Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - After Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz nixed a job fair hosted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the Buffalo Convention Center last week, the career fair has found a new location this Tuesday and Wednesday at the U.S. Coast Guard station located at 1 Fuhrmann Boulevard.
Poloncarz cited security concerns and possible civil unrest as reasons for canceling the federal-backed job fair. Also among the federal agencies looking to hire people at this job fair was U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Among the local officials happy to see a new location for the DHS job fair this week was Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns.
"I'm glad that the federal government was able to come up with an alternate location at 1 Furman Boulevard. In this economy, it's really difficult to get a job, and it's not even about a job; it's about careers," said Kearns when joining Joe Beamer on WBEN on Monday. "These are great opportunities for people looking - especially our young people who are graduating - for careers."
Kearns has also heard the pushback from people locally looking to take advantage of the job fair, and feels no government official should hold anyone back from finding a new line of work.
"You don't mess around with people in the federal government who, especially in law enforcement, they're bright, they're flexible, and they were able to come up with a new alternative. And I heard that they weren't going to let a county executive stop them from having this," Kearns said.
Kearns strongly feels Poloncarz should not only apologize for the cancellation of the job fair at the Convention Center, but he should explain his reasoning and be more forthcoming about the decision.
"Everyone needs a job: Democrats, Republicans, Independents. When you're filling out a job application, they don't say what your affiliation is. It was a miscalculation, it was an overreach. Now it is going to be up to the legislature to do their job and correct this," Kearns said. "And there needs to be some type of reasoning on why this occurred, and that it should never happen again. We should not put politics before jobs. There are a lot of people out there that need this, that want to come back home, and it was a miscalculation."
In addition, Kearns will be looking further into the expanded role that the Erie County Legislature could play in last-second decisions such as this at the Convention Center.
"What I have encouraged is the legislature comes up with the plan, and I spoke with many at that time, many of the legislators who were Democrats saying the county executive has too much power, too much authority," Kearns explained. "I get during a snowstorm, he or she would need the authority to make a quick decision, but in this instance, there should be some notification - whether it'd be 48 hours notification to the legislature - and there has to be some type of approval to make sure where he or she would have to make their case on why this needs to happen."
Tuesday and Wednesday's job fair at the U.S. Coast Guard Station will take place from 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m.
