Articles for Charlotte Keith

Sep 30

2015

Minority workers get short shrift at Riverbend

Buffalo’s African-American community is starving for jobs, while the ongoing construction of the SolarCity plant in South Buffalo is employing hundreds upon hundreds of construction workers. Yet state officials agreed to cut the project’s diversity hiring goal – included on state contracts to ensure minorities get a fair share of work – from 25 to 15 percent. [continuing-coverage]That’s lower than on other high-profile publicly funded projects, such as the Buffalo schools reconstruction program and the University at Buffalo Medical School. It’s also significantly lower than the 25 percent minority workforce goal that was stipulated in the sales agreement that transferred[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Aug 26

2015

Labor groups protest hotel subsidies

Around 100 people from local labor groups gathered Wednesday morning to protest the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency’s awarding of tax breaks to hotels. They say low-cost hotels like the Budget Inn on Niagara Falls Boulevard, where the protest was held, should not receive subsidies because they don’t create good-paying jobs. The protest was organized by the Coalition for Economic Justice. Investigative Post reported on the subsidies in January, documenting how the IDA’s indiscriminate granting of tax breaks to hotels defied the recommendations of a 2011 study commissioned by the state. That study found that the city had already had a “glut” of lower-end hotel[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jul 30

2015

Poloncarz plays down problems at CPS

For workers at Erie County Child Protective Services, high caseloads and missed deadlines have become the norm. But Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is adamant that the department no longer has any serious problems. “We’ve made great progress and we’re headed on the right track, there’s just always a little more work to be done,” Poloncarz said. County Legislators disagree. They voted 7-4 Thursday in favor of asking Poloncarz to personally discuss the performance of CPS at a special public meeting. But Poloncarz said he would not do so and dismissed today’s vote as “a political stunt.” The county executive, up for re-election in November, had ducked questions[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jul 23

2015

Child abuse unit still struggling

Kim Henderson lasted a year as a caseworker investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect. She was assigned more cases than she felt she could handle. Many of the cases she inherited were poorly documented. And many of the families she was assigned to work with hadn’t seen a caseworker in months. Henderson quit her job with Erie County Child Protective Services two weeks ago, worried that too many families with children at risk weren’t getting the help they needed. “Sometimes the kids hadn’t been seen for months on end – it was terrible,” she said. Henderson’s experience is not[...]

Posted 9 years ago

May 21

2015

Central Terminal decays as board delays

For years, the Central Terminal suffered from willful neglect at the hands of its private owners. While the building lay open to vandals, artifacts were stolen and metal pipes stripped out. When the non-profit Central Terminal Restoration Corporation took ownership in 1997, the hope was that the group would halt the building’s deterioration and find a responsible developer to secure its long-term future. But the building is still deteriorating. And dysfunction in the Restoration Corporation’s board of directors has hampered progress in preserving and redeveloping it, former board members have told Investigative Post. “There’s so many different things wrong with[...]

Posted 9 years ago

May 15

2015

Speakers want more autonomy for city schools

A longer school day. More freedom for schools to make their own decisions. Redefining success through alternative paths to graduation. Those were among the issues panelists discussed at a happy hour event Wednesday sponsored by Investigative Post. Asked what one thing they would change about the city’s schools, all three speakers  mentioned more autonomy for schools in how they hire, budget and use testing standards. Strong centralization might have been necessary in the past to create accountability, said William Kresse, principal of City Honors School. “Now it’s on us: let us do the work,” he said. David Rust, executive director of Say[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Apr 30

2015

Quinn and Rumore: No to mayoral control

Buffalo School Board Member Larry Quinn and Phil Rumore, president of the Buffalo Teachers’ Federation, discussed their differences of opinion – and some agreements – Wednesday at a luncheon sponsored by Investigative Post. Here’s what they agree on: Mayoral control of Buffalo schools is a bad idea and reducing class sizes should be a priority. And they’d both give a “C-” to the overall quality of city schools. Quinn was particularly critical of the health benefits currently in place for Buffalo teachers, which he said cost the district more than $19,000 per policy each year. “It makes me sick to[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Apr 29

2015

Yahoo’s sky-high subsidies

Everyone in these parts has heard of the Buffalo Billion. Overlooked is another government subsidy program that could be called the Lockport Half-Billion. By any standard, the incentives granted Yahoo to build a data and call center in Lockport are generous. Consider that the Yahoo subsidies: Will cost up to $478 million to build a single facility that employs 200 people. The Buffalo Billion, by comparison, will finance the construction of three major facilities projected to create some 3,750 jobs and underwrite several dozen smaller projects. Work out to $2.4 million per job – an “astronomical” figure in the words[...]

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post

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