Haxton Declares War on Lackawanna City Hall Corruption!

[andreahaxton]

Hey Polanski was it worth the 100 grand or whatever they pay you mayors now. I bet all the crap you had to put up with added another 30 years to your age. For the next cadidate of Mayor please be advised that tensions are rising in Lackawanna and this next term will not be worth the headache, in the end you will lose the love of the people and they will hate you for trying.

" please be advised that tensions are rising in Lackawanna and this next term will not be worth the headache, in the end you will lose the love of the people and they will hate you for trying"
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I know what you are saying, but is this not sad? Lackawannas' decades of power and corruption have really turned off a lot of people.

Tensions are rising for many reasons, one is-- some folks fell for the same ole' same ole', and now kick themselves because OUR City lacks so much. St. Barbara's travesty is a prime example! And when good people make an attempt to step up to the plate to go to bat for change---they get hit with the ball (sometimes it's their own ball too)!
That is why people sit and complain over coffee but "don't want to get involved". Just this morning someone told me my friends are going to get attacked because of my candidacy this year.

This saddens me and gives me an even heavier heart, knowing "the family and friends club" will come after my circle of friends and family because of me. Shame.
My only mission is to pass a shiny baton on to OUR kids. I know poli-tricks makes a lot of people upset, I wouldn't be able to weather their abuse if I did not know everything that is happening is not effecting change. There is a crack in the "orange crate" and it is getting wider---wait till the alliances come out.
Remember, "Politics makes stange bedfellows"!
Why can't elections in Lackawanna be fair?

[andreahaxton]

Last night at the City Council meeting that lasted a whooping appr. 14 minutes BTW, the Retired Part-Time City Comptroller who earns $30,000/year and works 19 hours/week told us, when I questioned OUR City Fund Balance, that, " It is NOT good".
They had to even move $1600.00 out of OUR $25,000 Contingency account to pay for something for Fred the Dog Catcher. When audited in 2006 by NYS they were told $25,000 is too low to keep on hand for emergencies BUT, they would not listen to the State.
The BIG DEAL is that the appr.$6,000,000.00 that was there two years ago is about gone and the BIG QUESTION is where did it all go really?! He tried to say it went to buy down the tax levy to the City budget---I'll buy some of that---but 6 mil?!? He then tried to put some of the blame on me and say it was in the budgets I voted on----I voted NO for for 06/07, 08/09, and 09/10. The only Budget I voted yes for was 07/08 after the October "surprise storm" because they promised me they would re-tree and land-scape all over our City. They lied to me again and think they are very funny and clever.....sadly the ones cheated are the Citizens out of a greener/cleaner City.

Did "Normans' Fol-lie" on Norman Way/Love Terrace have anything to do with eating up the 6 mil......? Citizens should demand to know where their money was spent!

2009 I pushed and they all finally agreed to use the Fund Balance to pave Ridge Road with OUR Surplus Fund Balance and now they have to "Float a Bond" ?! What is up, fellas?
Please Post an Itemized Bill on the City Web of all the 6 million spent in the past 2 years, Thank You!

[WNYresident]

Did "Normans' Fol-lie" on Norman Way/Love Terrace have anything to do with eating up the 6 mil......? Citizens should demand to know where their money was spent!

Why is this being questioned? You guys have a general ledger and receipts don't you? PO's for services/product rendered?

Get a group of volunteers together and do one large FOIL. If your elected officials are basically ****ting on your community just **** back.

[andreahaxton]

Last night at the City Council meeting that lasted a whooping appr. 14 minutes BTW, the Retired Part-Time City Comptroller who earns $30,000/year and works 19 hours/week told us, when I questioned OUR City Fund Balance, that, " It is NOT good".
They had to even move $1600.00 out of OUR $25,000 Contingency account to pay for something for Fred the Dog Catcher. When audited in 2006 by NYS they were told $25,000 is too low to keep on hand for emergencies BUT, they would not listen to the State.
The BIG DEAL is that the appr.$6,000,000.00 that was there two years ago is about gone and the BIG QUESTION is where did it all go really?! He tried to say it went to buy down the tax levy to the City budget---I'll buy some of that---but 6 mil?!? He then tried to put some of the blame on me and say it was in the budgets I voted on----I voted NO for for 06/07, 08/09, and 09/10. The only Budget I voted yes for was 07/08 after the October "surprise storm" because they promised me they would re-tree and land-scape all over our City. They lied to me again and think they are very funny and clever.....sadly the ones cheated are the Citizens out of a greener/cleaner City.

