BUFFALO, NY - There's a new revelation into Buffalo's misuse of community grant funding, which has been the focus of an exclusive investigation 2 On Your Side has been leading.
According to the Buffalo comptroller, the city agency that monitors and disperses HUD funds, is still trying to make questionable payments with money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
All the money from the agency is supposed to go toward community development projects within the city -- primarily to projects in low to medium income neighborhoods.
2 On Your Side has obtained a list of improper payments that BURA -- the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency -- has tried to get past the comptroller's office since 2012, when the office began monitoring the city's handling of HUD dollars.
The list was released to 2 On Your Side after filing a Freedom of Information request with Mark Schroeder's office, earlier this month.
According to city documents, BURA, which is headed by Mayor Byron Brown, wanted to shell out HUD money to a consultant agency, Mullin & Lonergan, a "temporary employee," payroll processing, and various other costs, like office supplies, advertising and development costs.
All the payments, 10 in total, were rejected initially, but after further review and proof, some were approved. However, according to the comptroller's office, payments to the consultant and payroll processing were not approved.
"We have criteria setup and so when they [BURA] violate what we know to be right, we reject it and we send it back. If appropriate, if not, it just goes into file 13, which is garbage," Schroeder said.
The records mean that the city is still having problems with its spending of HUD funds, while under added regulation and monitoring from the city comptroller's office.
The payments are also similar to those found in a report of investigation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General -- which says the city spent money on "illegal or prohibited activities" from 2005 to 2010.
"We are watching this with great intensity and we want to make sure any invoice that comes into the audit department, we then look at it and if we feel it does not merit payment we kick it out," Schroeder said.
Meantime, 2 On Your Side has made repeated attempts to speak with the mayor about developments in our investigation for the past four days. His spokesperson, Mike DeGeorge says an interview the mayor did about the HUD investigation earlier this month is all he has to say on the issue.
