Fiasco
Buffalo’s Mayor Lets the Cat Out of the Bag
What’s Being
Hidden from
2/5/2009
Inside
Inside
It is, therefore, Inside Buffalo’s position is to support the people, the residents of Buffalo, and at present, it is best that we support the new Police chief and allow him to do his job.
It’s a good thing this
writer isn’t the Police Chief of
Why is it a good thing I’m
not the Chief? Because, if I was him, first thing Thursday morning I’d be
sitting in front of a stunning, freshly polished, solid mahogany desk, in a
large, swanky, plush, finely detailed office, speaking to my highly paid and
very successful OKC Lawyer about a possible lawsuit against the Mayor and the
Town of
At last night’s Town Board Meeting, Georganna Buss, Buffalo’s Mayor, having been appointed in December 2008, advertised to the onlookers that proper decorum, rules of order, rules of civility, a person’s civil rights, and respect and regard is not part of Buffalo politics when she’s involved.
There is much we don’t know about what went on in executive sessions on past occasions regarding the Police Chief or his request for more officers, however, after last evening, there’s much information we can garner from what the Mayor had to say during her sublime invective.
Inside
It is a journalist’s requisite to ask questions.
Here is our list of questions for the Mayor:
- What
is it that inspires you, Dear Mayor, to ignore everything that has
transpired since the very first discussions about
- Where along this journey for a new police department did starting a new police department turn into the hiring of a Police Chief for the job of a Code Enforcement Officer?
- Why is
it that you have conveniently forgotten or austerely can’t remember the
sequence of events leading to where
- Wasn’t it you who commented to the effect that: “We need a police department here if for nothing else, to save lives”?
- Wasn’t it you and your fellow Town Board of Trustees clique who held a PUBLIC MEETING where the vast majority of attendees said they wanted police protection?
- Are we
to believe that yet again the Town Board pulled the wool over the voters eyes, and if the truth were to be known, the
people of
- Wasn’t it you, Ms. Mayor who said you were concerned about the lack of police protection if the contract with the sheriff wasn’t renewed?
- Correct Inside Buffalo if we’re wrong but, wasn’t it the Town Board, which we thought was a Board of which you are a member, who made the decision to recreate a police department?
- Ms. Mayor, didn’t you, by affirmative vote, approve buying a new police vehicle?
- Didn’t you give a confirmatory vote to pay the purchase orders for both the vehicle itself and the police vehicle graphics?
- Wasn’t it you and your Trustee tribe who approved advertising for a new Police Chief?
- Weren’t you directly involved with interviewing for the new Police Chief position?
- Wasn’t it you and your band of Trustees who HIRED the NEW CHIEF?
- Weren't you on the Town Board who hired a Lawyer to act as prosecutor for the offenses cited by the Police Chief, sorry, our error, Code Enforcement officer, to be adjudicated in Buffalo's new Municipal Court?
- Weren't you on the same Town Board who hired a Municipal Court Judge to take care of the citations which would be written by the police, er, umm, Code Enforcement officer?
- Maybe Inside Buffalo writers have something wrong with their collective memories but didn’t the Police Chief request and get approval for equipment, such as computers, an in-car desk, radar equipment, computer software and other amenities related to law enforcement?
- Wasn’t it you who approved, along with your Trustee bloc, up to 5 reserve officers for the Buffalo Police Department?
NOW – Straight away the Mayor makes the comment something like: “I TOLD YOU SO”? when the Chief reported to the Board that the reserve program is inadequate to fully handle the police department's needs.
Can anyone pronounce: I.N.S.I.N.C.E.R.E.?
Some more questions for our Mayor:
- Didn’t the Chief report at the Town meeting held in October that he wanted to implement a small force of reserve officers and plans were in the making for adding at least one or two additional officers? Maybe you weren’t there. Hold on, yes, you were there or so says the minutes of the Town meeting.
- Didn’t the Chief report at the meeting held in December, in the Buffalo Theatre and Community Centre, he was going to need more officers in addition to the reserves?
The Mayor was at that meeting.
Presumably, the Mayor of Buffalo knew as far back as 2007 when the Sheriff indicated he would most likely not be renewing the contract. In March 2008 the Board was informed that a police department was going to be needed. She was elected to the Board and was in attendance at the Town Board meeting on March 26 when they were informed that the Sheriff would not be renewing his contract with the Town.
The current Mayor, who at the time was a Trustee, while Mr. Carpenter was acting Mayor, was included in the many talks about the direction the Town was to go in to acquire police protection. Ms. Buss was in attendance at the public meeting and knew then that the Town was going to be hiring a Police Chief and starting the police department up again. There was finalization shortly thereafter that the new Chief would also be an ordinance enforcement officer. In addition to conducting police work, he was to enforce all of the ordinances of the Town. The Mayor was aware of all the deliberations and provided assenting votes on all the issues surrounding a new police force.
Indisputably, the Mayor knew what she was doing.
Why the hasty retreat?
Since a social contact of the Mayor was questioned by the Police Chief about a law enforcement issue, it appears that the Mayor is suddenly against him and stated at last night’s Town Board meeting that she thought the Town was hiring a code enforcement person.
NOW! –
Ms. Mayor, Inside Buffalo is addressing you and asking you…
- Why did you violate employee/employer confidentiality, the Chief’s civil rights, and many rules of civility for public officials while publicly reprimanding and ridiculing the same police chief YOU and your nearest and dearest Trustees hired, not 6 months ago, only to potentially undermine his ability to conduct police business?
Ms. Mayor, you have the
audacity and overconfidence to withhold public information from the citizens of
- What
is the ‘little secret’ you are withholding from
Your ‘secret agenda’ or whatever it is you are working on behind closed doors, is for a public official, in our opinion, in the vein of a political Rod Blagojevich.
There are Open Meeting Act Laws and a variety of other State Statutes and Laws whereby you are required to disclose what it is that you are ‘secretly’ working on, about the police force in Buffalo, to the residents of Buffalo.
A person can easily conduct a little research and find a wonderful selection of suits being brought against Towns, Cities, and public officials for withholding ‘secret’ or ‘confidential’ information from their constituents. In December 2008 a suit was brought against a Town where the Mayor was surreptitiously negotiating for a hotel to be built in the Town. The hush-hush was against all forms of State and Federal laws about open government and Freedom of Information laws.
Keeping public business away from the public is analogous to asking for a suit to be filed, eventually leading to the dismissal of an elected official from public office. See: Blagojevich
Conjecture: the Mayors tongue-lashing puts the city at risk to be held liable for infractions of the Police Chief’s civil rights and other violations by a public official.
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