Story Created:
Sep 11, 2010 at 4:16 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Sep 11, 2010 at 4:18 PM EDT
UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - The City of Utica announced Saturday that New York State authorities will announce what action they will take on GroWest in a press conference on Sunday in-front of the organization's location on State Street.
Utica Mayor Roefaro maintains that GroWest is under investigation because of "improprieties with grant funding." GroWest, a local non-profit organization, has received just over $4 million from the city since 2003.
The City of Utica hired J.K. Hage, a private attorney, to investigate the accusations against GroWest. The Utica Board of Estimate and Apportionment voted to hire JK Hage at a rate of $150 an hour - for an undetermined amount of hours - to aid in the investigation of GroWest.
Former Utica Mayor Tim Julian, and current Utica City Comptroller Michael Cerminaro were named in Attorney J.K. Hage's executive summary as being ones to blame for a lack of oversight in the GroWest scandal.
The report specifically claims that when former Mayor Julian reorganized the city's Urban and Economic Development Department back in 2003, he did so illegally. Hage says GroWest was not operating well prior to 2003 and Julian's reorganization "made it worse."
Cerminaro says the claims against him are politically motivated. Both Hage and Mayor David Roefaro deny the claims.
"I cant help what the political people are going to say. The report is what it is," said Roefaro. "It is factual. It is true." "I had no political motivation in any of my findings or recommendations," Hage said.
Cerminaro says he will not pay Hage when the bill comes due to the city. Hage said Wednesday he plans on submitting a bill for "six figures".
There were several people - former GroWest board members and employees along with former contractors for GroWest - all of whom received summons to appear in court to face charges. However, neither Julian nor Cerminaro received a summons.
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