Outrages & Insights

Widen this circle

There have been some quiet, behind-the-scenes meetings taking place the last month or two aimed at trying to figure out how to fix the mother-of-a-problem involving the city's use of public dollars, mostly federal, to combat poverty and promote economic development.

"What we have to do is take 30 years of layering on not 'best practices' and clean it up to start fresh," said Dennis Penman, left, acting president of the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp., who initiated the effort.

OK, I can go for that. A rethinking is certainly in order, preferably accompanied by a couple of sticks of dynamite to blow things up and start over.

But here's the rub -- the folks summoned to sort things out include many of the usual suspects, in some cases the very people who helped get us in this fix to begin with.

Participants include former city economic development commissioners and/or senior staff, including Chuck Rosenow, Larry Rubin, Jim Militello, Larry Quinn, Fred Fadel, Pete Cammarata  and Dave Stebbins. Some of them are bright, others are part of a long line of bureaucrats who, along with the politicians, built the dysfunctional system that needs fixing.

Others in the room have included Nancy Peacock, No. 2 person in the local HUD office; Robert Gioia, whose latest Mr. Insider hat includes foundation bigwig; former Common Council President Jim Pitts; and a couple of folks from the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.

Curious names. I mean, HUD has spent 20 years mostly looking the other way and Pitts is one of the leading political architects of this mess. From them, we expect solutions?

In typical Buffalo style, we've got top-down -- a group of mostly older, white establishment guys sitting around talking about how to help poor black folks.

The people in the trenches making things happen, guys like Aaron Bartley of PUSH Buffalo or Michael Clarke of the Local Initiatives Support Corp., are nowhere to be found. To say nothing of people in the community who all this federal money is supposed to be helping.

Penman said this may be the opening salvo of what could evolve into a broader, more-inclusive process. He described the handful of meetings held so far as informal, "more fact finding, a listening tour."

"If it's going to move forward, it should be a more formalized, public process," Penman said.

Notably, he said, a broader base of people should be included if the process evolves. His hope would be to have recommendations to the mayor by February-March.

I'm not sure how to go about this. Closed-door meetings of insiders doesn't feel right, especially with the crew Penman has pulled together. Nor does a blue-ribbon panel approach, which usually produces a lot of politically correct hot air and a report that sits on a shelf collecting dust.

Don't get me wrong; folks with experience in the system are worth hearing out.

But so too are the growing cadre of young, smart progressive people, many of them affiliated with the Partnership for the Public Good, who are doing good work in the field while boning up on best practices elsewhere.

Personally, I think we ought to treat this like New Year's Eve. You know, out with the old, in with the new.

Get a few of the sage graybeards to work with the young Turks and, by all means, involve at some meaningful level the people who these federal dollars are supposed to be helping.

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

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?

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.)

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?

Block grant woes go from bad to worse

The city's block grant program may be more screwed up than ever.

Given its history, that's saying a lot.

And given the city's status as the nation's third-poorest city, that's a shame.

Not that anybody in a position of authority seems embarrassed about it, at least not enough to actually do something about it.

Of course, Mayor Byron Brown can fix the problem. But he hasn't exactly built a track record as a problem solver during his nearly four years in office, has he?

From what I learned during the course of reporting today's story, it appears Brown -- with his sidekick Steve Casey doing the dirty work, of course -- is using the program's millions in part to reward friends and punish enemies.

Let's move on to others who could be part of the solution, if they so chose.

For starters there is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's real good at finding problems. Not so good at fixing them.

It has the ways -- it's the will that's lacking.

HUD and the city have been going back and forth since the feds issued their report in March that found 19 serious problems with the Brown administration's management of the block grant program. So far, 10 of the 19 problems have been fixed, ones that to varying degrees involve pushing the right paper across the table. But the root problems, starting with poor management, remain unresolved. The full updated report is here.

HUD has all kinds of regulatory powers. And it's got the power of the purse strings. Not that it acts that way. Heck, the feds won't even use the bully pulpit. Call them for a comment, a chance to nudge the city, and you get blah-blah-blah quotes from a flak. The last time anyone had anything stronger to say, HQ in DC called and told everyone to dummy up.

Perhaps Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Brian Higgins and Louise Slaughter should tell HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to get tough. Our local delegation has been awfully quiet about the city's misuse of federal dollars ever since John LaFalce retired. Yeah, I know, they're all Democrats and want to act like We Are Family, but it is their constituents who are getting the short end of the deal.

The Common Council, on the other hand, has had a few things to say. But it's been mostly just talk.

For all its rhetoric, the Council in recent years has changed about 1 percent of the spending proposed by Brown in his block grand budget submissions. And there's been no push for structural changes.

Yeah, the Council was successful this summer in getting HUD's inspector general to agree to come in and audit the block grant program -- not that he's shown up yet. Far be it for me to discourage another pair of eyes from looking over the books, but what we need a lot more than another study is a solution.

Three Council members sit on the governing board of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency -- the crew that mismanages the block grant program -- and I don't see them pushing for meaningful change on that front, either. Yeah, the mayor controls the board majority through appointments, but that doesn't mean you just go through the motions. And that's largely what's happening.

Then there is city's foundation community, which invests a lot of money dealing with the vestiges of poverty. It is in their interest to see that the biggest pot of money available to do likewise -- the block grant program -- is money well spent. But they're spectators.

Finally, there are those so-called advocates for the poor. There are a lot of fine people in their ranks. Unfortunately, too many of them feel they have more to lose by speaking out than the community has to gain, and Brown and Casey give them a justifiable reason for pause. But a lot of these advocates have, or want, a piece of the block grant pie. They'll grumble, but not much more.

It's all so Buffalo.

I guess this leaves it up to the citizenry to do something about it.

People, are you ready to rumble?

Follow this blog and my reporting on Facebook and Twitter.

Collins and Brown -- the sequel

So much for Chris Collins' rant about Sheldon Silver the anit-Christ being "unscripted" and "off the cuff," as claimed by his flak.

Artvoice reports:

When Erie County Executive Chris Collins called Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver an anti-Christ last Saturday night at a Republican dinner, it wasn’t the first time he’d pulled the line out of his bag.

He recently made the exact same comparison to a group of Buffalo State political science students, who were visiting the Rath Building. Two Buffalo State faculty members were present.

Geoff Kelly goes on to say:

But it’s clear to me that his remark comparing an orthodox Jew to Hitler and the anti-Christ was not “off the cuff” or “unscripted”; it was not a momentary lapse in judgment. The joke is part of Collins’ repertoire. He has used it more than once, who knows how many times.

Which begs the question -- anyone else hear Collins deliver this punchline?

This comes from an aspiring career politician who was quoted last week as saying he didn't want to name any Republicans who might be career politicians because "I don't want to get into name-calling necessarily."

Come to think of it, Byron Brown has an unusual double standard, as well.

The mayor who was too busy to meet last week with the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development when the cabinet member made a rare visit to Buffalo is the same fellow who took time out from his busy day a couple of years back to help Leonard Stokes out of a jam.

Interesting.

And telling.

Speaking of telling, let me share this photo taken last week under the category of "a picture tells a thousand words."

Let's see, we've got HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Congressman Dan Maffei, Senator Chuck Schumer, and, on the far right, Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll.

A mayor meeting with a congressman, senator and cabinet member. Imagine that.