Aug 2
2024
OTB chairman rescinds Pledge of Allegiance demand
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OTB Chairman Dennis Bassett. Photo by Garrett Looker.
The chairman of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. has backed off his demand that those attending board meetings recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Dennis Bassett chastised an Investigative Post reporter after OTB’s last board meeting on July 25, contending he wasn’t effusive enough in reciting the pledge.
“Why can’t you put your hand on your heart and recite the Pledge?” Bassett said to the reporter after the meeting. “Because if you can’t do that, I would like for you not to be in here when the Pledge is recited. You’re insulting the board.”
Requiring attendees of public meetings to recite the Pledge goes against the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as state laws, including New York’s Open Meetings Law.
Bassett has now, apparently, retracted his position.
“I would like to say I erred and that I respect the First Amendment,” Bassett told The Batavian, a Genesee County news outlet, in an interview this week. “I’m just trying to be a good board chair and I made a mistake. Not respecting the First Amendment was a mistake on my part.”
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Bassett, however, refused to make a similar statement — or say anything at all — when reached by an Investigative Post reporter on Friday. The reporter mentioned his interview with The Batavian and asked if Bassett had any additional comments.
“I have none,” Bassett said. “I have no additional comments. So thank you.”
He refused to answer any further questions and hung up. The call lasted 90 seconds.
When he became board chairman in October, Bassett, who represents Rochester, promised a “new era” was beginning for OTB.
The “new era,” he told reporters at the time, would be marked by improved transparency and increased accountability for the publicly-owned agency that operates Batavia Downs Hotel & Gaming and betting parlors around 15 counties in western and central New York. That would include, he said, ensuring Freedom of Information Law requests were processed in a timely manner.
OTB’s next public meetings take place August 21 and 22 at Batavia Downs.
