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Mar 3

2015

Pridgen prompts City Hall on recycling

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Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen knows the city’s recycling rate is well below the national average of 34 percent. In an effort to boost the recycling program, he has gained approval from his colleagues for a resolution that proscribes steps he wants the city to take to promote recycling. They include: The Corporation Counsel should review recycling provisions in the City Charter and recommend changes to bring them in line with state’s recycling mandate. The Public Works Department must remind businesses that recycling is mandated. Many don’t recycle. Summer seasonal hires should visit households that are not recycling and[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 26

2015

Urban League hits back at whistleblowers

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The Buffalo Urban League, accused of submitting inflated bills for social services to Erie County, is retaliating against whistleblowers and impeding an investigation by the county comptroller, numerous sources have told Investigative Post. Some of these sources said whistleblowers have nevertheless provided investigators with evidence of “blatantly fraudulent billing” that buttresses their original claims that the Urban League was bilking the county. They’ve provided the comptroller documents purporting to show, among other things, 15 instances of double-billing and a one-day bill from a single employee that claimed 170 hours of work, sources said. Despite public statements to the contrary, internal[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 26

2015

Buffalo refuses to release recycling stats

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Byron Brown’s administration is refusing to release the city’s recycling stats, even though the mayor recently touted the program’s supposed success during his State of the City speech last week. Susan Attridge, the city’s recycling coordinator, originally told me she’d supply the statistics in early February when she finished adding in details from commercial recycling. When that timeframe passed, I asked again. Attridge said she was still working on the data and would send it to me as soon as she finished. That same week, Brown cited the city’s recycling stats during his Feb. 20 State of the City speech.[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 12

2015

Real State of WNY Economy

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The Investigative Post crew after Wednesday’s event: reporters Charlotte Keith and Dan Telvock, Editor Jim Heaney, Development Director Kate Heidinger. (Photo by Sara Heidinger Photography.)  Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney delivered his first “Real State of the Community” address Wednesday night before a packed conference room at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site. The audience, which included City Comptroller Mark Schroeder and Erie County Clerk Chris Jacobs, heard Heaney use data to detail the state of the Buffalo and Western New York economy. The region is enjoying the start of an economic revival, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo has described as a “national[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Feb 12

2015

Falls hotel subsidies defy recommendation

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The American side of Niagara Falls has too many cheap hotels and not enough high-end ones – so a specialist consultant told state officials in a 2011 report. The proposed solution: build more high-end hotels and don’t subsidize budget or mid-range ones because of their “limited potential for economic impacts.” The state has since invested $5.6 million to help finance three upscale hotels. The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency has given another $8.3 million in tax breaks to three high-end hotels, including two that also received money from the state. But the IDA has also approved $7 million in tax[...]

Posted 10 years ago
Investigative Post