Monroe County Republican Chairman Bill Reilich released a statement Friday in response to the latest developments in the controversy involving COMIDA, the county’s economic development agency, and the I-Square project in Irondequoit.
On Thursday evening, Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo announced that at her request, Assistant County Executive Justin Roj submitted his resignation.
The action came after Dinolfo addressed the media on Monday and said that Roj had told the Chair of COMIDA, Theresa Mazzullo, to contact the attorney for that economic development agency, follow their advice and respond to media inquiries.
In her statement on Thursday, Dinolfo said she has since come to learn the information she relied upon was not true, and she found out that it was actually Roj who had contacted the counsel for COMIDA.
On Friday, Reilich said that he has decided “because of the many media versions of explanations involving my comments on I-Square to set the record straight concerning my involvement.”
He issued the following statement:
1). Any projects involving COMIDA are public projects and as such there is continual review of their status. The inference that the problems with this project were "secret" is untrue. Much of this information is available on various websites. In fact, it is common that these projects are talked about in the community constantly...why would this one be different? Medley Center comes to mind first and foremost.
2). I have been aware of I-Square and have heard stories about it for a couple of years. These conversations go all the way back to the beginning of the project. While preparing the release about the Bello appointment I received a call from Justin Roj who shared that he had first-hand knowledge that I-Square was in default of their COMIDA obligations.
3). Did I have any involvement with or conversations with COMIDA about the project; absolutely not! I have never spoken to anyone at COMIDA nor directed anyone to take any action whatsoever regarding this matter.
4). The I-Square Developer has acted as though he was surprised to find that his project was not in compliance with the proposal he made and agreed to. How can he be surprised? He did not build a 15,000 square foot building of 3 stories and replaced it with a smaller 1 story garage type building. That is like saying that if you do not make your mortgage payments; you are not in default because you have not received a letter from the bank. He knew he was in default, he created the default! This is a project with a significant amount of public funding.
5). My criticism of the Supervisor leaving the town was a valid political one. The Governor has appointed a Democrat to replace a Republican that held the office. The Supervisor left his town with two important projects unresolved... Medley Centre which is in litigation and I-Square. My point, which I stand by, is that the timing of Mr. Bello's departure ignored his responsibilities to the town he represented.
As we have seen, there are a lot of issues involving what happened here. Let me say that if the District Attorney does in fact review the matter I will be the first to cooperate and do so voluntarily.”
The controversy began March 18th, when County Republican Chairman Bill Reilich said the I-Square development was struggling financially, as he made comments critical of Town Supervisor Adam Bello who had just been appointed County Clerk. An attorney for COMIDA said that after a Sunday night visit the I-Square project had not met a required construction milestone.
The owners of the project, Mike and Wendy Nolan denied their project was in trouble, and disputed the finding and questioned why COMIDA had not previously notified them of any problems.
Also on Thursday, Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said her office is making an informal inquiry into the handling of the entire situation.
