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Erie County's Fiscal Watchdog Questions Use of Workers

Posted by: Stefan Mychajliw, Reporter
Created: 3/9/2006 10:12:38 PM
Updated: 3/9/2006 11:12:12 PM

The program is called "HEAP," short for “Home Energy Assistance Program.”

Erie County workers within the Social Services Department help the poor pay heating bills.

"HEAP workers are the workers who are paid for by Federal funds, to assist needy families and their utility bills during the winter," said Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz.

That's why the Erie County Comptroller wanted to know why HEAP workers were used as ushers at Joel Giambra's State of the County address at the Buffalo Convention Center last month.

"It's always been my contention that the State of the County address of Mr. Giambra's is a non-County function. It's not an official function. It's actually a function put on by the Rotary Club of Buffalo, and you have to pay to get into it," said the Erie County Comptroller.

The County Comptroller fired off a letter to Giambra, stating the official program given to guests at the State of the County address even "thanks Erie County HEAP workers for serving as ushers," and added "the federal government might sanction the County for such an action."

"If they want to volunteer, so be it. But I don't think it's right for those workers to be there," added Poloncarz.

The County Executive responded with a letter eleven days after receiving the correspondence from the Erie County Comptroller.

Giambra wrote the State of the County "is indeed official county business."

The Erie County Executive also admitted "some HEAP workers did act as ushers at the event and did so while on county time."

But Giambra claims HEAP workers can spend "ten percent of their time on matters that are not part of HEAP."

The County Executive did not list how many HEAP workers were there or how long they worked.

"That's the information I'm trying to get. We made that specific request to Mr. Giambra. And in his response, he did not provide that information," said Poloncarz.

The Erie County Comptroller is working on a response to Giambra's response because Poloncarz still wants to know how many HEAP workers were there.

2 On Your Side did try to talk to the Erie County Executive about this. But our phone calls to Giambra’s spokesman were not returned.