The winds of change hit 8787 Erie Road on 1-1-2012 as Keith Dash, Paul Cooper and Dennis Feldmann were sworn into office. While change in government occurs slowly and even slower in Evans, here's a rundown of what has changed and a few ideas about how this board can run a more open government. MEETINGS: THE [...]
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Multiple "reliable" sources in the town hall claim that money borrowed to pay for water project was improperly spent to hide budget deficits. The amount is somewhere between $2,100,000 and $6,000,000! The spending irregularities reportedly occurred while Robert Catalino II was supervisor. Current town board members have not explained how the Town of Evans borrowed [...]
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Taxpayers are on hook for $13,200,000 for water / roads project. On 9-28-2011. the Evans Town Board voted to borrow another $1.2 million. They borrowed $170,000 on a truck that taxpayers already paid for. They borrowed $343,000 in Jan for vehicles & equipment They borrowed $635,000 in May for the water project! That’s $2,348,000 they borrowed this year! [...]
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At the 5-4-2011 town board meeting, it was announced that the Town of Evans plans to borrow an additional $1,235,000. $635,000 for the water improvement project and $600,000 for improvements and equipment at the Evans Center Fire Hall. NOTE: TownOfEvans.com has requested additional information on these two big budget items. As of the time of [...]
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If the Director of Community Development can't spell her own name, does any one really think she is smart enough to attract new businesses to Evans? She'll blame the webmaster for the misspelling but who reviewed her home page before the new website went live!
One partial fix would be to eliminate the practice of allowing workers to retire with two pensions. One person, one vote. One person, one pension.
During the downsizing debate, critics questioned the cost of a special election. Now, Lake Shore Central Schools wants to spend a significant sum of taxpayers dollars on a special election to approve a spending plan that will raise school taxes even more. Special elections, no matter the issue, usually get low voter turnout. LSCS should [...]
The Union Concrete site located next to the Angola/Eden Thruway exit has seen a significant transformation in the last few years. Below is an older Google Earth map and a more recent Zillow map. What is the nature of this operation? County records show that this parcel is 29.8 acres, landlocked, classified as rural vacant and [...]
Plans for the water project call for building a $70,000 road on private property to get service vehicles from Eden Evans Center Road to the water which will be located near the end of the former airport runway. The image below was obtained using Zillow.com ( Click Here ) If the property owner can get [...]
At the last town board meeting of 2011, the board voted to overlay a commercial zoning district over land zoned public facility. This was an illegal and back door way of doing business. Maybe Evans should adopt procedures that require adjoiniong property owners AND TOWN OF EVANS to notify adjoining property owners before changes are [...]
aIf North Collins can get zero interst loans for their water project, why can't Evans do the same? When will the town board disclosed how the Evans water / roads projects are funded? a
Orchard Park appointed a new town attorney. Evans should have done the same!
Under state law, every property MUST be assessed at its "fair market value". Karen Erickson remodeled a garage on her income property at 8921 Lake Shore Road. The assessment was NEVER increase to reflect the improvements. Click Here To View Erie County Real Property Info The property now has a house, a rental apartment and a commercial [...]
100,000 people a week shop at Walmart. Walmart uses that buying power to require vendors to produce products at the lowest possible cost. Garbage collection is one of the biggest costs for municipalities. The article below is about how new technology was used to reduce fuel costs on refuse trucks. [...]
On November 8th, 2011, 5,161 of 10,967 or 41.7% of registered voters in Evans went to the polls. 47.1% of the registered democrats equals 2,315 voters. 47.1% of the registered republican voters equals 1,392 voters. The democrats should have easily won the race for supervisor. The dems won both councilmen’s offices. Hub Frawley totaled 1,346 votes on [...]
It will be interesting to see if the Dash/ Cooper / Feldmann town board will address and obey open meetings law. Under open meetings law, the public has a right to see how the board arives at decisions. That hasn’t happened much even prior to 2009 when the town had five man boards. If this [...]
If the NFTA Board of Commissioners can call for employees to help pay for their health insurance, given the financial turmoil in Evans, will the new town board ask for similar concessions from unions representing town employees. When health insurance is paid 100% by taxpayers, there is no incentive for town employees to be concerned [...]
