Outrages & Insights

In defense of Frank Sedita

No reporter in town likes to hoist politicians by their petards more than I do. But I just don't buy into the grief Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III is getting from some quarters for the guilty plea entered last week by Ellicott Common Council Member Brian Davis.

The argument goes something like this: Davis might have committed felonies, and might have been convicted if brought to trial, so therefore Sedita was wrong to negotiate a plea to Class A misdemeanor charges.

I see two flaws in that reasoning.

First, prosecutors since -- what, Roman times? -- have taken the bird in the hand (a plea) over two in the bush (the prospect of a conviction through trial). But all of a sudden, in this case, there's something wrong that that strategy.

Second, the plea by Davis was grounds for his automatic removal from office.

So, what the district attorney effectively did was get Davis to plea to charges that resulted in his removal from office. And some people are taking him to task for it. I guess they think more pounds of flesh should have been extracted.

The bottom line to me, as I close the book, or at least this chapter, on the Brian Davis Story, is that Davis no longer holds public office.

The Common Council didn't get rid of him.

Mayor Byron Brown certainly didn't get of him.

Frank Sedita did.

It's time people direct their cynicism elsewhere.

Brian Davis quits after being fired

Brian Davis quit a job Thursday that a lot of folks, including Erie County DA Frank Sedita, thought he was fired from last Friday.

Whatever, he is gone.

Last week, Davis, through his attorney, vowed to hang onto his job after pleading guilty to pocketing campaign contributions for personal use and lying to the state Board of Elections about it.

But, after being a no-show for work this week, and after hearing every single one of his Council colleagues say he needed to give up his post, Davis threw in the towel at a 5:30 p.m. press conference on the steps of City Hall.

Well, not exactly a press conference. That would imply he answered questions. No, after reading a statement, he bounded up the steps. Marshawn Lynch should be that elusive.

I'll give the guy this much -- he finally said he was sorry. Over and over again.

Reports Brian Meyer: 

"My conduct was unacceptable and I do want to apologize," Davis said in the statement. "My 32,000-plus constituents in the Ellicott District, and the city as a whole, deserve better. I
am truly sorry."

With Davis officially out of the way, the fun 'n' games to choose a successor is off and running. I floated some names the other day and Brian's story in Thursday's News mentions a few others, including the Rev. Darius G. Pridgen, pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church.

He would be a formidable candidate. He's held elected office before on the Board of Education, although he quit 19 months before his term was up, saying his pastoral duties demanded his time.

Psssst, Rev, serving on the Council is a full-time job involving a lot more hours than the School Board. Could you really do justice to both jobs?

Then again, while I don't know Pridgen, from a distance he seems to be dynamic and accomplished, and knows how to operate in the public sphere. All good things.

He's said to be close to the mayor, and for all I know, hizzoner is one of the folks encouraging him to seek the post. Given his standing in the community, Pridgen could be a tough candidate for the Council to turn down if he is recommended by Democratic committeemen.

I don't know enough about him to know whether he'd operate independent of the mayor. I mean, does he have the backbone to tell Steve Casey to take a hike? And would he want to?

Fom all the names floated -- and remember, it's still early -- Pridgen and Bryon McIntrye strike me as possible front-runners.  

McIntryre is a city firefighter who knows his way around the district, being active in community affairs and having run for the Council and School Board. His support for Mickey Kearns in the mayoral primary will not hurt him with the Council majority who control the votes that choose Davis' successor.

Barbara Miller-Williams, meanwhile, insists she is not interested in leaving her seat on the County Legislature for a return engagement on the Council. She must be having too much fun playing footsies with the Republicans.

One new name I'm hearing is Don Allen, a former commissioner under Jimmy Griffin and Tony Masiello.

Update: Don called me Thursday morning to say he will be filing his resume for consideration by the Council. He said he's got the experience in government to be an effective Council member.

What names are you hearing, folks, or what names ought we be hearing?

Anyone have any insights -- as opposed to scuttlebutt -- on Pridgen's relationship with Bryon Brown?

Ours are called Dopey and Sleepy

The State Senate has seven dwarfs -- members who are opposed to any cuts to education and Medicaid, but no proposals on how to cut money elsewhere in the budget in order to balance the budget, according to this column in the New York Daily News.

Senators from Western New York account for two of the seven -- Antoine Thompson and Bill Stachowski.

Says columnist Bill Hammond:

These seven Democratic pols - call them the seven dwarfs - declared that they cannot possibly go along with trimming education aid in the middle of the school year, as Gov. Paterson has proposed to help close a $3.2 billion deficit.

Nor do they like Paterson's suggested cuts in Medicaid funding for hospitals and nursing homes, which they dismissed as "untenable."

Nor do they support Paterson's plan to raise money by forcing New Yorkers to buy new license plates.