Did "Normans' Fol-lie" on Norman Way/Love Terrace have anything to do with eating up the 6 mil......? Citizens should demand to know where their money was spent!

2009 I pushed and they all finally agreed to use the Fund Balance to pave Ridge Road with OUR Surplus Fund Balance and now they have to "Float a Bond" ?! What is up, fellas?
Please Post an Itemized Bill on the City Web of all the 6 million spent in the past 2 years, Thank You!

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March 1st, 2011, 01:00 PM #205
andreahaxton
Member

Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 811 "TWO" Years ago! Why do we still have the mine field in front of the Library
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"" Official Website
COUNCIL MEETING
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
Monday, March 2, 2009
Regular session of the Lackawanna City Council met in the Council Chambers, Council President Charles Jaworski presiding. The meeting was preceded by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council President Jaworski.
Roll Call: Present: Haxton, Szymanski, Kulczyk, Schiavi, Jaworski

Create Line Item "Transfer to Capital Funds"
Advises Council that in order to use a portion of the City's fund balance to pay for street resurfacing projects and not sell a bond that would generate interest and bond attorney costs, it will be necessary for the Council to amend the current budget and create a new line item, “Transfer to Capital funds.”

ROBERT MARCINIAK, COMPTROLLER
Moved by Jaworski, seconded by Szymanski, receive and file, act upon ordinance.
Yeas: Haxton, Szymanski, Kulczyk, Schiavi, Jaworski Carried 5 – 0 ""

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Again, They were supposed to "act upon the ordinance" TWO Years ago---WHY DIDN'T They?
WHERE did this APPROPRIATED Money GO?Maybe toms can answer this one---it is an easy FACTUAL/Neutral answer......

[andreahaxton]

March 25, 2011:

NOCO Express #75

Lackawanna, NY
Reported Gas Prices
3.73 9/10 Regular/gl
3.84 9/10 Midgrade
3.95 9/10 Premium

Who besides the Mayor/CEO who drives the City owned SUV AND Tom Love retired from NYS and The City of Lackawanna; and now works 19 hrs/wk/$30,000/yr as the Lack. Commissioner of Public Works plus who lives in Hamburg and drives the NEW Lack. City truck to and from daily gets FREE gas?

P.S. BTW, Polanski has twin SUV's in his driveway, the only way you can tell them apart is the "M" on the City plate. I asked for PAINTED on City Seals for years!

Remember this everytime you fill up folks! In this day and age why are they so greedy?
Mayor: appr. $55,000/yr
Love: God knows what he has......plus the current $30,000---

[andreahaxton]

March 25, 2011:

NOCO Express #75

Lackawanna, NY
Reported Gas Prices
3.73 9/10 Regular/gl
3.84 9/10 Midgrade
3.95 9/10 Premium

Who besides the Mayor/CEO who drives the City owned SUV AND Tom Love retired from NYS and The City of Lackawanna; and now works 19 hrs/wk/$30,000/yr as the Lack. Commissioner of Public Works plus who lives in Hamburg and drives the NEW Lack. City truck to and from daily gets FREE gas?

P.S. BTW, Polanski has twin SUV's in his driveway, the only way you can tell them apart is the "M" on the City plate. I asked for PAINTED on City Seals for years!

Remember this every-time you fill up folks! In this day and age why are they so greedy?
Mayor: appr. $55,000/yr
Love: God knows what he has......plus the current $30,000---

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Hmmmm.....

"Love: God knows what he has....." Aren't Public Pensions public knowledge? Do they claim their FREE lunches, say at Rodney's or dinners at Red Robin?

[lackawanna_dude]

I dont know where this guy came from, but I finally got to see him on TV and I just have one question, How did this guy get the job and he doesnt even know how to end a sentence properly? Is this the guy the arab-american people want to represent them, if so then that tells me more about the arab-american community that they dont have an idea of what their doing either.
This shows me that Andrea Haxton might be onto something, I thought she was just a complainer, now the more I study our region the more Im beginning to realize we live in a city running under Mafia and Organized crime syndicates. I also believe this Noman fella was backed up by opponents of Andrea because she did speak the truth and it scared lots of city workers especially those in charge.
Lackawanna is full of minorities from African American, Hispanic,, Arabic, and many other backgrounds but yet the police force is full of Whites only policemen, I remeber a couple of African Americans but that was over 20 years ago. THIS CITY IS REALLY DISCRIMINATE TOWARDS OTHER ETHNICITIES AND I IMPLORE THE GOVERNOR AND SENATORS OF OUR STATE TO INVESTIGATE, TERMINATE AND FIND EDUCATED PEOPLE TO RUN OUR CITY, THAT WAY WORK GETS DONE, IF NOT I SEE LOTS OF BAD THINGS HAPPENING HERE. CONCERNED CITIZEN.

