Tag: Gov. Andrew Cuomo

Jul 28

2015

State relents on Buffalo Billion records

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I interrupt the state’s incessant stonewalling of my efforts to use public records to track the Buffalo Billion program to report some progress. Cuomo administration officials, for more than a year, refused to release documents related to the selection of LPCiminelli to develop SolarCity’s sprawling plant in South Buffalo. The SUNY Research Foundation and the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. went to great lengths to thwart my efforts to obtain records under the state Freedom of Information Law, as I documented in December. Alain Kaloyeros and his associates at Fort Schuyler wouldn’t budge when the state Committee on Open Government issued[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jul 16

2015

Water woes at Gallagher Beach

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  Gallagher Beach has a serious bacteria problem. The bacteria counts at the unofficial beach on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor – which local, state and federal officials want to open for public swimming – exceeded safe levels more than two-thirds of the time in tests conducted last summer. The test results are included in a 181-page study Investigative Post recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request. The state has not officially released the report to the public. “The results are that this is not a safe place to swim,” said John Finster, a retired public health engineer who used[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jun 22

2015

Shenanigans beset Buffalo Billion

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Editors note: A version of the following story published this past weekend in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Albany Times Union, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, and Poughkeepsie Journal. The accompanying video was co-produced with WGRZ.  Editorials calling for greater transparency in the program were subsequently published by the Democrat & Chronicle and Times Union. The Buffalo Billion program championed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a bold and costly experiment in economic development that is beset by secrecy and politics, and banking on a company with a history of losing money. The program — hailed in Buffalo but resented across much of the rest of New[...]

Posted 9 years ago

May 27

2015

Heaney discusses transparency with WGRZ

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Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney talks about transparency, and the lack thereof in the Cuomo administration, in an interview last Friday with WGRZ’s Michael Wooten. The interview was precipitated by a “transparency summit” sponsored by the governor and the announcement that his administration was revising a policy that had lead to many state emails being deleted after 90 days. Heaney also discusses the events that prompted Investigative Post to file a lawsuit last week seeking the release of Buffalo Billion documents that program managers have refused to disclose.

Posted 9 years ago

May 19

2015

iPost sues over suppression of records

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Investigative Post has sued a state development corporation so intent on withholding records involving the Buffalo Billion program that a leading state official likened efforts to obtain them under the Freedom of Information Law to an act of terrorism. Investigative Post has asked the State Supreme Court to rule on whether the Fort Schuyler Management Corp. is subject to the state FOI Law. WGRZ and the Gannett Company are helping to finance the lawsuit that was filed Monday in Albany. Fort Schuyler is managing the construction of three facilities that will house SolarCity, IBM and Albany Molecular Research Inc., which have been[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 24

2015

Cuomo still stonewalling on Buffalo Billion

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The Cuomo administration has redoubled its efforts to suppress the release of documents that disclose how it is selecting developers and spending money on the Buffalo Billion program. The Fort Schuyler Management Corp., charged with managing the program, is still refusing to release information sought by Investigative Post despite a legal opinion recently issued by the State Committee on Open Government that concluded the agency is subject to the Freedom of Information Law. “In my opinion, it is cut and dried,” said Robert Freeman, the committee’s executive director. “It is, in essence, a governmental agency, that it is required to[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 13

2015

Thwarting the public’s right to know

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Government reluctance to release public records is at an all-time high – particularly in New York State and the City of Buffalo – a panel of experts said Wednesday at a luncheon sponsored by Investigative Post. “It’s increasingly difficult to acquire records in a timely way,” said Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government. Freeman said that while the Cuomo administration has made progress on open data and providing online access to some records, the length of time it takes state agencies to fulfill Freedom of Information requests “warrants criticism.” “Across all levels of[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Mar 6

2015

Stonewalling on Outer Harbor is transparent

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In Part Two of our report about contamination on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, Dan Telvock documents the failure of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. to release public documents and answer questions regarding efforts to develop the waterfront. A growing list of critics have faulted the state agency for its lack of transparency. Part One can be found here.

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post

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