Articles for Geoff Kelly

Jun 28

2023

Primary elections: Progressives strike out — again

So much for the revolution. Hopes ran high among Buffalo progressives after India Walton won the Democratic mayoral primary two years ago, shocking four-term incumbent Byron Brown. Walton lost to Brown’s well-funded and often vicious write-in campaign in the general election, but the coalition of progressives who supported her seemed poised to start winning smaller elections. Our City Action Buffalo, or OCAB, played a key role in Walton’s mayoral run. The coalition of progressive activists didn’t run candidates for Democratic Party committee seats last year, opting to fight the party establishment from the outside. It endorsed incumbent Jen Mecozzi’s successful[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 21

2023

Big money in Council races

The five contested races for Buffalo Common Council seats have attracted an astonishing amount of money, and for good reasons. For one, the winners will determine whether Mayor Byron Brown will have a friendly majority on the Council for the last two years of his fifth term, or whether he will continue to spar with a bloc of five (and sometimes six) legislators, as he has for the past four years. Second, they will choose the successor to Darius Pridgen as Council president in January. The Council president wields a great deal of power and would become acting mayor, should[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 19

2023

Clover Group sued for discrimination — again

Another former employee of the Clover Group has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the real estate firm and its president, Michael Joseph, of illegal and racially discriminatory practices. Shane Forrest of Greensboro, North Carolina, says the Williamsville-based company and its executives “intentionally engaged in illegal race-based housing discrimination by refusing to develop housing in or near Black neighborhoods.” In doing so, Forrest claims, the company violated federal law, as well as the laws of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, where Forrest scouted potential sites for Clover’s market-rate senior housing complexes. Clover owns or operates dozens of such developments in a[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 13

2023

A possible problem with City Hall pay raises

Buffalo’s Common Council voted 5-to-3 Tuesday to give pay raises to themselves, the mayor, the city comptroller and the nine elected members of the city school board. A commission empaneled by the Council in April recommended the 12.63 percent raises for city elected officials and 87 percent pay raises for school board members. The increases will cost taxpayers $254,410 per year. The new salaries are as follows: Mayor: $178,518.55 — a boost of $20,018.55. Comptroller: $134,592.85 — a boost of $15,092.85. Common Council member: $84,472.50 — a boost of $9,472.50. Board of Education member: $28,000 — a boost of $13,ooo.[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 11

2023

Monday Morning Read

Subscribe here to receive our free weekly newsletter, delivered to your inbox Sunday mornings. The Buffalo News reports that city legislators want the school district and the police department to look into the use of “child identification kits” — which include DNA samples — as a tool to help locate kids who have gone missing. They might want to check out this recent report from ProPublica, which found “no evidence” such kits help find missing kids, despite claims by providers that have convinced governments to spend millions to purchase them. One critic ProPublica quoted called the kits “crime control theater.” Also via the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 30

2023

Lawsuit seeks millions from OTB officials

Earlier this month a federal court issued summonses to a host of current and former board members at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., as part of a lawsuit seeking to hold the directors liable for the agency’s alleged misuse of millions of public dollars. The lawsuit aims to compel those 21 board members to pay back to OTB — and thus to the 15 counties and two cities that own the agency — money “improperly used” to purchase health insurance for board members, expensive tickets to sporting events and concerts, and contracts for politically connected firms. Specifically, the lawsuit claims[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 16

2023

Joseph resigns from Roswell board

Michael Joseph — whose company, the Clover Group, was accused last week of “racist and illegal housing discrimination practices” — has resigned as chair of Roswell Park Cancer Institute. A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who appoints seven of Roswell’s 15 board members — including the chair — sent Investigative Post a statement Tuesday evening announcing Joseph’s resignation. “Governor Hochul is committed to making Roswell Park a more equitable and inclusive institution for employees, patients and families,” the statement reads. “The Governor has accepted Michael Joseph’s resignation from the Board of Directors and named Leecia Eve as Interim Chair.” Joseph,[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 16

2023

Is Roswell chair eligible to serve?

Michael Joseph — whose company, the Clover Group, was accused last week of “racist and illegal housing discrimination practices” — has split time for at least the past decade between Buffalo and West Palm Beach, Florida. That’s not unusual for a well-to-do real estate developer. But it raises questions about his legal residency — and thus about his eligibility to serve as chair of the board for Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In April 2018, Joseph registered to vote in Florida, according to that state’s records, and his registration remains active. He is registered as a Democrat. For voting purposes, the[...]

Posted 2 years ago