Dino J. Fudoli last spring signed a contract to sell land he owns in Cheektowaga to the Bella Vista Group for $140,000.
Then, in May, as Lancaster town supervisor, Fudoli joined the rest of the Lancaster Industrial Development Agency board in approving tax breaks for an office park Bella Vista owns in Lancaster.
Now, critics and good-government groups are saying the supervisor should have revealed the pending property sale before voting on the tax breaks because the two transactions involving Bella Vista presented a conflict of interest for Fudoli.
"It is always amazing to me how individuals on these boards do not perceive conflicts when entities with whom they have business relationships come before the boards they serve on," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York.
Both Fudoli and Bella Vista President Joseph A. Cipolla say the tax-break package and the agreement to buy the Fudoli-owned property have nothing to do with each other and they don't see any ethical issues.
Cipolla said he dealt with an IDA consultant, and not with Fudoli, when preparing the tax-break request, and Fudoli said he saw no reason to recuse himself from the IDA vote.
"I don't see why people are making this a conflict of interest thing," Fudoli said in an interview. "The two things are not connected at all."
Cipolla also pointed out that the contract price of $140,000 is well below the assessed value of $346,065.
"If you were buying a favor from somebody, you would overpay them," Cipolla said, adding, "I think he's cutting his losses at a significant hit."
This is only the latest controversy confronting the first-year Lancaster supervisor, who recently admitted owing nearly $17,000 in property taxes and came under fire for comments he made about public-sector unions and a proposed veterans cemetery in the town.
Fudoli is vowing to pay off his property-tax bill within the next two weeks, but the damage already is done in the eyes of those who object to the supervisor's policies and pronouncements.
"I can understand why they weren't willing to give me the $15,000 because, with Dino's $17,000 that he owes in back taxes, they didn't have the money," David Dischner told The Buffalo News with a laugh. Dischner's request for a tax break to support the expansion of his Depew pizzeria was rejected by Fudoli and the IDA board at the same time the Bella Vista request was approved.
Fudoli's pending property sale to Bella Vista came to light only after media outlets including The News reported last month that the Lancaster supervisor owes $16,860.93 on five houses and vacant properties he owns in whole or in part in Lancaster, Cheektowaga and Alden.
Fudoli told The News that he made a business decision not to pay off the property-tax bill until the sale of one of the parcels goes through, allowing him to put some of the proceeds toward the unpaid taxes.
The supervisor said his and his family's plans for the properties, which they have owned for decades, were upended when the state Department of Environmental Conservation declared about 24 of the combined 35 acres to be wetlands.
Fudoli said he decided to put the properties up for sale and, in March or April, signed a contract to sell one 13-acre parcel, owned in trust by his father, Ralph, to the Bella Vista Group for $140,000.
Fudoli said that he didn't have any discussions with Cipolla about the Bella Vista tax-break package while the two negotiated the property purchase.
He said he learned about the tax-break request only after IDA consultant Paul R. Leone forwarded the information to all IDA board members. Leone and Cipolla said they began discussing the request sometime in the spring.
The tax break covers a Bella Vista office park and warehouse facility, known as the Lancaster Flex Park, at the corner of Transit Road and Genesee Street in Bowmansville.
Bella Vista had a 15-year PILOT, or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, agreement on the property that was set to expire in two years. The company was seeking a 10-year PILOT that would replace the last two years of the existing agreement.
Bella Vista officials argued that their ability to encourage current tenants to expand, or to bring in new tenants, hinged on keeping the PILOT in place.
The Lancaster Assessor's Office couldn't immediately provide the value of the PILOT, but Cipolla estimated Bella Vista saves less than $10,000 each year on its property-tax bill thanks to the agreement.
Fudoli joined five other members of the IDA board in approving the extended PILOT at the IDA's May meeting.
The supervisor, who serves as chairman of the IDA, did not disclose his real estate contract with Bella Vista nor did he consider recusing himself from the vote.
"You're just selling a property to someone. It's not like we're business partners," Fudoli said.
Common Cause's Lerner, however, said Fudoli at a minimum had an obligation to disclose the sale contract to his fellow IDA board members and, if asked, to recuse himself from the vote.
"Selling a property and then taking an official action that could be seen as a quid pro quo for the sale raises at least the appearance of a conflicted, self-interested action," Russ Haven, legislative counsel with the New York Public Interest Research Group, said in an email.
Fudoli could have sought an ethics opinion from the State Attorney General's Office prior to the IDA vote, Haven said.
At the June IDA meeting, board member John Visone recused himself, at Fudoli's urging, from a vote on IDA tax breaks for the expansion of Harper International because Harper rents space in some Visone-owned commercial buildings.
"He should take his own advice," said Dischner, one of the owners of Penora's Pizza who sought $19,313 in sales and mortgage-recording tax breaks for an expansion of the restaurant at 5055 Broadway.
As for the property sale, it was supposed to close in mid-July but has been delayed twice, most recently to Sept. 14.
Bella Vista's Cipolla said the company is making plans to build an 80-unit apartment complex on the site, similar to the company's Gateway Apartments project at Transit Road and William Street.
The sale closing has been delayed as Bella Vista continues working out the financing, the design and a market study for the project, Cipolla said.
Fudoli said he has spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees, environmental studies and other expenses related to the properties. If and when the sale goes through, Fudoli promises he will pay off his outstanding property tax bill.
The nearly $17,000 in unpaid taxes revealed by various media outlets last month does not include $15,382.26 owed by RMF Holding Corp. on property at 6354 Transit Road, Depew, according to online Erie County real property records.
A financial disclosure form filed with the town indicates the supervisor is vice president of RMF Holding, but Fudoli said in an interview that he doesn't have an ownership stake in his father's company.
The past month has seen Fudoli under pressure to explain away a number of self-inflicted wounds.
The unpaid taxes were a business decision, he said. Fudoli doesn't want a vacant industrial park that has received taxpayer money used for a national veterans cemetery, but he would welcome a cemetery at another site in Lancaster, he later clarified.
And he said his comments about public-sector unions constituting the "nonproducing part of society" were twisted by Lancaster employees who oppose his efforts to rein in the cost of town government.
Fudoli said his political opponents are trying to take advantage of his missteps, but he won't stop pushing his agenda of change.
"They," he said, referring to his critics, "are going to tire first."

email: swatson@buffnews.com