Articles for Geoff Kelly

Jun 13

2023

A possible problem with City Hall pay raises

Buffalo’s Common Council voted 5-to-3 Tuesday to give pay raises to themselves, the mayor, the city comptroller and the nine elected members of the city school board. A commission empaneled by the Council in April recommended the 12.63 percent raises for city elected officials and 87 percent pay raises for school board members. The increases will cost taxpayers $254,410 per year. The new salaries are as follows: Mayor: $178,518.55 — a boost of $20,018.55. Comptroller: $134,592.85 — a boost of $15,092.85. Common Council member: $84,472.50 — a boost of $9,472.50. Board of Education member: $28,000 — a boost of $13,ooo.[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 11

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe here to receive our free weekly newsletter, delivered to your inbox Sunday mornings. The Buffalo News reports that city legislators want the school district and the police department to look into the use of “child identification kits” — which include DNA samples — as a tool to help locate kids who have gone missing. They might want to check out this recent report from ProPublica, which found “no evidence” such kits help find missing kids, despite claims by providers that have convinced governments to spend millions to purchase them. One critic ProPublica quoted called the kits “crime control theater.” Also via the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 30

2023

Lawsuit seeks millions from OTB officials

Earlier this month a federal court issued summonses to a host of current and former board members at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., as part of a lawsuit seeking to hold the directors liable for the agency’s alleged misuse of millions of public dollars. The lawsuit aims to compel those 21 board members to pay back to OTB — and thus to the 15 counties and two cities that own the agency — money “improperly used” to purchase health insurance for board members, expensive tickets to sporting events and concerts, and contracts for politically connected firms. Specifically, the lawsuit claims[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 16

2023

Joseph resigns from Roswell board

Michael Joseph — whose company, the Clover Group, was accused last week of “racist and illegal housing discrimination practices” — has resigned as chair of Roswell Park Cancer Institute. A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who appoints seven of Roswell’s 15 board members — including the chair — sent Investigative Post a statement Tuesday evening announcing Joseph’s resignation. “Governor Hochul is committed to making Roswell Park a more equitable and inclusive institution for employees, patients and families,” the statement reads. “The Governor has accepted Michael Joseph’s resignation from the Board of Directors and named Leecia Eve as Interim Chair.” Joseph,[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 16

2023

Is Roswell chair eligible to serve?

Michael Joseph — whose company, the Clover Group, was accused last week of “racist and illegal housing discrimination practices” — has split time for at least the past decade between Buffalo and West Palm Beach, Florida. That’s not unusual for a well-to-do real estate developer. But it raises questions about his legal residency — and thus about his eligibility to serve as chair of the board for Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In April 2018, Joseph registered to vote in Florida, according to that state’s records, and his registration remains active. He is registered as a Democrat. For voting purposes, the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 8

2023

Lawsuit puts civic leader in hot seat

Real estate mogul Michael Joseph has found himself at the helm of two organizations embroiled in allegations of racist practices. This week Joseph’s real estate development and management company, the Clover Group, has been accused by a former employee of “racist and illegal” practices. A lawsuit filed Monday accuses Clover executives of disqualifying potential building sites based on the number of Black people in the surrounding communities. And Roswell Park Cancer Institute — where Joseph has been board chair since 2010 — has faced a slew of lawsuits alleging race and gender discrimination in the workplace during his long tenure[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 5

2023

Lawsuit: Developer selects sites to avoid Blacks

Editor’s note: This is the first of three stories on The Clover Group. Wednesday we profile Michael Joseph, the company’s CEO and major player around town. Our story Thursday details the numerous subsidies Clover has received over the years to help grow its business. When the Clover Group — one of the region’s biggest real estate development and management firms — reviews potential building sites for senior citizen apartment complexes, it pays careful attention to what its executives call “the Canadian factor.” When the firm’s executives talk about “Canadians,” however, they’re using a code — for Black people. And those[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Apr 30

2023

Former BURA chief alleged City Hall fraud

City of Buffalo officials misused millions of dollars in federal anti-poverty funds and steered grants to favored real-estate developers, according to a federal lawsuit filed three and a half years ago and kept under seal until a month ago. The lawsuit was brought by Nona Watson, a former executive director of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, which serves as a pass-through for federal funds intended to fight poverty, blight and substandard housing. Watson led BURA from September 2015 until she was fired in October 2018 — an act of retaliation, she claimed in the suit, “because she raised concerns about[...]

Posted 2 years ago