The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 17

Editorials 2 The Buffalo News Local News I Wednesday August 26 1987 News Power 4 Lifestyles 6 Metropolitan News 5 Television 9 Party Loyalty an Issue as Gorski Keane Spar in Debate By GEORGE BORRELLI Xeirs Political Reporter The two Democratic candidates for Erie County executive Tuesday evening aired their differences on taxes welfare reform and party loyalty It was the first one on one debate between Assem blyman Dennis Gorski of Cheektowaga and South Council Member James Keane Keane the endorsed candidate and Gorski will vie in the Sept 15 primary for the Democratic nomination to run against Republican County Executive Rutkow ski A crowd of more than 125 whose sentiments ap peared to be evenly divided between Gorski and Keane witnessed the debate in Memorial Hall in Kenmore Although the debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters was free of rancor the candidates clashed sharply on a number of occasions Sylvia McGarry a past president of the League's Buffalo Metro Chapter was the moderator Keane for example repeatedly called on Gorski to promise to support the winner of the Democratic pri mary a pledge Gorski once made but has refused to repeat since he was endorsed by the Liberal Party Conversely Gorski chided Keane for signing a pay Hill Teen's Job Tangles Kin In Welfare Red Tape THE COUNTY Social Services Department has cut a West Side mother's food stamp allowance from $123 to $10 a month because her teen age daughter took a part time job with the mayor's summer youth program Her 18 year old daughter took the minimum wage job because she is going to he a high school senior in September and she wanted to buy new clothes that she could dress like the other her mother said Instead she used most of her $108 per week income to help put food on the table and make ends meet The cut in monthly welfare benefits left Rose Rinaldo with $328 in cash and $10 in food stamps to pay $180 rent the telephone and electric bills and food for both of them summer job ended Aug 20 but because one pay was withheld until September Mrs Rinaldo's food stamp allowance will not be restored until October she said Mrs Rinaldo and her daughter are victims of federal red tape A spokesman for the Erie County Welfare Department explained that food stamps are part of the federal program that calculates benefits based on a total income she was told that she had been hired she was delighted because she felt she would be able to buy some nice clothes for her senior Mrs Rinaldo said has never known what it is like not to be on welfare She has always had to wear hand me down clothing except for shoes see how her friends dress I know how important it was to her to be able to look nice during her senior year at high school an important time in a Mrs Rinaldo 55 is partially paralyzed by a stroke and has a cervical disease that has made her unable to work She says Erin is a good student and had hoped to go to college next year she knows that would be out of the or all of her disappointment Erin bitter her mother said Two weeks ago Mrs Rinaldo was out of the house for a short time I got home Erin had cleaned the house baked a birthday cake for me and had a few friends drop by and we had a she said Mrs Rinaldo and her daughter have been on welfare since 1972 when father left them has no recollection of things ever being any different than they are now We've always had to scrape Mrs Rinaldo said thought maybe things had turned for the better this year when she got the job for the summer She thought maybe we could get ahead of the game "But when poor poor and things never change I had hoped it would somehow be different for her but then I asked myself why should it be? her first pay Erin bought herself a new pair of sneakers They were the first items on her wish list "Welfare knew she was going to have a summer job because I told them Then right after Erin started they called me in and told me that our food stamp allocation had been cut to $10 a Mrs Rinaldo says she has pretty much accepted her own lot in life But she says she sometimes cries for her daughter She sees her as a prisoner of a system that discourages people from working When that happens hope goes with it Gorski Keane discuss concepts for spurring growth PAGE 1 alty before he was endorsed for county executive by the Democratic County Committee that held its convention June 26 27 Gorski refused to participate in the convention where the rules required a candidate to pledge to support the choice in order to be consid ered gave up a right that people have fought declared Gorski who suggested the oath was and repeated his charge that the convention had been rigged in Keane's favor Keane fired back that it was to suggest that a majority of the 1115 convention delegates had been Keane defeated Assemblyman Robin Sehimmin ger of Kenmore at the convention to win the endorse ment for county executive Schimminger who attended the debate told a reporter: sure Mr Gorski misspoke when he said 1 was un Gorski was warmly applauded by his supporters when he extolled the virtues of "an open participatory in which the more than 260000 Dem ocrats will choose the candidate a closed conven Keane said he deny Gorski's right to run in the primary but questioned the wisdom of a primary contest has been a very costly