Tag: City Hall

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 1 month ago

Dec 19

2024

Braymiller Market has closed

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Braymiller Market moments before closing for good Wednesday evening. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. Braymiller Market, the only grocery store in downtown Buffalo, has officially closed its doors. On Wednesday evening, a person could be seen loading goods into a delivery van. On Thursday morning, the store was dark. An employee on Wednesday confirmed that was the market’s last day of operation. The closure means the business is now in default on a $561,000 city loan, a matter that’s sparked a clash in City Hall. At question is whether or not the city will demand its money back from store[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Dec 11

2024

Council: Not so fast on forgiving Braymiller loan

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  Braymiller Market. Photo by Garrett Looker The City of Buffalo could call in the $561,000 it loaned to Braymiller Market and reallocate the money for a different use, according to city officials and an Investigative Post review of records. Some lawmakers want to know why the acting mayor, facing a financial crisis that threatens to starve city departments and initiatives of funding, seems reluctant to do that. “I want to know why we wouldn’t require somebody who didn’t honor their commitment, who took money from the city, to at least pay it back,” Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 6

2024

Braymiller Market closing, but bailouts continue

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Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, forward, and Braymiller Market owner Stuart Green, to his left. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker Braymiller Market, the struggling downtown grocery, is closing its doors, but City Hall will continue to financially assist owner Stuart Green. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon said Friday the city will not require Green to repay the $561,000 it loaned to the store last year, a requirement if he failed to keep the store open through the end of 2025. What’s more, Scanlon said the city will lease the grocery store’s building, paying an unspecified amount to use the 21,600-square-foot space for[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 4

2024

Buffalo’s financial hole gets deeper

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Ray Nosworthy, Buffalo’s new acting finance commissioner, had a rough first day on the job. His first task Tuesday morning was to tell the Common Council’s Finance Committee that, one quarter into its financial year, the city was staring at a nearly $18 million deficit. He also told lawmakers that Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon is demanding 10 percent cuts in expenditures from all city department heads in next year’s budget. Nosworthy said the “unexpected” $18 million deficit was the result of the city’s depleted savings.  The Council in June adopted a spending plan that had a $40 million imbalance between[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 3

2024

Buffalo’s ‘power structure is the problem’

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Government policies pushed by the region’s traditional power brokers — real estate developers, bankers, law firms and other business interests — have been “a disaster for the people of Buffalo,” a new report concludes.  Tax abatements and subsidies are contributing to “a deepening commercial real estate crisis” downtown, according to the report, released last month by Our City Action Buffalo, a progressive community advocacy group that is a frequent critic of the city’s elected officials.  Opposition to affordable housing projects has exacerbated the city’s poverty problems, according to the report.  What’s more, Buffalo is staring at a fiscal crisis engendered[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Nov 27

2024

Overtime for Buffalo’s city employees through the roof

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Despite the city’s worsening finances, Buffalo’s public employees — mostly cops and firefighters — are racking up overtime pay like never before. Last fiscal year, no fewer than 26 employees earned more than $100,000 in overtime. Another 270 pocketed over $50,000 in overtime, while 400 more took home at least $20,000. The result: a $22 million hole in the city budget that wrapped up in June. Those figures come from a report issued last week by Buffalo Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams, whose staff reviewed five years of payroll records to document the burgeoning cost of overtime and its impact on the[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Nov 8

2024

City Hall: No more money for Braymiller Market

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Braymiller Market in downtown Buffalo. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Buffalo Common Council is sending a new message to Braymiller Market, downtown’s struggling grocery store: If the business is going to fail, it better fail within the next year.  That way, University Common Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt said, the city can recoup the $561,000 it loaned the business last year. Under the terms of the forgivable loan, the store must stay open for two years to avoid repaying the city. “If we can get our $561,000 before he closes, let’s get our $561,000 back because I think that can[...]

Posted 3 months ago
Investigative Post