DOT liaison sought positive comments for Rt. 33 project at deadline

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Local, state, and federal leaders have been pounding the pavement, trying to garner support for the Route 33 reconstruction project for years. That urgency led to the community outreach liaison passing out pre-filled letters to residents to allegedly boost the positive comments.

In an email obtained by WIVB News 4, Mark Boyd, chief of staff for Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, drafted the letter shortly before the public comment deadline. "We have 3 days to submit as many support letters as we can before the public comment period closes. Please sign and submit a letter yourself and ensure that 5 additional people do the same," he wrote on Nov. 7.

He sent the email to community leaders, Albany staffers, and community outreach liaison Janate 'Solar' Ingram.

This email came after the state Department of Transportation extended its public comment period for the project at the end of October to Nov. 10.

Ingram allegedly took letters to an East Side Parkways Coalition meeting to distribute, which the coalition found out about while the meeting was in progress.

The DOT says Ingram is not an employee of the department but does work for LaBella Associates, an engineering consulting firm for the project. It also says it never directed Ingram to pass out these letters and is now investigating what happened.

Ms. Ingram is the liaison between DOT and the local community and is paid by LaBella, which is contracted as a consultant for the Kensington Expressway project and not a state employee. DOT is looking into the matter but we can say unequivocally that neither DOT nor LaBella directed pre-filled forms to be distributed at any meeting. 

All comments received since the public meeting held in June to the end of the comment period on November 10, which total more than 1400, will be included in the final Environmental Assessment document. 

All comments received during the comment period, as well as input from the dozens of community engagement events, are considered as the project moves forward under the NEPA process. 

Susan Surdej, NYS Department of Transportation Region 5 Public Information Officer

Ingram's relationship with LaBella is not mentioned on the DOT website.

"Is this a horse race? Are we just trying to get one more positive comment than the other?" said Jeff Carballada, East Side Coalition Member. "It sort of spoke to the recognition that perhaps the DOT hadn't done their job in the outreach. There was very consistent flow of comments against this project at the end of the initial comment period."

While pre-filled-out letters are not uncommon for a project like this, the coalition said some of the letters were distributed just before the deadline, potentially inflating positive comments for the project. Other templates were also used.

The coalition is concerned that some of the pre-filled-out ballots distributed by politicians or DOT representatives do not reflect what is detailed in the project.

One template says "I support the covering...to Delaware Park", which is not part of the scope of the project. It is currently slated to be covered from Sidney to Dodge Streets on Rt. 33, which is approximately 0.8 miles.

In the letter written by Boyd, it states "I support Phase One of the ROCC Project...". There are no other planned phases in the current project outline.

The coalition feels this is urgency created by the state, not by the project itself.

"That is a manufactured urgency. If the DOT wanted to invest in the East Side, the time to do it probably would've been when the tunnel reached the end of its service life. The fact that we are rushing now is unfortunate," Morgan Baker of the East Side Parkways Coalition said at a press conference Thursday.

"We haven't really heard any election officials really stand up for the residents and community members who are frustrated they are not being heard," Baker continued.

In its data analysis, the coalition says there are 1,310 comments filed that are publicly available online. It says 48 percent of the comments were opposing the project, 47 percent were in favor of it, and 5 percent were neutral. The DOT says 1,400 comments received from June through Nov. 10 will be available in the final environmental assessment. The coalition is not sure where the additional 90 comments are located and says the DOT reported at a stakeholder meeting that 41 percent of the comments opposed the project, 48 percent were in favor and 11 percent were neutral.

Meeting minutes from stakeholder meetings, which include public hearings, are not available online. The coalition adds that it is unable to account for the discrepancy in the numbers and that some of the documents may not be publicly available.

The NYCLU wrote a letter against the prefilled comments saying, "The action of a state official leveraging their authoritative and discretionary power to pressure laypersons to blindly sign a pre-drafted form, raises serious concerns of meeting the strict standards of meaningful public participation."

It also criticized the DOT for failing to adjust the plan after residents expressed concerns. The coalition says there was one adjustment after a December 2022 meeting, but air quality and other concerns were not addressed.

News 4 reached out to the Restore Our Communities Coalition, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes office, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office, and Ingram for comment, but have not heard back.