Illuzzi Blows a Gasket

For a born-again, turn-the-other-cheek, ride-that-Gospel-ship, my-check-kiting-days-are-over Christian, Joe Illuzzi certainly is given to fits of stunning vituperation. The bile he unloaded last night is particularly freighted with hate and slander.

On Cheektowaga Democratic chairman Frank Max:

One of the bloggers arrested for indecent exposure  known for fabricating stories, libel, etc. & getting paid to do it wrote Cheektowaga Chairman Frank Max beat up his wife & did jail time, true account.

However, later on Max paid him to write a retraction. Now Max says this publication  solicited an ad for Glascott for Sheriff. Absolutely not true. Max brought the ad up & we ignored him. Max would always preface his conversations with us by offering some sort of payment in kind. The fool never realized how insulted we were by that tactic. We should mention Max excoriated the blogger in question for over a year until he realized he could purchase the retraction.

We never swayed from our support of Tim Howard. We wouldn’t take money from a man who represented one of the most racist, brutal police departments in the country. However, the blogger in question took Glascott’s money & excoriated Howard for months.

But what was is true is Max beat up his wife!

On Erie County Legislator Tom Mazur:

Then this degenerate who represents a guy who beat up his wife (Max) is singing the praises of Legislator Tom Mazur was forced to resign his teaching position at ECC for sexually abusing a very young female student, more than one says a very prominent jurist.

On New York State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt:

To add insult to injury: Hoyt Sam I’ll be your lollipop Hoyt is taking full credit for the Legislature reversing itself on the license plate mandate. Hoyt sanctioned by the Assembly Speaker & kicked out of the “student intern” for having sex with one of the girls in his charge. Actually, there was more than one & one had an abortion.

On Common Council President Dave Franczyk:

We received a number of emails from readers wanting to make the point that Common Council President David Franczyk is simply a talking head. His district looks like a war zone because Franczyk has done little or nothing for his constituents. His job is to get the Black guys.

On the five members of the majority coalition on the Common Council:

The Majority on the Buffalo Common Council is trying to lynch Brian Davis.

And on an unnamed member of the Common Council:

Oh! I almost forgot! Sources say unequivocally that a Majority member of the Buffalo Common Council got caught in a extra marital tryst. Did we mention it was a gay man. The gay guys partner made him come clean if he wanted a reconciliation. No names (We have  names) just the facts – just the facts.

Come on, Joe. Don’t blow a week’s worth of character assassination in one evening. It’s only Tuesday, and your weekly dose of forgiveness is a long time coming.

The last assertion is especially egregious. Who is the old blackmailer threatening with this gossip, and why?

Consider Illuzzi’s sponsors: He is the paid man of Byron Brown and Steve Casey, who, like their opponents, are scrambling to positions for the fight to choose the successor to Brian Davis, who, according to state law, vacated the Ellicott District seat on Friday by pleading guilty to two misdemeanor violations of campaign finance law. (By the way, note that DA Frank Sedita claims there was no plea deal with Davis. Sedita says that Davis plead to exactly the crimes he committed, and if he had not, Sedita would have convened a grand jury this week to look at the case. But if Sedita was ready to convene a grand jury, then he must have had felonies to pin on Davis, not misdemeanors. Sounds like a plea deal to me.) The Council’s majority coalition wants to fill the vacancy quickly, not only because the Ellicott District needs representation but because the Council is beginning to work on the mayor’s proposed capital budget. Last year, the majority held the capital budget hostage well into the new year, insisting on changes that the mayor refused to make, and unable to force the mayor’s hand because they lacked a sixth vote to overturn Brown’s veto.

The Ellicott District seat could provide that sixth vote this year, but they need to fill the vacancy before December 15, by which date the Council must make its changes to the mayor’s $22.7 million capital budget proposal.

It may seem like the majority should be able to pick whomever they like for that seat, after advertising the position, accepting resumes, interviewing candidates, and listening to the district’s Democratic committee members, whose recommendation is influential but non-binding. But a five-to-four majority is thin, and it might be possible for Brown and Casey to peel away one ambitious majority member. One of the five, for example, might be convinced to vote for the candidate backed by Brown and Casey (Janique Curry, perhaps?) in exchange for the Council presidency, which would be determined by a new majority comprising the mayor’s bloc—North, University, Masten, and Ellicott—plus the rogue member of the current majority.

