Buffalo, NY (WBEN) As he addressed the COVID 19 crisis, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz once again addressed questions about overtime for the county's health commissioner, Dr. Gale Burstein.
More calmly this time, he called the remarks made by the outgoing comptroller wrong and a political hit job.
Poloncarz began with an apology for his heated comments last week. "I got a little excited about a question, knowing there was incorrect information being provided by the former comptroller, and i used a barnyard epithet I should not have used, and I apologize," says Poloncarz. He says he was upset because outgoing comptroller Stefan Mychajliw provided false information.
Poloncarz says Erie County paid more than $46 million in overtime through all departments, including the sheriff's office, and all employees are eligible for overtime except for elected officials. "Dr. Burstein didn't receive the most overtime over the last 2 years. The employee who did was employed by the sheriff's office," says Poloncarz, who notes deputies get the vast majority of overtime.
Poloncarz believes Mychajliw wrongly added fringe benefits referring to Burstein. "He was wildly off, he's off by it appears to be $90,000," says Poloncarz.
Poloncarz does believe Mychajliw's comment was a political hit job. "He doesn't talk about all the overtime accrued by other county employees. In fact, the top 15 employees for overtime accrued was $2.5 million. 14 of the top 15 were members of the sheriff's office. Dr. Burstein was the other," explains Poloncarz.
Poloncarz notes Mychajliw only attacked one person for political purposes, that person was Burstein. "To make me look bad, to make her look bad," says Poloncarz. He says Mychajilw wasn't to going criticize anyone else.
Mychajliw did not run for re-election for comptroller, instead running an unsuccessful campaign for Hamburg Supervisor.
