State economic development officials have reversed their decision to exclude a Hamburg steelmaker from New York’s woman-owned business program.
But while the about-face is good for Lauren Chmielowiec and Upstate Steel, another large company near the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium site says it is struggling to get work on the $1.5 billion project.
Lauren Chmielowiec was rejected from New York’s list of certified women-owned businesses because state regulators questioned her status as the true owner of her company. She said the state claimed some of the men she employed did too much of the work.
“I’m bidding the Bills project right now,” Jennifer Kuhn, president of Hamburg Overhead Door, said last month. “They want to meet all these goals, but I can’t get through all the red tape to get approved.”
Kuhn and Chmielowiec are part of a growing number of women who say they are unintended victims of the state’s attempts to crack down on fraud, which has plagued the program for years.
“I find it frustrating that legitimate businesses like ours are being punished for the bad deeds of others,” Kuhn said. “We all know that (fraud) was going on for a lot of years. But they’ve over-corrected.”
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