with the DEC for taking three months to respond to the proposed plan. As the two sides square off, Scajaquada Creek remains the real victim. Investigative Post this year has documented a dozen dead[...]

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post

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