Articles for Geoff Kelly

Apr 10

2025

The good and bad in Scanlon’s budget

Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon in City Hall. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s first budget proposal is balanced with $30 million that may not materialize, absent cooperation from lawmakers in Albany. His $622 million spending plan also depends on upticks in the cost, enforcement and collection of city fees and fines that often have fallen short of expectations. Its viability also swings on a dramatic reduction in overtime costs, which in recent years have gone nowhere but up. In short, Scanlon’s budget shares many characteristics with those of Byron Brown, his predecessor: some rosy revenue assumptions, a one-shot[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Apr 7

2025

Big turnout in mayor’s race already

Seven candidates for Buffalo mayor last week filed nominating petitions bearing the signatures of nearly 27,000 city voters. That’s more voters than took part in the 2013 and 2021 Democratic primaries for mayor. It’s nearly as many as cast valid ballots in 2005 and 2017. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon led the pack with a whopping 7,565 signatures, nearly four times the number needed to qualify for the ballot. Garnell Whitfield, the former fire commissioner, filed the second-highest number of signatures, with 4,315. University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt had more than 3,800 signatures, according to The Buffalo News. State Sen. Sean[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Apr 1

2025

Judge rules radioactive waste lawsuit “untimely”

Metal plate bearing the name “Titanium Alloy Manufacturing Co.” Photo from court records. A federal magistrate has recommended dismissal of a wrongful death claim filed last year by a Lewiston man who blamed his wife’s death on radioactive waste buried on the couple’s property. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer ruled Philip Palmeri filed his lawsuit long after the two-year statute of limitations had expired, as measured from the date in 2018 when his wife, Tracey Palmeri, was first diagnosed with breast cancer. In a footnote to his ruling, Roemer acknowledged this was not “a fair result” for the plaintiff. Palmeri[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Mar 31

2025

D.J. Granville and the “blue wall of silence”

At the heart of the scandal enveloping Erie County Sheriff John Garcia and his chief of narcotics, D.J. Granville, is the so-called “blue wall of silence” — the unwritten understanding that law enforcement officers protect one another by refusing to report or corroborate wrongdoing among their ranks. For nearly a year Granville has been protected by that code. A deposition the narcotics chief gave for a lawsuit in November — nearly seven months after the incident that in recent weeks has made him famous — illustrates his own commitment to it. First, a refresher: Granville last April 11, while driving his[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Mar 13

2025

Hit-and-run narcotics chief a prolific political donor

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia (left) and Chief of Narcotics Daniel J. Granville (right) at a press conference Tuesday. Photo courtesy 7 News. Daniel J. Granville — the Erie County Sheriff’s chief of narcotics who last April plowed his county-owned pickup truck into at least seven parked cars on Buffalo’s West Side — is a prolific donor to local politicians. So is his wife, former Buffalo police crime scene technician who now works for the Buffalo Sewer Authority. And so is his sister-in-law, the Buffalo police lieutenant who supervised the police response to the accident scene — and who is now[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Mar 11

2025

Coverup of hit-and-run by county’s narcotics chief?

Last April, the Erie County Sheriff’s chief of narcotics, while driving a county-owned vehicle late at night, struck at least seven parked cars on Buffalo’s West Side, several of them as he drove the wrong way down a one-way street. Chief Daniel J. Granville — who goes by DJ — was driving “in an impaired condition,” according to one of a half-dozen claims that so far have cost county taxpayers $60,000 to settle. But the accident report generated by the Buffalo cops who responded to the incident gives no indication Granville, 47, was tested for alcohol, drugs or other impairments[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Mar 6

2025

Two judges demoted, another retires

Two local judges were relieved of their administrative duties last week, suddenly and without replacements lined up in advance, prompting much gossip in the legal community. Coincidentally, a third judge resigned — opening a vacancy to be filled temporarily by appointment and then long-term in November’s general election. Chief Administrative Judge Kevin Carter last Tuesday was removed from his role overseeing court operations in the Eighth Judicial District, which comprises the eight counties of Western New York. At the same time, Erie County Judge Susan Eagan was removed from her post as supervising criminal judge. Eagan will remain on the[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Feb 26

2025

Scanlon campaign again violates ethics laws

Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. For the second time since he took office in October, Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s campaign violated local, state and federal codes prohibiting the use of public resources to advance political campaigns. From early December until this morning, two of three social media links at the bottom of the City of Buffalo’s governmental website connected to Scanlon campaign accounts. A spokesperson for the mayor said the links had been “fixed” after Investigative Post sought comment on the matter. But for nearly three months, the Instagram and Twitter links at the bottom of the city’s homepage connected[...]

Posted 3 months ago