Guilty (Reilly), and more guilty (Brown)

Mayor Byron Brown had it right when he said Brian Reilly had too much on his plate serving  both as commissioner of economic development, permits and inspections and as president of the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp.

What the mayor failed to say, however, is that it was Brown who loaded Reilly's plate like a starving man on a buffet line.

In other words, Brown, in forcing Reilly to step down as BERC president, is cleaning up his own mess.

Brown hired Reilly a year ago February as the city's chief economic development official. The mayor then gave Richard Tobe the boot and put Reilly in charge of the permit and inspections department that Tobe had headed. Meanwhile, the mayor failed to fill a budgeted position to oversee green issues and dumped that work in Reilly's lap, as well. All the while, Reilly headed up BERC.

Not that this made Reilly immune from doing political homework assigned by Deputy Mayor Steve Casey. In whatever spare time Reilly might have otherwise had last summer, he was spotted carrying petitions for candidates favored by the mayor.

But before you start feeling sorry for Reilly, keep in mind that he didn't help himself.

The decision to change BERC's insurance options in a way that allowed him to put the woman he lives with on his health insurance policy may or may not have involved skulduggery, but it certainly displayed poor judgment.

Ditto for his defense of Michelle Barron in the wake of the One Sunset restaurant fiasco.

Double-ditto for his MO of not returning calls to a wide range of people and snarling at many of them when he did pick up the phone. He turned off a lot of people in the development community pretty quickly, people in both corporate suites and grass-roots organizations.

But Reilly has not played a central role in most of the controversies to beset the city's economic development efforts since he arrived on the scene.

There's the decision, subject to likely rejection by the Common Council, to select a team headed by former Council President James Pitts to develop a waterfront hotel. It was Brown, not Reilly, who ramrodded that decision through the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.

There's the money and manpower lent by BERC to help Leonard Stokes run One Sunset into the ground within a year of opening. Most of the damage was done by the time Reilly was hired.

P.S.:  the guy Stokes met with at City Hall to help make things happen was named Brown, not Reilly.

It was Brown, not Reilly, who carried on about the supposed $4.5 billion in economic development activity that turned out to be a lot of smoke and mirrors.

There's the blind eye the administration has turned to sustainable economic development or just about anything else having to do with green.

And, of course, there's the ongoing ... and ongoing ... and ongoing squandering of federal block grant funds and accompanying critical audits by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jimmy Griffin got the ball rolling, plowing money into the salaries of bureaucrats and loans to dubious development deals. Tony Masiello did likewise. And not much has changed under Brown,

If anything, things have perhaps gotten worse, considering the most recent HUD audit released this spring found no fewer than 19 serious deficiencies. And when the Common Council wanted documents to help get to the bottom of things, it had to resort to filing Freedom of Information requests that the administration took its sweet time in responding to -- and not completely, at that.

Is any of this Brian Reilly's fault?

Nope. The buck stops at the mayor's desk.

In short, shed no tears for Brian Reilly. He's still got $91,162 in salary to keep him warm -- and to help his girlfriend buy health insurance.

At the same time, remember who is really calling the shots, who ultimately is responsible for this mess. It's the guy, two months away from a primary, who all of a sudden is preaching "change and reform."

Comments

[Mark]

Mayor Brown has never taken a stand on anything, if you handed him a blank piece of red paper, he would speak several paragraphs and never admit it was a piece of red blank paper. And to think some were promoting him to fill the vacant Hillary Senate seat.

[soupy]

Sounds like BERC is another example of shadow government that needs to be eliminated

[BROWNOUT]

Kevin Gaughan - If you are serious about reducing government shouldn't you be starting with the BERCs of this world?

[Colin]

Michelle Barron is still on staff at BERC, and Brian Davis -- Brian Davis!! -- is still a member of the board. So it's one down, several more to go.

http://eagercolin.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/the-one-sunset-scandal-claims-its-first-victim/

[Gus Terp]

I look forward to when the Buffalo News endorses Byron Brown for Mayor.

