Our six Council members offices are behind the stage of the Council Chambers Auditorium. There are 6 very small cubicles which are difficult to work in. The cramped space is not adequate for the needs of the Council members. Come January the three newest Council members will have to begin working in these small little boxes. Each has already put their calm on one of the 3 available cubicles.

The Town should allocate fund to enlarge the offices of the Council-members, albeit this will be almost impossible to do. Another idea would be to find a site in Town Hall where these offices could relocate to.

Our Town Council-members need working room and privacy for those who would like to speak with them in confidence.

The Town of Amherst Board of Ethics has issued a response to Amherst Town Board Resolution 2007-252 adopted on June 4,2007. The resolution sought an advisory opinion addressing the ethical implications of Supervisor Mohan’s continued employment relationship with University of Buffalo and in particular, whether his future voting conduct constitutes an impermissible conflict or breach of ethics. The resolution further requested an opinion addressing the circumstances under which the Town Supervisor should be required to abstain from voting.

It is the opinion of the Board of Ethics that, for the following reasons, the Town Supervisor must recuse himself and abstain from any and all participation in matters before the Town Board in which the University is an applicant, petitioner, complainant, objectant or where the
University has otherwise taken a position in a matter pending before the Town Board.

Sandra Tan, the Amherst reporter for the Buffalo News, has sent a brief written survey to a small group of government, business and civic people concerning Supervisor Mohan’s performance in his first two years as Supervisor.

She requested only those people who had first hand interaction with the Supervisor to respond to her survey. Her objective is to use these replies as a basis of a news article.

The surveys of people who have observed his personal and professional demeanor will be of most importance in her article.

She has asked these completed surveys be postmarked no later then Nov. 19th. Should make for interesting reading.

Member of the Amherst Town Board
by Judy Einach

Debbie Bucki didn’t waste any time. She was prepared to talk about the town budget. She
said, “This is the second budget Supervisor Mohan has prepared. Preparing the budget is a long process that begins prior to July when department heads submit their budgets, based on an analysis of their needs for the following year, to the Supervisor and the Board. The Board and Supervisor then consider this request. The Supervisor formally presents his budget to the Board in October. This past October we suspended the rules and the public had an early opportunity to comment.”

On October 22nd the Board held a public hearing from 3-8 PM for the purpose of, as Bucki said, “giving more focus to the budget.” On October 29th the Board met to talk about amendments, what was added and what was taken out of the budget. The vote that day was 4-3 to approve with Debbie Bucki, Dan Ward, and Shelly Schratz voting against approving the budget.

Bucki was careful to say she can only speak for herself. She listed her reasons why she could not approve the budget. Primary among them is that, “Spending keeps increasing and the way they’re balancing the budget is to use the fund balance. In the last two budgets we’ve spent down the fund balance by as much as $9 million dollars.”

She’s concerned “this mimics the county situation.” She elaborated “that spending had gone up and in order to find the increased spending the Supervisor looked at the fund balance. In the last two budgets he has used $8-9 million from fund balance. It appears now we only have $10-11 million in the fund budget. This practices sounds like what’s been done in the county and we know what happened there.” Fund balance reserves were used to keep taxes from going up. The Town budget operating budget is $114-115 million.

“The Supervisor justified spending down the fund balance because there is an approved resolution saying there should always be a minimum benchmark of 10% of the operating budget in the fund balance. His interpretation is that he can do it [take the fund balance to this level] but just because you can do this should you do this?” Bucki has filed a resolution that would prohibit using so much money from the fund balance to offset rising costs.

What worries Bucki is that “we still don’t have definitive numbers on the budget.” There were three changes made to the budget and “when we approved we didn’t have the exact numbers. Therefore I didn’t vote to approve the budget.”

Bucki has concerns “about increased spending in the Town and elsewhere.” Within the Town of Amherst a “big part goes for salaries. The Town needs employees but since so much is for salaries I’m trying to look for savings in other ways.” She points to her committee work which has enabled her to promote energy conservation. Town Hall is being used as a pilot project. Within Town Hall, 95% of the bulbs have been changed to energy saving bulbs. Bucki plans to continue evaluating different energy-related practices in Amherst to come up with other ways to save money through energy conservation.

In 2006 a Town vehicles study was undertaken and it was found that the Town could use fewer vehicles. The Town Board decreased the number of new vehicles purchased in 2007 and even fewer vehicles will be purchased in 2008.

