BUFFALO, NY - We now know how much taxpayers had to cough up, when the former executive director of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority abruptly resigned last month.
Channel 2's Jeff Preval has obtained the separation agreement, which shows the generous buyout.
$107,000 - that's how much taxpayers spent when Dawn Sanders-Garrett suddenly resigned from the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority nearly a month ago.
This according to the separation agreement, Sanders-Garrett negotiated with the BMHA.
But, when you take away taxes from that amount, Sanders-Garrett will see about $62,000 of that.
One portion of the agreement that caught our eye - the BMHA agreed to pay off her COBRA medical payments for the rest of the year totaling $16,300.
Sanders-Garrett was appointed in 2007 to serve as BMHA Executive Director.
She resigned amid multiple issues at the authority.
We've received complaints from residents about bed bugs being a constant problem. The agency is also dealing with aging infrastructure: this past winter some residents at one BMHA property went without heat and hot water for two weeks. And the BMHA remains under a federal audit.
It's unclear whether any of these issues led to her resignation.
2 On Your Side spoke to City Comptroller Mark Schroeder about the payments Sanders-Garrett received, which have to be approved by his office.
"We are a vendor to the BMHA in this particular case or ADP or different services that would do check services," he said.
"Can you explain whether these are funds that are coming out of the city budget or are these federal dollars?" we asked.
"So it's my understanding that not one penny not one penny is coming out of the city treasury," Schroeder said, "these are federal funds by taxpayers."
The separation agreement was signed off by the BMHA's chairman of the board, David Rodriguez and interim executive director, Gillian Brown. Both, will not comment on the separation agreement.