Aug 20
2015
Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney fields questions from WBEN News Radio regarding SolarCity and plans to open a large solar panel manufacturing plant at Riverbend in South Buffalo. Heaney discussed SolarCity’s mounting financial losses and described the project as “high risk, high reward.”
Aug 6
2015
The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation is again the subject of transparency complaints over its planning effort for the Outer Harbor. Board member Sam Hoyt had said the state would unveil a revised development plan at two public meetings in April. The development corporation controls some 200 acres of lakefront at the Outer Harbor. But those public meetings never happened. Instead, Investigative Post has learned that state officials have held at least two secret brainstorming sessions. Some who attended had been critical of the state’s first Outer Harbor plan released last fall. That plan included up to 2,100 housing units, stores and restaurants. But Assemblyman Sean Ryan, U.S. Rep. Brian[...]
Jul 30
2015
For workers at Erie County Child Protective Services, high caseloads and missed deadlines have become the norm. But Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is adamant that the department no longer has any serious problems. “We’ve made great progress and we’re headed on the right track, there’s just always a little more work to be done,” Poloncarz said. County Legislators disagree. They voted 7-4 Thursday in favor of asking Poloncarz to personally discuss the performance of CPS at a special public meeting. But Poloncarz said he would not do so and dismissed today’s vote as “a political stunt.” The county executive, up for re-election in November, had ducked questions[...]
Jul 23
2015
Kim Henderson lasted a year as a caseworker investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect. She was assigned more cases than she felt she could handle. Many of the cases she inherited were poorly documented. And many of the families she was assigned to work with hadn’t seen a caseworker in months. Henderson quit her job with Erie County Child Protective Services two weeks ago, worried that too many families with children at risk weren’t getting the help they needed. “Sometimes the kids hadn’t been seen for months on end – it was terrible,” she said. Henderson’s experience is not[...]
Jul 16
2015
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[...]
Jul 6
2015
In the second of a two-part series, Investigative Post reports on limited progress being made by local government officials to address lead poisoning in low-income neighborhoods on the city’s East and West Side. The Erie County Health Department has concentrated its inspections for lead paint to houses in at-risk neighborhoods where children live. Meanwhile, Mayor Byron Brown said he’s willing to have City Hall consider teaming with the county to deal with the problem. A similar effort by officials in Rochester and Monroe County has proved successful. Investigative Post reported Thursday that nearly 500 children in three ZIP codes comprising[...]
Jul 2
2015
March Moon fled Burma for a better quality of life in Buffalo. Instead, she’s got a sick kid suffering from lead poisoning. Her five-year-old son has kidney problems. He struggles to eat and sleep. His stunted growth makes him the smallest pupil in preschool. He’s been hospitalized numerous times with stays of up to eight days. “The Erie County Department of Health came to my house and they said that my son has lead poisoning,” Moon said. “I had never heard of that before. What is that?” Moon and her ailing son are not alone. Thirty-seven years after lead was[...]
Jun 24
2015
Demone Smith’s long history of violating the state elections law hasn’t stopped Mayor Byron Brown from appointing him to a key position in his cabinet. Smith, majority leader of the Common Council and a political ally of the mayor, starts next week as executive director of the Buffalo Employment and Training Center. The center matches employers with city and county residents seeking jobs. Over the past decade, Smith has failed to file campaign disclosure reports on time 28 times. That’s prompted the state Board of Elections to impose seven penalties, five of which remain unpaid. Smith owes $3,382 in penalties.[...]