In 2011, Evans solved budget problems by borrowing millions of dollars to be repaid by future generations of residents. Other towns look for ways to reduce spending. The town should hire an accounting firm that specializes in fund accounting to replace the Director of Finance. If the new town board appoints another “cronie” to the [...]
Over the last 16 years, ethics ( Click Here To View Town of Evans Code of Ethics ) and past supervisors were strangers in the night. Possible ethics violations include: The one bid contract (3X) for the Sturgeon Point Marina Restaurant The assessment services contract with North Collins Improper spending of Water Project funds [...]
Multiple "reliable" sources in the town hall claim that money borrowed to pay for water project was improperly spent to hide budget deficits. The amount is somewhere between $2,100,000 and $6,000,000! The spending irregularities reportedly occurred while Robert Catalino II was supervisor. Current town board members have not explained how the Town of Evans borrowed [...]
The town removed several budget documents from town’s web site. State Open Meetings Law says residents have a legal right to know how all decisions are arrived at. The deleted budget documents are a part of the budget process. There budget documents should remain online for future reference. Documents are posted 6 documents at: http://info.townofevans.com/Pages_list.php?mastertable=Documents&masterkey1=9
To balance to 2012 budget, Evans borrowed $1,200,000. Below are two articles that show the approaches taken by Lancaster and Orchard Park.
If you sign up for a new credit card and pay off another credit card, you are just playing a “personal” budget game. Sooner or later, the bank will come looking for “your” money. Budgets games played by towns are more complex but in the end “real taxpayer dollars” will be needed to pay [...]
Last month, the Town of Evans enlisted the help of retired Erie County Budget Director Joseph Passafiume (Click Here). Town officials have not disclosed the reason why his assistance is needed. Supervisor Pordum receives $12,500 as budget officer and Andrew Eszak is paid $65,000 as Finance Director. How deep is the RED ink that outside help [...]
Since reassessment in 2008, Evans Assessor Ebersole has spent considerable taxpayer dollars hiring outside attorneys to represent the town VS property owners challenging their assessment. This spending was not in assessor’s budget and not approved by a vote of the town board. In 2011, at three different meetings, town officials mentioned a $500 grant was [...]
Click Here To Read The Entire Buffalo News Article. .
On January 4th, one day before the 2011 Organizational and 1st regular meeting of the year, the Evans Town Board met behind closed doors to approve three resolutions approving new spending that the board must have “forgot” to include in the 2011 approved budget. According to the minutes: $83,000 for three police cars was [...]
Carefully read the supervisor’s column and do the math. Add the increased costs and spending for big ticket items. $500,000 in mandated costs $120,000 (est) 3 new police cars ????????? 911 system upgrade $80,000 (est) new plow truck $30,000 (est) dog control van $40,000 (est) dump truck ———- $770,000 (est) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in additional costs and [...]
Why doesn’t budget officer Fran Pordum’s budget look more like Clarence’s? Look at account numbers – they are the same – likely using the same fund accounting software!!! If Clarence can print a detailed budget – why can’t Fran Pordum??? If Clarence can project costs four years into future, why can’t Fran Pordum? When you [...]
Several towns, including Amherst, Boston & Elma, are reducing taxes this year. Instead of making the tough decisions that would have spared Evans residents a big tax increase, Fran Pordum is playing the blame game. The Buffalo News has been reporting for quite some time that rising pension costs would be a huge cost for [...]
Note To Fran Pordum: It is possible to reduce spending and lower taxes. Elma did it. Amherst did it. It’s a 52 week a year process and not just a few weeks a year during the budget process. Amherst has a wage freeze. You have a spending freeze but did not explain what that means. Evans Taxpayers [...]
East Aurora is facing a 33% tax increase! The East Aurora supervisor’s explanation is that previous town boards spent all the fund balances. Here in Evans, Fran Produm is balancing the budget using the same policy that spells doom in East Auroua. Pordum is balancing the budget by spending $568,900 in reserves.When the reserves are [...]
