Transparency at center of North Aud Block tax break debate

talked about other alternatives. And alternatives is one of the elements of the state environmental review that they're supposed to do, which they didn't do. We believe that should have been reopened and another hearing should have happened because of the significant changes in this project. Hear more reaction online. Brayton Wilson, wbden.com news. All right, Brayton, thank you. Flock is making changes. Let's bring in Jim Ryan this morning. I understand what's happening. The surveillance tech company flock cameras announcing sweeping updates to their license plate reader platform, Jim. What is actually changing? Well, several things are changing, and all of it is in response to the public outcry that we've heard related to these things, invasions of privacy, police misuse of the technology. Flock, of course, is the brand name for automated license plate readers. They're the biggest company. They're like the Kleenex of tissue, right? And Flock, that company's Flock Safety announced yesterday that it's putting several things into place to prevent the sort of police abuse that we've seen. Every vehicle search now will require a reason. In other words, law enforcement will have to put in a specific case code tied to an investigation. They can't just sit there and call up plate numbers and track those things along. We've seen cases in which officers were looking for ex-lovers, trying to track former spouses, misusing the technology that way. Also, data will be held on for seven days instead of the current 30 days, except in cases that need more time for evidence. So, yeah, there are several changes in place to all of us. meant to increase public confidence in the automated license plate reader systems. All right. So new guardrails, they need a reason to track a plate. But does it eliminate any misuse? Well, no, I'm not sure that anything could eliminate misuse. You've had places where a police chief has been involved in this kind of activity. Will it completely eliminated? Probably not. Will it quell the public outcry related to AI-powered flock cameras? Probably not. But, you know, flock feels that this at least is a step in the right direction. Still, these cameras are everywhere, aren't they? They are. You can go to a website, I think it's deflock.org, the organization that opposes these things to see how many are up and running in your community. You'd be surprised to see how many are not only operating in western New York, but in Buffalo itself. Right. We've actually been focused on that a lot this week. Jim, thanks for the update. Jim Ryan joining us with changes to flock cameras nationwide. And some good news for Ford's Woodlawn Stamping Plant, WBEN's Jim Fink, says it's due to the automaker stepping up U.S. production and shifting work away from China. In less than four years, Ford will be shifting some of its production work from China back to the United States.

And that decision bodes well for the Hamburg Stamping Plant, where nearly 1,000 full and part-time UAW local 897 workers are employed and produce daily more than 1,700 tons of processed steel hoods, doors and side panels for Ford's Lincoln Aviator and Lincoln Navigator models, as well as Ford's F-150 and Super Duty trucks. If Ford decides to expand the Hamburg plant and add more workers, it will be a great regional sign, says Denise Greg Abbott, local AFL-CIO president. What we're always looking for is that the more union jobs that Western New York can have, it is absolutely the better for our community for Western New York as a whole. The Ford plant is Hamburg's largest private sector employer, and it has a large local ripple effect from suppliers and vendors. This is Jim Fink for WBEN.com News. All right, Jim, thank you. Vandalism at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. U.S. Park police say they're looking for whoever dumped red paint on the walls and on the memorial itself and then poured a substance into the fountain. that made it bubble this man from minnesota visited saying he felt the vandalism personally it is a world war two monument it's to all the people who died and fought and sacrificed for our country. Crews could be seen washing some of the paint off last evening. And more storms hitting the Midwest overnight, again, areas that have already been inundated. We're watching for the possibility of more flooding in these hard hit areas of the Ohio Valley, Indiana, in particular rounds of thunderstorms into this morning, can create rainfall rates of up to two inches per hour. Indiana still under a state of emergency. Your exclusive WBEN 7 weather forecast, partly to mostly sunny skies today with temperatures in the low 80s this afternoon. We get into tonight, partly cloudy with some patchy fog, overnight lows in the low 60s. Saturday, a mix of sun and clouds highs in the low 80s, scattered showers and thunder showers return on Sunday. With your exclusive WBEN 7 weather forecast, I'm chief meteorologist Araminkowski. Developer? Former Congressman and State Senator Chris Jacobs is on the Bison Automotive Liveline this morning talking about the controversial project for the North Odd Block at Canal Side. And we've talked with Chris before about this with respect to subsidize housing, but now the project is getting a 30-year property tax break. Chris, how is that sitting with you? Good morning. I think it's as it is with most people not sitting well at all.