That carrot, or one similar to it, is surely being dangled right now. Perhaps Illuzzi, then, is the stick. If you don’t take the carrot, Brown and Casey may be saying, we can turn Illuzzi and his poison on you.

Brian Davis Pleads Guilty, Claims He’s Not Resigning

Brian Davis claims he will not resign the Ellicott District Common Council seat, after pleading guilty this morning to two criminal charges brought by New York State Police in Judge Thomas Amodeo’s court.

Not a lot of callbacks on this story: Brian Davis isn’t answering his cell phone (his voicemail is full); Davis’s staff isn’t answering their phones, though a friendstrolled by his office and said they’re at work today; the troopers have not returned calls.

Jim Heaney of the Buffalo News, who’s been bird-dogging Davis all year, says it was personal use of campaign funds. Davis also plead guilty to filing incomplete campaign finance disclosure forms.

Davis’s lawyer said in court that the councilman did not intend to resign. I guess we’ll see: Erie County Legislator Butch Holt was removed from office when he ran afoul of the law, under the auspices of New York State’s Public Officers Law. (Basically you can’t hold office if you’re a criminal, despite occasional evidence to the contrary.) Davis is reportedly  on his way to be fingerprinted and photographed right now. How can he stay in office if Holt had to go?

So who will fill the Ellicott District seat? Word is that Mayor Byron Brown’s camp favors moving Erie County Legislator Barbara Miller-Williams into Davis’s seat, and with Janique Curry filling Miller-Williams’s seat. Attorney Bill Trezevant has had his eye on the seat for some time, as has firefighter Bryon McIntyre, who primaried Davis two years ago.

Under the rule adopted after Mickey Kearns won the South District seat vacated by Jimmy Griffin in 2005, the Common Council must advertise the vacancy, accept resumes, interview qualified candidates in public hearings, then vote in a replacement. In the past, the recommendation of Democratic district committee members was sacrosanct when it came to filling vacant seats, but the Common Council itself has the final say. If the committee members recommend someone the majority doesn’t care for, the Council could vote in someone else.

Champ Eve, son of the the legendary Arthur Eve, controls a substantial number of Democratic committee seats in the Ellicott District, as does Niagara District Councilman David Rivera and a number of others generally opposed to Grassroots, the mayor’s political organization. (Grassroots has some committee seats, too, but was greatly weakened in Ellicott in last year’s election.) So any candidate recommended by the party in Ellicott District is likely to be independent of the mayor. The question is whether that candidate will give the current five-member mjaority voting bloc and six-member super-majority that could ovverride Brown’s veto.

Just in time for the annual haggle over the capital budget.

UPDATE: Oh, right the charges: Jim Heaney of the Buffalo News, who’s been bird-dogging Davis all year, says it was personal use of campaign funds.He also pled guilty to filing incomplete campaign finance disclosure forms.

Davis’s lawyer said in court that the councilman did not intend to resign. I guess we’ll see: Erie County Legislator Butch Holt was removed from office when he ran afoul of the law, under the auspices of New York State’s Public Officers Law. Davis is reportedly  on his way to be fingerprinted and photographed right now. How can he stay in office if Holt had to go?

Erie County DA Frank Sedita will hold a press conference at 2pm.

Question for Brian Davis

Yesterday an anonymous commenter left this note on the long-abandoned blog of  Ellicott District Councilman Brian Davis:

Anonymous said…

November 05, 2009

How could you?

Good question.

Brian Davis AWOL

John Borsa at Channel 7 News reports:

Sources on Buffalo’s Common Council tell Eyewitness News that Ellicott District member Brian Davis could lose two weeks of salary on payday if he fails to show for Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting. This after Davis failed to show for a committee meeting on Wednesday.

“Avoiding state police investigators is not a valid excuse for missing a council meeting,” one source said.