While other towns post copies of their budget online, Fran Pordum requires taxpayers to go to the town hall and pay for a copy. The tentative (first version) budget cost $5.25. At the 10-20-2010 town board meeting, Fran Pordum set the cost for a copy of the preliminary (second version) at $15.00!! So much for Fran Pordum’s [...]
One partial fix would be to eliminate the practice of allowing workers to retire with two pensions. One person, one vote. One person, one pension.
State law gives residents a right to know how decisions by the town board are reached. When the board refused to answer questions as to why another $950,000 had to be borrowed after $1,200,000 was borrowed in September, the board gave proof that they violate the state’s Open Meetings Law. Now with a new supervisor [...]
Local municipalities cancel contracts all the time. The article below is an example of a political decision. In the Town of Evans, there are two contracts that should be cancelled if they are not renegotiated to cover all costs to taxpayers. The assessment services contract with North Collins and the lease for the Sturgeon Point Marina [...]
The article below is another example of Orchard Park looking for ways to eliminate improper costs to taxpayers. In Evans, some non-profits get a free ride. They don’t pay a penny to the Town of Evans even though they require almost weekly 911 service. If Claddagh Commission can pay their director ( Click Here To Read [...]
As many Evans residents found out the hard way, if you get an ambulance ride from a volunteer fire company you can get a bill for over $1,000. The insurance companies got a law passed so this IS NOT covered by your insurance policy! The Town of Eden set up a non-profit ambulance company so [...]
The Buffalo News has covered the study of the Orchard Park Police Department ( Click Here ) and in a 9-19-2011 editorial writes that the town should push ahead with changes. ( Click Here ) The Orchard Park Police budget is $2,916,154. The O.P. amount raised by taxes is $13,374, 414 making the police 21.8% [...]
Below are minutes from the 3-17-2010 Evans Town Board Meeting where the contract for the Sturgeon Point Marina Restauant was approved. The contract was awarded to T.E. Connors (Former Deputy Supervisor Karen Erickson). Leases on Hamburg’s waterfront restaurants have lease terms for $16,000 to 18,500 a year. In 2012, Evans will receive $290 a month [...]
A resident that moved back to Evans from out of state purchased a house and wanted to know how much school taxes would be. As usual, the assessor wasn’t in her office. Her assistant, a former secretary to a former supervisor and democratic club secretary, could not answer the question. When politics / Friends & [...]
Claddagh Commission (CC) owns 22 properties in Erie County. Nineteen of these properties are in Evans including a lake front estate assessed at $2,525,000 and a facility on Erie Road assessed at $1,111,000. ( CladdaghProperties – Click Here!) The total assessed value of CC properties in Evans is $6,573,000. If these properties were taxable, at @$30.50 per [...]
Behind closed doors, not at a public town board meeting, board voted to raise Parking Permits to $5.00. Click Here To View Minutes
THE SIMPLE EXPLANATION By contract, Evans provides assessment services to North Collins . In 2008 & 2009, North Collins received $8,996.72 more in state aid than they paid Evans / Ebersole. In 2011, it will cost Evans Taxpayers @$35,821 more to provide services to North Collins that they pay the town. Ask Fran Pordum, Paul Cooper & [...]
In Evans, the town attorney, department heads and town engineer attend town board meetings. The town should disclose if and how much these employees receive in compensation for attending these meetings. Only on rare occasions to they give reports to board at these public meetings. The town engineer is under contract to attend meetings. Since the engineer rarely speaks [...]
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Evans Taxpayers beware! The cost to provide assessment services to North Collins may be increasing. Assessor Ebersole reported that more stringent methods will be required by NYS. (Another BIG question is why Ebersole reported this information at a public meeting in North Collins but not in Evans??)If additional staff time will be needed to comply with [...]
Evans assessor Jeanne Ebersole obtained signatures for the Independence Party Designating Petition. While not illegal, it may be unethical for assessor to get involved in a political process to elect members of a town board that will appoint an assessor to a six year term on 2013. THE BIG QUESTION: Did Hub Frawley, Paul Cooper [...]
At the 6-15-2011 town board meeting, the three member board voted to take a one month vacation. Click Here For Link To Entire 6-15-2011 Agenda For the first time ever, there will be no public town board meeting for five weeks! This raises three questions. 1) Since all three board members are candidates in the [...]
