Dec 11
2020
Since the spring, Geoff Kelly has been reporting on HarpData, the troubled tech firm awarded a contract to provide wi-fi access to thousands of Buffalo school students. On Thursday, he reported the company is going out of business, the wi-fi project unfinished. He discussed the saga Friday on NewsRadio 930WBEN.
Dec 10
2020
After nearly two years of doubts and delays, Buffalo Public Schools is canceling a contract to provide free wireless internet to some of the district’s neediest students. The reason: HarpData, the company the district hired to do the job, is going out of business. An attorney for HarpData, Joseph Makowski, confirmed that CEO Ivory Robinson Jr. is “winding down” the company’s operations. Staff has been laid off. The company’s offices on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo remain under lease, Makowski said, but are closed for business. As a result, the beleaguered Connected Communities initiative — a $1.3 million project meant[...]
Dec 3
2020
The Buffalo Police Department’s budget has grown at three times the pace of other city services since Mayor Byron Brown took office in 2006, an increase fueled largely by the cost of health insurance and pension payments for current and retired cops. The city spends 54 percent more on police than it did 15 years ago. Meanwhile, spending across all other city departments has increased just 17 percent. That’s less than two-thirds the rate of inflation. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the city’s spending on police has effectively defunded other city services. The city spends less today than it used to on[...]
Nov 18
2020
Editor’s note: The original version of this column incorrectly reported on events related to actions by the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority involving the city’s four-year budget plan. The source of the errors: The control board, on its website, incorrectly labeled videos of special meetings held on June 16 and July 20. Investigative Post based its reporting in part on those videos, which resulted in a conflating of events. The text below has been revised accordingly. A control board spokesman said the agency was attempting to correct the errors on its website. Three times in the past five months, the city’s state-imposed[...]
Sep 4
2020
Jim Heaney made his debut Thursday on David Bellavia’s talk show on NewsRadio 930WBEN. Heaney and Bellavia, in a 41 minute interview, discussed a range of topics, including the M.T. Pockets situation, Mayor Byron Brown, the city’s contract with its police union, and the Western Regional Off Track Betting Corp. The show broadcast in three segments, which are below. First segment, talking about Investigative Post, incident outside M.T. Pockets and problems with distance learning in Buffalo schools. Second segment, regarding Mayor Byron Brown, unions and police contract. Third segment, involving more on police contract and OTB.
Aug 18
2020
Only one city in the country is suffering more than Buffalo from the financial devastation of the COVID crisis. And that’s Rochester, just an hour down the Thruway. A forthcoming study, the source of a New York Times analysis published Monday, projects Buffalo’s government is staring at a 15 to 20 percent shortfall in revenue in the current fiscal year — more than twice the average in the survey of 150 cities nationwide. Upstate New York’s largest cities — Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse — were ranked the most fiscally distressed municipalities in the nation. New York City ranked fifth, right[...]
Aug 12
2020
Jim Heaney follows up his story published Monday on distance learning in Buffalo schools with an interview on NewsRadio 930WBEN. Heaney tells Susan Rose and Brian Mazurowski that distance learning didn’t go very well last semester and the district officials tried to obstruct his reporting.
Aug 11
2020
Sam Radford believes distance learning in Buffalo schools has failed many students, as reported Monday by Investigative Post. In a 20-minute interview with Jim Heaney, Radford, co-chair of We The Parents and immediate past president of the District Parent Coordinating Council, spelled out the concerns he’s heard this spring and summer from the mothers and fathers of Buffalo students. Student participation was an issue – “Some kids logged on, some kids didn’t.” But the quality of instruction is a larger concern. “I think the learning is what suffered the most,” Radford said. “Some teachers were doing really great when they[...]