BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Water Board Chair and Sewer Authority GM O.J. McFoy liked to leave the Buffalo area often when he was in charge of those agencies.
Now McFoy is leaving Buffalo for good.
McFoy announced Wednesday that he is taking a job with the city government in Houston, Texas. McFoy will become the city engineer and — as his news release noted — will be paid $280,000 per year.
The Sewer Authority’s news release called McFoy “a transformative leader” who made a series of “key achievements” in clean water and public health.
But McFoy came under criticism for a failure to fluoridate Buffalo's water for a nine-year period.
Fluoride has now been restored to the water supply to prevent pediatric tooth decay but not before the city missed multiple deadlines to restore it.
In April, McFoy had this exchange with 2 On Your Side Investigative Reporter Charlie Specht:
SPECHT: “Do you feel as the water board chair that this whole thing, that you bear some responsibility for dropping the ball on this?”
MCFOY: “I appreciate that question, but no. We actually as a team make sure that we are doing our due diligence whenever we're doing changes.”
But he came under intense pressure after a 2 On Your Side investigation revealed that McFoy kept an extensive travel schedule using public money.
Since 2016, McFoy traveled to 23 states — a total of 55 work trips, or an average of nearly seven per year — to conferences in Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Sonoma, Calif., and more than 40 other destinations across the nation.
In September, Specht asked him, “The city is facing a $40 million budget deficit. How do you justify that expense at a time like this?”
McFoy replied, “As you know, because I'm sure you've investigated this ... the Buffalo Sewer Authority is a separate entity from the City of Buffalo. And what we've shown here is that the investment in showing that we're visible really brings back all of the dollars into the authority."
City Hall sources say the administration of Acting Buffalo Mayor Christopher Scanlon is planning to make some recommendations to the water and sewer boards on the issue of transparency.
That’s after 2 On Your Side uncovered multiple violations of the state’s Open Meetings Law by the Water Board. Two of those violations were confirmed by the State Committee on Open Government.
Scanlon declined to comment on Wednesday.
According to the Harris County government website, Houston is one of the few cities in the United States that does not add fluoride to its water for dental health.