BUFFALO, N.Y. — Lawmakers and grassroots organizers are reacting to the news that the Western Region OTB is offering Mayor Bryon Brown a salary of $295,000 per year to take over as President & CEO of the organization.
"I think it's quite fitting that he's going to OTB because he took Buffalo off track and never really bet on us," said Emily Terrana from Our City Action Buffalo.
OCA is a grassroots organization that was founded after former governor Andrew Cuomo committed a billion dollars worth of investment in Buffalo.
Since 2017, the organization has endorsed several school board and common council candidates, as well as India Walton. Walton defeated Brown in a primary challenge in 2021.
Our City Action has been critical of the Brown administration for several years, particularly with the response to the 2022 blizzard, council redistricting process and most recently the budget gap.
"He's taking a salary that is now six and a half times larger than the average citizen in Buffalo," said Shane Keyes, and education researcher at Our City Action. "All the while, he's leaving a city that has, statistically, almost a third of the population living below the poverty line."
When Mayor Brown took office in 2006, Buffalo’s estimated proportion of people living below poverty level was 29.9%.
According to latest data, 28.3% of the Buffalo population lives below the poverty line.
"40% of our children, that's the future of our city, are living below the poverty line, and he's leaving us with millions of dollars of potential debt, essentially for a better job," Keyes said.
There is some optimism that a new administration will be open to hearing ideas from more community organizations.
"People I know are looking forward to a new day, looking forward to a chance to actually have a real, transparent, open relationship with government," Terrana said.
When that new administration begins, is still up in the air.
A spokesperson for Mayor Brown said he will be making an announcement regarding his future plans 'sometime next week'.
As for other critics of the deal, Assemblymember Monica Wallace blasted the OTB over their $295,000 offer.
In a statement, Wallace said "by approving a contract with a $295,000 salary for the next President and CEO, Western Regional OTB is continuing to fail the taxpayers of our region. This salary is not only higher than that of every other OTB CEO in the state, but it is also higher than the salary of the Vice President of the United States. And it is higher than Western OTB’s total allocation of revenue to eight of the 15 counties it serves in 2022."
Wallace has called on the state Attorney General and Inspector General to investigate the WROTB.