[ NEWS FROM THE WEEK PAST ]
Contract approved
Members of Teamsters Local 118 voted to accept a contract proposal from Wegmans. The deal was the same one that Wegmans and union officials agreed to during an October 12 meeting and includes a switch from a union pension fund to Wegmans’ own retirement plan. The contract also gives workers an 18 percent raise over its six-year life and a $1,000 lump-sum payment for full-timers.
GateHouse exiting bankruptcy
A judge gave GateHouse Media the OK to emerge from bankruptcy, though it won’t be the same company. Media reports say that GateHouse will combine with the Dow Jones Local Media Group into a new holding company, New Media Investment Group. The majority stockholder of the new company will be GateHouse’s largest debt-holder, Newcastle Investment Corp.
A prayer’s chance?
The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the Greece Town Board’s practice of opening its meetings with a prayer. The women who brought the suit,
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Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, say that the problem isn’t that Greece opens its meetings with prayer, but that most of the prayers are overtly Christian.
News
LDC action continues
The board for Upstate Telecommunications Corporation moved to end its contract with Navitech Services Corporation, reports the Democrat and Chronicle. Navitech is at the center of an alleged bid-rigging scheme. Another local development corporation, Monroe Safety and Security Systems LDC, was expected to take similar action on Friday.
GOVERNMENT | BY JEREMY MOULE AND CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN
LDC’s: the scandal (almost) everyone saw coming Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks apparently isn’t ready to give up on local development corporations. Brooks reiterated her support for the quasi-governmental bodies at a tense press conference last week, which came on the heels of the arrest of four people, including her husband, for allegedly carrying out an elaborate bid-rigging scheme.
Rochester gets new bishop
Roman Catholic Bishop Salvatore Matano, who is currently serving as the bishop for the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, was named by Pope Francis as the Bishop of Rochester.
First in line?
Bret Garwood, the city’s director of Business and Housing Development, has resigned to join the state Department of Homes and Community Renewal as senior vice president of multi-family housing. Garwood’s resignation comes shortly after the election of a new mayor, Lovely Warren.
NOVEMBER 13-19, 2013
Robert Wiesner defended himself against allegations of bid-rigging at a press conference last week. PHOTO BY LARISSA COE
The four, including Brooks’s husband, Robert Wiesner, face felony charges as a result of the state Attorney General’s probe into two countylinked local development corporations. The Attorney General’s Office outlined its case against the four defendants in an indictment, which was unsealed by acting county court Justice Robert Noonan last week. The AG’s Office alleges that the four defendants all had a hand in a scheme to rig bids so that favored companies would get contracts with one or both of the LDC’s in question: Upstate Telecommunications Corporation and Monroe Safety and Security Systems.
The history of the LDC controversy is complicated, with roots in two critical state Comptroller’s Office audits related to UTC and M3S. In short, the AG’s Office alleges that, in addition to manipulating the contracts, two officers of the corporations used fake contracts, inflated subcontracts, and falsified invoices to steal money from LDC projects. The allegations — all four men have pleaded not guilty — are troubling, of course. And they reinforce years of criticisms leveled by government watchdogs and some state and local politicians. continues on page 7