BUFFALO, N.Y. - Erie County Comptroller candidate Mark Poloncarz today commented on the Buffalo Niagara Partnership's Erie County Stabilization Project report.

Poloncarz, the endorsed Democratic candidate and a business and finance attorney, expressed his appreciation to the Partnership for conducting the review. "I would like to thank the Partnership, including Robert Gioia, Chair of the Project, for their assessment. Their analysis offers many recommendations that have real potential for making county government more efficient and improving service delivery while saving millions of dollars."

Recommendations and major findings include: Medicaid fraud recovery, improved management of the county's jail management system including video arraignment, widespread changes in county purchasing, changes in county building usage and more aggressive revenue recovery for services. "If elected Comptroller, I commit to following through and helping the Executive and Legislature to implement recommendations in the report," said Poloncarz.

Poloncarz also noted that in the Partnership's nearly 375 page report, there was no reference to the Office of the Comptroller as a departmental entity, while all other elected offices and county departments were examined in some detail.

"I am concerned that the Stabilization Project did not examine the Office of the Comptroller," said Poloncarz. The Comptroller's Office should be the subject of an in-depth review considering its recent understaffing, inability to conduct comprehensive and timely audits, inability to timely pay vendors, its debt management and borrowing practices, and lack of proactive measures to address the 2004 and 2005 budget crises. Poloncarz stated, "Given all of the issues and concerns in that department, the Office of Comptroller needed and still needs an outside review and analysis."

Poloncarz has a ten-point action plan for strengthening the Office of Comptroller that includes timely, proactive audits and performance and management audits of County government and its related entities, monthly reviews and analyses of county spending, and regular reporting on revenues. The action plan can be seen at http://poloncarz.com/actionagenda.htm.