A majority vote is required for any council member who wishes to miss a meeting. A request must be submitted by 2 p.m. on Thursday, said Common Council President David Franczyk.

Franczyk said Davis’ attendance has been better since the councilman missed several meetings at the beginning of the year.

Eyewitness News has learned that investigators from the New York State Police and the Erie County District Attorney’s office were at city hall Wednesday afternoon asking to interview Councilman Brian Davis.

Frank Sedita, the Erie County D.A., confirmed the investigators were present at a committee meeting that Davis was scheduled to attend.

Sources who were at the meeting said the investigators simply wanted to talk with the embattled councilman.

Eyewitness News confirmed months ago that state police were looking into Davis and his alleged role in the One Sunset scandal.

The restaurant, which is now closed, was failing when it received more than $100,000 in city funds, some of which came from Davis in the form of a grant, a city audit revealed.

Calls to Councilman Davis were not returned.

Local Groups Beg At State Senate Budget Hearing

For the second time in four days, New York State Senators sat at a table in Western New York to listen to locals beg for money. On Friday, Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Martin Malave Dilan held a hearing at the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society to hear idea on how the state should spend $25 billion in capital project funds over the next five years. (Joining Dilan were local senators Thompson, Stachowski, Ranzenhofer and Maziarz, and a well-heeled delegation from NYSDOT.)

The day’s headlines, forecasting a $10 billion deficit in the state budget over the next two years, were largely ignored until the last speaker, former State Senator and Buffalo Common Councilman Al Coppola, spoke his piece. He’d been waiting three hours to get to the microphone. He and Dilan exchanged senatorial pleasantries (Dilan politely pretended to have heard of Coppola, whose stint in Albany was brief), and then Coppola held up a copy of the day’s paper, and mentioned the climbing deficit. “Kind of changes everything we’ve been talking about here today, doesn’t it?” he said.

Dilan shrugged and nodded. “It changes everything.”

Not that transportation spending has been well managed in recent years anyway. From today’s Rochester Democrat & Chronicle:

Highway and motor vehicle taxes dedicated to road and bridge repairs continue to be raided to pay the state’s operating expenses, leading to a deterioration of New York’s infrastructure, according to a report from the Comptroller’s Office.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that since 1991, only 35 percent, or $11.6 billion, of the money in the state’s Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund went to repair roads and bridges.

The majority of the money went to cover debt payments and expenses at the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Transportation, DiNapoli said.

He warned that the percentage of capital spending on roads will decline to 21 percent by 2014 and the state will need to pay $4 billion from the general fund just to pay current bills over the next five years.

“This is not acceptable,” DiNapoli said. “This money should be used to keep our roads and bridges safe.”

Using most of the $33 billion fund for other expenses has left the state unable to pay for a proposed $25.8 billion five-year capital plan for roads and bridges.

Gov. David Paterson recently rejected the new capital plan presented by the DOT, saying the state simply can’t afford it.

The state Association of Counties said nearly 40 percent of the state’s 17,000 bridges are in disrepair and urged state leaders to invest in the capital plan.

Which brings us to today’s hearing, already underway at the UAW office on George Karl Boulevard in Williamsville. Senate Finance Chair Carl Kruger and State Senator Bill Stachowski (the man Kruger muscled out of the powerful committee’s chairmanship) are taking testimony on Governor David Paterson’s deficit reduction plan, which aims to cut a projected $3 billion deficit in the 2009-2010 budget by whacking 10 percent off of basically everything.

Here’s the Senate’s description of Paterson’s plan.

And after the jump is the list of groups planning to testify.

Continue reading »

Brian Davis: No on Domestic Partnership Benefits

Does it strike anyone odd that Ellicott District Councilman Brian Davis—who must represent more same-sex couples than any other Buffalo legislator—is the only member of Council to vote against a resolution asking the city’s Law Department to write up a bill that would extend domestic partner benefits

to all city employees.

He represents Allentown, the epicenter of the city’s LGBT culture. The increase in personnel costs to the city is expected to be less than one percent. It’s a resolution asking the Law Department to write a bill, it’s not even the law itself.  Davis voted against even considering domestic partner benefits.

