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Dec 31

2024

Using public records to unlock stories

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Before he retired to the west coast of Mexico this fall, my Investigative Post colleague Bruce Rushton made a salient observation: New York has a particularly weak open records law because it has no teeth. By teeth, he meant that in New York there are virtually no penalties for bureaucrats if they ignore or delay responding to a records request for information the public has a right to see. In other words, there’s no incentive for the government to be transparent despite our Freedom of Information Law saying it ought to be.  That’s a problem I ran into headfirst this[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Dec 29

2024

April Baskin’s results fall short of her rhetoric

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The Buffalo News sure is fond of April Baskin, the outgoing chair of the Erie County Legislature and incoming state senator. In a profile and subsequent editorial, The News portrayed her as an effective champion of social justice.  I beg to differ. The Legislature under her leadership has been a rubber stamp for County Executive Mark Poloncarz. She seems joined at the hip with Democratic Party HQ, which saw to it that she ascended to Tim Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat without serious opposition.   Baskin and her colleagues somehow decided construction of the new Bills stadium didn’t require an environmental impact[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Dec 27

2024

Geoff Kelly’s very busy year

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What did I do in 2024? For starters, I began writing a weekly newsletter called PoliticalPost,  jam-packed with items about local government and politics — patronage hires, electoral maneuvers, the misbehavior of public officials, and much more. It’s free every Wednesday morning. (Though donations to support our nonprofit investigative journalism center are always appreciated.)  If you don’t get it already, you should sign up for it. If you’ve been a subscriber from the get-go, you found out in January — six months before anyone else — that Byron Brown was looking to ditch Buffalo City Hall for the job he[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Dec 26

2024

My tenure at Investigative Post

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After more than a year helping out at Investigative Post, I’m headed back into retirement. I’m certainly happy about that. After more than 40 years in the news business, I truly enjoy my time out of it. But I have to say, working as an editor at Investigative Post this past year-and-a-half has been inspiring. If I was closer to 50 years old than 70 (when did that happen?), I can’t think of a place I’d rather work. I’ve been in a handful of newsrooms over my career. This one defines journalism – expose injustice, hold the powerful accountable, give[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Dec 24

2024

OTB accuses whistleblower of ‘public smear campaign’

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Western Regional Off-Track Betting’s Batavia Downs. Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp has filed a counterclaim against a former executive turned whistleblower who maintains he was fired after he agreed to cooperate with investigations into alleged wrongdoing at the public benefit corporation. OTB’s counterclaim, filed Nov. 27, alleges that former Chief Operating Officer Michael Nolan breached his “fiduciary duty and duties of loyalty and confidentiality” to the organization while engaging in a “public smear campaign” designed to draw negative attention to WROTB and its outgoing CEO and President Henry Wojtaszek. The countersuit accuses Nolan of conspiring with his attorney, Steve Cohen,[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Dec 23

2024

Scanlon proposes police use of Braymiller

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The now-shuttered Braymiller Market. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. Acting Mayor Christopher Scanlon wants the city to rent the former Braymiller Market building for use by the Buffalo Police Department, according to documents filed Monday with the Common Council. Scanlon is requesting lawmakers approve a one-year lease between the city and owner Stuart Green, who has defaulted on a loan from Evans Bank used to buy the property in 2021. City records indicate Green purchased the property for $7 million. He still owes approximately $5 million to the bank, according to Fillmore Common Council Member Mitch Nowakowski. The city’s proposed[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Dec 23

2024

Scanlon campaign violated ethics laws

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon. Chris Scanlon, Buffalo’s acting mayor, hasn’t yet formally declared his candidacy for a full four-year term, but already he’s stumbled over laws prohibiting incumbents from using their offices to promote their campaigns. Scanlon last Thursday held a fundraiser — checks payable to his campaign committee — at developer Doug Jemal’s Seneca One building in downtown Buffalo. Invitations to the fundraiser were mailed in envelopes that used the mayor’s second-floor office for a return address. That’s a violation of local, state and federal laws that prohibit public employees from using their offices for political purposes. Investigative Post[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Dec 23

2024

The smart way to build a stadium

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I get a chuckle out of stories that raise the prospect of major spinoff development near the new Buffalo Bills stadium. The Buffalo News published another story to that effect last week. It’s not gonna happen.  Terry Pegula has insisted on an open-air stadium surrounded by parking lots, located in the outer-ring suburb of Orchard Park. His approach runs counter to best practices employed by most other NFL owners who have built stadiums over the past decade. The Conversation, which fancies itself for “academic rigor, journalistic flair,” outlined how stadiums can be done right. Key points include: “It’s smarter to[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago
Investigative Post