campaign" asserted Keane of who wins the two of us will be broke after the Keane said the winner of the primary will have to raise couple hundred thousand dollars" in the seven weeks between the primary and the Nov 3 general election Keane chided Gorski for having voted in Albany to raise the Erie County sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent Keane promised to roll the tax back to 7 percent without increasing property taxes if elect ed county executive Gorski said he voted for the tax only because it was requested by the County Legislature and county executive believe in the principle of home rule" he added Gorski said he would reduce sales and real property taxes by a total of $38 million without specifying amounts in either category Later Gorski attacked Keane's vote in the Common Council for a commuter tax on suburbanites who work in Buffalo Keane said the Council never was serious about imposing a commuter tax that it had voted on the measure only to the attention of in a dispute over the division of sales tax revenues Keane said he favors a dedicated source of county revenues for cultural organizations while Gorski said he was opposed Gorski said he would develop a formula that would appropriate funds to the cultural groups based on their own fund raising efforts The candidates also differed on Keane's proposal to have welfare recipients recertified more than once a year as is now the policy would save us millions of dollars a claimed Keane Gorski disagreed asserting he was against on welfare recipients put these people into gainful declared Gorski "These people want to Ch 29 Asks CC to Void Sabres Deal By ALAN PERGAMENT and CAROLYN RAEKE The ownership of WUTV Channel 29 has filed a petition with the ederal Communications Commission protesting the Buffalo plan to take over WNYB Channel 49 and place a schedule of their National Hockey League games on the new independent station Citadel Communication which owns Channel 29 and stands to be Channel chief rival said the plan violates the cross ownership section of CC regu lations In a petition filed with the CC Cita del says the proposed sale of Channel 49 by TVX Broadcast Group Inc of Virginia to Aud Enterprises Inc a subsidiary of the parent organization the Ni agara rontier Hockey Corp should be disapproved Citadel notes that Robert Rich Jr vice chairman of the board of directors also is president of Rich Products Rich Products recently purchased WGR AM and WRLT in Buffalo through a subsidiary Rich Com munications Channel 29 says that would further violate the cross ownership regulation of the CC which is aimed at preventing one organization from controlling multi ple communications media in the same market The Sabres have told the CC their plans do not violate the cross ownership provision but also asked for a waiver of the provision if the CC says cross own ership does apply Robert Swados vice president and counsel of the Sabres said Tuesday night is no contemplation of any assign ment (of the license) to Rich Communi He said the purchase of Chan nel 49 is by Aud Enterprises a subsidiary of the Sabres and Rich is not a director of Aud Enterprises Swados also noted the voting for Channel 49 does not include Rich and that further Rich has agreed not to vote on or participate in matters related to the television station In its petition Channel 29 also ques tioned the qualifications to con trol the license Washington counsel advised that each of the claimed objections posed in the Channel 29 paper was anticipated and disposed of fully in our filings with the CC some of which Channel 29 ap parently did not examine or have the opportunity to examine prior to their fil ing the petition to Swados said is in our opinion no remaining It is unclear whether Channel pro test will delay plans for Channel 49 to debut but presumably the CC will grant the license if as Swados asserts no issues remain The station tentatively is scheduled to go on the air Sept 6 Supermarket Is ined or Employing Minors The Grant erry Super Duper at 313 erry St has been ordered to pay a $400 fine for violations of the child labor law The state Labor Department said its investigators found the supermarket had employed four minors without employ ment certificates and allowed them to work between midnight and 6 am It also said the store failed to pay back wages totaling $50 to another em ployee The store has 60 days to appeal the order i tills gio if Biti: it ii 4: WT a if If iBif BIB if 11V 0 1 RICHARD ROELLERBuffalo News Lillian Knapp of Olean takes a sip in the municipal water taste test today at Eastern Hills Mall Mall Shoppers Get to Drink the Water In State's 'Taste Test' Competition By MICHAEL LEVY Although the final results tabu lated yet water from the Village of Alle gany Dunkirk and Niagara alls had the early lead today in a taste test of munici pal drinks in Western New York Shoppers at Eastern Hills Mall today were asked to sample coded cups of drinking water from eight Western New York communities in the first statewide for public drinking water The test began about 11:30 am Even though those three communities garnered most of the support among the taste testers during the first part of the sampling some shoppers were not im pressed all tastes pretty terrible to said Matthew Budzinski of Sawmill Road in Clarence used to well water from my own well This stuff