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Sep 26

2023

How many City Hall employees being paid not to work?

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The comptroller’s office has launched an investigation to determine how many city employees are on paid leave, why and for how long, and how much it costs taxpayers, according to the city’s chief auditor, who testified Tuesday before the Common Council’s Civil Service Committee. The comptroller’s inquiry is a response to Investigative Post’s report on Jill Repman, formerly Jill Parisi, an administrative assistant for the Buffalo Fire Department who was on paid leave for seven and half years. The city has paid Repman nearly $600,000 since suspending her in 2016, when she was accused of tampering with the department’s payroll[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 25

2023

Appellate court reinstates OTB ‘whistleblower’ lawsuit

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A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court’s decision and reinstated a lawsuit filed by a former executive of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. who claimed he was fired after he agreed to cooperate with state and federal investigators who were examining the inner-workings of the organization.  In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals determined that U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny erred in his October decision to dismiss as untimely the lawsuit filed by former OTB Chief Operating Officer Michael Nolan. In his earlier ruling, Skretny determined that Nolan’s claims of First Amendment[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 25

2023

City to pay $255k to victims of police raid

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The city of Buffalo is poised to pay more than a quarter-million dollars to a family whose Parkside home was raided by a police SWAT team hunting for crack cocaine.  Officers armed with guns and a no-knock search warrant found no drugs at the home of Maisha Drayton, then a senior director of staff development at the Evergreen Association, a nonprofit health care organization. Neither she nor her two children nor her husband, Trevor, who wasn’t home when police broke through the door shortly after 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 11, 2014, had any criminal history.  The city law department last[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 23

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Read on for nuggets you may have missed, and subscribe to WeeklyPost for a heads up every Sunday. The editors of Time magazine inveigh against “alarming efforts to politicize and defund libraries,” particularly by right-wing activists. The Time magazine piece reflects the fears Buffalo and Erie County Public Library Director John Spears spoke of in a recent Buffalo News article, saying “If people think this couldn’t happen here, they’re wrong.” In an earlier interview with Investigative Post, Spears spoke of the importance of libraries in society, suggesting that they are one of the few remaining community spaces people can use freely. Time’s editors[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 21

2023

Podcast: Chasing a phantom city employee

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Jill Repman — formerly known as Jill Parisi — has been paid more than a half million dollars since being accused of tampering with the fire department payroll in 2016. The allegation against her was never resolved and she’s worked at a private-sector job while continuing to collect a check from the city. Investigative Post’s Geoff Kelly sat down with host Garrett Looker to discuss his weeks-long search for Repman, or at least answers from anyone who would be willing to talk. Watch via YouTube or listen as a podcast.  

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 20

2023

Erie County sheriff wants $10 million helicopter

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia wants to double his department’s helicopter fleet with a new chopper that would cost more than $10 million. “It’s a matter of safety,” Undersheriff William Cooley told Investigative Post in justifying a new Airbus H135 helicopter that would take two years to build and outfit. “We see an absolute need for a new machine.” The sheriff’s office boasts that its current helicopter helps nab suspected car thieves and controls traffic at Buffalo Bills games.  The department says that its 22-year-old chopper, often grounded for maintenance and repairs, has saved lives. The department once considered replacing[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 20

2023

Genesee County officials make misleading claims

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Following a state Supreme Court lawsuit over a critical piece of infrastructure for its Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park, the Genesee County Economic Development Center has begun a public relations campaign. Beginning last week, just days after Orleans County sued the neighboring agency to block a sewage pipeline that would discharge across county lines, Genesee County EDC placed advertisements and letters to the editor in local news publications in an effort to defend its industrial park. The agency also published a new page on its website defending the wastewater pipeline. The advertisements link to the new webpage. There’s just[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 19

2023

County libraries seek $150 million for renovations

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Public libraries in Erie County are asking for nearly $150 million in renovations — more than half of that for the downtown Central Library. A physical assessment conducted by the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system identified a wide range of needs, including roof repairs, asbestos abatement and enhanced security involving 26 of the system’s 37 library locations. “A lot of it is just trying to get the buildings in good shape,” said John Spears, director of the library system. “It has been a long process to get all of the Buffalo libraries to where they are now.” Spears[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post