Categories for Featured

Sep 16

2019

City Hall stuck on budget bailout

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For the fourth straight year, the City of Buffalo must tap reserves to balance its budget. The question is: What reserves? Where will the money come from this time? The books are just about closed on the financial year that ended June 30. The bottom line: The city finished around $10 million in the red, according to preliminary numbers published at Open Book Buffalo, an online portal that publishes city financial data and is updated weekly. Those numbers are unaudited and likely to shift somewhat over the next month or so. However, sources at the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority and[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Sep 11

2019

Federal grand jury to investigate OTB

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A federal grand jury is investigating possible corruption at the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. Sources told Investigative Post and the Niagara Gazette the grand jury is looking into issues previously reported by the two news organizations, including the: Provision of free health insurance to the board’s part-time board members. Awarding of vendor contracts to businesses with political ties to OTB President Henry Wojtaszek and Chairman Richard Bianchi. Possible distribution of tickets purchased by OTB to Sabres and Bills games to friends, family members and political associates of OTB executives and board members. In addition, the state comptroller has[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Aug 22

2019

Cop car shortage sidelines new officers

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Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and the Common Council have shortchanged the Buffalo Police Department’s police fleet in recent years. They’ve replaced cars at less than half the rate the police department has lobbied for, and which is considered best practice by experts in fleet maintenance. Last week, Investigative Post reported on the sorry state of affairs. The police department has too few patrol cars, we found, and many of the cars that are in service are in poor repair. The situation, said John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, is “dire.” “There aren’t enough cars for the patrol[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Aug 15

2019

Buffalo police handcuffed by ramshackle fleet

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On any given shift, Buffalo police have just half the patrol cars they need to do the job. “I would describe [the situation] as dire,” John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, told Investigative Post. “There aren’t enough cars for the patrol officers to patrol the streets and get to the calls.” The cause: The Brown administration has not replaced police vehicles as frequently as the police department would like and national standards advise. As a result, the police fleet is aging and in disrepair. The cars that do work are driven into the ground, while those in[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 31

2019

Free ride over for OTB boss

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 The pay and perks are aplenty for the head of the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. There’s Henry Wojtaszek’s annual salary of $179,462. A state pension. Forty-seven days a year of paid time off, including vacation, holidays, personal time and sick time. Access to gold-plated health, dental and vision insurance, which he has opted out of in favor of an annual cash payment of at least $6,000. And, until April, a cell phone and automobile paid for by OTB. Wojtaszsek abruptly surrendered the car and phone after Investigative Post and the Niagara Gazette requested records under the state[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 19

2019

State comptroller to audit OTB

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The state Comptroller announced Friday his office is going to take a close look at how the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. does business. The audit will consider not only the routine aspects of the OTB’s operation, but several questionable business practices exposed by Investigative Post and the Niagara Gazette. They include deluxe health, vision and dental insurance provided to part-time board members and the distribution of tickets to concerts and sporting events. “Questions have been raised about the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation that warrant a deeper look,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement. “Our audit team[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 9

2019

Buffalo’s in shaky fiscal shape

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To hear Mayor Byron Brown tell the story, the City of Buffalo’s finances are strong and stable, and his finance team has constructed another in a series of sound, responsible budgets.  Two important bellwethers put the lie to that narrative. The first is the depletion of the city’s reserves. In the past decade, the Brown and the Common Council have used $107 million in reserves to close budget shortfalls. As a result, the city has no reserves left to plug future deficits. The lack of reserves has contributed to a second problem — poor cash flow — that resulted in[...]

Posted 5 years ago

May 21

2019

The cost of suspending driver’s licenses

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 A “staggering” number of motorists across the state, including Western New York, lose their driver’s license every year. The state suspends more than a half-million annually; the count in Erie County approaches 26,000. Drivers can lose their license without violating traffic laws. Failure to pay state taxes or make child support payments are among the offenses that can result in a driver losing their license. Still, nearly two-thirds of suspensions result from the failure to pay traffic tickets or show up in court in response to getting one. In theory, losing a license keeps drivers off the road. But national studies[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post

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