[cath829]

I believe Dawan Jones is still on the force and I also understand the point you are trying to make.

[lackawanna_dude]

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." This guy lived in the late 1800's and yet even in those days men new their limits and how much to push before knowing their limits. Nowadays no one knows their limits and continue to push not to make their points across but to protect their lies and screw ups. We are all human beings and yes we will make mistakes, the real men and woman are the ones that answer to their mistakes and learn from them and find ways to avoid them. Nowadays we have to raise hell, embarass one another, complain and write to our represenatives to make sure that our towns are run properly. The City Of Lackawanna is run like the Running of the Bulls, no one knows which way its going, whos going to get hurt, and no set or organized rules to follow.

[toms]

*************************************

Hmmmm.....

"Love: God knows what he has....." Aren't Public Pensions public knowledge? Do they claim their FREE lunches, say at Rodney's or dinners at Red Robin?

Why do u constantly make these empty accusations of people....were u present when they paid for their dinners with city funds.........you profess to be a Christian.......doesn't show......now I am sure I will be deluged with remarks from your attack dogs because I picked on POOR ANDREA.....WWJD

[mnb811]

Toms better yet why don't you give us proof that they didn't. Since your in the loop you can ask them for their reciepts. Then you can scan them and put them on here. Then you can end the thing once and for all. While your at it get all the gas reciepts for the 2 vehicles she mentioned also.Maybe some one should FOIL that to.

[andreahaxton]

Archives
Nepotism blooms brightly for Cheektowaga families
Practice has flourished for years, leaders say
By THOMAS J. DOLAN

News Staff Reporter

Published:April 2, 2011, 1:50 PM

This story was originally published on Sunday, July 29, 1990.

Some families bake bread. Some stuff sausage.

Others, like the Meyers family, run towns.

Specifically, Cheektowaga town government.

Call Town Hall with a question or a problem, and the odds are pretty good that one of Kenneth J. Meyers' kinfolk will answer the phone. And if no one else answers the phone, his niece, Leslie, operates the town switchboard.

Meyers, Democratic Party town chairman and a former town supervisor, recently was appointed by the Town Board as Cheektowaga's chief electrician. In all, he counts five other Meyers family members working for the town: his wife, daughter-in-law, two sons and niece.

Town Highway Superintendent Christopher J. Kowal, meanwhile, has eight -- not counting his father, Edward A., who just retired from the town Parks Department.

Alfred Wnek, Kowal's predecessor in the highway department, has three.

And Town Councilman William P. Rogowski has five, including his his nephew and his former sister-in-law.

"We're not talking about something that's new," Wnek said when asked about the families that run Cheektowaga. Nepotism in Cheektowaga Town Hall, he said, "goes back as long as I've been in politics."

Forget Amherst, where officials recently heard charges of family privilege in the town clerk's office and the Highway Department.

In Cheektowaga, critics claim, nepotism flowers like the crab tree on the town seal.

"Hey, let's face it: You're in the political arena, and that's the way it is," Kowal said.

According to Rogowski, the prospect of landing a job on the town payroll may be what prompts some Cheektowaga residents to back family members for public office.

"The people who you mention have all helped me, and when it comes time to reward them, who am I going to give it to, my enemies?" Rogowski asked. "It's the least I can do for them."

Asked about a number of his friends who also work for the town, Rogowski said he "knows everybody in town."

Rogowski also said his brother is the only family member with a full-time job, and the town often has trouble filling part-time positions because of their low pay.

Cheektowaga officials budget about $17.8 million a year for 600 employee salaries, and the names of Meyers, Kowal and a few other clans appear often on the government payroll. That's because, over the years, those in Town Hall tend to look out for others in Cheektowaga's leading political families -- a sort of circular exchange of votes and jobs, observers say.

Most Town Board members have at one time or another approved the hiring of other officials' relatives, while counting on the board to hire a family member of theirs later. Some move down the payroll to take other town jobs once they leave the board, according to these observers.

The job string can last for generations.

Henry Gabryzak, for instance, retired last year as town justice, and his nephew, Court Clerk Thomas S. Kolbert, who is not a lawyer, was named to fill the remainder of his unserved term.

