This was originally published by The Buffalo News on August 09, 2010.
Lawmakers Question Authorities Bonuses
Here is another article demonstrating Richard’s adamant stance against abuse by New York authorities and officials from the Buffalo News:
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article96121.ece
Lawmakers Question Authority Bonuses
By Jay Rey
August 08 2010, 12:00 AM
Updated: August 08, 2010, 6:35 AM
State lawmakers are probing deeper into why more than $5 million in bonuses was paid out last year to the staff of local public authorities.
Letters were sent out Friday by downstate Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky and his Democratic counterpart in Buffalo, Sam Hoyt, requesting more details from six local public authorities about $5.1 million in bonuses paid to staff in 2009.
Brodsky, a candidate for state attorney general, and Hoyt, who has been critical of previous bonuses at the Power Authority, are looking for greater transparency at public authorities and also question bonuses going to authority executives during tough economic times.
One executive at the Genesee County Industrial Development Agency received a $60,000 bonus, according to a state report.
Another, at Erie County Medical Center, received a $70,000 bonus.
“We request that you provide documentation of policies and practices that govern the granting of bonuses,” the letter stated.
“Such documentation should include board minutes, the average amount of bonuses paid, the cumulative amount of bonuses paid and any and all documents that outline your organization’s policies with respect to who shall receive bonuses and for what purposes they shall be received.”
The letters were sent to ECMC, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp., Buffalo Urban Development Corp. and industrial development agencies for Erie and Genesee counties.
Brodsky, chairman of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, also sent letters to public authorities around the state, which number more than 700.
The inquiries come on the heels of a report — released last month by the state Authorities Budget Office — showing 28 authorities across the state paid $6.7 million in bonuses to 2,911 employees who received an average of $2,292 during the 2009 fiscal year.
Most of that went to 2,118 employees at the six authorities surveyed from this area, including $4.5 million to ECMC staffers.
Authority officials defend the bonuses.
ECMC, for example, has said much of that money was lump-sum payments made to members of unions who agreed to new contracts.
The NFTA, meanwhile, paid an average of $710 in bonuses to 635 of its employees — most as incentives to union members who used fewer than three sick days in a given year.
Brodsky and Hoyt, however, said their focus is not compensation for collective bargaining agreements, but bonuses padding the pockets of executives at public authorities.
“I don’t think there’s enough accountability and transparency when it comes to these quasi-government authorities, especially at a time when the economy is struggling, there are huge deficits in state government and we’re laying off teachers,” Hoyt said when contacted Saturday.
