Poloncarz, Hardwick at odds over Erie County surplus funds

I mentioned yesterday that he's annoying because he gets to the net all the time. He gets to the puck. He's the first touch. If he's not first touch, he's all over you to try to get it back. You know, and then he's got kind of that smirk on his face that irritates you, too. I guess as an opposition player, it makes me smile, but I think it annoys other people. Yeah, somebody who irritates the other team. That's exactly who Buffalo's going to love. He's like our rat on the team, right? He's the guy. It's like a... Barnaby reincarnated in a little Zach Guy Benson. Rasmus Dahlene talking about what he expects tonight. We know them, they know us, so it's going to be a battle. It comes down to compete. It comes down to who wants it more, every shift, you know, puck battles, boxouts, stuff like that. It's going to be so tight, so it'll take a lot to score goals in the series, I think. All right. So it's going to take a lot. I think it might be a little more free skating than the Boston series was. Interested to see how that impacts the game and if the Sabres throw their weight around. I mean, such a hard hitting. You forget how playoff hockey is until you see it again. Everything's just so tight. Every check is finished. And it's just action nonstop, like tense all the time. Will that carryover for the Sabres? Let's hope so. I feel like it's going to be a high-flying game tonight. It was a really good first series for them and now hoping to make things happen later on tonight. The puck drops just after 7 o'clock. There is more talk about putting on big events downtown and the city is looking to charge more to make them happen. WBEN's Jim Fink is here with that. Buffalo has a looming $109 million budget gap. And as Mayor Sean Ryan has repeatedly said, he and his administration. are looking for any new revenue source. That includes fees, Buffalo charges special events to cover things like police details. The fee has been in place since 2007 and its collection has been sporadic at best. That's why the city is proposing a slight increase in special events just to cover its hard costs and the city will be more diligent about collecting the special event fees. Developer Rocco Termini who's proposing several events in and around Alcott Street says the increase should not be a major issue. But for these small events that we're trying to do to reactivate the streets, it's not the intention to raise fees for them. Deputy Mayor Ben Swannockamp said the end game is still to have more events in downtown, but at the same time the city can ill afford to lose money on services provided. That's right, and we were trying to get as accurate and realistic on revenues as possible, including some of the smaller lines for different fees and permits. This is Jim Fink for WBEN.com News. Passengers and crew trapped on a ship in the Atlantic while officials race to contain a suspected deadly virus outbreak. Victor Akendo reports two planes have reportedly been arranged for medical evacuations of the sick passengers who will be flown to the Netherlands. Teams are racing to contain a suspected outbreak of a rare strain of hauntavirus that health officials say may spread person to person.

We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that's happening among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins. The World Health Organization suspects the first victims, a Dutch couple, were likely infected before boarding the ship weeks ago in Argentina, where the rare Andy strain was discovered. More than one dozen Americans among those stuck on board. It sounds like a nightmare. Yeah, a terrible situation to be in. Former Bills. Receiver, Stefan Diggs, found not guilty yesterday on assault charges against his private chef. Sure, you've been found not guilty. You're free to go, sir. Moments before, you could see the relief after the jury foreman read the verdict following just an hour and a half of deliberations. Domestic violence is a very, very serious issue in this country, and it's disconcerting when people use it as a sword. and manufacture claims in an attempt to extract money. Outside the courthouse, the former Patriot star's defense attorneys alleging this was a money grab by his accuser and former living chef Mila Adams who testified hours before. Yeah, and the plaintiff in this case admitted in court that she fabricated some of these. Hey guys, Fly on the Wall is back for another season. That's right. On audio and video every Monday and Thursday. Follow and listen to Fly on the Wall everywhere you get in your podcasts. allegations. Your exclusive WBEN 7 weather forecast rain this morning will taper off for this afternoon, mostly cloudy skies with highs near 50 tonight, partly to mostly cloudy and cool, overnight lows in the upper 30s, mix the sun and clouds on Thursday, maybe a stray afternoon shower with highs in the low 50s. With your exclusive WBEN 7 weather forecast, I'm Chief Meteorologist Araminkowski. Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick is on that buys an automotive lifeline this morning and Kevin, it's always good to talk with you. Thank you. You're welcome, Susan. We're going to talk about the stadium, but first, I want to ask you about the county surplus. And what is the latest on this? You have indicated you'd like to share the surplus with Buffalo, Lackawanna, and others, cities, but the county executive is not supporting this. So where does this stand? Well, the county legislature will be talking about it tomorrow afternoon, and I'll be going there, and I'll be sitting in on the discussions, as will other people from the administration. I proposed a while ago, whatever the county surplus is, we should take a balanced approach to it. The county road system had a rough winter, as did city road systems and town road systems. It was a brutal winter, and the potholes were bigger and deeper than ever, and I think that they need to be addressed. I think people in Erie County want good roads. And I said, let's put a third of the surplus, approximately a third of the surplus, into the roads. The problem is that a third of the population is in the three cities, city of Tonawanda, city of Lackawana, and, of course, the city of Buffalo. And, again, almost the third of the population doesn't benefit from this because there are no roads, county roads, in the three cities. They take care of their own roads, and, you know, we're spending...

