Articles for Geoff Kelly

May 8

2023

Lawsuit puts civic leader in hot seat

Real estate mogul Michael Joseph has found himself at the helm of two organizations embroiled in allegations of racist practices. This week Joseph’s real estate development and management company, the Clover Group, has been accused by a former employee of “racist and illegal” practices. A lawsuit filed Monday accuses Clover executives of disqualifying potential building sites based on the number of Black people in the surrounding communities. And Roswell Park Cancer Institute — where Joseph has been board chair since 2010 — has faced a slew of lawsuits alleging race and gender discrimination in the workplace during his long tenure[...]

Posted 2 years ago

May 5

2023

Lawsuit: Developer selects sites to avoid Blacks

Editor’s note: This is the first of three stories on The Clover Group. Wednesday we profile Michael Joseph, the company’s CEO and major player around town. Our story Thursday details the numerous subsidies Clover has received over the years to help grow its business. When the Clover Group — one of the region’s biggest real estate development and management firms — reviews potential building sites for senior citizen apartment complexes, it pays careful attention to what its executives call “the Canadian factor.” When the firm’s executives talk about “Canadians,” however, they’re using a code — for Black people. And those[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Apr 30

2023

Former BURA chief alleged City Hall fraud

City of Buffalo officials misused millions of dollars in federal anti-poverty funds and steered grants to favored real-estate developers, according to a federal lawsuit filed three and a half years ago and kept under seal until a month ago. The lawsuit was brought by Nona Watson, a former executive director of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, which serves as a pass-through for federal funds intended to fight poverty, blight and substandard housing. Watson led BURA from September 2015 until she was fired in October 2018 — an act of retaliation, she claimed in the suit, “because she raised concerns about[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Apr 11

2023

Judge gives City Hall an edict

Last week a judge ordered the City of Buffalo to tell John Mahar — yes or no, one way or another — whether the city would give him the $131,ooo in profit it made by selling his house at a tax foreclosure auction almost three years ago. He’s been waiting for an answer for 10 months, but has been greeted by what a state Supreme Court Justice Donna Siwek called “radio silence” from the city. Mahar laid claim to the money last June, using an application process the city posted on its website in November 2021, instructing former property owners[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Mar 27

2023

Roswell’s “unacceptable” response to racism

Last August, five members of Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s board of directors — including all four Black members — described management’s efforts to address the center’s “history and sentiment of institutional racism” as “unacceptable.” One of the board directors, in a statement to Investigative Post, described that history as “a cancer.” In a letter addressed to Dr. Candace Johnson, Roswell’s president and CEO, and Michael Joseph, the board chair, the five board members objected to management’s response to a report examining “diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity” at the center. The report was commissioned by the Roswell board’s Diversity Committee. With[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Mar 22

2023

Not much change afoot for Common Council

There will be a pair of new faces on Buffalo’s Common Council next year, the result of two incumbents declining to run for reelection. That’s probably as much change as Buffalonians will be permitted — or choose — to vote for. In five of the nine Council districts, the incumbents appear to face no challengers in the June Democratic primary, which generally determines the victor in this one-party town. In the two districts where incumbents face opposition, the challengers face steep odds. The last time an incumbent lost reelection to Buffalo’s Common Council was 20 years ago. That was when[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Mar 13

2023

Get a load of @ChrissyCaBoom’s tweets

As a first-time candidate for elected office, one of Chrissy Casilio-Bluhm’s biggest challenges is introducing herself to voters. But it appears the Republican challenger to incumbent Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz doesn’t want voters to know her too well. In the days prior to and since winning the GOP endorsement on Feb. 25, Casilio-Bluhm scrubbed her Twitter account of posts and retweets that amplified conspiracy theories, including the belief that COVID was the creation of “ONE Globalist Party,” which “rigged an election” and “destroyed Trump” for “exposing the Swamp.” She also promulgated the conspiracy that the Buffalo Bills covered up[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Mar 6

2023

Bonuses for executives at embattled OTB

Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. awarded $40,000 in bonuses to its top executives in January, even as federal and state investigators continued a probe into allegations of malfeasance at the public benefit corporation. At OTB’s January 19 board meeting, the 13 directors present voted unanimously to award a bonus of $12,000 to Henry Wojtaszek, president and chief executive officer. Including the bonus awarded by the board, Wojtaszek is making more than $200,000 in salary, plus benefits. The board also awarded bonuses of $6,000 each to Scott Kiedrowski and William White, both vice presidents, and $6,000 to Jacquelyne Leach, chief financial[...]

Posted 2 years ago