Questions arise over what led to Mayor Byron Brown being offered the OTB job

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Over the past year, there has been a shakeup in Western New York politics that has led to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown being offered the position of President and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting.

November 2023

• Congressman Brian Higgins announced he was stepping down to become president of Shea’s Performing Arts Center. Days later, then-New York State Senator Tim Kennedy announced he would run to replace Higgins in Congress.
• Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown also said at the time that he was strongly considering running for Congress as well, but that idea didn’t last long.

April 2023

• Kennedy won a special election to replace Brian Higgins in Congress. Around the same time, New York Governor Kathy Hochul approved the state budget, which included off-track betting reforms that Kennedy had introduced months earlier.

“It changed the governance of the Western Region OTB from a primarily Republican organization to a primarily Democratic organization,” said 7 News political analyst Bob McCarthy.
OTB Board members are appointed to represent the counties of Western New York and the cities of Buffalo and Rochester.

The reform gave Erie, Monroe, Buffalo and Rochester counties a 62 percent swing vote compared to Republican-led counties in the surrounding region.

“It certainly didn’t go down well in Republican strongholds, but again, it’s a consequence of total Democratic control in Albany,” McCarthy said. “That’s the writing on the wall and Henry Wojtaszek acknowledged that.”

Wojtaszek has been CEO of Western Regional OTB since 2016, prior to that he was Niagara County Republican Chairman.

“Wojtaszek has been a lightning rod throughout his career,” McCarthy said. “He was investigated by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman several years ago and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor election law violation.”

June 2024

• Wojtaszek announced he was leaving OTB. OTB’s board of directors later approved a severance package for Wojtaszek by a vote of 14-1, allowing him to receive his full annual salary paid on Dec. 15. His annual salary is $287,000, according to the Investigative Post.

The measure was criticized by New York State Representative Monica Wallace and New York State Senator Sean Ryan.
“We’re talking about taxpayer dollars,” Wallace told 7 News reporter Kristen Mirand in April.

Wallace questioned the legality of the board’s decision to pay the executives severance under the Severance Pay Limitation Act, which limits severance pay to three months’ salary for paid public employees.

“This is taxpayer money,” Wallace said. “If they decide to pay what I call a golden parachute or exorbitant severance packages in violation of the law that I passed years ago in response to another abuse of power, I would say the comptroller, the attorney general and the governor should all ask themselves some questions.”

July 2024

• OTB has published the position of CEO to replace Wojtaszek with a base salary of $280,000 to $320,000. According to public records, Brown earned $157,000 last year as Buffalo mayor.

September 2024

• OTB offers Byron Brown the position of President and CEO.

We also heard from Buffalo Common Council members and Buffalo residents to get their reaction to the job offer to Brown, you can watch both reports below.