all tastes lousy compared to Mrs and Mrs Harold Kopp of Am herst were less than enthused about the whole idea the Kopp said do anything about it anyway It seems to me that somebody had some extra taxpayer money in Albany and de cided to waste all taste the same to said Mrs Kopp a water The winning waters will go to the State air riday And then more tasters will have a chance to sample the water through Sept 7 to see which public water supply in the state rates highest amongst fairgoers The idea for a statewide water "taste came from the Department of Envi ronmental Conservation which asked the state Health Department to conduct the tests The DEC thought the scheme would not only provide some good public rela tions for the drinking water in this state but also serve as a guideline for commu nities whose supplies don't rate as highly among consumers Both agencies re sponsible for clean and healthy water cooperate in the state's "Water Week" the first week in May highly said John Orndorff of the bureau of water supply idea is to get the public interested in the taste and quality of their drinking water If people are un happy with the taste and odor of their public drinking supplies they may choose to go to other sources such as roadside springs which are not tested and may not be The five health department re gions were asked to collect samples at various places chill the liquid and help Albany staffers distribute the coded sam ples at public places In Wednesday's taste test ground wa ter samples that is well water came from Village of Allegany in Cattar augus County Alfred in Allegany Coun ty Salamanca in Cattaraugus County and Jamestown in Chautauqua County Surface water supplies water from lakes and rivers came from Buffalo Niagara alls Dunkirk and the Erie County Water Authority Last week in the Rochester area the Monroe County Water Authority won the surface water division while the ground water division was won by the Village of Bath In Central New York taste tests Au burn and the Village of Owego won in the Albany area Troy and Hoosic alls were winners Kingston won the South eastern Region surface water taste test while Huntington LI won the well wa ter category Mayor Takes to the Airwaves Again ires More Shots at Media nel 7: forgot his name lhats how much I thmk of him just another Jimmy Olsen" He also criticized Buffalo Nows Editor and Senior Vice President Murray Light and reporters and columnists Ray Hill George Borrelli Margaret Sulli van and Tom Dolan By GENE WARNER Mayor Griffin booted off a Channel 7 talk show earlier this month returned to the airwaves Tuesday Griffin talked with WBEN reporter Brian Meyer during that station's program and al though he and Meyer got along Griffin come close to patching up his relationship with other local reporters during the broadcast During the interview Griffin explained that before the Aug 3 clash on Channel nobody had any problems with the way he answered questions And he said that relationship had existed for seven years Meyer interjected that sometimes it is tough to get the mayor to answer specific questions answer questions my the mayor shot back at Meyer you like that you have to come info my office as simple as that" Meyer replied that he would hate to end appearances which have taken place at least monthly for four years He added that there are fewer and fewer forums for listeners to hear the mayor In fact Griffin has found a new monthly broadcast forum to air his views The mayor has landed a monthly one hour guest appearance on WGR 55" call in program reportedly starling Sept 8 Tom Bauerle is host of the program The mayor also has talked with WHTT about being on with disc jockey Sandy Beach Griffin who was booted off the Buffalo" show Aug 3 after a heated exchange with co host Brian Kahle has not lost his chance to reappear on the Channel 7 talk show But he will be invited back only as news events dictate The Griffin media scoreboard keeps changing The mayor has strained ties with most Buffalo News report ers at least some Channel 7 reporters and WWKB Radio talk show host John Otto Otto a late night talk show host at the opposite end of the dial from Bauerle apparently has worn out his welcome with the mayor Griffin stopped talking with Otto when the talk show host reported the attack on Griffin's wife the night Otto wanted to invite the mayor to lie on his show Otto has said Channel 7 no longer wants Griffin to appear monthly on But Steve Kimatian the president and general manager wants the mayor to return when news events warrant it is our intention to invite his participation to the extent he wants to participate" Kimatian said The mayor commented on a wide variety of issues in Tuesday's WBEN interview But he saved his harshest words for the local reporters About the boot that Kahle gave him on Buffa lo" the mayor said: "I think that was kind of childish but there are a lot of childish eople in the Griffin had barbs for reporter Dan Hausle at Chan "I wish they would get their reporting the mayor said Moyer said that the mayor was no more testy Tues day than during previous interviews But interview seemed testy enough to two outsiders never before exposed to the feisty style A Korean newspaper reporter and his Korean Amer ican guide heard interview while in City Hall "Ooh confrontational huh?" one of them asked The other Korean nodded we.