We've Uppped Our Standards, Now Up Yours

If you’re a Buffalo slumlord, be very afraid of Hank Nowak, the baddest man in the whooooole damn town. The man does not mess around.

A California businessman convicted of being a slumlord was fined $969,000 Tuesday and sentenced to 270 days in jail.

Joy A. Drati received the sentence, the longest imposed on a Buffalo slumlord, from City Housing Judge Henry J. Nowak. The city had sought a prison term of 11 years. Drati, 39, who has been jailed since December, also was ordered to return Thursday to Housing Court to answer to Erie County Health Department violations that could keep him behind bars another 200 days and result an additional $100,000 in fines.

Drati was fined Tuesday for 270 housing code violations at 29 properties, and his business was fined for 376 violations at 38 properties.

Nowak also ordered Scott Wizig, the Houston businessman who sold Drati 58 of his 59 properties, to surrender April 21 to begin serving a 105-day jail term.

Nowak had sentenced Wizig in absentia and ordered him to pay $10,500 in fines involving more than 300 Buffalo properties he purchased at auction several years ago.

Judge Nowak is enforcing the laws and holding those who violate them accountable for their actions. What a novel concept. Buffalo had long deserved this kind of judicial enforcement. Bravo!