BUFFALO, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side is continuing our coverage into the City Hall scandal involving a city of Buffalo employee getting a lot of taxpayer money in pay while on extended administrative leave.
On Thursday night, 2 On Your Side heard from three key city officials following a report from our partner organization Investigative Post.
Mayor Byron Brown said again to us, "Because of the sensitive personnel issues, I can't go into too much detail."
We heard that earlier this week. But now we are pressing for more on the Investigative Post account that a clerk in the city fire department was put on administrative leave in 2016 with no arbitration hearing and yet was still paid about $600,000 dollars. That was despite questionable circumstances outlined in the Investigative Post story.
City Councilman Mitch Nowakowski said he, and other council members, definitely want to see an overall audit by the office of City Comptroller. "The investigation is very narrow to one case and the Council wants an audit that is broad to make sure that no other cases are happening. "
He added. "An audit that actually shows what the rules, regulations, policies, collective bargaining agreements are allowing and enabling this abuse to occur."
Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams contended in a phone interview with us that an "investigation" is quicker with less protocols than an overall "audit". And now, there is more background on that from the Comptroller. "Our employees in the department of audit and control - they discovered this problem back in 2017 under the former comptroller. It is my understanding the Comptroller relayed information to the administration."
So 2 On Your Side directly asked Mayor Brown, "Did you know anything about this situation?
Brown: Uh - I did. It's a personnel matter. There's not much I can say. It is being reviewed by the various departments.
Reporter: If taxpayers are concerned though about somebody collecting all that money - what would you say to them even though it is a personnel matter?
Brown: I would say that I'm concerned as well. It's gonna be fully reviewed."
From the Comptroller, yet "another" element emerged involving other city workers on similar paid leave.
Miller-Williams told us, "We know that there are- as of July 1st, 2023 - there are twelve employees that fall someplace on the radar. We're going to look at every one of those employees and find out how long have they been on leave with pay."
So back to Mayor Brown on that point. "Aren't you concerned about that sir?"
"No. I will say there aren't 11 individuals in a similar circumstance. There are people that are on administrative leave. That can happen for different reasons. It could be people that are injured on duty. But there would be no other circumstance like this one," said Brown.
We also did ask Mayor Brown if there could be anything of a criminal element in this situation with the clerk employee. He responded once again that it was a personnel matter and he could not go into further detail with us.
Everyone at City Hall seems to agree they do not want to see this lingering administrative leave with the egregious pay issue happen again. But no one yet seems to know how to guarantee that and that may be the biggest question of all.