Okay, now we know what they're against. So what are they for? How, pray tell, do they propose to resolve a cash crunch so severe that the state might not be able to pay its bills next month?

They've got nothing.

Well, it's not exactly true "they've got nothing."

They've got money in the bank, in the form of campaign contributions they keep soliciting while they hem and haw while doing the people's business.Thompson has been especially busy, although we won't know how much loot he and others have taken in the second half of this year until the next round of disclosure  reports are filed in January.

Day 2, AD (After Davis)

It's pretty safe to say it's all over but the shouting, and believe me, there will be shouting.

The first business day after Brian Davis pleaded guilty to pocketing campaign contributions and lying to about it to the state Board of Elections, his colleagues on the Common Council got busy making him a persona non-grata.

They stripped him of all his committee assignments and pretty much said said he's finished. Or, in the words of Mickey Kearns of the Sounth District:

"Based on his guilty plea, he has violated state public officers' law, and he's no longer a Council member."

Update: Davis' support on the Council is down to zero as of Tuesday afternoon. About the only pol we haven't heard from is Mayor Byron Brown. Why are we not surprised?

Council leaders on Monday met with Acting Corporation Counsel David Rodriguez to ask him about what it takes to replace Davis and how soon the city law department will render a legal opinion to get the ball rolling.

Perhaps it won't be long until Davis can compare notes with Eliot Sptizer. I mean, they've both got time on their hands, right?

Already, attention is turning to who will replace Davis for the remaining 25 months of his term.

Here's the intelligence I've picked up the past couple of days:

The Council would appoint a replacement, after presumably conducting interviews of candidates and fielding a non-binding, but usually accepted recommendation from the Democratic committeemen for the Ellicott District.

If you're assuming Brown's surrogates in Grassroots control committee seats in the district, you'd be wrong. I'm told neither Grassroots nor another faction headed by Arthur O. Eve. Jr. hold a majority of seats. There's also a number of committeemen independent of those two camps - swing votes, if you will.

Prospective candidates are already coming out of the woodwork and the field could grow to 10 or more. Names being bandied about include Barabara Miller-Williams, who used to hold the seat and now serves in the County Legislature; firefighter Byron McIntrye, who previously ran against Davis and who narrowly lost a race this spring for the Board of Education; and a couple of other former candidates for the Ellicott seat, William Trezevant and Kenny Robinson. I'm also hearing Marilyn Rogers, who works for the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority.

A lot is at stake politically.

In a sense, there is an anti-Brown majority on the Council - five of nine members - although when push comes to shove, most of them go along with the mayor. But politically, the majority is not on the same page as the mayor, and they realize that if they appoint another like-minded member in the Ellicott seat, they would have a veto-proof majority, which could shake things up. To say nothing of ruining Steve Casey's day.

Adding yet more intrigue are preliminary discussions among some Council members about reorganization that would change, or reaffirm, key leadership positions. Among the titles up for grabs in Council president, which is kind of a big deal, even moreso with Brown's uncertain future.

Yeah, the mayor was just re-elected to a second term, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is long for City Hall.

He's mentioned as a possible running mate to Andrew Cuomo, although not in this New York Times story from yesterday. Furthermore, his administration is being investigated by everyone this side of the KGB and, as the commerical goes "Hey, you never know."

If the mayor leaves in mid-term, the Council president succeeds him. So, the reorganization takes on special importance, and the appointment of a Davis successor is a factor.

There's another reason why the Ellicott appoint is important. Because the district is arguably one of the most important in the city.

It includes all of downtown, the inner-harbor (i.e. Bass Pro site), Erie Basin Marina and LaSalle Park, the Buffalo Medical Campus, and neighborhoods adjoining downtown on the lower west and near east sides that are in various stages of decline and revitalization.

See for yourself.

In other words, if there's any district seat in the city where you want someone who is on the ball, someone who can influence decisions that impact the entire city -- indeed, the region -- it is Ellicott. And no one worth a hoot has occupied the seat since Jim Pitts.

So, here's hoping the the committeemen, and then the Council, go beyond politics in deciding who will fill the seat.

Don't blow this one, guys and gals.

Criminal and Councilman -- Brian Davis wants it both ways

 

I'll admit to being just a wee-wee bit sorry -- maybe 2 percent -- for Brian Davis on Friday for about half an hour when he was in City Court to plead guilty to charges he pocketed campaign donations for personal purposes and lied about it.

First there was the "perp walk" between the elevators and the courtroom with five or six TV cameras and bright lights in his face.

Humiliating, I thought to myself.

Then there was the courtroom scene. After conferring with attorneys, Chief City Court Judge Thomas Amodeo allowed cameras into the chamber, and they set up shop about 15 feet away from Davis.

Lights, action, camera.

Yeah, humiliating.

