Buffalo Niagara Partnership President and CEO Andrew Rudnick writes in a letter published by the Buffalo News that Delaware North Companies should run the Aqueduct horse track in Queens. Delaware North has a well-known interest in these kinds of operations.

The note stresses that the team (Aqueduct Gaming) involved in the deal are New York companies: Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, McKissack & McKissack (whose Web site says the company was founded in 1990 in Washington, DC before expanding into the Chicago market and now has offices in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Orlando), Shawmut (with offices in Boston, New York, Providence, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and New Haven), and Thalden Emery (with offices in Las Vegas, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Tulsa).

Finally, the letter states that the selection of Aqueduct Gaming would mean 100 new jobs in Buffalo. Says this is a “test of whether New York’s elected ‘leaders’ will support the state’s businesses.”

I put down the paper and called Andrew Rudnick to request a list of these local jobs. I was forwarded to the voice mail of Emily Alexandria Burns, Communications Manager for the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. I left a message on her office phone and her cell phone. I put in a follow-up call and was directed to Nadine Clancy, handling Business Intelligence at the Partnership. Nadine said she’d try to find someone who could answer my question.

It seemed like a simple question, seeing as the letter published today, but I guess not. I just put in another call, and was told that Emily was on a conference call and couldn’t talk to me. However, the receptionist sent her an email asking her to call me. She said Emily would be the one for me to talk to, since she’s the Communications Manager.

As soon as someone gets back to me with a list of the 100 new jobs that are hanging in the balance, I will publish it here.

This city has lost another great preservationist and advocate for the old New York Central Terminal. Michael Miller, president of the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation and newly appointed executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara, died last night. He’ll be missed.

Chris Byrd has post.

Statements from the CPTC and PBN are forthcoming.

You’ve heard what Michael Gainer has to say about being fired from Buffalo ReUse, the organization he co-founded and led. You’ve read statements by the board and Harvey Garrett, the interim executive director who let him go. And you’ve learned that some members have called a special meeting at which they intend to oust the current board and reinstate Gainer.

Now the money guys are putting in their two cents.

This afternoon, Robert Gioia, who is, among other things, president of the Oishei Foundation, sent out this statement via email:

The Oishei Foundation made an initial operating grant to Buffalo ReUse of $200,000 about two years ago. For about the past 10 months, on learning of a number of issues, the Oishei Foundation has been actively working on and financing a reorganization of the structure and operations of Buffalo ReUse. All of these organizational issues arose subsequent to the grant being made.

In addition to many hours of staff time of the vice president and the senior program officer, the Foundation has underwritten the costs, which now exceed $15,000, of addressing serious legal and financial compliance issues with the services of CCS-NYS (now known as New York Council on Nonprofits). In addition to the organizational and board training work that NYCON did, the Foundation separately hired their executive director, Doug Sauer, to provide executive coaching and mentoring to Michael Gainer.

Because of the seriousness of the issues involved, and the toxic stalemate that had developed between staff leadership and the board at that time, the Foundation requested that the board of Buffalo ReUse bring in an outside administrator on an interim basis to oversee the implementation of the legal and financial corrections that were required, and to establish new controls and systems for the organization going forward. Harvey Garrett was brought in as that interim administrator, and Stephanie Simeon was elected president of the board.

Since Stephanie and Harvey have begun working on BRU’s issues, a great deal has been accomplished. While still not in complete financial compliance, the majority of the financial issues have been resolved. New controls have been put into place regarding expenditures and reporting. The remaining issues should be resolved shortly. The legal issues having to do with the incorporation and early activities of BRU have been resolved. Several new board members were recruited from an open call and formal interview process (in which the Foundation had no role at all), including three that had been recommended by BRU staff. Indications were that BRU was stabilizing, and that it would emerge from its crisis intact and in position to move forward rapidly.

It was because of this concrete improvement that the Foundation agreed to release a $50,000 payment of grant funds to BRU. It was also the basis on which BRU was recommended by the Foundation to the owner of a building as an ideal candidate to receive the potential donation of the building. After several conversations between the parties, it was decided to go forward in the due diligence process. The Oishei Foundation has offered to pay for legal counsel through the initial phases, which is currently estimated to be about $10 – 12,000 over the next few months.

We recently were informed by the chairperson of the board of new, previously unrevealed and serious developments dating back more than several months. Our understanding is that action on these developments is being undertaken by the board. We are now aware of the contemplated action by some of the members of BRU to remove the board, reinstate Michael Gainer as the executive director, and presumably have staff and members select a new board.

