Today, Assemblymember Monica Wallace and Senator Sean Ryan called on the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Board of Directors to rescind severance packages totaling over $500,000 for three departing executives. In late June, the OTB board approved the payouts for the top executives, including a nearly $300,000 severance package for OTB President and CEO Henry Wojtaszek.

Western Regional OTB is a public-benefit corporation that exists for the benefit of 15 counties in Western New York, as well as the cities of Buffalo and Rochester. It operates dozens of betting parlors, as well as a racetrack, hotel, and casino in Batavia.Proceeds from its operations are to be distributed back to the municipalities, helping to reduce the local tax burden and paying for much-needed county and city services.

The severance packages authorized by the Board last month represent an egregious abuse of public money.The $500,000 golden parachute payouts are astounding in scope and an insult to every taxpayer within those 15 counties and two cities. By awarding these lucrative buyouts to departing OTB executives, OTB is siphoning public funds and wasting money that would otherwise be distributed back to the municipalities.Indeed, the three severance packages alone exceed the entire revenue share provided to 12 of the 15 counties in 2022.

OTB Board members have a fiduciary obligation to ensure that OTB operates for the benefit of the municipalities in the Western region. By authorizing these lucrative and wasteful contracts, the Board has violated its fiduciary duty. Even more offensive is the Board’s decision to increase wages to these three executives twice since last spring, ensuring that these payouts are as high as possible.

The buyouts also violate the state’s Severance Pay Limitation Act, which Assemblymember Wallace passed in 2019 with support from Senator Ryan, then a member of the New York State Assembly. That law - passed in the wake of a similar golden parachute buyout at the Erie County Water Authority - limits severance packages for at-will employees at public-benefit authorities to three months’ salary. Yet the severance packages awarded to all three departing executives are above this threshold. The package for CEO Wojtaszek, who is already among the highest paid public officials in New York, is for an entire year’s salary.

“These golden parachute buyouts for politically connected OTB executives are a flagrant misuse of public resources. By opting to waste public dollars and line the pockets of patronage-appointed executives, the board is violating both the spirit and letter of the law that I passed in 2019 to prevent exactly this kind of abuse,” said Assemblymember Wallace. “These sweetheart severance packages are a slap in the face of the taxpayers of Western New York, and the Board of Directors should immediately vote to rescind them.”

"Western Regional OTB has been mired in corruption and self-dealing for years,” said Senator Ryan. “They are a public benefit corporation that has repeatedly acted against advice they have received from everyone from the state comptroller to the attorney general. Their decision to provide half a million dollars in golden parachutes to departing executives makes it clear the problems we've seen for the last decade persist today. The board needs to do the right thing here – rescind these severance packages and return the money to the municipalities, where it belongs."

“I was disappointed last year when, just before being dissolved, Western New York Regional OTB’s former board gave 18 executives new sweetheart contracts, including one that paid the OTB’s CEO more than the Governor of New York State,” said Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick. “I am even more dismayed that the new board voted last month to buy out the contracts of the CEO and two others.Among the litany of outrages is that between salary and buyout, the CEO will receive almost $600,000 in 2024.I think the public would agree that this is money that should be going back to the member municipalities to reduce property taxes.I urge the board to reconsider their decision.”

Western Regional OTB has a well-documented history of misusing public resources under Wojtaszek’s leadership. In 2021, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued two audits, one that found that hundreds of Bills, Sabres and concert tickets purchased by OTB and intended to be given to players as incentives were instead used by OTB executives and Board members, who then racked up thousand-dollar concession bills for food and alcohol.The Comptroller also cited the impropriety of OTB giving free, high-end health, dental, and vision insurance for Board members.

Assemblymember Wallace and Senator Ryan worked with the Legislature to pass changes reforming Western Regional OTB in an effort to curb abuses of public funds. Those changes include introducing weighted voting to ensure residents of larger counties like Erie County have equal representation on the OTB Board.Notwithstanding these changes, however, OTB board members have continued to allow fiscal misconduct.