between capital and operating funds, probably close to $100 million a year on the roads that only benefit the towns. So I said in lieu of that, in recognition of that, in lieu of that, and in lieu of the fact that the city of Buffalo especially has so much non-tax property, tax-exempt property, that's where all the non-profits is. That's where the government buildings are. You know, we had a fire alarm go off in the county office building and the raft building last week. And the Buffalo City Fire Department showed up. They protect us, yet we pay no property taxes to them. Anyway, in lieu of all this, let's give a third of the surplus to the city with, you know, just bare minimum of strings attached. If they want to use it for snow plows, fine. If they want to use it for water lines, fine. Let them make that decision. And that might take a little bit of the bite out of the tax increases in the three cities, especially the city of Buffalo. And then the remaining third, I said, Let's put into the fund balance, which is our rainy day account, because we certainly think it's going to be raining before too long. There are a lot of uncertainties out there, and we ought to be prepared for them. So a third, a third, a third. Now, the county executive has said we should use the money for a settlement of a lawsuit. John Walker was... uh... was uh... you know it was determined by the courts that he was wrongly convicted and that he uh... he got a judgment for twenty eight million dollars uh... from the county executive is suggesting we settle that for twenty one million dollars and move on uh... the problem is there's another one out there similar one that uh... we uh... you know it's an eighty million dollar settlement for the same sort of deal it's the boyd case uh... I, you know, I talk to a lot of attorneys. I talked to the county attorney and the county executive, of course, is an attorney. So I'm not going to go toe to toe to with them and say this is a good idea or a bad idea, but there are other attorneys and at least one former Supreme Court judge who have told me this is not a good deal, that the city, when they, before it went to trial, they settled both cases. for $9 million when, you know, we're looking at a $28 million judgment and an $80 million judgment. And to settle the 28 for 21, they say is not a good idea. And in doing so, we'll give the lawyers, I guess they're the same lawyers, for the $80 million case, hope that, you know, they get a similar sort of settlement. So, again, I'm not a lawyer. But I listen to lawyers on both sides. I think the legislature has to do the same thing and decide what to do about this case. And again, I'm still pushing my a third, a third, a third proposal. We'll see what happens there starting tomorrow. Kevin also wanted to ask you about what's going on at the old Bill Stadium, the memorabilia sale. It's still going on, but the process of taking away memorabilia is wrapped up. And I'm wondering if there's any surprise or if anyone is noticed, you know, some of the images as they're starting to demolish the old stadium now, how many seats and other things, signage, are left there? I was kind of under the impression that a lot of that stuff would have gone up for sale to, well, at the end of the day, I guess, benefit the county. Are you taking notice of that at all? Is that concerning to you?

Well, obviously everything concerning the county is concerning to me. However, the administration has retained the company to handle all that. I got to believe they know what they're doing, and eventually, when all of a sudden done, we'll get a report on that. I'm more concerned right now about the money I have and spending it on Sabres tickets because that's where the smart money is going now. We're looking forward to the game tonight, and every dollar we have is going into the savers. For a lot of people, it's the way it is. Will the county get a million or more, do you think, from this memorabilia sale? That was the targeted projection. Yeah, again, we, in Comptroller's office, we're not involved in the day-to-day sale of this, this memorabilia. So I, you know, I won't be able to answer that question until we get the money. The administration turns over the money. And I don't think I, you know, I don't think you want the controller micromanaging that sale. Well, Kevin, thanks so much for the time this morning. We appreciate it. Kevin Hardwick, Erie County Comptroller, joining us live here on WBEN. That's the WBEN, all local. All new episodes are made available each weekday morning, produced by the award-winning WBEN Newsroom. Lemonade, fresh squeeze, lemonade. Lemonade? Oh, nuts. Is your business struggling to be seen, not reaching the right customers? Yeah. Odyssey's here to help. Your one-stop shop for digital marketing. Wait, really? With targeted digital media, plus SEO, SEM, social, OTT, and more. We help your business reach the right audience and drive results. Whoa, hey, one at a time. Stop missing out on valuable customers. Visit digitallocalads.com to learn more about our local advertising solutions. That's digital local ads.com. Okay, people. Line starts here.