Resident FOIA’S for Colecraft Building document(s)

[Lee Chowaniec]

After hearing for months that the Pavement Road Lancaster police/courts building and separate shooting range were designed and a go for construction and/or renovation, resident Henry Gull was disturbed to hear that the construction bid came in well over target for the police range and that the projects will be rebid.

The cost of renovating the range was initially quoted to the public as $300,000, climbed to $600,000 and recent bids (November 2011) came in anywhere from $800,000 to $950,000. At the February 6th town board meeting, the board unanimously approved a resolution to reject all range bids. The bid process will be reinstated to consider a police/courts facility with range and a facility without range.

“Here we go again,” declares Gull. “This project has been held up since 2003, has wasted millions of dollars of taxpayer money in the process, and the delay will most likely cost us even more money. And we find out that the $350,000 Empire State Development grant money, which we were being told until recently is available, is no longer available.”

“Well, they can’t blame the residents for this SNAFU as they did years ago when I and several other residents filed a lawsuit that had nothing more to do with the project then question the expenditure of Town of Lancaster and Village of Lancaster funds for a feasibility study that was performed when in fact the Walden Avenue Colecraft Building was already purchased. The town board blamed the project delay on the lawsuit and on the advice of then Town Attorney Richard Sherwood.”

“Since that time, the people of Lancaster have been saddled with the enormous cost of paying for a bond issue where hundreds of thousands of dollars are paid out in mortgage interest, thousands expanded yearly in building repairs and utilities, while suffering the liability of lost tax revenue. Supervisor Fudoli, I beseech you to consider selling this white elephant and getting it back on the tax rolls. ”

At the February 6th town board meeting, Gull personally submitted a FOIA request to Town Clerk Johanna Coleman with the following information requests:

Under the provisions of the New York Freedom of Information Law, Article 6 of the Public Officers Law, I hereby request records pertaining to statements made by
Board members Ruffino and Aquino, in which they claim that the renovation of the Colecraft Building for use as a Police and Court facility could not proceed due to a change in the building codes. I, along with many of my fellow citizens, need to see the documents which show these changes, including the date of change as well as what entity created the change.

On another matter I need to see documents ostensibly created by the former the
Town Attorney Mr. Sherwood in which he advised the Town Board to delay proceeding with plans to utilize the Colecraft Building due to a lawsuit brought by Hank Gull and four other citizens to recover town funds wasted by the Town Board.

The law requires a response within 5 business days. If my request is denied, please inform me the reason for the denial in writing and to whom I should submit my
appeal.

Sincerely,
Henry R. Gull

CC.

Mr. Ruffino
Mr. Aquino
Mr. Robert Freeman, Executive Director, Committee on Open Government

Copies were submitted to Councilmen Mark Aquino and Ronald Ruffino as Gull declared he wanted documents that would substantiate the claims made by the two that the town board was advised not to build the police station because of a citizens’ lawsuit.

As of Thursday morning Gull reports he has not received a correspondence from the town regarding his FOIA request.

[shortstuff]

Great letter by Mr. Henry Gull. When was this FOIA initiated? It appears the 5 days passed, perhaps Mr. Gull should contact the Accountability Office because the town is obligated by law to provide those documents.

What a shame that the residents of Lancaster has been straddled with such poor governing.

[TTDeathInLan]

Stop the presses, retrack the foil, I have a great Idea. If the Colecraft building is zoned mixed use, why not do the following. Seeing as this building has over 70,000 sq. feet why not use it as a shooting range and coffee shop. No improvments are required. shoot the heck out out it! The town will never be able to sell it. Seeing as the detectives are already located there, there must be training rooms already available for any and all needs. The consultant can now downsize the new proposed police hdq. at Pavement Rd, saving additional monies. As an additional inducement for the Police Officers maintaining firearm certification, I recommend a Timmy Hoes drive thru be installed in the shooting range. Think of the money saving possibilities. Also the officers would have the oppertunity to shoot the rim and win, we all know what a pain it is to roll up the rim!

Time to stop the fantasy and get back to reality. I'm really concerned about my safety. I mean the Town Pd. are using the village of Depew's firing range which has limitations. The private shooting range being built in Depew won't have training rooms for who knows what. The new proposed town police building at Pavement for a cost of 10,000,000 million dollars will be obsolete before the first shovel full of dirt is turned over makes one wonder if Googles new driving tool will recommend to avoid the town Lancaster, for your personel safety.

The only bright spot to all this as I see it is to make the shooting range at Colecraft with the Timmy Hoes drive-thru open to to the public. Everyone should have the oppertunity to shoot the rim and win! We all know what a pain it is to roll up the rim.

