Tag: OTB

Aug 23

2024

OTB set to discuss search for Wojtaszek replacement

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OTB Chairman Dennis Bassett. Photo by Garrett Looker. If Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is a candidate for the top job at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., the chairman of the organization’s board isn’t saying so.  Following the board’s monthly meeting on Thursday at Batavia Downs, Chairman Dennis Bassett said Brown is welcome to “put his name into the pot” of candidates seeking to replace outgoing CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek, who has accepted a contract buyout and is expected to leave his post before the end of the year.  OTB’s board has called a special meeting next Thursday for a[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Aug 21

2024

Lawmakers ask for state probe into OTB buyouts

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OTB President and CEO Henry Wojtaszek. Photo by Garrett Looker. Two Western New York lawmakers — state Sen. Sean Ryan and Assemblywoman Monica Wallace — have asked the state’s Attorney General and Inspector General to investigate buyouts for three executives of the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., arguing the packages are illegal. Citing a law Wallace helped pass in 2019 that bans so-called “golden parachutes” for leadership of public authorities, the lawmakers argue in a five-page memo to the Attorney General and Inspector General that the buyouts violate that and/or other state laws which prohibit gifts and large buyouts to[...]

Posted 7 months ago

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[...]

Posted 7 months ago

Jul 26

2024

Recite the Pledge of Allegiance … or leave

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OTB Chairman Dennis Bassett. Photo by Garrett Looker. If you want to walk into Batavia Downs, the price of admission is pretty obvious: You’ve got to have a few pennies for the slot machines. But the board of directors that runs the casino and harness track has decided there’s a new cost if you want to hear them discuss the business of the publicly owned Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation: Stand up, place your hand over your heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance loud enough for Chairman Dennis Bassett to hear you.  If you don’t? Bassett doesn’t want you[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Jul 12

2024

Harsh words for costly OTB buyouts

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State Sen. Sean Ryan, left,  Assemblywoman Monica Wallace and Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. “Egregious.”  “Self-dealing.”  “Corrupt.”  A trio of local Democratic officials used those terms and a few other choice words on Friday to describe contractual buyouts for three outgoing executives that will come at a combined cost to Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. of more than $500,000.  During a press conference outside the OTB branch on Clinton Street in Cheektowaga, State Assemblywoman Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, assailed the six-figure buyouts as “sweetheart” deals that are “wholly unnecessary.” Joining her in criticizing the deals were[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Jul 9

2024

OTB lawyer says buyouts A-OK

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Henry Wojtaszek at a January OTB meeting. Photo by Garrett Looker. An outside attorney representing Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. says the agency is not covered by a state law designed to prevent public authorities from offering so-called “golden parachutes” to outgoing executives.   In a written opinion provided to members of OTB’s board on Friday, attorney Terry Connors argues that the state’s Severance Pay Limitation Act has no bearing on a June 27 decision by the agency’s board to authorize lucrative buyouts for three departing executives, including CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek.  In his opinion, Connors argues that the act,[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Jul 3

2024

State lawmaker calls OTB buyouts illegal

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OTB Chairman Dennis Bassett, left, and Henry Wojtaszek, president and CEO. Photo by Garrett Looker. State Assemblywoman Monica Wallace is calling the six-figure buyout for the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. president and CEO, Henry Wojtaszek, “blatantly illegal” and said she will ask state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the “golden parachutes” going to three top OTB leaders. “There is no question that I will be asking the AG’s office, the comptroller’s office, and perhaps even the inspector general, to look into this,” Wallace, a Lancaster Democrat, told Investigative Post. The OTB board of directors voted last week to[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Jun 27

2024

Embattled Wojtaszek leaving OTB

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Henry Wojtaszek, OTB’s president and CEO. Photo by Garrett Looker. Henry Wojtaszek, the president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., will depart the public gambling agency at the end of the year. Two other top officials at OTB will depart early next year. According to a resolution passed by the OTB board of directors Thursday morning, Wojtaszek will continue to work for the agency until the end of the year. At that point, he will be paid an additional one year’s salary of $287,000 as a buyout.  Jacquelyne Leach, the longtime chief financial officer for OTB, will depart[...]

Posted 9 months ago
Investigative Post