Paving company facing fine and possible ban over labor violations started writing checks to Scanlon’s campaign committee while he led the Common Council. D&H Paving is now Scanlon’s third-largest donor in his run for mayor and poised to obtain $11 million in city contracts.
Under city law, one of Buffalo’s largest paving contractors could have been fined and barred from bidding on lucrative contracts because of its admission to wage theft.
Instead, the Common Council, despite reservations and headed by then-President Chris Scanlon, awarded D&H Paving $6.9 million in work last July.
At the time, the lawmakers expressed concern that D&H Paving was under investigation by the state Department of Labor. That probe, the state’s second into D&H, resulted in a nearly $28,000 fine and a finding that the company’s violations were “willful.” In the midst of the Council’s deliberation, the company’s owner, Michael Vaccaro, donated $500 to Scanlon’s campaign committee via another of his companies…