Categories for DailyPost

Jan 18

2024

Wojtaszek, OTB leadership get 2nd raise in a year

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Dennis Bassett, chair of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. board of directors, left, and President and CEO Henry Wojtaszek. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. gave its president and CEO Henry Wojtaszek a $15,000 raise Thursday, cementing him among the highest paid public employees in New York.   Wojtaszek, 61, now earns an annual paycheck of $287,000. That’s more than New York City Mayor Eric Adams ($258,000); Gov. Kathy Hochul ($250,000); Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ($193,400); Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown ($178,500); U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins ($174,000); and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz ($140,000).  Wojtaszek is[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Jan 17

2024

Weather for Bills home games: Meh

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 Editor’s note on Jan. 17, 2024: Investigative Post published the following story on Feb. 17, 2022. Given the wintry conditions at Highmark Stadium last Sunday and the likelihood of similar challenges this coming week when the Bills host the Kansas City Chiefs, we’re republishing the story. The last game the Buffalo Bills played at Highmark Stadium a month ago was the coldest in more than two decades. By itself, it could have made a case for putting a dome over the new stadium being discussed for the team. But that frigid day — the low was 4 degrees, with[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Jan 17

2024

PoliticalPost: City auditor quits

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This is PoliticalPost, a weekly newsletter we launched last week. Subscribe here to get Political Post delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning — because it won’t usually be available online. Buffalo’s chief auditor, Kevin Kaufman, has quit his job in the city comptroller’s office. Multiple sources say Kaufman, 48, left for a private-sector job, at least in part due to his frustration with working conditions under Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams. He’d been working for the city a little more than 11 years. Miller-Williams declined to elaborate on his reasons for leaving, referring those questions to Kaufman. She told Investigative Post[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Jan 16

2024

Double standard involving OTB board

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For more than a decade, the state Gaming Commission allowed political party leaders — all Republicans or Conservatives — to serve on the board of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. in violation of state law, Investigative Post has found. Then came Jennifer Hibit.  Following major reforms by state lawmakers, County Executive Mark Poloncarz last June appointed the Democratic insider to the OTB board. But late last year, the Gaming Commission gave Hibit a choice: Resign from her leadership position in the Erie County Democratic Committee or leave the OTB board. She left OTB.  Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, a Democrat appointed by Buffalo[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Jan 15

2024

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe to our email newsletters, WeeklyPost, delivered on Sundays, and PoliticalPost, sent on Wednesdays. You’d think with climate change wreaking havoc on the planet our state lawmakers would be doing their bit to help. Yes and no. The New York State League of Conservation Voters has released its annual environmental scorecard and the results are mixed concerning members of the Western New York delegation.  Some scored well, starting with Senators Tim Kennedy and Sean Ryan and Assembly Members Pat Burke and Monica Wallace.  At the other extreme were Assembly Members David DiPietro and Michael Norris, who voted in favor of[...]

Posted 12 months ago

Jan 12

2024

What’s included, and missing, in Hochul agenda

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This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here. IT WAS THE FIRST in a series of big days in Albany. At 1 pm Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul gave her 2024 State of the State address, outlining the past year’s achievements and the coming year’s priorities. The speech kicked off what’s sure to be a tense legislative session, as November’s elections loom and the governor and legislature work through their frosty relationship. We looked out for the year’s big political fights. New York Focus had five[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 11

2024

No follow up to OTB ticket scandal

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In the fall of 2021, state auditors criticized representatives of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. for improperly helping themselves to an estimated $121,000 in tickets for professional sports games, concerts and other shows, as well as thousands of dollars in food and drinks they consumed while taking in the action.   More than two years later, a spokesperson for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli concedes their office doesn’t know whether OTB officials have taken any action on one of the audit’s main recommendations: identify individuals who improperly received tickets and seek reimbursement.  “We were not informed if WROTB sought and received reimbursements,”[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jan 10

2024

Almost fired, then promoted

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A Buffalo police officer once charged with assault, tagged for termination and barred from the witness stand has been promoted to detective and is again allowed to testify. “Irremediable problems of credibility” prompted a ban on Joseph Hassett taking the stand, District Attorney John Flynn wrote in a 2019 letter to police. The department then put Hassett on desk duty and sought termination. After an arbitrator overruled the department in 2020, Hassett returned to street duty. He’s now a detective. “Oh my god,” attorney Richard Weisbeck responded during a recent deposition when Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia revealed that Hassett had[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post