The search process for a new president and CEO of Batavia Downs is too far along to add another board member to the search committee, said Western OTB Board President Dennis Bassett in response to an inquiry from The Batavian.
Erie County Executive Marc Poloncarz sent a letter to Bassett on Wednesday, which a Poloncarz spokesman shared with The Batavian, asking that Timonty C. Callan be added to the search committee.
Callan is Erie County's deputy comptroller and Erie County's representative on the OTB board. He has been kept apprised of open and closed sessions, which Bassett agreed, gave Callan every opportunity over the past few months to request inclusion on the board.
"I have worked hard to put together a search committee over several sessions and I feel comfortable that we have a solid process in place," Bassett said. "I have shared with the entire board and kept the board apprised of our progress. The board is the final decision maker of who we elect to be president and CEO."
He added, "I don't think at this late stage should change players or add more players to the search committee. I'm going to stay with the team that I have."
In his letter, Poloncarz suggested Callan should be appointed because Erie County is the largest weighted voting member of the OTB board.
Poloncarz also seems to indicate he doesn't have confidence in the current search committee.
"Filling such a critical role requires a serious regional and nationwide search to find a skilled, reform-minded individual who can lead OTB into the future as the organization competes against the rapid growth of online sports betting and the decline of the horse racing industry," Poloncarz wrote.
He touted Callan's background in government service but did not mention any qualifying business experience.
"Dr. Callan's expertise and experience, including as the executive director of my transition team and participation on the search committee to hire the new State University of New York at Erie Community College president, make him well suited to enhancing and professionalizing your search," Poloncarz wrote. "Not including Dr. Callan in your search process not only does a disservice to all the members of OTB, but to the taxpayers of every constituent municipality."
Bassett said he wouldn't speculate on why Poloncarz would weigh in on the composition of the search committee so late in the process.
"I really want to deal with facts and want to make sure we stay steadfast, that our process has transparency, that we go through our process and put the right candidate in front of the board and then vote on who is the most qualified individual," Bassett said.
"I took great care," he added, "to select board members who would aid this process, and I thought I did a pretty good job of that. Though he wasn't on the selection list, I respect Mr. Callan's opinion, and he will, as a large voting block of the board, have a chance with the board to decide who is the next president and CEO."
In an exclusive interview with The Batavian in early July, Bassett promised that there would be no politics in the hiring process of a new CEO. The search process is focused entirely, he said, on hiring the right business person with no regard for political affiliation.
"We are looking for people who can take Western OTB to the next level," Bassett said during that interview. "Henry Wojtaszek is on the right side of the aisle, and I'm on the left side of the aisle. I have the utmost respect for Henry Wojtaszek and the way he ran this organization. We're looking for solid business people."
Bassett, a Democrat representing Monroe County on the board, has a solid business background. In 2021, he retired as the director of Customer Operations at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics in Rochester. He's held various executive-level positions at Bausch and Lomb and Eastman Kodak Company.
"I have been a part of several high-level searches of senior executives in my 51 years in corporate America and on boards outside Western OTB, and I think we are capable of conducting a national search in a very timely and effective manner," Bassett said earlier this month.
The other committee members are Mike Horton, Steuben County; Mark Burr, Cattaraugus County; Ed Morgan, Orleans County; and Elliott Winter, Niagara County.
While Batavia Down's revenue and returns paid to municipalities have grown substantially during Henry Wojtaszek's tenure as president and CEO, the period has also been striven with controversy, from questions about health care plans for OTB board members, the distribution of tickets to sporting events, and Wojtaszek's bookkeeping for a company-provided vehicle. Wojtaszek has said in numerous interviews over the years that these issues have been resolved or corrected.
At a June board meeting, the majority of board members backed a resolution to provide Wojtaszek, CFO Jackie Leach, and VP of Operations William White with severance packages. This is essentially a buyout of contracts that will terminate their employment before the previously negotiated employment contracts expire.
The lone no vote to terminate the employment contracts early came from Callan, which is a vote he has not explained and he did not respond to an email from The Batavian in June asking that he explain the vote.
Erie County Democrats have claimed the contract buyouts violate state law, but Bassett has previously explained that they are citing the wrong section of New York authorities law, and the buyouts under the enabling legislation for OTB make the buyouts legal as a standard business practice.
