Brown resigns: Addition by subtraction

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Reporting, analysis and commentary
by Jim Heaney, editor of Investigative Post

I wrote a column in December 2022 that posed the question: Is Byron Brown the worst mayor in America? It was prompted by his mishandling of the Christmas blizzard that year. But, as I noted then, it was but the latest example of his ineptitude.

Things have only gotten worse since, in particular city finances. Brown, with the cooperation of an ever-compliant Common Council, first burned through $109 million in reserves the mayor inherited from the city’s state-imposed financial control board. Of late, he has used $150 million — and counting — in federal pandemic aid to cover city operating expenses. It could and should have been put to better use. 

Initially Brown said he would use that federal windfall to fund a host of much-needed community programs, including health equity initiatives for the East Side, gun violence prevention, water and sewer bill forgiveness for the city’s poorest homeowners, investments in community gardens, and even a “Neighborhood Improvements Corps” that would pay people to beautify the city’s public spaces.

Brown’s original plan for the pandemic money was supposed to address the “systemic roots of racial and economic disparities” as well as “the immediate symptoms of these issues which are having an impact on the livability of our neighborhoods right now.”

Instead, the money sat idle, earning interest instead of doing good. Eventually, much of the money earmarked for those programs was diverted to pay the city’s basic operating expenses, because Brown failed to grow the city’s revenue, even as costs kept rising.

Brown made history in 2005 when he was elected Buffalo’s first Black mayor. It’s especially damning that the city has done little to uplift its Black citizens during his tenure, which ended Tuesday with his resignation. 

A 2021 study by the University at Buffalo concluded Black Buffalonians “have not made progress over the past thirty-one years.” In fact, the problems are getting worse on the East Side, researchers found.

City Hall under Brown has also failed to address widespread lead poisoning among inner-city children, so much so that the Partnership for the Public Good has sued, contending the city has failed to follow its own laws.

Brown, never one to tackle a problem head on, has also failed to address systemic problems in his police department, which is regarded as racist and abusive by many Black residents. The city has failed to use its power to discipline bad cops, leaving it to an internal affairs unit that rarely finds police at fault when accused of misconduct.

The mayor has operated as though his job was to keep his job, and doing so involved him placating the region’s white power structure, to the point of announcing during the debate over where to locate a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills that it should remain in the suburbs. Some advocate for the city.

Brown’s legacy includes doing next to nothing for his political base, leaving the city in lousy financial shape, and leaving for a big pay raise to run a gambling agency, the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.

It rankles me that he’s leaving for an easier job that pays a lot more. Then again, he’ll do less damage at OTB than in City Hall.

Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon is left to clean up Brown’s mess. Or at least start.

A 12-year veteran of the Common Council, we’re about to find out if he’s got any executive chops. 

Job 1 is closing a projected — and likely recurring — $50 million budget gap. That’s going to involve a combination of job cuts and tax increases. What’s left of the federal pandemic aid might help in next year’s budget, but in the years that follow that crutch will be gone. 

In effect, the federal government has been bailing out the city for the past three years. The state should resist any efforts to convince it to do likewise in the years that follow. The city’s financial condition is a self-inflicted wound that its officials need to fix on their own. 

The Brown administration’s lack of transparency is a problem Scanlon can fix without spending a penny. Brown — in part through his press secretary, Mike DeGeorge — has been hostile to the press and his law department has been notoriously slow in responding to Freedom of Information requests. All Scanlon has to do is tell his people to knock it off.

Other problems are more challenging. There’s the city’s lead poisoning epidemic. And the cowboy mentality present in the police department and the misconduct that results. (I’m skeptical Scanlon will do anything about the cops, as he’s close to the police union.)

Many city roads and bridges are in poor condition, as are its fire houses, parks and community centers. Remote work has emperiled the city’s downtown tax base, as businesses vacate unneeded office space.

Addressing these issues is a tall task that will require time, money, vision and expertise. Expertise not in politicking, but governing. We’re about to start finding out if Scanlon has it in him. Brown certainly didn’t.

Jim Heaney