[john]

The title of this article is PERFECT, "Guilty (Reilly), and more guilty (Brown)". Why am I NOT surprised that Brown would shove the blame to someone else? He has a history of doing this - he will NOT take responsibility for anything unless he's backed into a corner - does anyone remember when his SUV was stolen? "Reilly has got to GO and THEN Brown in the next election, but of course he WILL have everyone on the city payroll working to get him reelected!

[kris]

Has the news done a follow up on where the brewing equipment went to from the old Breckenridge/Yaya's breweries? Does anyone know where that went? Sold for scrap, even though it could have been used at a local brewery for expansion. That's another BERC deal.

[WNYmind]

Who is the Director of OSP? Nobody, that's who. A mandated postion under the City Charter, but vacant for years.

Good job Mayor Brown. Keep on truckin.

[OPMike]

The overly compensated and non-elected professional politicians, family and friends of the establishment, like Brian Reilly, screw the taxpayers out of millions of dollars annually. These are the very people that get to skim off over 30% of the federal anti-poverty funds that Washington sends to the third poorest city in the country each year.

Rather than worrying about $5,000 a year professional "politicians" in the towns and villages of Erie County, Kevin Gaughan could do the region a real service by campaigning to get rid of all the useless $100,000 a year rodents that infest the City of Buffalo.

The sooner they are exterminated the better off the region will all be.

[my2cents]

Mark said,"And to think some were promoting him to fill the vacant Hillary Senate seat."

Now those same people are backing Mr.Kearns ! ?

Some people will do or say anything for a job $

[O'Reilly]

Great spin My2cents, it is not going to help! Brown actually said that Reilly was thrown into these jobs when he himself hired him. A real leader would say I made a mistake and gave him too much to do. I didn't hear that from Sgt. Schultz Brown.

[JMM]

Speaking of OSP. Just a suggestion, but that's a department worth investigation......

[Fredo]

my2cents stated: "Now those same people are backing Mr.Kearns ! ?"

What? You're a piece of work, how do bring Kearns into this discussion? Oh that's right you're a Casey poop boy.

[Jim Heaney, author, Outrages & Insights]

Guys, enough with the name calling.

[speaktruthtopower]

Tanya Perrin-Johnson should be terminated. She almost drove the YWCA under and is partially responsible for the Clarkson Center closing its doors. In addition to violating the City Charter and the city's Code of Ethics, she is now violating the Hatch Act at a federally funded city run program. Where is the outrage!

Buffalo News EDITORIAL
End political pressure
Commissioner deserves strong rebuke for improper e-mails to workers
Updated: July 10, 2009, 8:05
Mayor Byron W. Brown owes this city and, particularly, this city’s public employees a much more forceful rebuke of the stunningly unethical behavior of one of his own department heads.

The longer it takes him to do so, the more people will have a right to believe that the improper politicking engaged in by his commissioner of community services wasn’t quite so unauthorized as we are being led to believe.

As reported in The Buffalo News Monday, several City Hall employees have received weekly e-mails from the commissioner, Tanya Perrin-Johnson, basically assigning them extra—unpaid—duties and hours on behalf of Brown’s reelection campaign.

“Your services are needed minimally 8 hours a week,” Perrin-Johnson messaged her workers. “Everyone is expected to be at the Headquarters after work.”

There’s no way to spin that as “voluntary” work.

Those who weren’t able to report as ordered to Brown’s campaign headquarters were instructed to e-mail back and receive alternate assignments.

This reeks of nothing but a clear violation of both the City Charter and the city’s own Code of Ethics, both of which forbid any abuse of a city official’s position to command political activity or to extort personal favors.

The lame protests by Perrin-Johnson and by Peter Cutler, Brown’s spokesman, that the e-mails do not constitute a blatantly improper action on the part of a Brown appointee would be funny if the matter weren’t so serious. Just because the words “show up or you’re fired” don’t actually appear in print doesn’t mean that such a message from one’s employer won’t be read to say exactly that.

The excuse that the e-mails were sent from and to private accounts, not city-assigned e-mail addresses, is no disinfectant. Even if they arrived by carrier pigeon, the memos could hardly be read as anything other than high-pressure solicitation of a campaign contribution, even if it is a gift of time and not of money.

