Tag: City Hall

Sep 11

2025

Buffalo forfeits more than $1 million in federal lead funds

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Signage in a lead abatement training facility. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. The City of Buffalo will return more than half of a $2 million federal grant it received in 2021 for lead hazard remediation. Investigative Post in May reported that the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency had spent only about a quarter of its Lead Hazard Reduction Program grant funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. BURA officials told Investigative Post in a statement that “the program remains in progress” and that $796,050.71 in grant funds have been earmarked or spent on lead remediation. That’s $300,000 more than[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 13

2025

Scanlon administration ignoring records request

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s administration is once again violating the Freedom of Information Law. The latest example: For more than three months, City Hall has ignored a FOI request for documents related to the proposed sale of the city’s parking ramps. Scanlon wants to sell four downtown parking structures to an independent authority in a bid to close budget gaps. City Hall ignoring requests for public records has proven to be a pattern. Earlier this year, the Scanlon administration ignored a request for Scanlon’s daily calendar until Investigative Post appealed. Those records ultimately revealed Scanlon had held meetings where the[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Aug 7

2025

City contractor violates law, is awarded new work anyway

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Over the span of two days in July, the City of Buffalo issued a fine to its primary street paving contractor for violating local law, then awarded the firm three new contracts worth millions. On July 7, according to a letter written by former Department of Public Works Commissioner Nathan Marton, the city issued D&H Paving a $22,214 fine for failing to hire and pay apprentices appropriately on a 2022 paving contract. The following day, July 8, the Common Council voted unanimously on a slate of three paving contracts, all awarded to D&H Paving because the firm was the lowest[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Aug 6

2025

Police overtime in July unabated

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One month into the city’s fiscal year, the City of Buffalo’s efforts to rein in the cost of police overtime have not manifested any savings. In the first two paychecks issued in the month of July, the city paid cops more than $1.9 million in overtime, according to city payroll data. Total pay for police in the pay periods covered by those checks was nearly $8.5 million. In July 2024, police overtime cost a little more than $1.8 million out of $8.2 million total. The July before that, it was $1.6 million out of nearly $8 million total. In other[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jul 29

2025

What’s next for Chris Scanlon

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There has been much chatter about Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s plans come January, when he will relinquish his job as the city’s interim chief executive to the winner of November’s general election. Will Scanlon serve the two years left in his current term as South District Council member? Will he seek another elected office, perhaps in the state Legislature? Or will he leave elected office behind — at least for now — and take some well-paying job in state government or the private sector? Scanlon on Friday told an Investigative Post reporter he’s “heard the rumors” and insisted there’s nothing[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jul 25

2025

Buffalo lawmaker joins call for police oversight

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Leah Halton-Pope at a Buffalo Common Council meeting. Buffalo Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope is keeping alive her predecessor’s call for reforms to the Buffalo Police Department, including the creation of a civilian oversight board with the power to investigate claims of officer misconduct and recommend discipline. That makes Halton-Pope the third city lawmaker to express support for civilian oversight of policer, joining the University District’s Rasheed Wyatt and Masten District’s Zeneta Everhart. Halton-Pope, who represents the Ellicott District, submitted a resolution last week that re-ups and refreshes police reforms proposed four years ago by former Common Council President[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jul 1

2025

City Hall turns blind eye to parking encroachment

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Cars parked on sidewalk at 145 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo. Daniel Sack  — a frequent critic of City Hall indifference, ineptitude and corruption — says the City of Buffalo for years has been allowing the owner of a surface parking lot on Delaware Avenue to charge customers for three spots that sit squarely on city property. And the Elmwood Village resident says it’s high time the cash-strapped city government stood up for the people’s property rights and claimed their share of the proceeds. “Every weekday if I drive by 145 Delaware there are cars parked on the sidewalk,” he[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Jun 27

2025

Scanlon ends his campaign for Buffalo mayor

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  Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon during a press conference in his office earlier in his term. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, who lost decisively in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, withdrew his candidacy for the November general election Friday afternoon. Scanlon submitted paperwork to the Erie County Board of Elections to decline the nomination of the Good Neighbors Party, which he created in May. His withdrawal all but assures that state Sen. Sean Ryan, who won Tuesday’s primary in convincing fashion, will prevail in November. Two candidates remain on the ballot in addition to Ryan, age 60, who will be running as the[...]

Posted 5 months ago
Investigative Post