Kolbert, who since has been elected to serve a new term, is the cousin of present Councilman Dennis Gabryzak. And another Gabryzak cousin, Jerome, isCheektowaga's community development director.

"You hook into a job in town government, and people are happy for you; they're celebrating," said a board member who asked to remain anonymous. "We don't have layoffs in town government."

At present, five former board members have been named to head other town departments after they left the board, one source familiar with town politics said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I see nothing wrong with that. . . . It takes a majority of the Town Board to put them in," responded Rogowski, when asked about the board voting to hire his relatives.

But others are less comfortable with the old way of doing business.

"Over the years, I've seen the trend, and I don't like it," said another board member, who also asked not to be identified.

According to observers, Cheektowaga's leading families include the Meyers, Rogowskis, Wneks and Kowals.

The Meyers:

Kenneth J. Meyers, former town supervisor, now Democratic Party town chairman and a top political supporter of present Supervisor Frank Swiatek.

Wife, Joan C., Swiatek's receptionist and a paid member of the town planning commission.

Sons, Marc J. and Guy C., sewer maintenance workers.

Daughter-in-law, Valerie Meyers, Swiatek's private secretary.

Niece, Leslie Meyer, a switchboard operator for the town.

The Rogowskis:

William P. Rogowski, board member.

Son, William Jr., part-time recycling worker in the town's Sanitation Department.

Brother, John. A, Parks Department mechanic.

Former sister-in-law, Renette M. (Rogowski), civil service clerical employee in the Police Department.

Nephew, David Surdej, summer laborer in the highway garage.

Sister-in-law, Patricia Jaroszewski, part-time worker in the town tax office.

The Wneks:

Alfred Wnek, former highway superintendent.

Son, Alfred F., highway foreman.

Cousin, Thomas, highway laborer.

Daughter, Patricia, file clerk in the clerk's office.

The Kowals:

Christopher J. Kowal, elected highway superintendent and a former board member.

Brother, Lawrence E., Highway Department mechanic's helper and a union steward.

Father, Edward A., recently retired from the Parks Department and a former president of the union for Cheektowaga blue-collar employees.

Son, Scott, a Highway Department laborer.

Daughter, Jacqueline, seasonal worker in the recreation center.

Sister, Judy Poules, clerical worker in the highway office.

Brother-in-law, Thomas G. Poules, a driver in the Highway Department.

Thomas Poules' brother, Brian R., a Highway Department laborer.

About 20 or more of Kowal's relatives and supporters work in various Cheektowaga offices, including his campaign manager, Lawrence Golas, a director of the sewage treatment plant, Golas' wife, Teresa M., in the town budget office, and Golas' son, a sanitation worker.

That's because he knows a lot of people, Kowal said.

As the elected head of the Highway Department, Kowal is permitted to do his own hiring without the approval of the Town Board. When asked why he supervises many of his closest relatives, he claimed he wasn't responsible for hiring them, and they are qualified for their jobs.

"They were here before I got here, and they will be here when I leave," he said.

Other families with present or recent town employees include James Burst, former councilman, now sewer foreman, three; Donald Wegner, former councilman, now head of the town Zoning Board, three, and Joan Dudek, receiver of taxes, four.

In the end, Wnek, who retired about three years ago as highway superintendent, may have summed up the feeling among town officials on hiring relatives:

"They call it nepotism, but they have to have jobs, too."
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Of course they have to have jobs BUT:
Nepotism breeds incompetence, and in the Public Sector they protect them at the expense of the unsuspecting tax payer who is their BOSS! Hence inefficient government and services; many government workers are even downright curt to the people when they dare question their authority.
And if you are not a member of the "family and friends club" in Lackawanna they will turn on you and will bring out something personal about you to make you back down.
It must STOP! Government 101 states: All men are created equal and possess the same rights as the next guy---allowing nepotism blocks this right when it comes to equal employment in Lackawanna. Priorities then become " the family and friends club" due to their gang-mentality, and NOT the people that they promised to serve pre-election. The elected officials who build their empire/pyramid for their own self-serving reasons instead of for the good/betterment of all then fail the very folks who put them into office.

I hope this is the "light-bulb" year in Lackawanna where citizens realize things like nepotism are the rot that rob/robbed OUR kids of a clean, modern City, inside and out.