It was all over in about 12 minutes and then Davis and his attorney, Rodney Personius, eventually headed to the hallway and quickly ended my sliver of sympathy.

Personius said he had a statement, but was not going to answer questions. He went on to praise Davis for making his plea and declared his client is not stepping down from office.

With that, the pair bolted to the elevators, ignoring a torrent of questions, including "what do you have to say to your constituents?"

Davis never said "I'm sorry." Not to the judge. Not to reporters. Not to his constituents.

Maybe that was the time and place. Maybe it wasn't.

But to dig in his heels and declare his intention to fight to keep his Council seat was brazen, especially given what DA Frank Sedita is saying: that Davis vacated the seat in making his plea.

I should not have been surprised by Davis' bloodied but unbowed stance.

After all, this is the guy who, as I documented in April, has been stiffing people for money for years.

Who is a chronic abuser of the state election law.

Who lied about his college degree.

Who kept losing his license and driving anyway.

Who was part of the crowd that brought us One Sunset.

Who has been skipping meetings and blowing off anyone who has questioned his actions.

No, Brian Davis is not going. Not without a fight. And certainly not gracefully.

This tiger isn't changing his stripes.

  *********************************************************

Want to delve into the details? Check out these documents.

DA's case against Davis filed in City Court 

Public Officers Law

Related court ruling

Another related court ruling, involving Erie County Legislator george "Butch" Holt

*********************************************************

(Follow this blog and my reporting on Facebook and Twitter. Have a story tip or something else you want to share? e-mail me.)

 

Brian Davis finally fesses up

Ineptitude in city government is a given. But corruption, in the form of an honest-to-goodness plea or conviction is rare, rare, rare in City Hall.

That makes Common Council Member Brian Davis' plea today to criminal charges that he pocketed campaign contributions and used them for personal purposes and then lied to the state Board of Elections about it particularly scandalous.

I picked the brains of some old-timers and while mayors Steven Pankow and Chester Kowal were indicted in the 1950s and 1960s respectively, they were never convicted.

The no-show job scandal during the final term of Mayor Frank Sedita in the early 1970s did not result in legal action.

The Parks Department scandal in the late 1980s and early 1990s under Jimmy Griffin resulted in Parks Commissioner Bob Delano going to jail, and the mayor's brother Tommy served time for property tax fraud in Florida, but neither episode landed hizzoner in court.

So, it's been more than a half-century since an elected official in Buffalo has been guilty of a crime - in the eyes of the legal system, anyway. Think about that, given how screwed up City Hall has been for, well, forever, or at least since Grover Cleveland was in office?

The only thing I find surprising about Davis' fall from grace is how quickly it happened.

I reported in April that he was a deadbeat, followed up in May with a report that he had doctored his credentials, and BAM! -- six months later he's plead guilty to charges that are probably going to lead to his removal from office.

Suffice to say, District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III didn't waste time.

Although Davis took a deep breath today and pleaded guilty, it doesn't mean his legal troubles are necessarily over.

He's also still got the FBI sniffing around the One Sunset scandal, in which he played a role, first helping to secure city funding for the project and later writing a check to cover the rent Brian Davis that bounced.

(Follow this blog and my reporting on Facebook and Twitter. Have a story tip or something else you want to share? e-mail me.)

IDA continues to obfuscate in wake of One Sunset fiasco

The folks who run the Erie County Industrial Development Agency must still be smarting over the grief they caught for lending Leonard Stokes $50,000 when his One Sunset was in the process of tanking.

A few months ago they made the laughable claim that "due diligence is a way of life" at the IDA. This, from an outfit that didn't even do a basic public records check on Stokes and his restaurant, one that would have screamed "do not lend money to this business!"

Now, earlier this week, the IDA staged a press event in which it trotted out some of the other minority business owners who borrowed money at the same time as Stokes in an effort to make the point that not all the loans went bad. In fact, the IDA says, nine other loans made at the same time are panning out.

Perhaps a bit of perspective is in order, however.

For starters, a report released by the IDA in February showed that nearly half of the money its Regional Development Corp. has lent to minority businesses over the years has not been paid back. As in 43.6 percent. Compared with 12.7 percent for all loans.

In other words, the RDC's track record when it comes to lending to minority business is abysmal.

Don't get me wrong. We need to seed minority-owned businesses. But we also need to be smart about it. And the record strongly suggests the IDA/RDC isn't.

But there's more.

I inquired last month as to the repayment status of the RDC's current loans. The Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. routinely makes this information available. But not the RDC/IDA. It responded to my recent Freedom of Information request with a denial.

I called Bob Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government, and he termed the IDA's position "ridiculous." I've filed an appeal.

Think about it -- a public agency is lending money to businesses and claiming that it's none of the public's business whether the money is being repaid, at least not until the loans go officially belly up. Thus, the IDA is less transparent than BERC.

