By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – Several members of the Western New York Legislative Delegation were in Buffalo Wednesday to announce a one hundred thousand dollar state grant for the zoo. But they say it is the control board that will really come to the county's rescue. But some local lawmakers aren't so sure.
The state grant will buy a new computer system for the zoo. And state lawmakers promised more help soon for other culturals. But they say the control board is the county's best hope for long term stability.
Still, some local legislators sid they are not sure what help, if any, the control board will provide. State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt said there's no mystery.
"They will be up and running and advising the county government what their expectations are," said Hoyt. "All a county elected official has to do, be it the county executive or county legislator, is read the law that was passed. It gives them ample guidelines as to what they need to do - what they need to submit to the control board."
But County Executive Joel Giambra balked at the idea of taking the board's advice - any sooner than necessary.
"The control board doesn't have any say in this," said Giambra. "The control board is going to review a plan that we put together and then they'll decide if it's a plan that merits support, or not."
Still, Giambra said he expects to work well with those being named to the control board - once they officially begin in October.
He said that includes two former Gorski administration top aides - Sheila Kee and Stan Keysa.
Senator Dale Volker also approves of the selections. But Volker said the bigger issue is staffing.
"There's been more discussion of staff on this control board than at any time I can remember. The reason is we want the best possible staff people because they do a lot of the grunt work. This is difficult because we've got reports and all sorts of things," said Volker. "And you've got the city right next door, so we're going to try to do a cooperative venture between the staff on the Buffalo control board and the county control board."
That brings into question how intertwined the two control boards' decisions will be. However, state lawmakers say that with fifty million dollars of incentives on the table, cooperation could be beneficial to both municipalities.