Tag: City Hall

Oct 30

2024

Buffalo readying hostel’s former home for sale

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Hostel Buffalo-Niagara in downtown Buffalo’s Theater District. Photo by Garrett Looker. Members of  the Hostel Buffalo-Niagara board are working to reclaim the lodge’s former home at 667 Main St. – though they may have some competition. The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency last week said its real estate team has been showing the property – located in the heart of the Theatre District – to several potential buyers.  BURA officials didn’t name any interested parties beyond the hostel, which is partnering with developer Sam Savarino to create a construction plan for the property. The hostel’s board hopes that Savarino can acquire[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 24

2024

Braymiller Market pays its delinquent taxes

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Braymiller’s grocery includes a deli. Photo by Garrett Looker. It took two formal warnings from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency and the threat of losing a key tax break, but Braymiller Market owner Stuart Green paid his overdue city taxes Wednesday. Green’s $8,200 payment, half his annual bill, was nearly three months late and was at least the third time he’d missed the deadline for paying his city property tax, according to city records. Under the terms of a 2019 package of tax breaks, which totaled $765,000, Bryamiller is responsible for paying 20 percent of its tax bill. John[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 24

2024

Buffalo asks judge to dismiss lead inspection lawsuit

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Attorneys Matthew Parham, far left, with John Lipsitz, representing groups suing Buffalo, and Assistant Corporation Counsel David Lee, right, representing the city, appear before State Supreme Court Judge Michael Siragusa.  Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. The City of Buffalo is asking a judge to toss out a lawsuit accusing the city of failing to enforce a rental inspection law aimed at reducing lead paint in its aging housing stock. Here’s why the case has no merit, according to the city: Buffalo is enforcing its inspections law, known as the Proactive Rental Inspections Program or PRI — just not as quickly as[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 22

2024

City loan has not stabilized Braymiller Market

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Story updated 10:34 a.m. Oct. 24. A year after the City of Buffalo threw Braymiller Market a half-million dollar lifeline, the downtown grocery store continues to struggle financially. For a third year in a row, records show that owner Stuart Green is months behind on his city tax payments.  That failure to pay $8,119 in taxes, half the annual bill, prompted the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to warn him Sept. 10 and again last week that the property tax abatement it granted him in 2019 could be revoked. On Wednesday, IDA leaders said they were prepared to begin the[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 15

2024

Brown resigns: Addition by subtraction

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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[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Sep 30

2024

Brown announces he’s leaving City Hall

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Mayor Byron Brown at Monday’s press conference. Photo by Garrett Looker. With Byron Brown officially announcing he’s leaving City Hall within the next few weeks, additional information is starting to emerge about his new job. To begin with, a $295,000 salary as president and CEO of the Western Region Off-Track Betting is only part of Brown’s compensation package. He’ll also be getting an $800 monthly car allowance to use as he pleases, according to two sources familiar with Brown’s contract. That’s enough to rent a high-end car. Or, since Brown’s had a driver during his almost 19 years as mayor,[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Sep 23

2024

City must pay $310,000 to former employee

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The City of Buffalo’s law department last week asked the Common Council to approve a $310,000 settlement to a lawsuit filed by James Kaufmann, who worked 23 years for the police department’s information technology unit before the city eliminated his position 14 years ago. The elimination of his job was retaliation, Kaufmann claimed in his lawsuit. And the city violated state civil service law by not hiring him for another, similar post in the years that followed. According to the lawsuit, city officials said they’d “get even” with Kaufmann for testifying in a 2005 arbitration hearing that led to the[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Sep 12

2024

And the next mayor of Buffalo is …

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Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown hasn’t yet accepted his job offer from Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.  He hasn’t submitted a letter of resignation from office. I asked the city clerk on Tuesday, just to be sure. But smart money says he’ll have vacated the second floor of City Hall before Halloween, leaving Common Council President Chris Scanlon as acting mayor. As acting mayor, Scanlon will be a quasi-incumbent when voters choose a new mayor next year. That may not be much of an advantage, given the city’s financial issues, and there will be many candidates vying for many different voting[...]

Posted 5 months ago
Investigative Post