Masten District Councilman Demone Smith voted for the resolution, even though he expressed concern about the actual cost of extending the benefits, and even though his constituency is far less likely to approve of the measure than Davis’s.

So who is Davis representing?

Collins has Called Silver an Anti-Christ Before

When Erie County Executive Chris Collins called Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver an anti-Christ last Saturday night at a Republican dinner, it wasn’t the first time he’d pulled the line out of his bag.

He recently made the exact same comparison to a group of Buffalo State political science students, who were visiting the Rath Building. Two Buffalo State faculty member were present.

Yesterday I asked Grant Loomis, the county executive’s director of communications, if Collins had ever made a similar reference to Silver before. He assured me that Collins had had not, that the remark was “unscripted” and “off the cuff.”

He then paused a moment and backed off a little, adding, “…to the best of my knowledge.”

I told Loomis about the Buffalo State students, and the two members of the faculty, and Loomis said, “Oh.”

He told me he’d look into it and get back to me. He did not, until this morning, when I wrote to him that I would take his failure to reply as a refusal to comment. He replied to that email immediately: “The CE has said everything there is to say in the statement,” referring to the apology Collins issued on Monday:

“Saturday night, I made a poor joke regarding the Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver.  I want to extend my sincerest apologies to him for my comments.  I have placed a call to the Speaker’s office to offer my apologies directly.

While we may disagree strongly on policy matters, my statement had no place in our political discourse and I am truly sorry to both the Speaker and to anyone else who I may have offended.”

I’m not going to take issue with the apology—it’s too easy to undermine the sincerity of a public apology, and it’s not fair: I can’t see into the heart of Chris Collins.

But it’s clear to me that his remark comparing an orthodox Jew to Hitler and the anti-Christ was not “off the cuff” or “unscripted”; it was not a momentary lapse in judgment. The joke is part of Collins’s repertoire. He has used it more than once, who knows how many times. Perhaps he wasn’t even aware that it was offensive until the uncomfortable silence he met at the Adam’s Mark on Saturday night. Maybe he didn’t know it was offensive until Elizabeth Benjamin exposed the remarks in the New York Daily News on Sunday. Maybe he still doesn’t believe what he said was offensive.  He certainly did not recognize it to be offensive between the time he made the remark to that group of college students and the time he made the remark on Saturday. Or he did and didn’t care. The former makes him an idiot, the latter makes him arrogant and heedless.

And, as Bruce Fisher writes in this week’s AV cover story, giving him a pass on this makes us all look bad.

LoCurto on Discount Drug Cards

A good idea for a poor city: Tomorrow evening, Buffalo Councilman Mike LoCurto is introducing a program that provides free prescription drug discount cards, sponsored by the National League of Cities. LoCurto will explain the program at 5pm at the North Buffalo Community Center (203 Sanders Road).  The discount cards offer average savings of 20 percent off the retail price of commonly prescribed drugs at more than 59,000 participating retail pharmacies across the country. There are no restrictions based on age, income level, or existing health coverage. There are no membership fees, no enrollment forms.

“In the current economic climate, where many people are watching what they spend, the NLC prescription discount card will offer significant savings on the purchase of prescription medications for our residents,” LoCurto said in his press arlease. “Whether or not an individual has prescription coverage, this program can make it easier for our residents to afford the drugs they need to deal with a short-term illness or stay healthy by managing a chronic condition.”

Responsible New York V. Board of Elections

For those who are interested in reading such things, here’s the operative part of the lawsuit filed last Thursday on behalf of Tom Golisano, Steve Pigeon, and Gary Parenti against the Erie County Board of Elections and its two commissioners, Democrat Dennis ward and republican Ralph Mohr.

Enjoy: RNY v ECBOE.