P.S. FYI, I had to get this important message out to people who care about Lackawanna like I do. I have not been spending much time on this blog because I/We feel it is in my best interest to stay focused on the long campaign trail ahead of me. So I will be focusing my energies on my campaign from here out. We all know the issues and "the lack in Lackawanna", I now want to hear from the people. Issues such as the Mayor putting the wifey on the payroll at the Civil Service Board is plain ridiculous---but just like Cheektowaga he is running out of peasant servants........ My stand is to let the people decide if they want the "Commission" to be consolidated:in order to make it fair and save money---I know the County can perform the job for us very efficiently and expediently! Saving Citizens about $40,000/yr too!

[andreahaxton]

Cheektowaga panel seeks revised nepotism guidelines
By Michelle Kearns

News Staff Reporter
Published:April 3, 2011, 8:17 AM
Related stories
From The News' archives: Nepotism blooms brightly for Cheektowaga families (July 1990)

Related documents
State comptroller's office report on 31 municipalities' ethics oversight procedures
State comptroller's office findings after review of Cheektowaga's code of ethics
Cheektowaga's response to state comptroller's audit.

Government can seem like a family business in Cheektowaga, where politics, relatives and town employment mix and the Democratic Party has been in power for decades.

The issue of nepotism came up in the state comptroller's audit of ethics last year, was raised by Republicans vying for the supervisor's seat and now has the attention of the town Board of Ethics, which is calling for revised guidelines for town employees who oversee relatives and who are political party leaders.

"Having a process and a procedure in the code of ethics, I think, is critical," said Board of Ethics Chairman Thomas Kulaszewski. He said the panel will go to the Town Board meeting Monday to express its interest in collaborating for change.

"Guidelines should be much clearer," he said.

So far, the town has ignored calls for clear guidelines, saying contract rules prohibit some ethics code revisions.

"[W]e are not in a position to restrict the hiring or supervision of relatives," wrote Kevin Schenk, the town attorney.

Hiring friends and family members is a traditional political reward. In Cheektowaga, interconnections that are generations old start at the top: three board members' fathers served before them. Three say they have cousins, a son or a brother-in-law on the town's $33.6 million payroll.

The town employs 796 -- 464 full-time employees, 308 part-time employees, 14 in seasonal posts and 10 on zoning and planning boards.

Supervisor Mary Holtz is familiar with the practice of hiring relatives; her father Benedict was supervisor from 1947 to 1963 and clerk from 1964 to 1975 and hired his daughter as a part-time clerk more than 40 years ago.

When a Buffalo News reporter asked about the Republicans' call to make public the family ties that exist in town government, the conversation with Holtz ended.

"I'm not interested in putting up on a website how everybody is related. I'm running a town," she said before hanging up.

While it is difficult to tell who is related by looking at names, several board members were open about it. Relatives, some hired during previous administrations, have collected for the sanitation department; Holtz's brother-in-law is one of them.

The department is managed by Frank Max, the town's Democratic Party chairman. As crew chief in a department of 52, he insists the two roles are separate.

"You're elected by people. You can't stop that from happening," Max said.

Board member Jeff Swiatek, a Democrat, said having a party chairman leading a department should not be a problem.

"What he does in his free time, that should not cross over in any way in terms of his governmental responsibilities," he said of Max.

Swiatek is a politician's child, too. But, he said, the fact that his father served as supervisor from 1988 to 1992 is irrelevant. More important are his accomplishments, his law degree from the University of Virginia and his work as a partner with Hodgson Russ.

Cheektowaga employs none of his relatives, he said.

"The vast majority of people we hire, I've never heard of them or met them," he said.

Councilman Jim Rogowski, another politician's son, says four of his cousins are town employees.

While Rogowski said he did not hire them, a 1990 News story about nepotism included perspective from his father, a former board member.

Back then William Rogowski defended hiring five relatives, including a nephew and former sister-in-law.

"The people who you mention have all helped me, and when it comes time to reward them, who am I going to give it to, my enemies?" said the older Rogowski, who is now retired.

Now his son Jim, who has been on the board for the last six years, serves on a committee that oversees the parks, which are managed in part by his cousin John Jaroszewski, the facilities chief.

The town has benefited from their work together, Jim Rogowski said. The parks are generating more revenue from shelter rentals, have hundreds of activities and, soon will have modern playground equipment. "We're producing results," he said.

Board member Patricia Jaworowicz has several connections in town government. Her son Timothy works in sanitation. Her stepson Mark Wegner, a former facilities foreman, was elected highway superintendent in 2007.

When Board of Ethics chairman Kulaszewski looks at some names on the payroll, he wonders when he sees people with the same last names serving as Democratic Party leaders and in management positions.