In our view, such action would seriously set back the possibilities for BRU to move forward, and negate all the work and effort that has taken place to rectify what was, by all public accounts, a very badly managed organization under the previous leadership. We have provided extraordinary support to Michael Gainer via BRU and in other ways, and we believe he may still have a role to play at BRU. However, should such action by a subset of members take place and successfully reinstate Mr. Gainer as the CEO, the Oishei Foundation would seriously reevaluate our current and any future relationship with BRU.

We firmly believe BRU is now poised to become a truly great non-profit serving a need and a population desperately needing to be served in Buffalo. We believe that the current chairperson and the nominated (and currently serving) board members — which, again, the Foundation had no role in recruiting or selecting — are well-chosen and capable. Finally, we believe that this leadership team, particularly Ms. Simeon and Mr. Garrett in his interim role, has clearly demonstrated extraordinary competence operating under tremendous pressure. They have our complete support.

It took a while for Mickey Kearns to draw a round of genuine laughter from the crowd at True Bethel Baptist Church last night. He’d come at the invitation of the Buffalo Association of Black Journalists, whose three-person panel peppered him with questions about policy and race and qualifications and expectations. He also fielded questions submitted online and from the audience of about 100, including a couple heavily loaded questions from Masten District Councilmember Demone Smith, who replied to Kearns’s “It good to see you, Demone” with “It’s not always good to see you, Mickey.”

Many of the questions were one-size-fits-all: What managerial experience do you have? How will you fund the quality-of-life centers you propose? Will you reduce or eliminate the garbage fee?

Kearns handled these well enough. It may be too generous call the South District Councilmember “plainspoken,” however. Sometimes, speaking in environments like this, one would guess that his hero was not Jimmy Griffin but Yogi Berra. Still, he made his points, and his points made sesnse.

Many more of the questions were laden with race issues, which is hardly surprising. An Irishman from South Buffalo is taking on the city’s first African-American mayor, citing Griffin—a man widely disliked on the East Side—as his political mentor.

The mayor had been invited, too; the event was supoosed to be a debate. The mayor did not reply to the invitation, according to initial accounts. At the event itself, another story was offered: Someone from the mayor’s office had replied, but after the deadline for a reply had passed. No one seemed to buy that.

Was it true, a young woman asked, that members of his campaign staff taunted fellow South Buffalonians for supporting Byron Brown? Why, asked Demone Smith, had he not voted for any minority representation in the Common Council leadership? Why had he voted against several African-American nominees for various city jobs. (Demone also asked him why the Council majority had not address a complete lack of African Americans working in the City Clerk’s office, but his premise was incorrect: There are in fact several African Americans working in the City Clerk’s office, as well as several Latinos.)

By and large, Kearns handled these questions well, too. The rationale he offered—that he looks not at a person’s skin color but at his or her qualifications—is threadbare, and might have been irritating from someone who seemed to be excusing himself from thinking about why race matters in one of the most racially segregated cities in the country. But Kearns did not seem to be excusing himself. As much as Smith tried to paint Kearns as a typical South Buffalo Irishman who didn’t give a damn about the black East Side, those colors kepts peeling away. Instead, Kearns returned again and again to his themes: poverty and education,  crime and housing.

But the conversation kept returning to race. Finally, Kearns said, “Okay, let’s air this out. You want to talk about this? Let’s look at the current adminsitration.

The fire commissioner, he said, is a Caucasian from South Buffalo. So is one of his deputy commissioners. The commissioner of public works is a Caucasian from South Buffalo. The manager of sewers is a Caucasian from South Buffalo. The director of real estate, the commissioner of assessment and taxation, the deputy commissioner in charge of inspections—all Caucasians from South Buffalo.

“It looks to me like you’ve already got a mayor from South Buffalo,” Kearns said.

The room roared with laughter. Even Demone Smith cracked a smile.

Zig Ziglar

AV correspondent Ellen Przepasniak on yesterday’s “Get Motivated” seminar at HSBC Arena:

Picture this. The emcee of Tuesday’s “Get Motivated” seminar is standing on a stage in the middle of a sold-out HSBC Arena. The pristine blonde woman in four-inch gold pumps roars, elongating every  vowel, “Laaaadiiiiieeees aaaand geeeentleeemeeeen, Miiiisteeer Steeeeveeee Foooooorbeeeees!”  The PA system begins playing Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll, Part 2”—the  same song the Sabres skate out to—and the editor of Forbes magazine runs down the aisle like a superstar, high-fiving people on his way and steps on stage pumping his fist in the air to pyrotechnics blowing up all around him. In no other setting would Forbes, the editor of a dry business magazine, get this rockstar reception.