[gorja]

There probably won't be any documentation to validate Ruffino and Aquino's claim. Just as when Supervisor Giza made this statement to the Bee editor Colleen Farrell regarding the purchase of the Colecraft building, "“We can’t buy anything unless we get it appraised. We went through the bonding process” Yet when Mr Gull sent a FOIA for the appraisal of the Colecraft building before purchase. The Town clerk's office found "NO" appraisal

[gorja]

It's too bad that Financial Disclosure statements can be destroyed after 7 years. Because it is still unclear what financial interest IDA member Mr Benzel (former VP @ Colecraft) had in the proceeds of the sale of the Colecraft building. Since there was no Ethics committee in place at the time of the transaction, there was no one to investigate his financial interest as an officer of that company. If he had a 5% or greater interest in the proceeds in the sale, as an IDA member, he wouldn't have been able to do business with the town. Hence, the sale would have been fraudulent.

[shortstuff]

Oh boy you guys pose some real good valid points. Out of the ball park points I might add.

Death, you made a good point regarding the execution of the project. By the time they put the shovel in the ground the regulations will change AGAIN, and thusly Foit will charge the taxpayers another million dollars to re-do the plans. Pathetic if you ask me.

The "conflict of interest" resulting in Benzel / Giza deal where Giza stated in the Bee-- how he was unaware of the connection ---how could that be when Benzel and Giza both resided on the IDA board????

Ethics Committee should be created and I hope it comes to fruition.

[hawkeye]

Oh boy you guys pose some real good valid points. Out of the ball park points I might add.

Death, you made a good point regarding the execution of the project. By the time they put the shovel in the ground the regulations will change AGAIN, and thusly Foit will charge the taxpayers another million dollars to re-do the plans. Pathetic if you ask me.

The "conflict of interest" resulting in Benzel / Giza deal where Giza stated in the Bee-- how he was unaware of the connection ---how could that be when Benzel and Giza both resided on the IDA board????

Ethics Committee should be created and I hope it comes to fruition.

The problem with the starting a ethic's board at this time is like waiting for santa claus and know the truth anyways. It would not change the pass and WHO do they get ?, the people that are connected! The fact that a ethics board would be good, it will never get picked. Too many good old boy's and girl's connected per party to get a HONEST and fair group.

[Lee Chowaniec]

An ethics committee would be nice. It should have been established years ago. But why would a one party board have wanted one?

It would be fitting to have Mr. Fudoli to now propose such committee as he had promised transparency, openness and credibility in his campaign.

Getting back to Mr. Gull’s comments, he like many other of us do not want Lancaster residents to ever forget that it was the town that was responsible for the delay in the police/courts building construction – not the residents. The purchase of the Colecraft Building had shady undertones and no appraisal was ever done – a feasibility study is not an appraisal.

The millions of dollars wasted on this project is what helped Supervisor Fudoli get elected. Hopefully his insight will stop the bleeding of wasteful spending that continues to this very day.

[WNYresident]

An ethics committee would be nice.

There should be an Erie County Ethics Department formed by non-government laborers/non-government business owners that our employees/administration must abide by. Being ethical is something that is basically the same no matter which town/city you are in.

[TheNewGuy]

An ethics committee would be nice. It should have been established years ago. But why would a one party board have wanted one?

It would be fitting to have Mr. Fudoli to now propose such committee as he had promised transparency, openness and credibility in his campaign.

Getting back to Mr. Gull’s comments, he like many other of us do not want Lancaster residents to ever forget that it was the town that was responsible for the delay in the police/courts building construction – not the residents. The purchase of the Colecraft Building had shady undertones and no appraisal was ever done – a feasibility study is not an appraisal.

The millions of dollars wasted on this project is what helped Supervisor Fudoli get elected. Hopefully his insight will stop the bleeding of wasteful spending that continues to this very day.

Ethics and Fudoli should not be used in the same sentence.

Also insight isn't befitting either. He's a silver spoon fed opiate abuser/dealer.

[gorja]

Originally posted by TheNewGuy:
Ethics and Fudoli should not be used in the same sentence.

Actually, I believe Ethics and Fudoli are synonymous

[WNYresident]

Ethics and Fudoli should not be used in the same sentence.

Also insight isn't befitting either. He's a silver spoon fed opiate abuser/dealer.

Seeing you seem to have a ax to grind comments like this are mute.

I'd take someone that is an ex-drug addict but get's the job done in the best interest of the community over someone who only best interest is theirs/the political party they belong to. I'm not saying anyone is an ex-addict or anything. I'm talking about someone who takes the community's best interest first not the party's or themselves.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Ethics and Fudoli should not be used in the same sentence.

Also insight isn't befitting either. He's a silver spoon fed opiate abuser/dealer.

Fudoli is still using and dealing? Again, produce some proof and I will post it as well.

Still waiting for your Florida scandal news.

BTW - The post is really about the Colecraft Building purchase scam and the millions wasted by your party friends. Don't spin this into something else.

[WNYresident]

You think it was a scam to get a large building off of a politically connected persons hands?

[gorja]

For the past 20+ years, there have been plenty of non-ethical, non-drug users making decisions for this town. Years back, I has heard rumors that a Lancaster elected official had past coke use. Presently, that official, IMO is doing a fantastic job. Past drug use and no ethics don't necessarily correlate