Cheektowaga may be more scandal-ridden than it’s parent city of Buffalo. Let’s face it, most suburban town corruption simply doesn’t get the press on the same issues as their mother-city does, unless of course you’re talking Cheektowaga. Most of my stories on the South Buffalo town over the years had to do with racist incidents between blacks and Cheektowaga Police. In many cases you’ll find many of the area’s major media to opt out of covering suburban corruption in favor of city corruption, why not? 1-Many of the news reporters live in these towns. 2-The outrage just isn’t the same, suburban dwellers could care less about their local town’s corruption.
Case-in-point. Recently (2/10) there was an executive board meeting in relation to Highway Department issues in Cheektowaga Town Hall. One of the major issues is the misallocation of funds and resources including the overpayment of a country club parking lot (a club Superintendent Mark Wegner reportedly belongs to), payroll payments to employees who weren’t working which amounted to $40,000, and employees alleged to be golfing on town time. If this is true how could it go on for so long without backlash? 1-Connections. Mark Wegner is the Superintendent of Highways and said to be close to Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremy Zellner, and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. 2-Cheektowaga Town Councilwoman Diane Benczkowski is said to be covering up the Highway Department Issues.
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