“Get Motivated” is a full-day motivational seminar featuring big-ticket names like Forbes, Joe Montana, Colin Powell, and Rudy Giuliani. The organizers offered discount tickets if employers took their entire office as a substitute for a day’s work, so HSBC Arena was filled to its 19,000-seat capacity. During the all-day seminar, the attendees ran though various points of standard inspirational speaking sprinkled with financial advice. The atmosphere was somewhere between a hockey game and a megachurch. The four corners of the stage were draped with flags with the words “INSPIRE!” and “MOTIVATE!” and each speaker was greeted on the stage with fireworks and loud pop music presumably intended to pump people up.

Most of the celebrity speakers’ messages were fairly safe, akin to graduation speeches. Forbes’ big point was innovation: You get ahead not by coming up with something new, but modifying something existing. He idolized Sam Walton, the founder of big-box behemoth Wal-Mart, as someone who thought “outside the box.” (How ironic considering the store is one giant box.) As he trashed the federal income tax, he railed against government left and right. “The bottom line is stop trashing the US dollar,” he said, to thunderous applause. “Make it worth holding again!”

Powell was the best speaker of the day. He was personable, funny and, as always, diplomatic. He was nostalgic for his old days of diplomacy, when journalists and foreign leaders jockeyed for his time. “When you step down from such a great height, there is an emptiness that comes upon you, spiritual and emotional emptiness,” he said. Powell mostly spoke to the managers in the audience as he related his time in the White House to an average office setting. “[In the Army] leadership was all about followers and followership,” he said. “You’ve got to find that sense of purpose in the heart of every person in your organization.” Powell’s final piece of advice was: “You’ll know you’re a good leader when your troops will follow you if only out of curiosity.” He then exited the stage to the song “Proud to Be an American.”

(more…)

Roll It. Snort with it. Spend it.

The American Chemical Society’s national meeting kicked off last Sunday. One interesting presentation was a U. Mass-Dartmouth research study which found that cocaine is present in up to 90 percent of paper money in the United States, particularly in larger cities such as NY, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, LA and Detroit. Biochemistry professor Yuegang Zuo, Ph.D., said it’s long been known U.S. currency had had drug traces, due to money used in drug deals and rolled to use the drugs themselves. The study collected paper money from over 30 cities in five countries. The figure of 90 percent is a significant rise from a similar study done two years ago in which the percent of drug contaminated bills was 67 percent.

Business First has an online poll that asks its readers whether Mayor Byron Brown deserves re-election.

At 2:53, 84 percent of voters said he did not. There had been 270 votes.

Polls like this are nonsense, really, but I am interested to see how quickly the numbers tilt in Brown’s favor, once the second floor of City Hall gets wind of it and orders the legions to start voting.

AV correspondent Geoffrey Anstey reports on last night’s fundraiser for State Senator Dale Volker:

On Tuesday, two separate groups gathered at the usually quiet Erie Basin Marina: one dressed in suits and ties armed with checkbooks, and the other dressed in t-shirts and slacks armed with angry signs. Both made it to the harbor on account of New York State Senator Dale Volker, and his desire to keep his 34-year hold on the 59th senate district in the fast approaching 2010 New York State elections. To help him to do so, Volker invited some of his finest friends (the generous types) to a nautical fundraiser, which local grass roots movements, such as Tea New York, Liberty Pursuit and Free New York, weren’t pleased about.

The common thread between these movements is the abhorrence of current state government and the feverish desire for radical change, so it’s not surprising they could agree on protesting the continued success that Volker has had during the long decline of the region. But as is often the case with these folks, focus was lacking, and while looking upon the crowd of two dozen people you couldn’t help but notice that only half the signs had anything to do with Volker himself, while the other half adhered to the separate groups’ different, general mantras—a natural chink in a coalition of libertarians.

When asked about the protesters Volker calmly, and politely replied, “They have the right to protest, this is the United States of America,” going on to say “these people are angry at state government and I understand.” Immediately he went on to show how he didn’t understand by saying, “They’re angry at state government because the Democrats took over and frankly created a lot of havoc…and then they’re protesting because of the stories in the paper about the dysfunction [the recent stalemate in the senate].”

Though the protesters’ political compasses were clearly aligned to the right, each movement represented claimed no partisanship—to them each party is a different flavor of poison. So had Volker actuallt asked  the angry crowd about their problems with state government, they surely would have shown more outrage over the SEIU suits in Volker’s boat than the Democratic Party’s majority in the State Senate. And they definitely would have shown more concern over last year’s accusations from Kathy Konst supporters—who claimed that after signing a petition supporting Konst against Volker, he hired private detectives to intimidate and harass them—than over the senate stalemate. If these accusations were true, you would have to relate to the anger behind these grassroots “revolutionaries,”  if not to most of the messages on their signs.

And here’s video from WNYMedia: