May 8
2025
City Hall discusses ‘public-private partnership’ for culturals
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Kleinhans Music Hall. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker.
Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s administration wants to set the record straight: Under no circumstances will the City of Buffalo sell the buildings used by its cultural institutions.
“There was never the word ‘sale’ mentioned out of the mayor’s mouth, or anyone in this building’s mouth,” Deputy Mayor Brian Gould said in a recent interview with Investigative Post. “We’ve never said the word ‘privatization.’ We’ve never said the word ‘sale.’”
Indeed, it wouldn’t even be possible for the city to sell Kleinhans Music Hall, for example — the deed forbids it.
But questions of whether the administration may pursue the “privatization” of the city’s cultural institutions — namely Kleinhans, Shea’s Buffalo Theater, Sahlen Field and the Buffalo Museum of Science — were raised after Investigative Post reported last month that Scanlon hosted a recent meeting to discuss those very plans. A copy of Scanlon’s daily calendar showed he met in February with leaders of Kleinhans.
“There are two agenda items — appointments to the KMH board and privatization of KMH,” a note attached to the calendar entry read.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomReaders were upset by the report, and the Scanlon administration protested, calling it “inaccurate, misleading and irresponsible,” despite the fact Investigative Post quoted the mayor’s own calendar, obtained via a Freedom of Information request the city’s legal staff fulfilled. State Sen. Sean Ryan, too, criticized the Scanlon administration for discussing the sale or privatization of the buildings. Ryan is running to against Scanlon in next month’s Democratic primary election.
Gould subsequently granted an hour-long interview to Investigative Post to, in part, explain the administration’s plans for the cultural institutions, some of which the city has owned for a century.
In the interview, Gould was unequivocal: Buffalo will not sell the buildings.
But just because a sale is off the table, that doesn’t mean the city isn’t seeking private partners to manage, pay for and take “ownership” of the structures, Gould said. He cited the fundraising campaign Kleinhans undertook several years ago that raised millions of public and private dollars for a slate of repairs and upgrades. Gould, at the time, was engaged as a consultant for Kleinhans through his second employer, e3 communications. He said the experience left him with a question.
“When I saw that money that Kleinhans raised, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a significant amount. Would these things be in better hands with a foundation setup, or ownership, or a public-private ownership model?’” he said. “That’s where my head was.”
So, an Investigative Post reporter asked, “privatization is the wrong word, but public-private partnership is the right word?”
Yes, said Gould.
“These are assets. These are treasures. They’re a financial strain on the city,” he said. “And that’s why we’re trying to see if there’s a mechanism, a model, where the entity, the foundation, the not-for-profit, can share in that.”
The administration’s ultimate plan for the buildings has not yet been developed, Gould said. That work will be done by a cabinet, or council, made up of leaders from Kleinhans, Shea’s and other cultural organizations, headed up by Jonathan Dandes, a Rich Products executive and frequent flyer on prestigious city boards.
It was Gould and Dandes who devised the original idea to shift financial responsibility for the buildings, Gould said, though members of the Citizen Planning Commission brought the idea independently to Scanlon. Those members pitched the idea of Erie County taking over maintenance costs of the buildings, an idea County Executive Mark Poloncarz has dismissed. Gould told them the city was already “going in a different direction” and planned to form the cabinet.
Scanlon’s calendar shows he met with Dandes twice in December, including at the Armory Restaurant on Christmas Eve.
By February, the mayor sat down with Kleinhans Director Dan Hart and Jeremy Oczek, chairman of the board to discuss, in part, “privatization.” Gould said he has “no idea” how that word ended up on the calendar. He and Scanlon have blamed scheduler Rachel Reid for use of the word, but said in the interview he didn’t want to “[throw] her under the bus.” Reid did not respond to a request for comment.
The Scanlon administration’s ultimate goal, Gould said, is saving money.
“You have to understand,” he said. “We came in here looking at a $70 million deficit, right? We’re looking at everything.”
This year’s state budget has come to the city’s short-term rescue, reportedly allowing for the sale of parking ramps and the imposition of a tax on hotel stays. But Gould said the administration is looking at long-term financial solutions, too, including reducing what the city pays for upkeep of the cultural institutions via its capital budget.
Data from the City Comptroller’s office shows Buffalo has spent about $13 million on the various structures and organizations over the past decade. Gould said the city will always contribute something to the institutions but that it’s seeking to “lessen that burden.”
“The city will always give to these culturals, whether they took ownership on their own, whether a foundation, a 501c3 took ownership of Kleinhans, the city would still give an allocation to them annually,” Gould said.
The city, Gould explained, is studying “the feasibility of a different model, a different structure, as far as the financial obligations and responsibilities to maintain and improve and operate these facilities.”
The key question, Gould said, is this one:
“Is there a way to lessen the burden on city taxpayers for the maintenance, capital and infrastructure upgrades at these facilities where the entity, the foundation, the non-for-profit that operates these on a daily basis, can be a partner?”
