Brown, Casey and Davis: BERC no-shows

"Eighty percent of success is showing up," proclaimed Woody Allen.

Which may help explain why the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. is such a mess.

The agency's governing board includes two elected officials, Mayor Byron Brown, who serves as chairman, and Ellicott Common Council Member Brian Davis.

Davis hasn't shown up for a board meeting since last November, shortly after he bounced a rent check for the One Sunset restaurant.

The mayor hadn't been seen since December until he showed up for a hastily called meeting last week to discuss Brian Reilly's resignation as BERC president earlier that day.

Problem was, the meeting violated the state Open Meetings Law because the agency failed to notify the press and public. Apparently, the people's business was none of our business.

I got to looking at the minutes of board meetings posted at BERC's Web site and found that the private-sector members are pretty diligent about attending.

It was a different story for city officials.

Brown has made only eight of 20 meetings since January 2007. Keep in mind, he's the chairman.

Davis has made six of 13. He actually was showing up most of the time until the you-know-what started hitting the fan on One Sunset.

Deputy Mayor Steve Casey was a chronic no-show until he finally stepped down from the board late last year, making only four of 14 meetings. He blew off all eight board meetings in 2008 before stepping aside late in the year.

I'm not sure why Casey wasn't showing up; perhaps he had more pressing business, like gearing up for the mayor's re-election campaign. I trust Casey has a better attendance record at campaign strategy sessions than he did at BERC meetings.

I understand the mayor is a busy fellow. Maybe he can't make all the meetings, although I believe BERC sets its board schedule well in advance, so I'm not sure scheduling conflicts are a legitimate excuse.

But isn't it reasonable for the mayor -- the chairman of the board, for crying out out -- to be there more than he's not? Especially this May and June when the board considered measures to clean up the abuses The News revealed in our investigation of One Sunset.

The mayor would have us believe he is going to reform the agency. He might start by showing up.

It's worked for Woody.

Comments

[sherry]

Status of the health insurance change?

This speaks volumes on the priority (not) given to the needs of the poor and the (lack of) accountability of City Hall for resources dedicated to a genuine impact on poverty that are not tied to election demands. Sad, sad, sad. Shame, shame, shame.

[O'Reilly]

On Brown's website for re-election, he touts his "Accountability, Transparency, and Economic Development" as his major accomplishments. The recent revelations from the News tell us a different story of a mayor who doesn't like to take the blame, holds closed meetings, and is out of touch with the economic development department. No doubt, his PR machine will be in full gear
soon spending his treasure chest of down state money telling us what a wonderful job he has done.

I hope everyone remembers these reports when they go to the voting booth on Sept. 15th.

[Kevin]

Violating the open meetings law at this point in a public scandal demonstrates either that the Brown Administration is completely incompetent or is arrogant beyond belief. Either way, Brown needs to be voted out of office. Sorry, Byron, you might be a nice guy, but you're making the City of Buffalo the laughing stock of the region and possibly the nation.

According to my conversations with people in the federal government, the HUD report that slammed Brown's management of povery funds is unparalleled. The worst management EVER seen by HUD - collosal incompetence. One has to ask, why do Buffalonians put up with this?

In my own experience working with the administration on very simple community issues, I saw the same kind of behavior. Lack of public process and capricious decison making. Preservation board, council members, community and the Brown Administration all on a different page. No leadership, no public process and lots of paranoia.

Talk to anyone who has critized the administration, and, wow, you find out that the top dogs wear thier hearts on thier sleeves and won't stand for negative comments that imply it is thier fault.

Vote the bum out.

[Fredo]

Jim:
Maybe we should take his (Brown) poor attendance as a blesssing. He could have exacerbated the corruption had he physically been present.

There is no doubt he would not have added any leadership or direction. We see the destruction caused by his curent policies upon the city. "Sickmore" Village should be the poster child for what "not" to do when trying to rebuild housing. Have you seen the "city's capital plan"? It looks like it was written by a third grader on the back of a enevelope. Where's the planning, consolidation of services, created efficiencies, true accountability, public access and physical improvements? They don't exist, which shows that he does't have the capacity (intellect) nor the desire (heart) to improve Buffalo. He's an empty suit looking for his next political assignment, vis-a-vis Pigeon/Golisano.

This guy should run out of town on a rail back to Queens.

[Kenny]

Are these paid positions? Casey probably thinks he's too good to attend in his arrogance.

[frquarter]

this is why politicians can not run a business or open a business,,,they do not know what it takes to be successful....it is easy to be a politician,,,,,accept name calling humiliation...abuse by taxpayers....but everyday they get up knowing they will get paid either to be there or not and then B.S. the public to get re-elected......STACHOWSKI AND THOMPSON HAVE BEEN DOING IT FOR YEARS...and we the fools(not me I didnt vote for either)re-elect these do nothing slap the taxpayers in the face politicians ...except their aides who get pay raises during recession of economic times and we get tax increases....case closed

[liferocks]

I don’t know if these guys are criminals or not. They seem too stupid to be crooks. However, you can’t deny that everything they do seems corrupt. At the very least, they are likely to be involved in a conspiracy to commit various crimes. Brian’s theft of services to Tanya’s political coercion. The Casey/Brown administration knew what was going on. That means they are guilty of a crime. The DA needs to pursue them all.