Mark Sacha on District Attorney’s Failure to Prosecute Steve Pigeon

Below is Assistant Erie County District Attorney Mark Sacha’s complete statement accusing his boss, Frank Sedita, of refusing to prosecute Steve Pigeon for election law violations, as detailed by Mike Beebe and Bob McCarthy in this Buffalo News article:

My name is Mark Sacha and I am an Assistant Erie County District Attorney.  I have served in that capacity for over 22 years.  I was hired by the Honorable Richard Arcara in 1987.  I was promoted to supervisory positions by the Honorable Kevin Dillon and District Attorney Frank Clark.  Until January 2, 2009, I held the position of Deputy District Attorney with signing authority on behalf of District Attorney Clark.  I have been in charge of most of the specialized units of the District Attorney’s Office and in that time supervised over 100 Assistant District Attorneys.  I have been the chief public corruption prosecutor in Erie County over the past ten years.

As such I am thoroughly familiar with the New York State Election Law and the importance of Election Law prosecution.  I was the lead prosecutor in the investigation of the Paul Clark campaign for Erie County Executive.  It is in that capacity that I feel legally, morally and ethically obligated to speak out about matters that effect the public’s right to free and fair elections.  These matters involve conflicts of interest, abuse of discretion, and abuse of power.  These matters involve the District Attorney’s sworn responsibility to enforce the law and do justice in the public interest.  These matters include instances where the power of the District Attorney has been used improperly to protect political interests and to retaliate against me for pursuing an ongoing investigation.

In the summer of 2008, I along with other members of the Erie County District Attorney’s office and the FBI discovered evidence that certain monetary transactions and assumed name accounts had been used by agents of the Paul Clark campaign to conceal the identity of certain donors to the campaign.  On August 25, 2008 the Buffalo News ran a story quoting then District Attorney Frank Clark to the effect that the investigation had expanded to focus on “efforts to disguise the identity of donors”.  The article also attributed to DA Clark the information that Timothy Clark (brother of candidate Paul Clark) and Roger Peck, Jr.  were “under scrutiny”.  Roger Peck later took a misdemeanor plea in the matter on December 2, 2008.  At that time, the Buffalo News cited an unnamed source for the inaccurate proposition that Timothy Clark had not been charged because “evidence was insufficient to result in charges”.  No mention was made of other persons who may have been involved in the efforts to conceal the source of donations.

Election Law §14-120 (1) reads as follows:

§14-120.  Campaign contribution to be under true name of contributor

1. No person shall in any name except his own, directly or indirectly, make a payment or a promise of payment to a candidate or political committee or to any officer or member thereof, or to any person acting under its authority or in its behalf or on behalf of any candidate, nor shall any such committee or any such person or candidate knowingly receive a payment or promise of payment, or enter or cause the same to be entered in the accounts or records of such committee, in any name other than that of the person or persons by whom it is made.

During this time an election campaign was taking place for Erie County District Attorney.  The eventual winner of that three way contest was the present District Attorney Frank Sedita III.  On December 30, 2008 I personally handed to District Attorney Sedita a memorandum explaining the status of the Paul Clark investigation and identifying areas of the investigation that had not been completed.  To this day District Attorney Sedita has never made any effort to discuss the memo or the investigation with me at any time.  Several days later on January 2, 2009 on the first day of his administration I was called into District Attorney Sedita’s office, demoted and reassigned to arson prosecution.  DA Sedita refused to explain the reason I was being demoted and angrily informed me that I could resign if I so wished.

Let me make clear that I supported Frank Sedita III in the election campaign.  In fact he came to my office within one half hour of prior District Attorney Frank Clark’s announcement that he was not going to run for reelection.  I pledged my support and DA Sedita physically embraced me.  We worked together for twenty years and never once had a serious disagreement.  I admired his work ethic and jokingly referred to him as the best “political hack” we ever hired.  I did not know at that time how he had obtained his political endorsements nor did I know for sure who was involved in that process.  I did know that he had a close relationship with one of the people who was involved in the Paul Clark campaign and was a subject of the Clark memo.  I never advised Frank Sedita at that time about the status of our investigation but I am sure that others did.  I am sure this inadvertently caused a good degree of anxiety regarding the election.  However I and others investigating this campaign did our job the right way.  We followed the evidence without bias and I have no regrets.

