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Sep 6

2023

Political domino theories

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This past summer, speculation has run amok regarding exit strategies for longtime elected officials:  Will SUNY Buffalo State hire Mayor Byron Brown, or perhaps Congressman Brian Higgins, as its next president?  How about Erie Community College? That financially beleaguered institution, too, is seeking new leadership, having run through three presidents — one of them carrying the prefix “interim” for two years — since former Congressman Jack Quinn left the post in 2017. Or perhaps Higgins, who began his 10th term in January, will land instead as the head of Shea’s Performing Arts Center, which lost its president last fall, amid[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Sep 4

2023

OTB chief snubs Erie County comptroller

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Last week, the president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting instructed three of his top executives to ignore inquiries from the Erie County comptroller. Erie County is one of the 17 municipalities that own OTB, an agency beset by allegations that it has misused public money. Since last summer, Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick has made numerous inquiries into the agency’s financial practices, including its provision of expensive health-care coverage to board members, its practice of doling out tickets to sporting events and concerts to friends and family, and the particulars of the development of a new hotel at[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Sep 3

2023

Monday Morning Read

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You could have read this yesterday if you subscribed – for free – to WeeklyPost. Sign up here. Buffalo Business First last week published a list of 60 companies that have received funding over the past eight years through the 43North program, which is intended to promote the growth of start-up businesses in Western New York. (Data could not be located on four others.) The list was accompanied by an in-depth story. I’ve done a lot of reporting in the past on economic development, for both Investigative Post and The Buffalo News, and took a deeper dive into the data. (It was fun to[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Aug 30

2023

Contracts for OTB executives a first

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Six days before being ousted this spring by the state legislature, Western Regional Off-Track Betting’s board of directors voted to give multi-year contracts to 18 of the agency’s top executives. News outlets, including Investigative Post, first reported that the contracts for CEO Henry Wojtaszek and his lieutenants were “extensions” of existing agreements. But they were not extensions, according to OTB’s response to a Freedom of Information request filed by Investigative Post in July, seeking copies of the executives’ previous contracts.  OTB said it had no previous contracts to provide. And a former OTB chief operating officer — who is suing[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Aug 27

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe to WeeklyPost and you’ll get Jim Heaney’s recommended reading – below – in your inbox Sunday mornings. Our day will come, The New York Times says. That is, climate change is going to make Buffalo a destination for people fleeing the ravages of a warming and otherwise chaotic planet. “Detroit, Cincinnati and Buffalo … are in regions with more climate-friendly geography,” The Times noted. We have access to water, affordable housing and the infrastructure to handle a larger population. If only we could get out of our own way. City of Good Neighbors? Not according to Buffalo News columnist Rod[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Aug 23

2023

Former OTB employee alleges discrimination

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Click “unmute” to listen. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating discrimination claims made against the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. after a former employee said she was the victim of “racism and humiliation and discrimination.” Tonya Stewart-Gray, who worked as a security officer at the Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel from January through April, has alleged her former coworkers and supervisors routinely harassed her, belittled her and denied her request for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, causing her to develop sciatic nerve damage. Stewart-Gray said that when she brought her concerns to CEO Henry Wojtaszek, he[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 22

2023

Making the case for a library in a book desert

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Concern over a book desert in the Broadway-Fillmore district has prompted a push for a new library branch in the neighborhood. The Central Terminal Neighborhood Association has two possible sites in mind: the vacant Plewacki American Legion Post building at 385 Paderewski Drive, or the Central Terminal at 495 Paderewski Drive.  “A lot of residents feel we were robbed when the library was closed,” said Chris Hawley, the neighborhood association’s president. “At the moment, it seems like there is an opportunity for a library to be established.”  The association is reviving its push for a library branch following an Investigative[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Aug 21

2023

New York lax on wage theft collections

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ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Documented reports on  special interests in politics. Saprina James was hopeful when she received a letter in 2019 about her wage theft claim against her former employer. The letter said the New York State Department of Labor had substantiated her claim and ordered Mugisha F. Sahini and his company, Riverside Line, to pay her more than $70,000 in back wages. “I was feeling good that the government was on my side, and that I would soon get[...]

Posted 1 month ago