(Another disturbing question: If the e-mails were being sent to employees’ private e-mail accounts, how did Perrin-Johnson get those addresses?)

Pressured by The News’ reports and criticism from rivals on the Common Council, Brown has issued a troublingly meek statement trying to wash his own hands of the matter and restating that any campaign assistance he receives from public employees should be strictly voluntary.

Yeah. Right. If Brown thinks the e-mails in question could be read as anything other than a threat to each employee’s livelihood, it will be hard for him to suggest he identifies with the lives of the average citizen. Even when we aren’t suffering through the worst recession in 70 years, people who work for a living can’t afford to risk their income, their health insurance and their family’s future by ignoring even the most indirect suggestion that staying in the good graces of their employer involves a little extra-curricular activity.

The only person whose job should at least be threatened by this kind of activity is that of the city’s community services commissioner. The mayor needs to let her, and the rest of City Hall’s workers, know that—in no uncertain terms.

[John Duggan Jr.]

Open letter to the Buffalo News,

Can you please explain to the citizens of Buffalo how you can fail to report that (3) People have been shot in separate unrelated Gang incidents in 36hrs. and this doesn’t make the front page news?

Can you question the rationale of the Mayors wasteful “Gun buy back” program and its nil effect on the violence?

Can you ask the Mayor why he measures the crime rate by the amount of “Homicides” that occur instead of the overall exceptionally vicious attacks and non-fatal shootings that have occurred over the past several months?

I challenge you to ask the tough questions.

Taxpayer

[tony]

Inthese hard times there are people out of work no health ins.who gladly take the 30 k job i would think the mayor would be trying to put more people to work rather than see how much more money one person can make.

[OPMike]

Tony makes some excellent points about hard times, out of work people with no health insurance, and a mayor who is intent on stuffing the wallets and purses of a few chosen, well connected individuals.

Brian Reilly was getting $91,162 for one job and another $36,071 for the part time task of heading up the BERC. Adding insult to injury, Reilly snookered the taxpayers into paying for a high priced domestic partner health insurance plan plan for his girlfriend.

When you factor in all other benefits into Reilly's compensation package, he was making more than 5 times the medium family income in Buffalo, which is just $27,530.

The mayor and other city and regional "leaders" are always talking about "fairness", the rich suburbanites and poor city residents. And yet Buffalo has hundreds of "public servants" like Reilly making more than $100,000 a year.

Why are there so many highly compensated "public servants" in the third poorest city in the nation? Why is so much federal money intended to fight poverty wasted on hiring so many useless bureaucrats?

[Dick Strongbridge]

Good point Gus, the News will most likely endorse Byron no matter what happens to him or his administration.

[my2cents]

Fredo : Casey who?

Go back under previous Dem Mayors - how about under Masiello - $650,000.00 tax dollars spent to renovate a empty building on main st. - then the property is sold to a local supporter for less than what was spent to fix it up.

This is all about "Primary Mud slinging."

One thing and one thing only will be different a day after the Primary.

All you howling Dems will kiss and hug and all back who ever wins - not because of the issues that affect City Residents - not because your guy has a clear "Reform Agenda" -

Because you have to. You have to in order to keep your Party/Committee in Power. You have to - in order to stay on the "Good Side" - You talk about pressure in City Hall - Your Committee depends on that pressure and Patronage.

Yesterday - Today - next month - New Suit, same game.

Its like watching a crazed dog trying to catch its tail.

[james]

Remember Reilly is a poo-boy, picked from his great job in Cleveland, where he miraculously pushed Cleveland into 3rd place as Buffalo slid into 2nd place as the poorest city on the USA. He is a puppet, replacing the intelligent Tobe who wouldn't lie for the Brown idiots with their smoke and mirrors. Liars, all of them. Reilly needs to go home to Williamsville, he is an idiot.

[Kenny]

BERC has to be disbanded, it does nothing but embezzle from the taxpayer, it is a hoax. Brown and his band of theives, all in denial about what is happening in our poor city. scumbags. Reilly's butt must hurt.