If the town spends a penny of taxpayer’s money: Under the Open Meetings Law the meeting MUST be help in public. Board can not go into executive session even if they label it an employee matter. Under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), documents related to spending can not be denied for any reason unless excluded [...]
4-1-2011 In an unexpected vote, Supervisor Fram Pordum voted 1 to 0 to rename the Town of Evans to “Lackawanna South”. Pordum explained that Lackawanna is known for its fair, honest and open government and he’s committed to those same ideals in Evans. Said Pordum, “If voters give me another four years, imagine what I [...]
In 1978, the supervisor’s report was a detailed report of cash on hand, fund balances and liabilities. Here in 2011, the supervisor’s report has been replaced by a supervisor’s column containing mostly “happy news”. If you want to know who has the best fish fry in town, the supervisor’s column is your best bet. If you want [...]
Evans has 12 miles of waterfront. Every waterfront community has a LWRP that is a LEGAL DOCUMENT filed with New York State that inventories assets, describes unique characteristics and lays out a plan for future use and development. What is a LWRP? – Click Here For Additional Information The current LWRP was approved in 1987. [...]
Here’s an example that open government is alive and well in Erie County. Erie county denied freedom of information requests by the NYCLU. The NYCLU went to court. The court ordered Erie County to turn over the requested documents AND orderd the county to pay legal fees. In Evans, Supervisor Fran Pordum still hasn’t released [...]
In 2007, Fran Pordum campaigned on running an “Open Government”. Below is an ad that suggests otherwise. Dawn Avenue is 1.7 miles long. The town engineers began work on Dawn Avenue before notifying or giving residents an opportunity to express their concerns. Residents took out Penny Saver ads, circulated petitions, dropped off literature door to [...]
As has been well documented on this web site, Fran Pordum has removed all “On-The_Record” communication with the town board from town board meetings. When Evans resident Dick Hammer, speaking after the meeting was adjourned, states his opinion that Fran Pordum should not use his 3 minute egg timer to limit his time to speak, [...]
More assessment games to benefit friends? The property located at 7452 Southwestern Blvd. received an assessment reduction of $80,000, all on the building. This is the property that is flooding out Ed Gleason & Gary Lawrence. The property was assessed for $150,000 in 2009. The property sold on 6-18-2010 for $100,000. The 2010 assessment is [...]
Pordum’s dream for the Town of Evans will be residents nightmare for generations to come. The water and roads improvements projects roll on with very little reporting by town officials. Are projects over budget? Only Pordum knows for sure since the Director of Finance quit back in August (2010). Pordum is spending millions in taxpayer [...]
NYS Committee on Open Government – Letter Dated 8-2-2010 – Page #1 Click Here! NYS Committee on Open Government – Letter Dated 8-2-2010 – Page #2 Click Here! NYS Committee on Open Government – Letter Dated 8-2-2010 – Page #3 Click Here! NYS Committee on Open Government – Letter Dated 8-2-2010 – Page #4 Click [...]
When the Evans Town Board votes on resolutions at a work session that could easily be voted on at regular board meetings, the resolutions are worth a closer look. The 6-6-2010 work session is a good example. Click Here To Read The Entire Resolution The above resolution shows hours per standard work day to earn [...]
If the Town of Evans can work with Flexovit to refund $497,450 in overpaid taxes, assessor Ebersole should give other Evans property owners that received assessment reductions the courtesy of an explanation of who qualifies for a tax refund and how to apply for it. Documents obtained by the Evans Taxpayers United show that some [...]
As part of the 2009 NYS State Comptrollers audit of the Brant Police Department, on page 6 of 23 is: In addition, for department heads (such as a police chief), who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement or other employment contract, the terms and conditions of employment should be well documented and [...]
If the Director of Community Development can't spell her own name, does any one really think she is smart enough to attract new businesses to Evans? She'll blame the webmaster for the misspelling but who reviewed her home page before the new website went live!
The Union Concrete site located next to the Angola/Eden Thruway exit has seen a significant transformation in the last few years. Below is an older Google Earth map and a more recent Zillow map. What is the nature of this operation? County records show that this parcel is 29.8 acres, landlocked, classified as rural vacant and [...]
