Tag: City Hall

Jun 9

2025

Blah-blah-blah on the mayoral campaign trail

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Most everyone recognizes that fixing the city’s fiscal problems is job one for whoever is sitting in the mayor’s chair come January 1. There are, however, a lot of other issues that deserve discussion and consideration during the final weeks of the campaign, leading up to the June 24 Democratic primary. Instead, I’m hearing too much blah-blah-blah. You’d expect the daily newspaper to provide the most substantive coverage, but I’m disappointed in much of its issues-related coverage that consists of publishing written statements from the candidates rather than reported analysis. Lazy journalism. Take the issue of police reform. In its[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Jun 6

2025

Concerning contributions to Scanlon campaign

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Under city law, one of Buffalo’s largest paving contractors could have been fined and barred from bidding on lucrative contracts because of its admission to wage theft. Instead, the Common Council, despite reservations and headed by then-President Chris Scanlon, awarded D&H Paving $6.9 million in work last July.  At the time, the lawmakers expressed concern that D&H Paving was under investigation by the state Department of Labor. That probe, the state’s second into D&H, resulted in a nearly $28,000 fine and a finding that the company’s violations were “willful.” In the midst of the Council’s deliberation, the company’s owner, Michael[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Jun 5

2025

Where Ryan stands on the issues

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State Sen. Sean Ryan at a May 30 press conference in Lafayette Square. This is the second of two stories on mayoral hopeful Sean Ryan. On Wednesday we published a political profile. Sean Ryan doesn’t lack for ideas on how to fix what he sees as dysfunction in City Hall and the impact it has had on neighborhoods across Buffalo. “We can’t do the basics. We’re not delivering basic services for our people. And that’s not even scratching the surface on our systemic problems,” he told Investigative Post. “The neglect is becoming more and more apparent. Can’t plow our roads,[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Jun 4

2025

Sean Ryan: a political profile

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State Sen. Sean Ryan at a May 30 press conference in Lafayette Square.  This is the first of two stories on mayoral hopeful Sean Ryan. On Thursday we published a  story on where he stands on the issues.  State Sen. Sean Ryan has a long history of advancing progressive causes, both in his 14 years as a state legislator and in his prior career as an attorney. He’s championed urban highway removal, affordable housing, living wage ordinances, tax subsidy reforms and a host of other issues that reflect the priorities of the heavily Democratic districts he’s represented in Albany.   Now,[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Jun 2

2025

Incompetency and arrogance in service to cruelty

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Below is the complete verion of WeeklyPost, the newsletter we send via email on Sunday mornings. Our Monday Morning Read typically includes a portion of that newsletter; today, we’re publishing it in its entirety. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so here. ICE did it again. Back in March it deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in defiance of a court order, an action that generated international attention and condemnation. ICE officials said the deportation was the result of an “administrative error.” Not that they’ve attempted to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Well, ICE[...]

Posted 6 months ago

May 29

2025

More bad budgeting from Buffalo politicians

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Writing about the City of Buffalo’s finances is like watching the movie Groundhog Day, but the wheel of suffering never stops turning.  Before the story reaches its happy-ever-after conclusion, the film rewinds to the beginning. Again and again, year after year. The Common Council on Tuesday adopted, with few minor amendments, Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon’s proposed budget for the city’s upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1.  The $622 million plan recycles many of the fiscal sins of the Byron Brown administration, whose specious revenue and expense projections yielded deficit after deficit — backfilled first with cash from the city’s[...]

Posted 6 months ago

May 28

2025

Police lawsuits push city budget into deficit

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Buffalo City Hall. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. Settlements for police-related lawsuits continue to be a drag on Buffalo’s finances. Recent payouts threaten to create a deficit in the city’s current fiscal year that ends June 30, according to the city comptroller, at a time when the city has no reserves available to plug budget holes. Currently before the Common Council are two such settlements totaling $1.3 million. The bigger of the two is a $1.1 million to James Kistner, an East Side man who on New Year’s Day 2017 saw two police cars parked in front of a rental property[...]

Posted 6 months ago

May 27

2025

City inaction on lead endangers federal funding

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The City of Buffalo has spent only a quarter of the $2 million in federal funds it has received to abate lead hazards in houses and apartments. Now, the program is coming to an end with less than two months to commit the remaining money before it has to be returned to the federal government. The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, which administers the grant, set a goal of remediating 110 residences when it received the funds in 2021. Four years later, only 18 units have been abated. The city last year received a one-year extension for the program from the[...]

Posted 6 months ago
Investigative Post