Articles for Geoff Kelly

Oct 25

2022

City holding millions in other people’s money

The City of Buffalo took in $4.3 million from its annual auction of tax-delinquent properties in 2019, the year the Brown administration changed how it handles the money those foreclosure sales generate. Out of that $4.3 million, the city paid itself $700,000 to account for the back taxes and fees that led the properties to the auction block.  That left $3.6 million is surplus, much of which rightfully belongs to the individuals who lost their properties to foreclosure. For them, the money represents their remaining equity after all their creditors — the city, the banks, the utility companies — are[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Oct 18

2022

Activists sue Buffalo over Council redistricting

Buffalo’s Common Council members might have thought this summer’s contentious redistricting was behind it. If so, they were wrong. This afternoon 11 Buffalo voters and good-government organizations filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court, asking a judge to reject a redistricting plan adopted by the city’s Council in July and signed by Mayor Byron Brown in August. The city’s redistricting process, led by the Council, “failed to meet the basic requirements of the law,” the Article 78 complaint contends. Those failures deprived city residents of meaningful opportunities to take part in the process, according to the complaint.    The plaintiffs[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Oct 11

2022

Kelly discusses police contract on WBFO

In July, Buffalo’s police union won a big victory in its three-year-old (and counting) negotiations with Mayor Byron Brown’s administration for a new contract. A state arbitration panel granted police — whose contract expired in 2019 — raises and back pay worth as much as $15 million. The city got nothing in return: none of the reforms protestors and elected officials clamored for in the summer of 2020, no new managerial rights, not even a reinstatement of a residency requirement that expired with the old contract. Geoff Kelly reported the story two weeks ago, before the Brown administration had even[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 28

2022

Raises (but no reforms) for Buffalo police

Buffalo police just got a raise. The city got nothing — no concessions, no reforms — in exchange. That’s the upshot of more than three years of negotiations between the Brown administration and the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, whose contract expired in July 2019. When talks stalled in early 2021, the dispute put in the hands of a state arbitrator, who was empowered only to deal with pay.  Reform — the mantra of demonstrators and elected officials alike in the summer of 2020 — was sidelined. On July 19, a state arbitration panel awarded Buffalo police raises and retroactive pay worth[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 26

2022

Podcast: Interview with Brian Higgins, part 2

Geoff Kelly recently interviewed U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins about a variety of topics, including national politics, the Tops massacre and the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Congressman’s response, in so many words, involved what he sees as division. We posted the first half of the interview on Friday. You can watch that first part via our YouTube channel or listen to it as a podcast. Next up: an interview with Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Toles.

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 23

2022

Podcast: Interview with Brian Higgins

Geoff Kelly recently interviewed U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins about a variety of topics, including national politics, the Tops massacre and the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Congressman’s response, in so many words, involved what he sees as division. You can watch the first part of the interview via our YouTube channel or listen to it as a podcast. We’ll post the second half of the interview Monday. Next up: an interview with Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Toles.

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 14

2022

New York’s Oath Keepers

New York has more law enforcement officers who are members of Oath Keepers than any other state in the country. That’s according to a study released last week by the Anti-Defamation League, whose analysts examined a list of 38,000 purported members of the militant far-right group, looking for elected officials, law enforcement and military personnel among its ranks. The list was first published last September by the nonprofit journalist collective Distributed Denial of Secrets, along with Oath Keepers emails and other data obtained by hackers.  By cross-referencing the names on the list with public databases, ADL confirmed the identities of[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 8

2022

Belatedly, City Hall has an ethics board

 The city’s ethics board has been resurrected from the dead. Investigative Post reported last month that the ethics board hadn’t met in two and half years because the mayor and Common Council had failed to appoint enough board members to comprise a quorum. Last week, Mayor Byron Brown submitted five nominees for the ethics board to the Common Council for approval. All five were approved Tuesday without debate or discussion, bringing the ethics board to its charter-prescribed membership of seven.  Before Tuesday, it had just three members — one short of a quorum. The five newly appointed members are: John[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post

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