Former Rochester Mayor Tom Richards has been removed as head of the volunteer board overseeing the city’s enormous school modernization project. He’s been replaced by Allen Williams, a board member who was appointed by current Mayor Lovely Warren, and who serves as her director of special projects.
Richards was appointed to the board by former Superintendent Bolgen Vargas after losing his re-election bid to Mayor Warren.
The board oversees the $1.3 billion dollar project to modernize virtually every school building in the city.
Richards voted with the minority last week in a controversial vote to dump a “project labor agreement” from Phase Two of the construction. The agreement would have set minimum wages plus local construction union and minority-owned business hiring goals for the project.
Mayor Warren opposed the agreement.