BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to clap back at the county comptroller for not wearing a face mask while in the Rath Building.
Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw tweeted that the Rath Building is not ready to safely bring back workers. He claims no nurses are checking temperatures and that you can't fit four people in an elevator to safely social distance. He believes workers should continue working remotely.
Poloncarz responded to the tweet saying, "If he truly cared about out [sic] employees' health he would #WearAMask in the Rath Building and he hasn't repeatedly. Last week we rode up an elevator together and he was maskless. I told him if he didn't wear a mask he wouldn't be allowed in the building again."
2 On Your Side reached out to Mychajliw and he texted back saying, "The County Executive lives by the hypocritical mantra of 'do as I say, not as I do.'" He shared with us a screen grab from a Facebook post dated June 18 of Poloncarz pictured with another person standing about two feet away from each other not wearing masks.
"He's clearly closer than six feet away to this person, yet he refuses to put on a mask #hypocrite #triggered". It's unknown if that picture was taken on June 18 or previously.
During the County Executive's press conference on Wednesday afternoon, he played video showing the encounter on the elevator from June 26.
"The first thing that comes out of my mouth is, Stefan, you know there’s a rule you have to wear a mask in this building. And, he’s like whatever, and I say, no, we’re not allowing anybody, even elected officials, you have to wear a mask in the building," Poloncarz said. "And, I didn’t say anything about it, and then he comes out, and he’s blasting us for not following proper procedures. We are going above and beyond what the CDC and New York State are doing. We’re actually implementing things that are being done in hospitals."
When we reached out to the County Comptroller's office for a response after the press conference, and we got the same response referred to in the paragraph above with the Facebook post.