Articles for Geoff Kelly

Apr 28

2022

Video: Police shoot car to car during wild chase

Earlier this week, The Challenger — Buffalo’s leading African-American newspaper — published an article describing the March 29 police chase that started as a routine traffic stop at the foot of West Ferry and ended on the city’s East Side, with police surrounding and firing into the vehicle driven by 28-year-old Kente Bell. It was a wild chase, according to the account Erie County District Attorney John Flynn provided the media, lasting half an hour and stretching the breadth of the city, with shots fired by both Bell and police. Three officers and Bell were wounded by gunfire. “Nine police[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 21

2022

Second parking commissioner nominee withdraws

Mayor Byron Brown is having a heck of a time replacing Kevin Helfer, who retired last month after nearly 12 years as the city’s parking commissioner and a top advisor to the mayor. So far, the mayor has taken two swings at the ball and whiffed twice. On February 25, the mayor nominated Christopher Savage, whose family is steeped in West Side politics. Chris Savage served as chief of staff for former state Senator Marc Panepinto and held posts with the Common Council and the Brown administration. He currently serves as a management analyst for the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority. [...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 19

2022

The Roswell-Russia connection

For more than a decade, Roswell Park Cancer Institute has been doing business with a leading Russian oligarch with long-standing ties to Vladimir Putin. The annual reports of the charitable foundation that raises money for Roswell tell part of the story: The Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has been a leading individual donor to the foundation, giving in excess of $1 million in four of the past five years. But Abramovich’s charity isn’t the problem. Rather, at issue are Roswell’s relationships with for-profit companies whose investors include Abramovich and a Russian business partner, both sanctioned since the outbreak of the war[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 12

2022

Progressives take a pass

When India Walton beat Mayor Byron Brown in last June’s Democratic primary, it seemed like progressive activists might be ready to wield greater influence in the party, which monopolizes city politics and governmental institutions. Brown, after all, lost the primary despite carrying the Democratic Party’s endorsement. Furthermore, Kim Beatty — a city Democrat — beat the party’s endorsed candidate in the primary for Erie County Sheriff. Change was in the air. But then Brown beat Walton in November’s general election. And Beatty lost to Republican John Garcia. And now, it seems, city progressives have chosen not to mount an effort[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 5

2022

Allegations of ICE mistreatment of detainees

A coalition of advocates for immigrants’ rights claims that “egregious conditions” and “unsafe release practices” at the federal detention center in Batavia have caused detainees “serious injury and even death.” Those claims are leveled in a Freedom of Information request filed Wednesday with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the agency that runs the Batavia facility, formally known as the Buffalo Service Processing Center. In the FOIA request, the coalition cites current and former detainees’ accounts of beatings, medical neglect and other abuses. In addition to conditions inside the detention center, the coalition takes issue with ICE’s practice of[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 29

2022

State lawmakers object to Bills stadium deal

New York state Assemblyman Ron Kim did not hold back on Tuesday when asked for his thoughts on the plan to commit $1.13 billion in public funds to help the billionaire owners of the Buffalo Bills build a new $1.4 billion stadium in Orchard Park. Tempering enthusiasm expressed on Monday by Gov. Kathy Hochul and other advocates for the project, the Bronx Democrat described the Bills stadium proposal as “one giant scam” that he predicts will be a “horrible” deal for New York State. “The process of how we got here speaks volume of where we are in the state[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 23

2022

Ex-con councilman turned pot lobbyist

A decade ago, former Ellicott District Common Council Member Brian C. Davis pled guilty to stealing $48,237 in anti-poverty funds from the city. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay restitution. Davis served his time. But he hasn’t finished paying back what he stole, according to a March 2021 court filing. Happily, at least for the taxpayers he still owes, Davis has a new gig that might help him settle the bill: as a lobbyist for a proposed South Buffalo marijuana farm run by the southern California-based son of a politically wired[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 22

2022

Lucrative no-bid deal for Brown donor

For the last three years, Buffalo’s comptroller has been asking Mayor Byron Brown’s administration to justify a $1 million, no-bid contract awarded to developer William Huntress. Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams’s office has twice audited the current lease for the city’s records storage facility, given to Huntress’s Acquest Development in 2018. Both times, according to the comptroller, the Brown administration has failed to document its decision to forgo legally required competitive bidding procedures. “Documentation of the transaction should be sufficient to assure compliance with the applicable laws and policies, which require the best value is chosen,” the comptroller reported in its first[...]

Posted 3 years ago