Buffalo Common Council President James W. Pitts anticipates that the city, as owner of the Broadway Market, will want to makes changes on the board after an audit is completed in the wake of a $250,000 deficit.
Pitts said the aim will be to provide more stability for both market operations and tenants.
The Council president disclosed that the audit will provide the basis for Council hearings in which "market management, board members and merchants will be questioned about what vent wrong.
"A lot of the vendors think that people are coming in and making political decisions."
he said. "I do think we should try to limit the kind of political influence previously present at the market."
Two city auditors report every day to the community room of the market, where work is said to be progressing slowly.
The job is not easy, said Tony Farina, executive assistant to City Comptroller Anthony A. Nanula. "It's very difficult because of the condition of the books
out there." Farina said.
Among the board members are two Democratic politicians who play .strong roles in
Broadway-Fillmore institutions dependent on public grants: Gregory B. Olma, a county legislator. and David A. Franczyk. a former Council member who rep-
resented the Fillmore District for many years.
Olma and Franczyk are, or have been, deeply involved with Central Terminal reconstruction, the Polish Community Center and a Polish library across from Olma's house.
There have been complaints that some board members are also on other boards controlled by Olma or Franczyk. said Pitts.
Reached by telephone, Franczyk said that as a Council member, he directed millions of dollars to the Broadway Market and made appointments to, its board, but was not himself eligible to serve on the board.
"No Council member has ever served as a board member," he said.
Franczyk said that before the money problems became news. he volunteered to join the board and was accepted. He said he has yet to attend his first meeting.
Asked the names of his appointees to the current board, Franczyk said he did not-have any papers before him and did not remember specifically. Karen Ellington, the new Council member from the Fillmore District, has not yet been appointed to the board. She will. however, have a role in the next city budget.
and she said market tenants have approached her for help.
With Niagara Mohawk threatening to shut off the power, the Masiello administration found an extra $87,000 earlier this month to keep the power on, a city official said. The city already had paid half of the utility bill under a
lease with the market, and, in effect, paid again. The board recently asked the Council to take over the entire cost of utilities, and the matter will go to a vote in the Council.
Meanwhile, there are complaints of expenditures that preceded receipt of grants and a sweetheart deal 15 months ago with the current anchor tenant. Save a Lot. After Tops pulled out as anchor store, the board invested $500,000 in city
grant money in upgrading the space subsequently rented to save a Lot,
a franchise operated by Horrigan & Sons.
Tops did not sell meats, but independent merchants complain that
Save a Lot offers some of the same products as specialty stands.
"He's in competition with all the meat stands, all the produce stands.
Our business has gone down," said a vendor, who spoke on condition
of anonymity.
Save a Lot now pays $3.75 per square foot under a lease that will
finish at $5 per square foot in 2018.
Other tenants pay $13.75, and they say increases are demanded as
leases expire.
"This is what the board has done," said a tenant. "They have
put everybody's livelihood in jeopardy, but they have jobs."
Horrigan notified the Broadway Market Board early this month that
he hopes to sell his lease and will do so at the end of 60 days.
With the busy Easter season approaching, vendors are hoping to
make money. The comptroller's office is with them in that hope, and
audit results are not expected until after the holiday.
One board member, mayoral appointee Peter Cammarata, is for-
mer director of the market When Cammarata left to become a vice
president of Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. in the mid-1990s,
the market was in the black.