And I think there was a real reason why it was kept under wraps. And when the governor's economic development folks had a groundbreaking a couple weeks ago and had a press release and listed all the abundant amount of subsidies, which we were all shocked by then, they left out the fact that they had this major abatement. And I kind of did some poking around. And these tax abatements are out there that people have a right to, if they do certain types of development, out of the city of Buffalo, they can get abatement or the Erie County Development Agency. But I looked at both those entities, and I couldn't find abatement. And then I went to the minutes of an Empire State Development board meeting, that's the state economic development of last July. And in this huge packet on page 200. There was a memo awarding this 30-year tax abatement to Penrose. And the reason they said in the memo is that they're not doing the standard abatement that the city offers is because they only do a 15-year abatement by law. They prohibit any baitens longer. So they're really bypassing the local wishes and giving this, I believe, probably equates about a $50 million benefit to this developer. And the other thing that I think galls people a lot. about this is this is not uh uh this is local tax dollars that they are getting offset by so they're not paying those taxes somebody else will and that's you and me right that will be spread around for us have you ever heard of any project locally getting a 30 year tax break I have not, and I asked several developers who have been around for a long time, and they have not. It's just... It's such an excessive benefit on top of the millions and millions of dollars that these folks are already getting. If you add this benefit on and then look at the amount of units that they're doing, this comes to well over a million dollars per apartment that they're doing. And, you know, this developer, I've, you know, added this all up. If you add into the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, interest, uh, low interest loan that they're able to do because they're doing the financing with the help of the state, they're going to have no skin in the game, no money at the point of ribbon cutting. They'll walk away with their big developer fee of like $20 million and have nothing in this project.

I just don't think this has been a very transparent or open process at all. And I think the expenditure is so excessive. And it's just not a responsible use of taxpayer dollars. And if we were going to have this money come to Erie County and Western New York. Think of all the other things we could do. We could be creating hundreds of new houses for first-time homebuyers. We could do so many things here, and we're just going to do it with really enriching out-of-town developer. The governor was in Western New York yesterday. She's still here today. She has an event later on this morning in Buffalo. But yesterday, she was asked specifically about this tax break for Penrose. and the pushback against it, and this is what she said. I'm sure there's people that are critical now, perhaps developers. And I say to them, where were you all these years? Where was your sit in the game? Why didn't you put up your own resources to make this happen? I would have loved to have this done earlier. But I deal with the facts in front of me, and I could not go on for another decade with an empty hole in Buffalo. She said it's the amount of time that it's set empty. What do you think of what she just said? Well, I would counter that the developers who have raised awareness here have a big time skin in the game, well more than Penrose over the years. Larry Quinn, who helped build the hockey stadium downtown, Larry Quinn, who helped convince Tom Gallasano to buy the Buffalo's building and create the Galasano Institute, putting $30 million already into that building. So I would say this, that... About a fairness, when a government entity does a RFP request for proposal, I believe it needs to be fair and square. And what they did is they put an RFP out to redevelop the odds site. And there was probably the one benefit they got if they did a portion of affordable housing, they would get local housing tax credits. That was it. And there was other bidders. And then Penrose got it. After the fact, then the government now loves on $60 to $70, $80 million in additional grants to them after they got the bid. Now, if there was, if there was going to be a change in that, they should have re-bid it. Because that's just not a fair way. That's an up-and-up way of doing that. And I believe they are a violation in a minimum of the spirit of public law regarding RFPs. This is why people get skeptical about, you know, the bids being rigged or something like that, you know, because it just doesn't sound right. You give it to somebody and then after the fact you load it up with more subsidies so that person is... It just changed the rules of play. And I just really think they made a big mistake by not putting the RFP out again. And I think they would have got out of the bidders. And I really think there's some of it stems from a lack of faith in downtown. I really think this is the most significant parcel in downtown in the midst of all the good things that have happened over the years in Canal Side. I think we would have got a great project without this ridiculous amount of government money.

Chris, are you aware of any effort to stop this? Well, you know, we have spoken on it. We've asked on it. I think that it's highly unlikely. It just seemed coincidental. As soon as we started raising concern about it, the property was literally transferred two days later. And I just think they're trying to ram this thing through, get it done. I think people want a ribbon cutting. The developers, you know, want their developer fee. They've gotten so much money. I mean, $180 million in subsidy. It's just outrageous. So I think I'm going to keep speaking on it. I think at a minimum, Penrose should reconsider this ridiculous abatement, and they should do what any other developer gets and get a 15-year abatement. You know, I just, I just. I just, I'm still going to keep talking about it because I think it's so egregious and I think it's going to make people skeptical about our government. I think it's going to make future developers skeptical about doing business with the state down and canal side. I think there's just a lot of, a lot of risks on ramming this one project through the way this has been done with the lack of openness and transparency. And so that's why I feel compelled to speak on it. That's the WBEN All Local. All new episodes are made available each weekday morning, produced by the award-winning WBEN Newsroom.