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Cheektowaga board orders audit of highway spending but deadlocks on personnel sanction
Summary
The Town Board found the highway superintendent acted outside the 2025 highway agreement and directed an immediate review and halt to unauthorized projects; a related resolution that would have placed the superintendent on formal notice and preserved the board’s right to pursue recovery failed in a 3–3 vote.
Supervisor Brian Nowak said the board had reviewed the 2025 February highway agreement and concluded the highway superintendent "approved or initiated expenditures, work orders, or highway projects not authorized in the 2025 agreement" and therefore directed the town supervisor and finance staff to review all highway fund accounts and halt further unauthorized expenditures.
The board debated two linked resolutions. Council member Vinzkowski, a sponsor, described three streets where micropaving work had been done without prior authorization and said the town needed to close the policy gap so the board could approve amendments before work begins. Council member Pularski pushed back, saying the superintendent was "within his budget" and warning that an immediate sanction could unfairly punish a working crew chief who had been appointed during retirements.
An amendment to the highway-review resolution—softening the remedies clause so the board "reserves all rights and remedies available under New York state law, including but not limited to corrective action plans, withholdings of further appropriations, referrals to the office of state comptroller, or the office of the attorney general, and/or disciplinary or enforcement procedures permitted under law"—carried after debate.
A separate resolution (2025-823) that would direct the superintendent to cease additional unauthorized wage payments and put him on formal notice, while reserving the town’s right to pursue recovery or surcharge, drew lengthy discussion about collective-bargaining memoranda, staffing inventories and the downstream impact on an incumbent working crew chief. Council member Benczkowski argued the town board has "the exclusive authority to determine the number and civil service titles of employees in the highway department" and cited a 2017 memorandum of agreement and a controller's opinion in support. Council member Pularski and others said there had been no plan for how to reassign or compensate affected employees and urged more discussion.
When the vote was taken on Resolution 2025-823 as amended, the board was split: three members voted in favor and three opposed, and the resolution failed. The board did adopt the highway-accounting review and an immediate halt to any further highway projects not expressly authorized in writing by the town board.
The town attorney (name not stated) reminded the board that any formal remedies would need to follow statutory procedure under New York town law and that certified copies of the resolution would be sent to relevant officials including the New York State Office of the State Comptroller.
Next steps: the board directed the supervisor and finance directors to begin the account review and to provide documentation to the board; no further formal personnel action was adopted at tonight’s meeting.
