Articles for Geoff Kelly

Oct 10

2024

Ryan leads the mayoral money race

State Sen. Sean Ryan is seeking reelection this fall, but he’s certainly raising and spending money like a guy who’s running for mayor of Buffalo next year. Ryan raised $110,000 over the last three months, according to his campaign committee’s most recent filing with the state elections board. Campaign finance disclosures for candidates on the ballot in November were due last Friday. The reports cover the period from July 11 to Sept. 30. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown announced two weeks ago he’d accepted a new job as president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting. Brown indicated he’d step down[...]

Posted 5 days ago

Oct 8

2024

Buffalo cops rarely disciplined

The officers “pulled up in a black Taurus” and started “beating and whipping people,” according to one of several witnesses to a May 2011 altercation between Buffalo cops and a crowd of people outside an East Ferry corner store. The cops used homophobic slurs, were “beating the shit out of people” and “kicking this boy in the face,” another witness said. A third witness said “a white male who works for housing” — later identified as Buffalo Police Officer Michael Acquino — “took his [phone] and deleted personal pictures and a video that he had recorded of the officers beating[...]

Posted 7 days ago

Sep 30

2024

Brown announces he’s leaving City Hall

Mayor Byron Brown at Monday’s press conference. Photo by Garrett Looker. With Byron Brown officially announcing he’s leaving City Hall within the next few weeks, additional information is starting to emerge about his new job. To begin with, a $295,000 salary as president and CEO of the Western Region Off-Track Betting is only part of Brown’s compensation package. He’ll also be getting an $800 monthly car allowance to use as he pleases, according to two sources familiar with Brown’s contract. That’s enough to rent a high-end car. Or, since Brown’s had a driver during his almost 19 years as mayor,[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Sep 23

2024

City must pay $310,000 to former employee

The City of Buffalo’s law department last week asked the Common Council to approve a $310,000 settlement to a lawsuit filed by James Kaufmann, who worked 23 years for the police department’s information technology unit before the city eliminated his position 14 years ago. The elimination of his job was retaliation, Kaufmann claimed in his lawsuit. And the city violated state civil service law by not hiring him for another, similar post in the years that followed. According to the lawsuit, city officials said they’d “get even” with Kaufmann for testifying in a 2005 arbitration hearing that led to the[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Sep 20

2024

Report faults Erie County auditor’s record as Evans town supervisor

A state audit of payroll practices at the Town of Evans found sloppy bookkeeping and improper payments to a former town supervisor who is now a top lieutenant of Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick. Mary Hosler, deputy comptroller in charge of audits for Erie County, oversaw a blockbuster investigation of the Erie County Clerk’s office, released in February, that uncovered thousands of missing dollars and led to a deputy clerk pleading guilty to embezzling more than $320,000 in public funds. But before she took that job two years ago, Hosler paid herself $6,000 she was not entitled to while serving[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Sep 12

2024

And the next mayor of Buffalo is …

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown hasn’t yet accepted his job offer from Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. He hasn’t submitted a letter of resignation from office. I asked the city clerk on Tuesday, just to be sure. But smart money says he’ll have vacated the second floor of City Hall before Halloween, leaving Common Council President Chris Scanlon as acting mayor. As acting mayor, Scanlon will be a quasi-incumbent when voters choose a new mayor next year. That may not be much of an advantage, given the city’s financial issues, and there will be many candidates vying for many different voting[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 9

2024

Buffalo fails to collect $2.3 million in ambulance fees

The company that provides ambulance service to the City of Buffalo hasn’t paid an annual franchise fee to the city since its contract expired in 2020. That lapse has cost the cash-strapped city nearly $2.3 million in revenue, according to city budget documents and Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski, chair of the Common Council’s Finance Committee. Nowakowski blames the company for not paying and Mayor Byron Brown’s administration for failing to collect the money and negotiate a new contract. “They are operating in our city without a contract and for free,” Nowakowski told Investigative Post. “This a failure within[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 5

2024

Byron Brown is leaving City Hall. What happens now?

Mayor in waiting: Common Council President Chris Scanlon. Photo by Garrett Looker. Byron Brown soon will step down as mayor of Buffalo after 18 years and eight months in the office. The five-term mayor has been offered the job as president and CEO of Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp., a possibility Investigative Post first reported in February. He is expected to accept the position, pending completion of negotiations for an employment contract and obtaining a license from the state Gaming Commission. The precise date of his exit from City Hall is uncertain; later this month or October is most[...]

Posted 1 month ago