I'm not the only one the IDA is trying to stiff for this information. County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz is having the same problem getting this data.

One final bit of information. The IDA is paying good money for all I reference above.

The press events are being staged managed by the PR firm of Travers Collins & Co. The bad legal advice comes from Harris Beach.

(Follow this blog and my reporting on Facebook and Twitter. Have a story tip or something else you want to share? e-mail me.)

 

Enough to warm a cynic's heart

I was initially kind of put off by the prospect of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" coming to WNY. I have little use for the vast majority of what's on television, aside from "Hockey Night in Canada" and reruns of "That 70s Show," oh, and "Family Guy."

But I've got to admit I think it's neat what they're doing on the West Side, not just rebuilding one house, but making repairs to others in the neighborhood.

It builds off what the good people at PUSH Buffalo, the Massachusetts Avenue Project and Buffalo ReUse are doing.

I'm off the next couple of days. I'll try and have something fresh by lunch on Thursday.

Redevelopment? Yes. Hotels? No.

Rocco Termini wants to restore the luster to the tarnished gem known as the Lafayette Hotel.

He wants to convert the abandoned AM&A's building into something other than the downtown's largest building code violation.

Good for him.

Maybe.

Maybe?

Yeah, maybe.

Because, as they say, the devil is in the details.

Termini is talking the possibility of hotel rooms being part of the mix.And being part of the developer crowd that can't possibly do a project without a government handout, his hand is no doubt poised to dip into our pocket.

The trouble is that practically every hotel in and around downtown Buffalo was built with public subsidies, and most of them are treading water -- at best.

In a story I did a year ago, I reported:

For nearly 30 years, politicians have poured more than $65 million into downtown Buffalo hotels — an average of more than $50,000 per room. The strategy produced five hotels — and a lot of red ink.

Some of downtown’s largest hotel operators say the last thing they need is more competition, especially subsidized competitors.

But that’s exactly the course City Hall is pursuing.

Indeed, since I wrote that story:

• Embassy Suites opened in the highly subsidized Avant building.
• Mark Croce -- the restaurant and parking lot operator who is pals with Byron Brown and Brian Davis -- has broken ground on a boutique hotel at Franklin and West Huron streets with the help of a $1.35 million grant from the state.
• A group that includes Sam Savarino wants to buy the Statler and restore a portion of the building to hotel space.
• Jim Pitts is still trying to get a hotel built on the waterfront in an Empire Zone .
• There's continuing talk of putting a hotel into Canal Side at the foot of Main Street.

Now, Termini is considering adding yet another hotel or two to the mix.

I think the phrase is "Good money after bad."

I mean, if five subsidized hotels can't make it for lack of demand, how will eight, nine -- do I hear 10! -- fare?

A year ago, Richard Geiger, then president of the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that more rooms would not help bolster the convention and tourism business.

“Based on current market demand, we have a sufficient number of rooms in the downtown core,” he said.

He's since gotten the boot from Chris Collins, and his successor, Drew Cerza, is singing a somewhat different tune, according to our story the other day.

In the end, Cerza believes that the market will decide how many projects move forward.

I think the market decided a long time ago. The problem is the politicians think they know better. They've been wrong -- tens and tens of millions of dollars wrong. The question is whether they'll keep making the same mistake for the sake of photo ops and rewarding campaign donors. 

Not everyone in local government has such a "subsidize now, ask questions later, if ever." Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster is one of them.

As for Termini, I wish him well with his latest undertakings. But please, remember to put up the safety railings before the fact.

(Follow this blog and my reporting on Facebook and Twitter. Have a story tip or something you want to share? e-mail me.)

 

Brian Davis and Byron Brown play hard to get

Political bedfellows Byron Brown and Brian Davis are tough guys to pin down these days -- as always.

Investigators for the State Police and District Attorney showed up at City Hall on Wednesday intending to talk to Davis, presumably related to their investigation of the Ellicott District Common Council member's financial dealings. Depending on who you talk to, Davis either wasn't around or suddenly made himself scarce.

No surprise. I had the same experience when I tried to question him about everything from his bad debts to phony claims of a college degree.

Brown, meanwhile, waltzed into Thursday's meeting of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency 15 minutes late, conducted a meeting that lasted all of five minutes, and blew out of the room. Suffice to say, there was no idle chit-chat.

While hizzoner was there, BURA approved contracts for six of the 14 human service agencies still awaiting approval of contracts that were supposed to kick in last May.

No discussion, no explanation of why the other eight agencies are still awaiting approval, and no discussion about the questions involving BURA's handling of the contracts of some 50 agencies that I detailed in Monday's paper.

Quick guess: what do you think Brown and Davis consider their favorite line from the movies?