Post by ferryfast admin on Jan 17, 2006 20:32:41 GMT -5
Jane Flasch (Rochester, NY) - 01/17/06 -
13WHAM-TV
www.13wham.com/
Federal officials have confirmed they are investigating the use of taxpayer money for the fast ferry project.
They were first contacted by City Hall when the city took over troubled ferry service from the former operator CATS.
In his first public comments since leaving office, former Mayor Bill Johnson defended a lease to pay $250,000 a year for docking rights in Toronto.
He said the ferry board and city council knew about the costs and budgeted for them as far back as 2004. He released documents to prove it.
However, the issue the FBI is investigating is: contracts involving the first ferry owner.
Canadian American Transportation Systems (aka CATS, the privately owned company that first ran the ferry when it arrived in Rochester) shut down after only 80 days in service--because of money problems.
When the courts ordered CATS to leave offices on the second floor of the terminal building, it appears they left some things behind.
Former City Attorney Linda Kingsley said, "There were things that were left behind in various formats on computers that we owned and had control of…they were records that raised concerns with us, that we felt had to get into the right hands."
Last spring, Kingsley turned over the documents to the FBI and the state attorney general's office.
At issue is $14 million in loans and grants CATS obtained from the state, and another $1.3 million from the city.
Former Mayor Bill Johnson said, "There's federal and state money in this deal with CATS. We know that several people have been asking what happened to that money."
In reality, little taxpayer money has gone directly to CATS. According to state and city officials, most of the money was wired directly to the Australian ship builder Austal, to purchase the $42.5 million ship.
However the principal investors in CATS, Brian Prince and Dominic De Lucia, drew suspicion because they were not forthcoming with information about investors and business dealings.
Theirs was a private company; its books were never shared with the public.
The confiscated computer documents include dealings between CATS and other private companies.
However, according to the former mayor, the state comptroller's office has launched an audit not of CATS, but of the city's role in loaning CATS $1.3 million.
Former Mayor Johnson said, "I don't understand why they have to spend a lot of time looking at that, when they clearly could be looking at CATS and others, and they aren't doing that."
Both the FBI and the state attorney general's office confirmed that they are conducting investigations, and the focus of the investigations is the former ferry owner CATS.
Representatives of CATS did not return calls to 13 WHAM News, but have stressed all along they have done nothing wrong.
Former Mayor Bill Johnson released this information today to make it clear that the city has nothing to hide. It was the city that alerted authorities to these documents in the first place.
13WHAM-TV
www.13wham.com/
Federal officials have confirmed they are investigating the use of taxpayer money for the fast ferry project.
They were first contacted by City Hall when the city took over troubled ferry service from the former operator CATS.
In his first public comments since leaving office, former Mayor Bill Johnson defended a lease to pay $250,000 a year for docking rights in Toronto.
He said the ferry board and city council knew about the costs and budgeted for them as far back as 2004. He released documents to prove it.
However, the issue the FBI is investigating is: contracts involving the first ferry owner.
Canadian American Transportation Systems (aka CATS, the privately owned company that first ran the ferry when it arrived in Rochester) shut down after only 80 days in service--because of money problems.
When the courts ordered CATS to leave offices on the second floor of the terminal building, it appears they left some things behind.
Former City Attorney Linda Kingsley said, "There were things that were left behind in various formats on computers that we owned and had control of…they were records that raised concerns with us, that we felt had to get into the right hands."
Last spring, Kingsley turned over the documents to the FBI and the state attorney general's office.
At issue is $14 million in loans and grants CATS obtained from the state, and another $1.3 million from the city.
Former Mayor Bill Johnson said, "There's federal and state money in this deal with CATS. We know that several people have been asking what happened to that money."
In reality, little taxpayer money has gone directly to CATS. According to state and city officials, most of the money was wired directly to the Australian ship builder Austal, to purchase the $42.5 million ship.
However the principal investors in CATS, Brian Prince and Dominic De Lucia, drew suspicion because they were not forthcoming with information about investors and business dealings.
Theirs was a private company; its books were never shared with the public.
The confiscated computer documents include dealings between CATS and other private companies.
However, according to the former mayor, the state comptroller's office has launched an audit not of CATS, but of the city's role in loaning CATS $1.3 million.
Former Mayor Johnson said, "I don't understand why they have to spend a lot of time looking at that, when they clearly could be looking at CATS and others, and they aren't doing that."
Both the FBI and the state attorney general's office confirmed that they are conducting investigations, and the focus of the investigations is the former ferry owner CATS.
Representatives of CATS did not return calls to 13 WHAM News, but have stressed all along they have done nothing wrong.
Former Mayor Bill Johnson released this information today to make it clear that the city has nothing to hide. It was the city that alerted authorities to these documents in the first place.