BUFFALO (WBEN) - Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw is calling on the Department of Health to refund COVID violation fines to businesses due to a maskless picture of County Executive Mark Poloncarz that surfaced after a golf outing last month.
Mychajliw said he has reached out to more than 200 establishments that were either fined or closed, and below is a part of the letter than was sent to various businesses:
On September 27th Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, in response to a photo posted on social media where he was pictured without a mask, sharing communal food and consuming alcohol with a large group of people, stated:
"I should have worn a mask but forgot. It happens. Our Department of Health considers a close contact being with others for more than 10 minutes. While I should have worn a mask, nothing the team members did in that photo is contrary to our health protocols."
At the time of your Department of Health inspection and subsequent violation, if you were not granted a 10-minute period of leniency to correct potential violations, it is my belief your violation should be removed from any public record and a full refund of any fines should be given to you.
"I think it's unfair that the county executive said that he was maskless for less than 10 minutes and that was okay, that there was no threat to the safety to the people he was golfing with or came in close proximity with," said Mychajliw. "That same standard should apply to businesses that they fined an ultimately closed down.
"There's a separate set of standards when it comes to coronavirus safety for the county executive himself and then for the businesses that they're fining and closing," he continued.
Mychajliw also argues that the health department is inconsistent with their punishments in regard to COVID violations.
When asked for a response, Poloncarz didn't have too much to say, but he essentially claimed Mychajliw is more interested in tearing him down than doing his duty as comptroller.
"I was the comptroller, and I understand the responsibility of the comptroller - he doesn't seem to know what it is, but such be it, there's some good people down in the comptroller's office," Poloncarz began. "If a business got fined, they deserved it, and I actually do know that one of the restaurateurs that their name was in the paper again because they felt like the comptroller was actually causing them a disservice and hurting them, hurting their business because now it's being brought up again that they weren't following the rules a couple months ago.
"If you follow his social media, he seems intent on just going after me," added the county executive. "I mean, if he really was that interested, he should have run for county executive, but it didn't seem like he had the guts to do it."