Also in 2006 Amherst had a hiring freeze which was in place in the beginning of the year but lifted at the end of that year. The Town is down from 691 employees to 681. Bucki submitted a resolution in the Fall “make a hiring freeze local law but it was not well received so I’m listening and taking notes.” What Bucki wants is “a more structured roadmap to address hiring issues.” She understands that department heads are worried that a hard and fast law could hamper their flexibility to make changes in staffing if needed.

Bucki consistently restates she’s “concerned. We’re a big town with big expenses and this is to be expected but I need to be accountable to taxpayers. I promised to hold the line on taxes and reduce the workforce through attrition.”

Bucki has a PhD in medical sociology. She’s been a teacher, a nurse, and a stay at home mom. I asked her if she enjoys her current position. “No day is boring and everyday is interesting. I’ve learned so much and met so many wonderful people. I’m grateful Amherst Democrats gave me an opportunity to run. I never could have imagined when I was 10 how one experience in life would lead to another. I have a unique opportunity of a lifetime to serve the public. I look at my nursing skills as transferring to this job because we get calls from people looking for help. Department heads are very cooperative with addressing any question that I have.”

This is Bucki’s first term on the Amherst Town Board. “I ran two times before in 2001 and 2003. In an election in which 3 people were elected I came in fourth. This time I won. I’m finishing the second year of my first term. They’re four-year terms.” I asked if there are term limits. “This Board voted in term limits,” she said. “Those starting now only will be able to serve two four-year terms in one position.” This applies to people who will be sworn into office in 2008. Technically Bucki could serve 12 years in her current position “but in the spirit of what we’ve passed I would only serve 8,” she said.

According to Debbie Bucki, “There’s always more to do but we’ve [the Board’s] done a lot. We’ve tried to institute reforms. We’ve also reformed Town Committees by imposing term limits on their members to give more people a chance to serve. Unfortunately the media portrays our differences, but we’ve tried to work together and we have put through some very important initiatives. Because the Town is so big and the Board has five Republicans and two Democrats you have discussion. If you have a Board with everyone from the same Party I think you may have less discussion.” In January the Board will have four Republicans and three Democrats.
Article from PoliticsNY.net

Congressman Asks Comptroller to Step in After FOIL Request Goes Unanswered
Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) is calling on New York Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, the State’s top watchdog, to conduct a comprehensive audit of the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), with a particular focus on Authority expenses. This comes after a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request sent by the Congressman to the Authority on September 25, 2007 remains unacknowledged. According to a June audit by the Comptroller, the NYSTA has a history of non-compliance with FOIL requests.

“If this Authority, charged with serving the public, has nothing to hide then they need to open their books and allow the public to see where our tolls are going,” said Congressman Higgins. “This new proposal to increase tolls, combined with the toll increase a year and a half ago, would mean a 45% toll increase in just 5 years. If expenses are growing at this astonishing rate, we need better oversight.”

The Authority justified the 2005 toll increase on the need to support a $2.6 billion statewide capital improvement plan. According to the Capital plan released in 2004, the Authority planned to let $132.4 million in contracts in the Buffalo division in 2007. As of late September the Authority let less than $7 million so far this year.

“When the Thruway Authority raised tolls the last time they promised specific investments in Western New York infrastructure, many of which never occurred,” said Higgins. “If the toll money isn’t going into the local projects the Authority committed to, what exactly are local toll payers paying for? It appears that the Thruway Authority can’t be trusted. Western New Yorkers deserve some answers.”

In his letter to Comptroller DiNapoli, Congressman Higgins also notes hundreds of millions in evident questionable spending for the Thruway Authority including: hundreds of millions of dollars subsidizing the canal system; $4.6 million on small town waterfront development projects; $6.5 million to develop the Westchester Ferry; $19.2 million to redevelop Syracuse’s Inner Harbor; $5 million for a bus station in Syracuse; $1.8 million on advertising; and $23,000 for sports announcer Pat Summerall to star in a five-minute video.

Yesterday the NYSTA’s Finance and Audit Committee approved a 5% toll increase in 2009 and another 5% increase in 2010. This follows a recent announcement of a 10% toll increase in 2008.

The NYTA is justifying this increase on revenue shortfalls. Congressman Higgins points out that in 2006, the first full year since the 2005 toll hike, the Authority planned to generate revenues of $602 million and actually generated revenues of $594 million, leaving a shortfall of just 1.4%. “The Authority’s reasoning doesn’t add up,” Higgins said. “Why is it that they need a 20% toll increase when their projected budget is only off by a little over 1% short?”

