From WBEN Radio: Mayoral candidate Michael Gainer (I) has had plenty of concerns about the overall project conception from the very beginning, but he doesn’t want to see this effort with the lease being politicized in the wrong light. He wants to focus squarely on where the city can grow and develop its economy, and how it can create the greatest number of jobs.

“My concern with this project was it’s trying to brand or revive this concept of Buffalo as a manufacturing city. I think that really our focus needs to be on small and medium-sized job creation,” Gainer said with WBEN. “I think about the employees and their families, and I have great concern just about some of the decisions that have been made over the last couple years, but it really comes down to the state holding Tesla to account for the commitments they’ve made. It doesn’t matter if it’s Tesla or if it’s another company, we need to, as a state, hold our corporations and our businesses, and our business leaders to account, and have a high level of expectation and standard for what we do. And we’re not doing our job as elected officials and as leaders of holding Tesla accountable for the agreements and the commitments that they made.

“Yes, they’ve fallen short. Yes, they have not met the terms of the agreement, and I have major issues with that. But we need to look at our level of accountability and what we’re doing, because whether it’s Tesla or whether it’s another very large, probably billion dollar company, we have to hold them to a standard, and we have to do our job as elected officials to make sure that they’re closing the deal.”

Gainer knows the lifeblood of Buffalo is the small and medium-sized businesses and the jobs they provide for the community. As Mayor of Buffalo, he’d want to see the focus being on the investments and the conversation there.

“How do we attract more small businesses? How do we attract more entrepreneurs, more startups, to make business with a much lower overall tax investment, and to give back and have a greater return, a more substantive return, to our communities and to our business community, and to our downtown community? If you do the math, it’s a substantial investment,” Gainer said.

“I just want to see us focusing on the lower hanging fruit. How we can have less public investment of dollars and a greater outcome. That really is in supporting and rejuvenating, and elevating our local business leaders and entrepreneurs to create jobs, just like they have been the lifeblood of our economy for years.”

While Gainer has heard the Tesla site can, perhaps, be subdivided for other smaller manufacturing companies, he questions whether any RFP will be effective, in terms of attracting a much larger business like a Tesla.

“We built that plant with a specific use in mind, and that’s why I’m a little bit hesitant to just immediately shift away. I think we have to hold a high standard, I think we have to be diligent in the enforcement of our rules and our regulations, and hold any company that is in that plant to account and ensure that they’re meeting the needs of our communities, they’re meeting the health of our environment, and they’re meeting the needs and the expectations of our workers,” Gainer said. “Those are the things that I prioritize when I’m talking to employers, when I’m talking to business people, and I think that we should have that high expectation for anyone that does business in the City of Buffalo, and we need to start the conversation there.”