Tag: OTB

Nov 25

2024

A call for ‘top to bottom’ audit of OTB

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Three good-government groups have called on State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to conduct a “top-to-bottom” audit of Western Regional Off-Track Betting. With a leadership transition newly complete, the groups — Reinvent Albany, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters — say all of OTB’s activities should be audited. They include OTB’s “revenue and expenses, procurement, investment, management systems, governance, and public transparency and accountability,” the groups said. In a letter sent Monday, the groups said “golden parachutes for departing executives, nepotistic hiring, and an outsize salary for the incoming CEO” were of particular concern. The “golden parachute” refers to $299,000[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Nov 22

2024

OTB cuts payments to local governments

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Pay raises and buyouts for executives are among the costs blamed for the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. reducing its payments to local governments by $2.6 million this year. In 2023, OTB leaders said Thursday, the agency sent $10.25 million to the 15 counties and two cities that own it. This year, that amount decreased to $7.6 million. OTB did not specify how much the reduced payments will cost individual local governments. Erie County will be out an estimated $200,000. Officials did not fully explain the reduction Thursday, but cited personnel, legal and development costs. The drop follows a number[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Nov 21

2024

OTB hotel expansion delayed

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Hotel at Batavia Downs. Photo by Garrett Looker A planned expansion of the Batavia Downs hotel is on hold, possibly for as much as a year, officials with Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. announced Thursday. Outgoing CEO Henry Wojtaszek said the agency put the 73-room addition on pause after two estimates solicited from Buffalo-based developers came in above expectations. The pause could last six months to a year, he said. According to Wojtaszek, both The Krog Group and Ciminelli Real Estate estimated the project would cost around $16 million. Both offers were far above what the agency had hoped to[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Oct 31

2024

Whistleblower suit against OTB going forward

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Batavia Downs. Photo by Garrett Looker. A lawsuit filed by a former Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. executive – who claims he was fired for cooperating with state and federal investigators examining the operation – is moving forward. In a ruling issued last week, U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny dismissed several claims, narrowing the scope of a lawsuit filed in August 2021 by OTB’s former chief operating officer, Michael Nolan. But Skretny denied a request from OTB to toss what Nolan’s attorney described as the “most important” causes of action in the lawsuit. Barring an appeal, Skretny’s ruling clears[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Oct 24

2024

OTB hires two Brown lieutenants from City Hall

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Byron Brown answers questions from reporters at Thursday’s OTB meeting. Photo by Garrett Looker. Steven Casey, a longtime aide to Byron Brown and a political operative whose consulting firm pleaded guilty to felony charges in 2021, was hired Thursday as the former mayor’s right-hand man at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting. The OTB board voted to hire Casey for one year as chief administrative officer and chief of staff under Brown, OTB’s new president and CEO. Casey will be paid $190,000. OTB will retain Scott Kiedrowski, OTB’s current No. 2, who is named in a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Oct 23

2024

Brown’s OTB contract could rise to $315,000 in 2027

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Outgoing OTB CEO Henry Wojtaszek, left, recently appointed CEO Byron Brown, center, and attorney Rajat Shah. Photo by Mark Scheer. Former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has the chance to boost his annual salary of $295,000 by another $20,000 within two years as the new CEO and president of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. At the start of Wednesday’s OTB board of directors meeting — the first attended by Brown since he resigned as mayor to head the public gambling agency — Brown released a copy of his employment contract. The three-year contract will, as has been previously reported, pay Brown[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Oct 22

2024

Poloncarz blasts Brown for hiring Steve Casey at OTB

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The elected official with the greatest sway over Western Regional Off-Track Betting is “incredibly disappointed” that former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has brought a controversial former deputy with him to his new post as head of the troubled public gambling corporation. “Former Mayor Brown committed to the Board of Directors that he would move Western Region OTB towards transparency and accountability,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a statement to Investigative Post. Hiring Steven M. Casey — “an incredibly toxic force in Buffalo City Hall for decades,” according to Poloncarz — “moves Western Region OTB in the complete opposite[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Oct 20

2024

Brown brings long-time aide Steve Casey to OTB

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Steven Casey, left, and Byron Brown, right. File photo by WKBW. Steven M. Casey — Byron Brown’s former deputy mayor and top political advisor — is following his old boss to a job at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. A source close to OTB leadership confirmed Casey, 58, is now working for the publicly owned gambling corporation and is on-site at Batavia Downs. The state comptroller’s office confirmed Casey began working part-time for OTB in September. OTB did not report a job title to the comptroller but projected his annual part-time wages would total $49,920. Casey — whose company pleaded[...]

Posted 7 months ago
Investigative Post