Burmaster to ask for board of ethics investigation of airport scheme
By Jill Terreri
Wednesday, June 23, 2026

An investigation is likely into how money was spent on an effort to secure the airport by the Niagara Airport Development Corporation, an offshoot of the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency.

Legislator Clyde Burmaster, R-Ransomville, said Tuesday that he will ask his colleagues to support an investigation by the county’s board of ethics, to see what, if any, ethical violations were committed by members of the NADC. From there, Burmaster also will seek a board of inquiry — a panel of lawmakers with subpoena power — to investigate.

While the board of ethics looks for ethical violations, a board of inquiry can perform a deeper investigation, Burmaster said.

Burmaster will make his request, which comes after an audit by the IDA’s auditors and one by State Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s office, at Tuesday’s Administration Committee meeting.

“There was no prior authorization to expend the money, and that’s where the big questions come in,” Burmaster said.

Hevesi’s audit found that during 2002, the IDA reported a $650,000 operating loss and significant decreases in retained earnings and unrestricted cash.

The NADC spent $268,000 that the IDA had to pay without reimbursement, the audit stated.

Minority Leader Dennis Virtuoso, D-Niagara Falls, said the investigation should be performed by the state attorney general’s office.

“Instead of playing games with the board of ethics, let’s get it over with,” Virtuoso said. “I think we spent enough time on this.”

Virtuoso said that the costly Vantage Industrial Pointe drained the IDA’s coffers, not the $268,000 expenditure by the NADC in its quest to get control of the airport.

Burmaster also would like an investigation by the state attorney general, but said without some evidence generated locally, the chances of the state office taking the case are slim.

Virtuoso said all of the talk about an investigation would be moot if Gov. George Pataki decided to develop the airport, which is under the control of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, a state agency.

“All the blame really falls on the NFTA,” he said. “The governor could snap his fingers tomorrow and this airport could be going.”
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