The ethics board works to review financial disclosure forms intended to prevent conflicts of interest and misuse of influence: 106 town employees in decision-making roles must reveal income sources, connections to municipal contracts and political party affiliations.

The ethics board, convened in 2002, has long wanted to update the town's 1985 code, but it needs legal advice. It also needs two more members to make it a full board.
"We're three ordinary citizens," said Kulaszewski, who describes himself as a Republican who is not active in local party politics. "We don't know what
portions of the ethics policy are dictated by general municipal law."
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Last year when he did it I wrote to the hand-picked Lackawanna Ethics Board about the ethics of the Mayor putting his wife on the Civil Service Board to approve jobs he is doling out to the highest vote getter, etc. Can you guess what their reply was.......

What do you all think of ......well we will just leave it at that for now. For now.......

[andreahaxton]

I forgot to mention ......the other points of the triangle, the "extended family and friends club" in the Lackawanna City School System AND the Lackawanna Municipal Housing Authority. When you link the family names throughout the tangled web it is no wonder an average citizen can't get a break and get a decent job fairly in Lackawanna.

I really like what the Buffalo News article called their family and friends club in Cheektowaga: " the clan " is a good one.

[andreahaxton]

By Michelle Kearns

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Published:April 5, 2011, 12:00 AM

Updated: April 5, 2011, 6:29 AM

Cheektowaga Supervisor Mary Holtz said Monday the Town Board will consider altering its guidelines about supervising town employees who are "related to town officials.

“We’re still in an ongoing process,” Holtz said in response to questions from reporters. Later, she said the board was “reviewing” the matter.

Her statements came a day after an article in The Buffalo News highlighted a state comptroller’s report on the issue that town Republicans have seized on as an election year issue.

Three members of the town’s Ethics Board, which has been calling for changes to the system for years, said the questions achieved in one evening what they had failed to accomplish in almost a decade.

“People have not taken the Board of Ethics seriously,” said member Eleanor Peinkofer afterward. “We’ve got the dogged determination that we’re going to get this right.”

The old shuck and jive show like they put on in Lackawanna where they put

The News article was about board members with relatives on the town payroll — often in the Sanitation Department— and the town’s refusal to alter its code of ethics as the state suggested last year.

Holtz had earlier abruptly ended a conversation on the subject of employed relatives, but in a seeming change of heart after the Town Board meeting, she said of the potential update to the code, “We’re reviewing it.”

She then walked out of Town Board chambers in Town Hall, stopping in the hallway to chastise the ethics panel members for failing to come to her directly with their suggestions for change.

“You never discussed it . . .,” she said, complaining that she was not contacted directly.

The board members disagreed. Once a year since the panel’s 2002 inception, they said, they have sent an annual report asking for change to the code. The 2011 letter they said they sent at the beginning of last month included this plea: “While we as a board understand the reasoning

behind your decision not to restrict the hiring or supervision of relatives, we would like to be made aware as to how you will hold employees accountable with regard to hiring and supervision of relatives, friends and political appointees.”

Last month, Republicans, hoping to win the supervisor’s seat in the November election, suggested an online posting of relative relationships on the town payroll.

Four of the seven board members offered detailed replies about their municipally employed relatives, including Holtz, who was hired as a part-time clerk by her father, a clerk and former town supervisor. Her brother-in-law now works in the sanitation department.

The board did vote on one change requested by the ethics panel: It agreed to update the job titles on an old list of supervisory positions required to submit annual financial disclosure forms. The ethics panel reviews them to guard against conflicts of interest and misuse of influence.

Ethics chairman Thomas Kulaszewski said he was pleased by Monday’s developments.

“I would hope this renewed interest would make the Town [Board] more willing,” he said. “We will continue to make the same requests over and over.”

mkearns@buffnews.com

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""You never discussed it"----, she said, complaining that she was not contacted directly.""

The old shuck and jive show just like in Lackawanna where they are experts at speaking with forked tongues while patting the public on the back. Some Citizens had significant flooding complaints last night---I hope the City follows through this time instead of their usual pass the buck and stall it till they go away, then hide it and tie it up in the Law Department strategies.
The unsafe City Hall and crumbling Fire Stations are beyond comprehension---why oh why would these elected officials put employees/citizens lives/public safety at risk for so long is downright criminal.
And now they have to "float a $5. whatever Bond" to pay for all their years of neglecting their duty to take care of Lackawanna and ALL the People.