The Joint Schools Construction Board has decided to continue withholding payments to LP Ciminelli for construction projects completed at Buffalo public schools.
The board is divided on whether Ciminelli should be held more accountable for how it spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer money, but all members Monday agreed that the supplemental information requested in previous months by school board members Larry Quinn and Carl Paladino was not provided to the board early enough for a careful review.
The two board members continue demanding an audit into Ciminelli's books on the project. Paladino and Quinn renewed their call, once again questioning the use of $42 million by Ciminelli.
Paladino accuses the construction firm of gaining a profit a 30 to40 percent.
"Was that a profit? It's a simple question. If it was a profit, tell us it was a profit," asked Paladino at a Joint Schools meeting Monday at City Hall. "This is $42 million and you are telling us that includes all these incidentals that nobody has defined for us."
Ciminelli spokesman Kevin Schuler says everything was completed fairly.
"At the end, LP Ciminelli delivered exactly what they were contracted for," said Schuler in a WBFO News interview, while the Joint Schools board went into executive session.
Schuler accuses Paladino, also a developer, of politics.
"He's trying to create confusion," said Schuler. "Apparently he has forgotten the state of the schools. Apparently he's forgotten there was a court decree. Apparently he's forgotten that a lot of good people have served on this board and created this project."
Schuler and an attorney for the company appeared at Monday's meeting to defend the project and work completed. The project was originally approved by the then Masiello Administration. Co-chair of the Joint Schools Board Mayor Byron Brown said current school board members weren't involved in negotiating the deal and believes it was completed lawfully.
This past September the city school district celebrated the final school reconstruction project with the completion of International Prep, the former Grover Cleveland High School on the city's west side.
