Buffalo lawmakers want to know if former Erie Basin Marina operator owes city money

The City Comptroller’s Office issued a report Tuesday to the Council’s Finance Committee on the contract with Smith Boys to operate the marina, which includes 350 boat slips, a gas dock, a ship store and a boat launch, said Kevin Kaufman, the chief auditor with the Comptroller’s Office.

The rent to be paid was $1 per year plus 20% of net profits for each of the years of the contract, Kaufman said. The city only received $1 per year in rent, he said. “Nothing else.”

But Nathan Marton, Buffalo’s commissioner of public works, said the contract only required Smith Boys to pay 20% of any net profits above $80,000. He told The Buffalo News that the marina operator only had net profits above $80,000 in two of the first nine years of the contract. The final year’s totals are not known yet, Marton said. 

It is not clear how much money, if any, the city is owed from Smith Boys.

Smith Boys was selected in 2013 to operate the city-owned marina under a five-year contract with a five-year extension. The contract recently expired, Kaufman said. 

Under the contract, Smith Boys was required to submit monthly financial information the city’s Department of Public Works, which oversaw the contract.

But the Comptroller’s Office did not receive any financial information from Public Works while performing the audit, said Demone Smith, special assistant to Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams.

“We hope that this audit will propel the department, administration and vendor to provide that information,” Smith said.

The Finance Committee is requesting representatives from the Department of Public Works and the Smith Boys attend the next committee meeting on Dec. 19.

The Comptroller’s Office estimated the gross revenue for the marina was about $900,000 a year, based on audits of…