What I do regret is that a person who I considered a friend and colleague chose to ignore an obvious conflict of interest and abused his discretion.  What I do regret is that DA Sedita took an oath one day and on the very next day abused the power of his office to cause harm to my family and myself to help a political friend.  I do regret that the only explanation given for his actions appeared in a Buffalo News article published on January 15, 2009 where Mr. Sedita stated “I’ve wiped out the entire middle level of administration”.  DA Sedita explained “I’m getting rid of bean counters and paper pushers”.  I was never a bean counter.  I was never a paper pusher, although I did push my memo into his hands on December 30, 2008.

That is why I must speak out.  Events leading up to my demotion as well as information I have obtained since that time make clear that I was demoted for reasons related to my work on the Paul Clark investigation and the District Attorney’s campaign for office.  It is now clear that no further action has been taken regarding the unfinished matters in my memo.  It is now clear that the District Attorney has “given a pass” to a political supporter and friend.  It is clear that person who received the pass has been involved in similar conduct as to what was discussed in my memo.  It is also clear that the reasons being given by the DA for failing to act are an effort to disguise a blatant conflict of interest and abuse of discretion.

Let me explain.  In an article published by the Buffalo News on September 11, 2009, District Attorney Sedita makes the claim that election law investigations are difficult, time consuming and somehow of less importance.  District Attorney Sedita also makes clear that he will not look into Board of Elections complaints against G. Steven Pigeon because “he lacks staff and resources”.  The District Attorney admits that he “read the memoranda” on the Clark investigation and that the FBI “conducted most of that probe”.

The public has the right to know the truth.  The memorandum that I wrote on the Paul Clark investigation is 13 pages long with over 50 pages of attached documentation.  The FBI was very helpful and cooperative but it was always understood that it was the responsibility of the Erie County District Attorney’s Office to prosecute any Election Law crimes.

Here is more of the truth.  The investigation was very successful.  It was too successful for the powers that be.  Compelling evidence was discovered of various Election Law violations.  Paul Clark took some responsibility.  Roger Peck and Michael Mullins took some responsibility.  However, when Frank Sedita III took the oath of office to uphold the laws of New York State on January 1, 2009, there were matters that had not been resolved.  Those matters were addressed in my memorandum and that is why the present District Attorney used the power of his office to demote me, remove me and effectively end the investigation.

Our investigation revealed evidence of unregistered corporations, clandestine meetings, suspicious money transfers and phony explanations.  The investigation revealed that Timothy Clark was involved in many of these events as an agent of the campaign.  The prior District Attorney basically told the Buffalo News that last year.  What has not been said but is well known to District Attorney Sedita is that his friend, supporter and adviser G. Steven Pigeon working with Timothy Clark was also an agent of the Paul Clark campaign and was involved in a number of the transactions described in my memorandum of December 30, 2008.

It is now my understanding that Mr. Pigeon was instrumental in the endorsement and election of District Attorney Sedita.  This was all happening at the same time that our investigation was uncovering evidence of possible Election Law violations.

Prosecuting the powerless is easy.  The real test is when you are asked to investigate the powerful.  District Attorney Sedita so far has failed the test.  However all is not lost.  I call upon District Attorney Sedita to publically acknowledge and rectify his mistakes.  I call upon him to publically acknowledge his abuse of discretion and conflict of interest regarding the Clark investigation.  I ask District Attorney Sedita to follow the example of Cattaraugus County District Attorney Edward Sharkey and recuse himself from a case where he has a clear conflict of interest.  I call upon him to refer the case for review by an unbiased prosecutor.  I call upon him to share information with the New York State Board of Elections so that they can take appropriate action.  I call upon the District Attorney to reconsider his public comments, attitude and policy toward Election Law investigations.  As his present policy is disingenuous, erodes public confidence and encourages serial violators of the Election Law to continue their conduct to their own selfish, political and financial benefit.

Finally, I call upon District Attorney Sedita to apologize both publically and privately to myself and my family for his disgraceful conduct by retaliating against me.  Such conduct not only prevents justice from being done in this case, it discourages other prosecutors from acting responsibly and ethically in future cases for fear of retaliation.

The public has a right to expect all of the above from its chief law enforcement official.