The winds of change hit 8787 Erie Road on 1-1-2012 as Keith Dash, Paul Cooper and Dennis Feldmann were sworn into office. While change in government occurs slowly and even slower in Evans, here's a rundown of what has changed and a few ideas about how this board can run a more open government. MEETINGS: THE [...]
Under state law, every property MUST be assessed at its "fair market value". Karen Erickson remodeled a garage on her income property at 8921 Lake Shore Road. The assessment was NEVER increase to reflect the improvements. Click Here To View Erie County Real Property Info The property now has a house, a rental apartment and a commercial [...]
On November 8th, 2011, 5,161 of 10,967 or 41.7% of registered voters in Evans went to the polls. 47.1% of the registered democrats equals 2,315 voters. 47.1% of the registered republican voters equals 1,392 voters. The democrats should have easily won the race for supervisor. The dems won both councilmen’s offices. Hub Frawley totaled 1,346 votes on [...]
New Era’s Headquarters: Moved to Downtown Buffalo. Evans National Bank Headquarters: Moved to Hamburg. Now: H&K Industries: Moved to Hamburg: will create up to 40 new jobs. These jobs could have and should have been here in Evans. In the “real business world”, an employee with this poor performance record would be an “former employee” [...]
As a member of the Town of Evans Economic Development Committee, Karen Erickson took an oath to uphold all laws. In 2002, when the old Connors Hot Dog Stand was demolished, the Connors / Erickson families didn’t get a demolition permit. ( Click Here! ) They obtained a permit in 2003 for “repair” a few weeks [...]
In order to get state aid from NYS ORPS for Town of Evans assessment department, updating assessments will be a never ending process. Since Town of Evans paid GAR Associates over $200,000 for appraising residential (only) properties, reduced levels of state aid will not come close to covering outside appraisers. This means the Evans assessment [...]
TownOfEvans.com’s 2011 Election Preview EVANS SUPERVOISOR – FOUR YEAR TERM As a 55 year life long resident of Evans, I feel it’s important to reminded voters of Hub’s relationship with past Evans supervisors. His brother-in-law and current chairman of the Evans Democratic Committee, Robert “Bob Cat” Catalino Sr., was supervisor from 1970 to 1977. His [...]
In 1997, Erie County Commissioner of Environment and Planning Richard Tobe identified problems that included the Village of Angola water plant. Last week, the Sun News reported that the village is ready to move forward with a sale of the property. QUESTIONS: Will village officials disclose if and how problems identified in 1997 were resolved? Will village [...]
On July 1st 2011, Evans Director of Finance Andrew Eszak was to release 2010 W2 information to Evans Taxpayers United. Eszak accepted a $100 deposit. He charged ETU $65.25 or 25¢ a copy for a 261 page document that contained one employee name per page and base salary information and not the requested total salary that's [...]
To misquote Ricky Ricardo, “Ernie, You Have Some Splainin To Do”, is appropriate when comparing fines collected in Brant and Evans. Brant has a part-time chief and two part time officers and gets some help from NYS Police and the Erie County Sheriffs. The Evans Police Department consists of 29 sworn officers, 24 full time, [...]
Click Here To Read The North Evans Audit (5-27-2011)
Supervisor Catalino took his girl friend to the Association of Towns convention in NYC. Former Director of Finance Charles Katra, cut her a check for $896.00 for hotel expence. The Freeholders included the check with other overwhelming evendence only to have Judge Joseph Makowski dismiss the case. Isn’t it a surprise this guy gets bounced [...]
Recently, articles printed in the Buffalo News and Hamburg Sun raised questions about the process used by the Democratic Committee to selected Village Mayor Hub Frawley as the candidate for Evans Supervisor. Charges were made that the fix was in for the Brother-In-Law of Chairman Catalino Sr. This history lesson is to remind Evans voters [...]
