BATAVIA, N.Y. -- The Western Regional Off-Track Betting Board on Thursday approved three personnel resolutions.

Board member Tim Callan said the first, a corporate restructure resolution, included pay upgrades for four current management employees and created two new positions.

"By my back of the envelope calculations, just on salaries alone, the personnel adjustments the board approved today will cost $253,000 in new salary expense," Callan said.

The board then approved new President and CEO Byron Brown's recommendations for those new positions. It hired former Buffalo First Deputy Mayor Steve Casey, who worked for then-Mayor Brown until 2014, as the public benefit corporation's new chief administrative officer and chief of staff, at $190,000 per year. Former city Communications Director Mike DeGeorge will be paid $130,000 annually to assume the same role at OTB.

Casey's political consulting company pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge three years ago, accused of stealing $8,000 from a state Senate candidate in 2012.

"When you look at Steve Casey's actual record, he has no record," Brown said Wednesday. "So there is no prohibition to him being able to work here as I understand it."

Brown praised both Casey and DeGeorge as excellent workers, however, Callan questioned their hirings. He was the only board member to vote against all three resolutions.

"I have a problem with [Steve Casey'] hiring," Callan said. "I have a very severe problem with that. I don't think Steve Casey should have any job at this corporation."

Under the Freedom of Information Law, Spectrum News 1 obtained Casey's applications for two state gaming licenses and learned he applied for one of them in May. Since September, he has been working part-time at OTB making $24 an hour.

Brown, who was offered his job in September and started last week, said he wasn't involved in Casey's initial hiring.

"I had no influence in hiring Steve Casey at all," he said.

Callan said based on the timeline and Brown's history with Casey, he finds it hard to believe the events were not orchestrated.

"I can't definitively say anything but it would be a lot of real interesting coincidences."

A third former city hall employee, Brown's executive assistant Bernadette Taylor, will fill the vacant role of executive business administrator and will make $80,000 under the restructuring.

Taylor's job did not require board approval and she has already been on site at Batavia Downs.