EDITORIAL: National Grid

The price of electricity, gas, and gasoline are rising rapidly each year, in some cases each week. Our area’s average price of gasoline is $3.20 a gal. If you heat your home or business with oil it is predicted this year will be the most expense year to heat your home or business. The average price will be increase by 21% over last year’s cost.

In one of these areas the customer can demand better service and the possibility of lower electric bills. The customers of our region suffer loss of services more so then other regions National Grid services.

The company contributes these problems due to the age of their equipment. They haven’t
admitted it but their failure to invest more money in updating their equipment in our Amherst area instead of putting this replacement money into the profit side of their ledger.

I would like any of our readers or anyone who is serviced by National Grid in the region to e-mail us on how often you have losT power in your home in the last 4 years. You don’t have to be exact. Then I will send an e-mail to our State Senator, Mary Lou Rath, to join us in our fight for better service from National Grid. Your information will be confidental.

My e-mail address is ~ jjtric@roadrunner.com

If you want to contact Senator Rath yourself the information you need to contact her follows this:

* First Name:

* Last Name:

* Address:

* City: * State: * Zip:

* E-mail:

Comments:

Contact Information:

Mary Lou Rath
Chairman, Senate Standing Committee on Tourism, Recreation and Sports Development
61st Senate District
Albany Office
Room 310, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
(518) 455-3161

Williamsville Office
5500 Main Street, Suite 260
Williamsville, NY 14221

Gospel Music Minute to debut on WUFO 1080 AM this Monday

Buffalo, N.Y. (November 9, 2007) – The Gospel Music Minute update, a locally-produced, 3-minute spot, will begin airing twice daily on Buffalo’s WUFO 1080 AM this Monday, November 12. Produced by BuffaloChristian.com’s Mark Weber and WUFO’s Duane Price, the Gospel Music Minute update will bring area listeners news about music artists and events from both a local and national perspective. Updates will air weekdays at 8:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. on the station.

The Gospel Music Minute is the brainchild of local Christian events promoter Mark Weber, who runs both BuffaloChristian.com, a regional site detailing Christian and family-friendly events in Toronto, Buffalo, and Rochester, and ChristianMusicDaily.com, a popular, internationally-known site with music news, reviews, and interviews covering a wide variety of artists and genres.

“I attended the recent Christian Heritage Festival at the Buffalo Christian Center downtown, and met some executives from WUFO who were impressed with my musical knowledge and pleasant demeanor,” says Weber. “They asked me to visit their station, and I suggested to them that I could share Gospel music news with their listeners. They loved the idea, so it’s a go. WUFO has welcomed me with open arms.”

Weber, who is white, is unique because he’s on a station with an almost exclusively black staff and listening audience.

“One of the things I aim to do is to help build bridges between whites, blacks, and people of all colors and ethnicities here in the Buffalo area,” says Weber. “And music is something that connects and can help unite us all, so I see my being at WUFO as a chance to help network together lots of different people, while informing them about artists worth listening to and events worth attending.”

WUFO 1080 AM is owned by Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation of Pittsburgh. The station is currently celebrating 45 years of continuous operation in the Buffalo area.

Contact: Mark Weber, 908-8282, primopr716@juno.com

Our phone rang Wednesday and when we picked up we were greeted by an automated message from Wegmans. It seems that we had purchased some of the tainted, recalled beef and they were calling all customers such as us, asking us to bring the product back for refund or replacement. It doesn’t matter if we repackaged the product, they want us to return it.

How did they know? Seems like ‘Big Brother’ is not only watching us, he is ‘guarding over us’ to keep us healthy. Every time we purchase groceries, and use our key tag, all our information is saved in their system. At a time like this when a product is recalled they simply retrieved the information and made automated calls to all those customers. We are indeed bringing back the product in question.

Thanks Big Brother.

Buffalo loves their Buffalo Bills even though the Bills haven’t had the best luck over the past few seasons. One can only imagine how we would react if we were on a winning streak. No, not just 3 games. I’m talking about a STREAK. How about 51 games in a row, outscoring opponents this season, 704-0. The Smith Center High School football team has done just that.

“Their photos are on the cards traded over at the elementary school, and their exploits are on the lips of the old men who gather at the Second Cup Cafe each morning. They are the sons and grandsons of this north Kansas town, and for 30 autumns now, the Smith Center Redmen have puffed up the chests of folks here.”
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