At the last town board meeting of 2011, the board voted to overlay a commercial zoning district over land zoned public facility. This was an illegal and back door way of doing business. Maybe Evans should adopt procedures that require adjoiniong property owners AND TOWN OF EVANS to notify adjoining property owners before changes are [...]
aIf North Collins can get zero interst loans for their water project, why can't Evans do the same? When will the town board disclosed how the Evans water / roads projects are funded? a
Orchard Park appointed a new town attorney. Evans should have done the same!
It will be interesting to see if the Dash/ Cooper / Feldmann town board will address and obey open meetings law. Under open meetings law, the public has a right to see how the board arives at decisions. That hasn’t happened much even prior to 2009 when the town had five man boards. If this [...]
In 2011, Evans solved budget problems by borrowing millions of dollars to be repaid by future generations of residents. Other towns look for ways to reduce spending. The town should hire an accounting firm that specializes in fund accounting to replace the Director of Finance. If the new town board appoints another “cronie” to the [...]
Dennis Feldmann MUST retire from the Evans PD before taking the oath of office on 1-1-2012. Given that Evans has a declining population, it will be interesting to see if the new town board will reduce the police force by one officer or if it’s politics as usual and fill the soon to be vacant [...]
Orchard Park has about 10,000 more residents than Town of Evans and an increasing population. Evans has a decreasing population. Orchard Park reduced the police budget by $300,000 while the Evans police budget will increase by $85,633. One reason given for the O.P. budget cut was board members didn’t want to use reserve funds to [...]
Elma is always looking for ways to keep taxes down. They have no long term debt. Evans has borrowed millions for water & roads projects and $1,200,000 against 2012 anticipated revenues. In the article below, the Elma supervisor asks board members to forgo health benefit and stipends. In Evans, coulcilmen’s medical, dental and life insurance [...]
Amherst & Erie County have reduced the number of employees to deal with the budget problems. The Evans Town Board, on 9-28-2011, voted to borrow $1,200,000. It’s easier to borrow money than to make hard decisions. Sooner or later, town won’t be able to borrow money which will lead to huge tax increases or significant layoffs. [...]
The Town of Evans Board members have no such worries. On 9-28-2011, Director of Finance Andrew admitted that the town’s reserve funds were below the legal limits allowed by state law. In other words, the town is broke. That’s why board voted to borrow $1,200,000.
On 3-10-2011, Evans Taxpayers United requested 2010 W2′s via a Freedom of Information request. Evans Director of Finance Andrew Eszak has refused to release the information. Town officials claimed that Robert Freeman, Director of NYS Committee On Open Government, said the Town of Evans did not have to release employees gross (total) pay information. ETU’s [...]
Plans for the water project call for building a $70,000 road on private property to get service vehicles from Eden Evans Center Road to the water which will be located near the end of the former airport runway. The image below was obtained using Zillow.com ( Click Here ) If the property owner can get [...]
100,000 people a week shop at Walmart. Walmart uses that buying power to require vendors to produce products at the lowest possible cost. Garbage collection is one of the biggest costs for municipalities. The article below is about how new technology was used to reduce fuel costs on refuse trucks. [...]
If the NFTA Board of Commissioners can call for employees to help pay for their health insurance, given the financial turmoil in Evans, will the new town board ask for similar concessions from unions representing town employees. When health insurance is paid 100% by taxpayers, there is no incentive for town employees to be concerned [...]
The “Reality” in Evans is that the town is losing population. If the NFTA can provide that same level of service and protection, why can’t the Evans PD do the same?
During the downsizing debate, critics questioned the cost of a special election. Now, Lake Shore Central Schools wants to spend a significant sum of taxpayers dollars on a special election to approve a spending plan that will raise school taxes even more. Special elections, no matter the issue, usually get low voter turnout. LSCS should [...]
TownOfEvans.com supports moving all assessment services to the county level. Assessor Ebersole receives a $6,000 a year payment from North Collins for assessment services. Town officials were given a copy of state law that may reqiure Ebersole to turn payment over to the supervisor. The town refuses to comment on the legality of this payment. [...]
This means that any citizen can start a legal action to ask courts to remove assessor from office. § 36. Removal of town, village, improvement district or fire district officer by court. Any town, village, improvement district or fire district officer, except a justice of the peace, may be removed from office by the supreme [...]
